Mia Borders

Mia Borders
Background information
Born New Orleans
Genres soul, funk, rhythm and blues
Occupation(s)
  • singer-songwriter
Instruments
Years active 2006–
Website miaborders.com

Mia Borders is an American singer-songwriter from New Orleans, Louisiana, mixing soul, funk, rhythm and blues, and electronic music.

She has released six LP albums, the latest being Fever Dreams in September 2016.

Life

Borders in 2012

Born in New Orleans, Borders was given her first acoustic guitar at the age of ten, while her first electric guitar came as a later present from her grandmother. One of her grandfathers was a trumpet-player.[1] After attending Taft School in Connecticut, she was planning to go on to a film school in Georgia, but in January 2006, after Hurricane Katrina, returned home to New Orleans.[1] She got her first work as a professional musician later in 2006 and enrolled at Loyola University the same year. In 2009 she released her first LP, Southern Fried Soul, and in 2010 graduated in English. After working briefly as a paralegal, she took the decision not to go to graduate school and instead to make her living by playing music.[1]

Borders has cited Bill Withers and Etta James as being among her influences.[2] Still based in her home city, she now does many tours, performing chiefly at clubs and festivals. The events and venues she plays include House of Blues in the French Quarter, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival,[3] Tipitina's, the Essence Music Festival, the Santa Cruz Blues Fest, Nightfall at Chattanooga, Telluride Cajun Festival, Tab Benoit's Voice of the Wetlands, the Levitt Shell in Memphis, Tennessee, Wakarusa, the Long’s Park Amphitheater in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the Green Parrot in Key West,[4] and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Her overseas expeditions have taken her to the Bourbon Street Fest in São Paulo, Brazil.[5][6]

At the New Orleans Jazz Fest of 2012 Borders appeared on the Gentilly Stage with a five-member band and teased the crowd: "Join me on this next song. I'm sure you sound like angels – angels that have been drinking in the hot sun! Let's do this!"[3]

In 2013 she was interviewed for OffBeat by Brett Milano, who reported that her new album Quarter Life Crisis included a song beginning "You emotionally fucked me" and that the title had come from her therapist. Milano also noted that Borders had a Che Guevara saying tattooed on her arm meaning "Better to die standing than to live on your knees".[7] The quotation is also attributed to Emiliano Zapata [8] and Jean-Paul Sartre,[9] among others. Quarter-Life Crisis was co-produced by Borders and Anders Osborne.[10]

Apart from a collection of guitars and keyboards, she also owns a full drum kit, which helps her with mixing her compositions. My Darling Love, released as a single in 2014, was written for her brother's wedding.[11] In September 2016 Borders unveiled her fifth studio LP, Fever Dreams, with the supporting artists including Jesse Morrow, John Papa Gros, Takeshi Shimmura, and Rob Lee.[10][6]

Critical reception

In 2012 The Times-Picayune called Borders "studiously cool"[5] and "lusciously sly and sultry". In 2014 it commented that "Her voice possesses a natural, appealing bite to its expressive contours" and that she was "simultaneously clean, sultry and a bit lascivious".[12] USA Today has reported on "her blues/soul/funk repertoire" and her "deeply funky" version of Stevie Wonder's Living for the City.[3] OffBeat has hailed her "great music and great intensity".[13]

In his book When Not Performing, David Spielman gives two pages to Borders and suggests "she could be the next big thing".[1] Writing in the Huffington Post online, Christina Oxenberg describes her voice as "an instrument of exquisite beauty" and strongly recommends hearing her live.[11]

Discography

  • Southern Fried Soul (Blaxican Records LP, released August 8, 2009)[14][15]
  • Magnolia Blue (Blaxican Records/Hypersoul Records LP, released June 3, 2010)[12]
  • Wherever There Is (Blaxican Records LP, released April 18, 2012)[2]
  • Live at House of Blues New Orleans (Blaxican Records LP)[16]
  • Quarter-Life Crisis (Hypersoul Records LP, released April 25, 2013[10]
  • My Darling Love (Blaxican Records single, released July 8, 2014)[17]
  • Fever Dreams (Blaxican Records LP, released September 2, 2016)[10]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 David G. Spielman, When Not Performing (Pelican Publishing, 2012), pp. 36-37
  2. 1 2 Susan Langenhennig, Festival style: Mia Borders talks about her musical inspirations, her favorite shades and more in The Times-Picayune online dated April 10, 2012, accessed 23 April 2017
  3. 1 2 3 Jerry Shriver, Jazz Fest: Emerging acts take the spotlight in New Orleans in USA Today dated 4/5/2012 at usatoday.com, accessed 7 March 2017
  4. ↑ Konk Life Editor, LOCAL OBSERVATIONS / KEY WEST LOVES MIA BORDERS dated Feb 10 2015 at konknet.com, accessed 23 April 2017
  5. 1 2 Keith Spera, Mia Borders is studiously cool at the New Orleans Jazz Fest in The Times-Picayune online dated May 03, 2012, accessed 23 April 2017
  6. 1 2 Mia Borders Releases Fifth LP "Fever Dreams" at prweb.com, accessed February 25, 2017
  7. ↑ Brett Milano, Mia Borders Rocks out of Quarter-Life Crisis in OffBeat online dated July 1, 2013, at offbeat.com, accessed 7 March 2017
  8. ↑ https://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2015/10/22/who-said-it-better-to-die-on-your-feet-than-live-on-your-knees/
  9. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/26768-better-to-die-on-one-s-feet-than-to-live-on
  10. 1 2 3 4 Brett Milano, Mia Borders, “Fever Dreams” (Blaxican Records) in OffBeat online dated November 22, 2016, accessed 23 April 2017
  11. 1 2 Christina Oxenberg, Mia Borders is Unstopable dated 02/17/2017 at huffingtonpost.com
  12. 1 2 Andrew Adler, Mia Borders returns to New Orleans Jazz Fest with a lusciously sly and sultry performance on the Acura Stage in The Times-Picayune online dated May 02, 2014, accessed 23 April 2017
  13. ↑ David Kuniano, Mia Borders: Quarter Life Crisis (Hypersoul) in OffBeat dated June 1, 2013, accessed 23 April 2017
  14. ↑ Briana Prevost, Mia Borders, Southern Fried Soul (Independent) in OffBeat dated December 1, 2009, accessed 23 April 2017
  15. ↑ Southern Fried Soul at bandcamp.com, accessed February 26, 2017: Released August 8, 2009; Mia Borders – Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar; Pablo Gonzalez – Bass; Nick Hingel – Drums, Vocals; Kyle Sclafani – Lead Guitar, Vocals; Jim Wilson – Piano, Keys; Cyrus McGoldrick – Saxophone; produced & mixed by Mia Borders for Pound4Pound Productions; recorded for Blaxican Records at Sound Emporium, Nashville, Tennessee
  16. ↑ Bunny Matthews, Better Than Ezra, Live At House Of Blues New Orleans (Sanctuary) in OffBeat, accessed 2 May 2017
  17. ↑ My Darling Love by Mia Borders at bandcamp.com, accessed 2 May 2017
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