This page was created not to impersonate Wes Borland, but to simply put him out there, where people can discuss his music and future projects.
Simply a musical genious with much hidden talent and uniquity. One of a kind, discuss Wes Borland and the music he holds. Post comments on how u feel about Wes, about how 'out there' his style is and how intelligent his originality has become. Rock on Wes!
I recieved an important message telling me how my information for this page was inaccurate and needed some updating. So I have used wikipedia as my source of information, read through it all, and added it to this page. It is extremely detailed with everything you should know about wes and his music career. It is extremely interesting with ten handfulls of events so please take the time to read through it!
A WES BORLAND BIO
Wesley Louden Borland (born February 7, 1975 in Richmond, Virginia) Wes is best known as the former guitarist for Limp Bizkit. He has been in several other bands as well, including The Damning Well, Goatslayer, Big Dumb Face and once played bass for From First to Last. Wes currently front mans Black Light Burns, and what a graet job he does! Wes was well known for his bizarre appearance, covering his entire face with makeup, and his wearing contacts that were entirely black.
Wes's family moved to Florida where his father took a pastoral job at a Presbyterian Church. In Florida, Wes met bassist Sam Rivers, but the two did not get along due to rivalries between local bands. He went to school with John Otto. He spent his summers in Montreat, NC working in the sound booth for Montreat Conference Center, a Presbyterian Church institution. When Limp Bizkit was looking for a guitarist John Otto threw out his name, stating he was more of an artist than a guitarist, but the band decided he'd be worthwhile for the position. Before this, Wes was "embarrassing [him]self in bars, playing really weird music that wasn't...good" as he later said in an interview with From First to Last. In one of these bands, Borland sang and played guitar but didn't use a guitar pick. He would only play guitar using the two hand tapping style of guitar playing that he would go on to use in Limp Bizkit songs such as "Stalemate", "Sour", and "Re-Arranged".
Fred Durst left Philadelphia, leaving the others to speak to Wes and see if he'd join the band. Wes accepted, and the three practiced, while keeping in touch with Fred over the phone. Later Fred came back to Jacksonville, and the band had a show scheduled. Fred and Wes met for the first time and played their first show together 30 minutes later. When Limp Bizkit played locally in Jacksonville, Wes would dress up as a girl, wearing tight pink clothes and putting his hair in ponytails. Certain people in the audience of these shows found Wes attractive from a distance, but once they got closer to the stage and realized it was Wes, were quite embarrassed. Wes dressing up as a girl greatly angered frontman Fred Durst.
In the very early stages of Limp Bizkit, Wes's brother and future Eat the Day bandmate Scott Borland played keyboards, but with the early inclusion of DJ Lethal, the band eventually became a huge success. Scott played with Limp Bizkit as a session keyboard player on Limp Bizkit's first three releases, until Wes quit in 2001.
On stage, Borland was known for his eccentricity, frequently wearing elaborate face paint and black-tinted contact lenses.
As far as his role as Limp Bizkit's guitarist, on Limp Bizkit's first CD, Three Dollar Bill, Y'all, Borland would cover much ground. Some guitar parts were inspired by thrash metal with harmonic usage inspired by Industrial music, whereas some other guitar parts were meant to sound like strange noises and sounds, some were soft and beautiful Jazzy Melodies and the songs themselves were somewhat progressive, as there were traditional song-structures mixed with more experimental ideas. On the subsequent hit record, Significant Other, Borland's playing became slower with increased emphasis on groove and heaviness, with more traditional song structures used. On the third Limp Bizkit release, Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water, Borland's playing became more eclectic, combining the prior elements of heaviness and traditional structure with playing big, complex guitar chords not normally played in metal music before then. On the other hand, The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1), recorded five years later after he shortly rejoined the band, featured some of his most aggressive guitar (oh yes indeed) work ever released, using distortion through most of the album and putting all of his trademark effect pedals to rest, instead focusing on heavy riffing, metal tremolo picking and palm mute/release techniques. However, in Black Light Burns, Borland's guitar playing is at its most eclectic. Borland's metal,electronic, jazz, indie rock, soft, and progressive influences come through, and the songs take very interesting and unexpected turns all throughout [opinional statement which i agree with]. Wes played Ibanez 7 string guitars with Limp Bizkit and later used PRS guitars. He plays a custom 4 string AX series Ibanez on songs "Nookie", "Full Nelson", and "Stalemate". He tuned his 7 strings to [Low to High] Db Gb B E Gb Db Db and tuned his 4 string to [Low to High] F# F# B E.
