‘Feeling like no one’s listening to you or gives a sh*t about you, that’s a really powerful place to create from’ | Razorlight’s Johnny Borrell interviewed

Razorlight are back with Planet Nowhere. Johnny Borrell talks to whynow about moving forward, the band’s classic lineup reunion, and why nostalgia just isn’t enough.

by Ali Shutler |
Johnny Borrell Razorlight interview

“At this point in our career, Razorlight can do the heritage thing pretty well,” says Johnny Borrell, with generation-defining hits like ‘Golden Touch’, ‘In The Morning’ and ‘America’ still the perfect example of scuzzy ‘00s indie ambition. “But I don’t want to just do nostalgia,” he continues. “I don’t think bands should exist unless they’re doing something new.

True to his word, 2024 may be the year their debut Up All Night turns 20 but the band are too busy gearing up to release new album Planet Nowhere to spend much time looking back. It’s the first new Razorlight album since 2018’s Olympus Sleeping and the first record with the classic lineup (guitarist Björn Ågren, drummer Andy Burrows, bassist Carl Delemo and Borrell) since 2008’s Slipway Fires. “I’m grateful and surprised by this new era,” admits Borrell. “Even nine months ago, the chances of me making a new Razorlight album felt very, very low. It’s all come together in a way I didn’t expect.”

Johnny Borrell Razorlight Planet Nowhere

He’s not the only one either. 2006’s America catapulted Razorlight to becoming one of the biggest bands in Britain at the height of Indie Sleaze (though back then it was given the less favourable name indie landfill), with the band headlining Reading & Leeds Festival 2007. “I loved the fact that the second record was more Blondie than Patti Smith and more The Police than Television, but it was also a lot more successful than we expected it to be,” he admits, hitting back at the band’s ‘success-at-any-price’ reputation. “I never, ever thought that Razorlight would be part of the mainstream, and it was not a place I was mentally or emotionally equipped to go.”

Soon after that record, they were in the prestigious and expensive Air Studios to make third album Slipway Fires, with its location chosen only because it was the exact midpoint between where Borrell and Burrows lived. “Our relationship was so full of respect, love and mutual understanding but there was also a lot of mistrust and miscommunication,” says Borrell, with the two twenty-somethings not exactly the best at talking about their feelings. “We were so focused on trying to salvage our relationship that we weren’t really thinking about the music,” he admits. “It’s the record I have the least affinity for as a listener because it sounds like whatever forces had made us great, had just been reversed.” It was the beginning of the end, as members started drifting away before the band officially split up in 2014.

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A version of Razorlight was revived in 2018 for fourth album Olympus Sleeping, but Borrell was the only returning member. However, a chance encounter with Ågren in Kentish Town led to the pair starting tentatively working together on new music together while a documentary on the band brought Burrows back into Borrell’s life. “It just seemed stupid not to play music together,” he says. Universal Records may still be blocking the release of the documentary but a Greatest Hits album was released in 2022 ahead of a tour. “Getting back onstage felt like no time had passed,” says Borrell. “But because we were older, we could actually talk about things instead of playing the game of ‘who’s the dickhead’. To have those relationships back was incredibly inspiring,” he adds.

As fun as it was to revisit songs that still meant so much to the band, they still weren’t writing anything new. “Thinking about it broke my heart, but it started to look like Razorlight was over again,” says Borrell. They went on a last ditch trip to the studio with two songs in their back pocket. One, a questionable rip-off of The Police and another called “The CIA Killed Rock & Roll” that had the same melody as “Popeye The Sailor Man”. “It was just nonsense,” says Borrell, who was ready to admit defeat. However, on the very last day, the band came up with Planet Nowhere’s lead single “Scared Of Nothing” which felt familiar but fresh. “From there, we had a blueprint of what the album could be.”

Over the next few months, the record slowly came together. “Planet Nowhere captures that youthful feeling of going through these incredibly monumental experiences that mean absolutely nothing to anyone else around you. It’s a teenager staring out from suburbia,” explains Borrell. “Feeling like no one is listening to you and no one gives a shit about you, that’s a really powerful place to create from,” he adds.

“You focus on what you care about, and your reference point isn’t ‘everyone in the world who’s clicked on your Instagram’. Those self-referential scenes always tend to produce results,” he says, reflecting on how Razorlight came up alongside bands like The Libertines. “All we had to worry about was the music. Trying to create content for social media at the same time would have been such a waste of energy. It probably would have got us arrested as well…”

Razorlight are due to play a one-off anniversary show for Up All Night at Brixton Academy in November but they’ve turned down a full blown nostalgia tour. “I’m looking forward to that show, but we believe in Planet Nowhere, so if we’ve got any balls whatsoever, we should go out and play that one,” he says.

“It does feel like I have something to prove,” he continues. “I want to prove that we’re making good music right now. I’ve only ever released music that I feel passionate about, even if I don’t always get it right. It’s important that we’re moving forward and doing something new,” says Borrell, who’s seen enough bands chasing trends to know it’s not for him.  

“We all just feel really good about this new album,” he says. “We’ve played a lot of shows this summer and we’ve been really getting along, which is unheard of for Razorlight.” The band haven’t stopped writing either, “so we’re already looking forward to whatever comes next,” he grins. “The thing about having actually made Planet Nowhere is that now we know there’s a future.”

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