Introducing: BORDERLINE

Sure! Here’s a punchy, engaging intro for an interview with Borderline, designed to hook the reader and set the tone:

Intro:From Auckland classrooms to international stages, Borderline are fast becoming one of New Zealand’s most compelling indie-pop exports. With emotionally charged lyrics, soaring melodies, and a live presence that’s turning heads on both sides of the Pacific, the four-piece have just dropped their most heartfelt track yet — ‘New Romance’. Released via EMPIRE, the single captures the bittersweet thrill of modern love, wrapped in lush instrumentation and a warm, intimate glow. Fresh off their US debut at SXSW and with UK shows underway, we caught up with the band to talk songwriting, new beginnings, and the road ahead.

‘New Romance’ captures a real warmth and emotional vulnerability—can you talk us through how the song came together and what inspired its sound?

The song came together with the four of us jamming in our studio in Auckland, we came up with this cool vibe and the song came together really quickly. With all our music recently, a massive focus has been evoking a feeling in the listener which was very important to us while recording the song. Every sound choice, tone, and note was intentional to try to evoke emotion and the feeling of falling in love. 

You’ve said this is one of your most intimate tracks yet. How do you navigate vulnerability as a band when writing and performing songs that come from such a personal place?

New Romance is such a special moment in the set, it’s definitely one of the quieter, more laid back songs, but that brings out a lot in the audience too. You watch people really focus on the song, and the lyrics. It’s really special watching that, knowing that people are relating to the words and the message, it's super powerful and something we don’t take for granted. 

From SXSW to your upcoming UK shows, you’ve had a big year of live milestones. How has performing internationally shaped your energy as a band or influenced your creative direction?

It’s been a massive learning curve, but also the most fun we’ve ever had. Getting to perform the show every night has been incredible, seeing fans all around the world coming to our shows in countries we’ve never been to before and singing every lyric to every song is unreal. It’s also made the four of us super close. We’ve gained a whole bunch of life experiences which I’m sure will influence our song writing and creation direction going forward. 

You all came together from different stages of life—some of you from childhood, others more recently at uni. How has that mix of long-term chemistry and new dynamics impacted the music you’re making now?

All four of us come from very different musical backgrounds, but our music philosophy is very similar. We enjoy music in similar ways, and our approaches to how we make our music and what we do is very aligned. We all grew up listening to completely different things, but I think that’s what makes our music so unique - all of us bringing our own inspirations to the songwriting, sharing music with each other, it becomes such a mish-mash of all our inspirations over the years. A lot of the music we’re making at the moment is so different and covers a whole lot of genres, but as different as it all is, we find a way to make it cohesive.

With the success of ‘When It’s Raining’ and now ‘New Romance,’ you’re clearly building momentum. What can fans expect next, and how does this moment feel in your journey as Borderline?

We’ve been heavily focused on writing for the past two years, and in the last 6 months we’ve been in the studio recording a whole bunch of those songs. You can expect lots of new music, and lots more live shows. We’ve had a blast performing the new songs live, and we’ll be touring a bunch more throughout the rest of this year, into next year.