Leaving Limp Bizkit
On October 12, 2001, Borland left Limp Bizkit because, he claims, the band limited his ability to express himself artistically. There were also rumours that Wes believed the band had become a "sell-out" band, and were becoming too popular for their own good. Before leaving Bizkit he formed the band Big Dumb Face as an outlet for his creativity. Big Dumb Face has since been put to the side. Borland then started the band Eat the Day with his brother, Scott Borland. Eat The Day was described as heavy and dramatic, with Borland pushing the envelope of his heavy and soft playing within epic, normally over five minute song lengths.
Wes and his brother Scott initially were going to both be the lead vocalists to avoid the stigmas associated with singular frontmen, but both Borlands felt their guitar playing was starting to suffer due to having to contribute vocals at the same time. They first tried fixing this with going through Interscope Records' demos to find a singer, only to find nobody they were satisfied with. During this period of Eat the Day, the band's website released several mp3s with no vocal tracks, asking for interested vocalists to record over the tracks and submit their recordings as an audition to front the band. The songs "Beeblicowcarapis", "dAdA", and "Taste My Gun" were initially released (and still are available via the internet) as their full length selves, but later, Eat the Day only put up the beginning portions of the songs to have vocalists to sing over. This gesture was similar to the Limp Bizkit national guitarist audition after Borland left the band, and proved to be ultimately futile, other than showcasing what the ultimate sound of the project could have become. The members of Eat The Day instead decided to take a small break from the project and focus on other things to see if a vocalist would naturally pop up.
During this down period, Wes also began production on his solo album with friend and producer Danny Lohner of Nine Inch Nails' fame. He was also featured twice on the Underworld soundtrack: once on a remix version of the A Perfect Circle song "Weak and Powerless" and another time on the song "The Awakening" with a supergroup of sorts called The Damning Well. The group features Wes Borland on guitars, Danny Lohner on bass, Richard Patrick on vocals and Josh Freese on drums. It was also revealed by Borland himself that during this time, he turned down the offer to join A Perfect Circle as the second guitarist alongside band founder/songwriter Billy Howerdel in order to focus on Eat The Day. In fall of 2003, it was announced that Eat The Day had found an unnamed vocalist. It turned out to be Richard Patrick of Filter and Nine Inch Nails fame. With legendary producer Bob Ezrin at the helm, material for Eat The Day and The Damning Well merged, as did the bands, but Patrick had a falling out with the whole camp. This was announced via Eat The Day's website in fall of 2003/early 2004, as did the announcement that Eat The Day and The Damning Well had either split permanently or gone on hiatus. The conclusion of this post stated Wes' beginning stages of creating a new, band driven solo record with Danny Lohner, Josh Freese, Josh Eustis, and John Bates.
At some point in 2004 as well, Borland was reportedly offered to join Nine Inch Nails as the band's guitarist, replacing Robin Finck who left Nine Inch Nails yet again for Guns N' Roses. Borland stated he wrote some material with Trent Reznor, but that the material is still unreleased. He also explained that Black Light Burns was beginning at that time, and that he turned down the spot in Nine Inch Nails because he wanted to pursue his own creative vision (a very wise choice) instead of supporting someone else's musical vision, which Reznor greatly respected. Reznor also gave Wes valuable pointers for where Black Light Burns songs should go during this time.
In late 2003, Wes co-produced and played guitar on several songs on "Legion of Boom", the third studio album by electronic musicians The Crystal Method, released in January 2004. The tracks he worked on were "Broken Glass", "Weapons of Mass Distortion" (also a Japanese bonus track "Weapons of Mad Destruction" featuring Kyono from The Mad Capsule Markets) and the lead single "Born Too Slow". Born Too Slow also featured former Kyuss frontman John Garcia on vocals.
Re-Joining Limp Bizkit
Around August 2004, Wes rejoined Limp Bizkit. He reportedly had to see for himself if he still was at odds with Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst before he officially joined Nine Inch Nails as the guitarist. They met one day and realized that they weren't at odds with each other anymore, so Borland turned down the invitation to join Nine Inch Nails without friction from Trent Reznor, and Wes began writing with Limp Bizkit again. He worked on their latest album, but the only material released from these sessions in Prague was in the form of an EP, titled The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1), released on May 3, 2005. Ross Robinson, well known producer, was brought in to produce it. However, relations between Borland and the other members of Limp Bizkit became strained again after drummer John Otto began having drug issues while recording Limp Bizkit material in Prague in late 2004, as documented in the video material included on The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1).
