'Endtroducing'

Borka & The Gang and his L.O.V.E EP

- Hi Boris, how are you and how does it feel like releasing music on Apparel Music?

Hey Gius everything is great with me and I hope that everything is fine with you too. I've been a big fan of the label for a long time and now it feels fantastic to be releasing on AM and to be part of the family. I'm honored and very happy about it. Everything about Apparel Music is just right. You release great music that I totally identify with as an artist. I like the symbiosis between jazz and stylish electronic music. This is the musical cosmos in which I currently want to move as a producer and AM is a perfect home for it. I love the visual presentation of the label. The current designs are minimalistic, timeless, artful with a lot of love for detail, which is also very suitable for the music that you release. I like the whole professional presentation of the label and I think the project Apparel Wax is great. So it was a celebration for me when I signed the EP on AM. Much L.O.V.E for your support!

- Talk us through the creative process behind the making of this EP. How did it come about and how did you work on it?

I'll start with the title track L.O.V.E, which is a symbiosis of oldschool breakbeat, funk and something very unique. Since I have been running a breakbeat project BORKA FM for many years, these influences also appear in my house project in a milder and deeper form. L.O.V.E is an example of this. First I worked out the drums here, with the goal to create a homogeneous sounding drum loop from many different drum loops. I then underlined this drum loop with real cymbals and congas. Then came the live bass. This was recorded especially for me and I sampled and edited it to fit the track. So I sat down at Nord Electro 3 and pretty quickly found the right piano chords and recorded them live. Then I recorded my vocals, then a lead melody with the Prophet X, which I underlined with the xylophone. While I was working on the track, my girlfriend Marie spontaneously wrote lyrics that matched the vibe. This text had a nice and warm message and we recorded it right away. She sang high, I sang low, light and loving, inspired by brazilian bossa nova songs. After working on the arrangement for a long time, I wanted to have funky guitar sounds, which Aaron recorded especially for the track. The message behind L.O.V.E. is, as the title already suggests, love. The love of two souls that have found each other. It tells of a slightly spiritual path and solid moral concepts that lead them to their goal. It continues with "Here & Now". When I'm in the production process I'm very focused and so I'm very much in the present moment. In such moments the flow comes and out of the flow the right vibes for the track arise. This track is a perfect example of that. First I created the groovy beat. For this I recorded handclaps, congas, rides and tambs myself. Also the bassline for this track was recorded for me and I sampled and edited it to the right result. Then I sat down at my faithful friend Nord Electro 3 and started jamming with the Rhodes Piano until I found the right chord progression and recorded it straight away. I rarely use MIDI format and try to record everything live. It speeds up my workflow, sounds more organic, you try harder to play more accurately and you improve your skill. When I produce a track my thoughts are constantly on the track throughout the day and so many ideas arise that I try out back and forth in my head. At some point it will work out and I'll try it out in real life. Since I wanted "Here & Now" to sound as jazzy as possible, I thought about which instrument I would most like to have in there and then decided on the trumpet to expand the entire track story. I brought talented jazz trumpet player Juan Pablo Salvo into the track and he took the track to a new level. Finally I added some vocals that a rapper from San Diego recorded for me. This added some organic hip hop feeling to the track. I took a similar approach to the track "Window". Started working on the beat in one evening. For this I recorded the hihat, congas, handclaps, rides and tambs to make the beat sound as organic as possible. Then I sampled my own live bass and used it appropriately to create a dirty, funky hip hop groove. After that I went back to Nord Electro 3 until I found the right chord progression that felt good. I emphasized this with the lead sound, which I screwed together with the Roland Gaia SH-01 and also recorded live, like the Rhodes Piano. Then I used old Soviet jazz records and sampled out this piano melody, which felt really good. My girlfriend Marie wrote the text for it and I recorded it right away. In the break I recorded the pads with DSI Prophet 12. I really like the layout of the break. Window has become dreamy, thoughtful and melancholic vibe. With the track you can feel the wind blowing through the window, over your whole body and awakening emotions. I3U is a summery, smile in the face good vibe number that's packed full of Brazilian vibes. I3U is based on a sampled melody from the seventies bossa nova record, which I underlined with piano and Rhodes, making it more voluminous. I also underlined the sampled vocal with my own voice. In the track I worked classically with sampling and playing live. Since I wanted to emphasize the bossa nova vibe here in particular, I decided on the flute and wrote a melody that underscores the main groove. Italian flute player Davide Bonomo recorded this and other flute melodies for the track for me. I worked on the track with many small details to make it sound as loving and warm as possible.

- Could you share with us three tracks that inspired you during the making of the record?

Overall I'm very inspired by Jazz, Hip-Hop, Brazilian Jazz and Bossa Nova and modern Deep House and Breaks sounds. To reduce the whole thing to three tracks, which is not easy, I would go for these 3: I think one of the biggest inspirations for me is Azymuth and it's hard for me to choose a track from this wonderful band. Their music is just perfect for me and full of love. Pure inspiration! I choose the intro track from their album "Light As Feather". Also Robert Glasper since his "In My Element" LP is one of my biggest inspirations. This man translated hip-hop into jazz perfect and took it to a whole new level. Everything he touches becomes a musical diamond. Again, it's hard for me to choose a track, but I choose the collaboration track with Erykah Badu from his album "Black Radio". And finally I decide on a track by HNNY, which also influenced me a lot back then and is still one of my favorite deep house tracks with Brazilian music influences.