BIOGRAPHY
Michael Borja was born in Pittsburgh, PA from immigrant Filipino parents that met here in the United States. His first exposure to music started at an early age to jazz and big band from his father to artists like Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespe, and Duke Ellington. Early exposure to rock-n-roll came from his mother with artists like the Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly. Borja began playing the piano at age 7 and discovered The Beatles. Later, Borja would be influenced by bands like Led Zeppelin, Rush, The Who, R.E.M., New Order, The Smiths, and The Cure. Borja was the lead singer of his high school band Technical Difficulty, and this is where he began to explore the craft of songwriting.
Borja moved to Los Angeles in 1995 and met Rob Benedict, fellow co-founder of the band Louden Swain. The duo added Stephen Norton (drums) and Billy Moran (lead guitar) and would release ten studio albums over the past three decades. In February of this year, Borja began releasing singles from his first solo project where he plays all the instruments, with some help from Stephen Norton.
ABOUT THE ALBUM
"INVITE TO THE CORPORATE FUNCTION"
Releasing a solo album came into existence during the COVID quarantine. I wanted to remain creative while away from Louden Swain and the fans. I began recording a couple of songs I wrote several years ago for the band and decided I would release some of the songs as a solo project. During that period, Rob and Billy had released their solo projects and I thought at the time I would be ready to release mine fairly soon.
However, life offered some challenges, especially after the passing of my father in 2021. My solo project was now on hold as I coped with the loss. After a couple of years, I began my healing by writing and finishing the album.
I started to explore other instruments to play for the album and revisited my love for playing the trumpet. I searched other tones for the album using instruments like the mandolin, the Hohner airboard and the stylophone, made popular by David Bowie. I used several keyboards and synthesizers to create other tones for the album (Moog 37, Korg DW-8000, Nord Electro 5D) ranging from the harpsichord to orchestral strings. I recorded "BDA" in Bermuda while I was there for work. I brought a Fender acoustisonic guitar, AKAI MPK Mina, SM7 and my recoding equipment. The original recording from that day was used and drums were recorded by Stephen Norton when I returned stateside.
I asked Camilla Darling to mix the songs and Eric Bard to master all the tracks. Stephen Norton graciously played percussion on four of the tracks. After mixing and mastering four solid tracks, I decided to write another track about my late father. I dug up an old demo recorded on a plane ride from Los Angeles to Kansas City that I had titled, fittingly "Kansas City". The demo was used as the backbone for "Steel City" and most of the original tracks were used for the final. From there, the music and heartfelt lyrics poured out describing the event from a point of view perspective of me, my sister, mother and brother.
I have many people to thank for this album from my friends, my music teachers, and my band mates. But, I thank my parents, siblings, and especially my wife and children whose undying love for me kept me going through this process.