The Second fall out with Limp Bizkit
Limp Bizkit did make plans to tour behind the EP and to release more material from those sessions in the form of The Unquestionable Truth (Part 2). None of the tour plans materialized, with Borland citing the reason of "nobody (else) wants to tour", and that Limp Bizkit had possibly broken up during this time. By then, Wes was also very disenchanted with how the material he worked on with Limp Bizkit turned out, as he wanted to push the band's envelope but was met with a great deal of resistance, primiarily from Durst. However, after an uncharacteristically long time off from the band to do cinema work (that was so long it led Borland to believe that Durst was done with Limp Bizkit) and the rest of the members dispersing to be involved in other projects, Fred Durst came back and began posting on Limp Bizkit's MySpace page, much in the same fashion that Wes was posting on the myspace of his then new band, Black Light Burns. Among other things, Durst accused Borland of "abandoning" drummer John Otto in his "time of need", and elaborated on the other Limp Bizkit members' year-old decision to have Wes kicked out of Limp Bizkit again. This was a surprise to not only the Limp Bizkit fanbase but Borland himself as they neglected to tell him of the decision, so he kept planning his time around the never to be materialized plans of Limp Bizkit's tour for a year before this occurred. Durst also stated that the band's upcoming release, The Unquestionable Truth (Part 2) will be released with Borland's guitar playing on certain songs that they recorded in Prague and the full length disc will be dedicated to him. Borland responded to Durst's massive MySpace post simply stating the slanderous nature of the remarks, and leaving it at that.
Wes has since declared himself a full time member of his new project, Black Light Burns. Borland said on leaving the band: "I feel that they think I'm no good for them but fuck it." (we all know Limp Bizkit wouldn't have been what they were without Wes's input, after all, Wes was the most rememberable and recognisable character in Limp Bizkit which we all admire) Borland and Danny Lohner also contributed guitar parts and instrumentals to Rob Zombie's album, Educated Horses, only to not have their contributions on the record. In fall of 2005, Wes played all the bass on the post-hardcore band From First to Last's second full length album Heroine (after bassist Jon Weisberg left the band), with whom he also toured with for several tours afterward. Borland has since become very close with the band. He has since left the band as new bassist Matt Manning stepped up to play with From First to last. Borland played all the bass track on the CD, but co wrote a song with the band called "Save Us" which is a B side to the Heroine album that is still unreleased.
BLACK LIGHT BURNS
Borland's latest project Black Light Burns is an industrial/gothic/alternative band featuring members of Borland's previous band The Damning Well, with Borland this time on Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Keyboards and Programming, Danny Lohner on Guitar, Bass, Keys, Programming (but is sparingly using these instruments on the record, as he is mainly BLB's producer), Josh Eustis (from Telefon Tel Aviv) on Programming, Keys and Josh Freese on Drums. The project evolved from Borland's initial attempts at writing a solo effort, but according to Borland, now includes that solo material, material from Eat The Day, material from The Damning Well, and material from an ambient solo record that Borland wrote during his time in Eat The Day that still remains unreleased. He disclosed this crucial piece of information in a podcast he did for On the Pulse. The initial plans of their record release was posted on their MySpace page: "Final tracking is almost complete on the debut album and the band plans on releasing during the first quarter of 2006 with a world tour to follow." All guests on the album are confirmed to include Carina Round, Limp Bizkit bassist Sam Rivers, From First to Last frontman Sonny Moore, and Johnette Napolitano of Concrete Blonde. However, their then record label, Geffen Records, went through a personnel change and didn't bother returning Borland's phone calls, so both parties split. Borland announced on February 3rd, 2007 that Black Light Burns will be signed to the new record label of Ross Robinson called I AM: WOLFPACK. A June 5th, 2007 release for the CD is planned, and in the meantime Borland will head to various regions in the Middle East for scheduled guitar clinics for his Yamaha signature guitar, and BLB will be rehearsing for a tour starting around summer as well.
Wes has been touring with From First To Last roughly since early 2006. Wes announced plans for a fall 2006 BLB/FFTL tour that never went through due to Black Light Burns needing to find a new record label after Borland wanted off of Geffen Records due to their not giving BLB any focus or attention. Borland has also discussed plans to write and perform on the next From First To Last album, but he left the band due to Black Light Burns' busy schedule started to pick up, leaving no room for work with From First to Last.
Recently Wes appeared .. tracks of the 2007 album Worse Than A Fairy Tale, by Colorado screamo band, Drop Dead, Gorgeous. Both artists are on Ross Robinson's I AM:WOLFPACK label.
Art Work
We all know Wes is not only a creative musician but a an artist also. Be sure to check out all his work on the site http://www.theborlandgallery.com
