{image1}Long-distance relationships can be tough on lovers, and they can be tough on bands. Just ask Gregory Borden (pictured at right) and Nathaniel Zuelzke. The duo is releasing a disc, "Everything Changes," on Sparkler Records, under the name No Kiss for New Years.
The problem is, Borden -- formerly of the band Menlo and one of the founders of the cooperative Sparkler label -- lives in Milwaukee and Zuelzke is in New England.
"This is the tricky part," admits Borden. "Nathaniel is living in Boston now going to Harvard for his masters in Architecture."
While it wasn't much of a problem for writing and recording, which could be done in fits and starts or via the Internet, being an actual band requires a lot of face time.
"We did play some shows, we did a couple in New York, played in Boston, and did our Milwaukee show at Riverwest Commons," Borden says. "I think I'm going to do some shows this fall by myself since I sing 95 percent of the songs. Nathaniel and I will probably play some when he comes back for the holidays, or I fly out there, or this thing takes off. I just keep writing and recording and we'll definitely be doing more work together as we go along."
So, how did the unusual project come together?
"Nathaniel actually played bass in Menlo for two-three months," Borden explains. "He played three songs on (Menlo's disc) 'The Stars are Held by Strings.' He was in architecture school at that point and just ran out of time really, so we parted ways. After Menlo broke up I started doing things under No Kiss for New Years, and I kept running into him at the Landmark and we decided to record some songs together, and it worked out beautifully."
So, it seemed a natural progression for the two to continue to collaborate, especially as Borden began to buy equipment to set up a small home studio as a means for demo-ing new songs and trying out new things. In the end, all of "Everything Changes" emerged from Borden's studio.
"I just started writing and recording and it seemed like I should finish them the way I started," he says. "I had to learn a lot though about recording, mixing and mastering, but I have a lot of friends I could tap for answers and a lot of patience."
The result is an intimate, introspective, mostly acoustic set of songs that begins with a somewhat misleading electronic instrumental (although there are two other mostly-electronic tunes on the disc, too). Keyboard and occasional violin and drums add atmosphere and depth.
Luckily, Borden says, he was working without much pressure.
"Is anybody really expecting anything out of a no-name guy from a defunct band to do anything great? So, I just did what I wanted and took my time. ... I don't think we could have done this, or achieved what we have if we shot-gunned it in a studio for a week. I'm happy with this record, it's not perfect, but it doesn't have to be and I don't want it to be. Perfect is boring, perfect is predictable."
Boring and predictable are two words Borden doesn't know much about these days as his musical life has been anything but those things lately, with the dissolution of Menlo and the, arguable, stagnation of Sparkler, which just two years ago was firing on all pistons.
"Sparkler was a fun ride, and I think it can go on but maybe in a different way," Borden says. "The problem was a lot of misconceptions in the scene. A lot of people couldn't, can't get past the fact that it's a label but not in the true sense of the word. A record label has an individual or individuals putting money into it and finding bands they like to release and promote their records. Our idea was to pool like-minded bands together and pool resources to put out our own records and promote.
"Some people just couldn't understand it, or didn't want to. It's not like we were trying to convince everyone that a television was a toaster. We'll see what happens with it, it just depends on how much time we have. But if anything, hopefully it sparked some ideas in someone else and moved the Milwaukee scene along, that's all I really wanted anyway."
No Kiss For New Years' Web site is nokissfornewyears.com.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
