Remain in light

Razorlight and Al Gore? It might seem an unlikely combination, but Johnny Borrell credits the former (and future?) Democratic presidential candidate for his current involvement with Friends Of The Earth, for whom Razorlight recently recorded the track ‘Funeral Blues’.
“I’d never thought about climate change in any way whatsoever, but I went to the cinema with some friends last year to see An Inconvenient Truth,” explains Johnny, down the line from Paris. “We were absolutely blown away by it, and we thought we should do something. So I phoned up Friends Of The Earth and I said, ‘I’m Johnny, and I play in a band called Razorlight, and I’d really like to help out. My commitment is total and my energy will be unstinting. How can I help?’ Since then, we’ve done a lot of things with them. We’ve been playing concerts and doing articles and that kind of stuff.
“They have a campaign called the Big Ask which really appeals to me. The concept being that it’s not about lecturing people to change their light bulbs, it’s about encouraging people to make political noise with regard to climate change. I think it’s a really noble cause. Just the other day we had a big promotional day in London, and as part of that we went and recorded ‘Funeral Blues’ in a solar-powered studio. The point was that it was a carbon neutral single; we released it on the internet, so there was no physical product.”
Razorlight have clearly become more engaged with political activism recently, with their website currently sporting a prominent Make Poverty History banner. Does Borrell feel obliged to use his fame to draw attention to these issues?
“I’ve always felt that people who work for organisations like Friends Of The Earth, Make Poverty History or Amnesty International are real heroes,” replies Johnny. “They work at it day-in, day-out because they want to make the world a better place. Now, if by being in a band you can write a song, do an interview, or be in a photo shoot and highlight that work, I think that’s something worth doing. Whether I was in a band or not, I would be making my voice heard to the best of my ability about these issues.”
Borrell must be pleased with the success of the band’s self-titled second album, which, in the year since its release, has become a huge success on the back of the hit singles ‘In The Morning’ and ‘America’.
“I think there’s an always an element of risk-taking every time we put out a new piece of music,” considers Johnny. “We always try and move on and make the brave record. We had our first hit with ‘Golden Touch’ and then after that we put out ‘Somewhere Else’, which a lot of people questioned me about releasing. It was an acoustic song with no bass guitar and no drums ‘til the end and that kind of stuff. But we were rewarded with our biggest hit at the time, and then we came back with this record, which was a progression again.
“But I remember when we were releasing it, people were saying to me, ‘You do know you’re taking a risk?’ It doesn’t mean anything to me, I just make music, but again we’ve had our biggest hit to date, so it feels like things are heading in the right direction.”
In certain quarters, Razorlight’s drummer, Andy Burrows, has been credited with writing ‘America’ in its entirety, but Burrell is keen to set to record straight.
“It’s a co-write, as it says on the record sleeve,” he asserts. “It’s very strange, people are always trying to make issues out of things. There’s a lot of co-writes in Razorlight because we’re a band. I always write all the lyrics, and I do write a lot of the songs, but still, many of them are co-written. With ‘America’, we were just sitting in a hotel room in Columbus, Ohio, and that was what came out. Lyrically, I was writing about what I was seeing around me. It was a personal song that maybe does resonate politically. I mean, who knows?”
Razorlight’s success has seen the band rub shoulders with some bona fide rock legends, including the Rolling Stones, who invited the band to play support at a couple of shows on their Bigger Bang tour.
“That was fantastic,” enthuses Borrell. “People like the Stones, or the Beatles, Hendrix or Dylan, they cast such a long shadow that I don’t think there’s any rock band in the world who haven’t been influenced by them. And they’re great guys, they’ve got one or two interesting stories! (laughs)”
Borrell and his fellow band members have also made a guest appearance on the hit BBC comedy series The Mighty Boosh, at the invitation of their friend Noel Fielding.
“I’ve known Noel for a long time,” says Johnny. “I think we first met in 2000, when he was doing his stand-up on his own. Me and Andy particularly, we’ve always been really big fans of the Boosh stuff, going way back, before it blew up. Noel’s a wonderful guy and a great mate, and we had great fun doing the show.”
As a Chelsea supporter, Johnny must have been disappointed with the Blues’ failure to retain the Premiership this season.
“I was, although I don’t think they deserved it,” he admits. “I think United played football in a much better spirit. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see them much this season, as I’ve only been in London four weeks out of the last 12 months. But hopefully I’ll redress the balance next season.”
Johnny is also a keen cricket fan, and by all accounts is quite an accomplished player himself.
“My mates have got a cricket team, although I haven’t managed to turn out this summer,” he rues. “But I was twelfth man the other day. I always go and watch Middlesex and England when I can. I got to see both of them this season, which was great.”
There was considerable anguish and despair chez Nolan recently when it emerged that Borrell is currently dating Kirsten Dunst. The couple met at the South By Southwest festival in Austin and were recently spotted together at the cricket match between England and the West Indies at Lord’s.
“It was great, she loved it,” says Johnny, much to my dismay. “We went twice. I thought she’d only want to go for one day, but she really wanted to go back the next day as well. I’ve got a lot of experience explaining cricket to people who haven’t grown up with it. Besides which, Lord’s is such an amazing venue. It was funny, after Ireland’s victory over Pakistan in the World Cup, I had all my Irish friends ringing me up, going, ‘Alright Johnny, how about this cricket thing? I actually quite fancy coming down to Lord’s now!’”
Last month, Borrell joined the select group of men to have appeared on the cover of Vogue, where he posed in his trademark white jeans alongside supermodel Natalia Vodianova.
“We did this Armani Red Launch for Bono,” says Johnny, “and I met the editor of Vogue there. We did a performance which she obviously enjoyed, and that was it really. It’s great to do something that is so rarely done. Also, it was a great pleasure working with someone like the photographer Mario Testino, who’s a fantastic artist. And a terrific singer as well, funnily enough.”
Rumours constantly circulate about the supposed in-fighting between the members of Razorlight, with the relations between Borrell and the two Swedish members of the group, Bjorn Agren and Carl Dalemo, said to be particularly strained. Are the band co-existing harmoniously at the moment?
“A rock n roll band is not a perfect thing,” responds Johnny. “It’s four blokes who are married to each other. Rock groups are not geared to run perfectly; things always kick off. But we’re best mates in this band. The odd thing happens here and there, but it’s always blown out of proportion.”
Borrell, of course, started out as a member of the so-called “Dalston Set”, the clique of London musicians centred chiefly around The Libertines. Although Borrell remains cordial with Carl Barat, his friendship with Pete Doherty deteriorated, with the Babyshambles front man reportedly headbutting the singer backstage at the Leeds Festival in 2005. Much has also been made of Borrell’s putative feud with The Kooks, although he gives the story short shrift.
“That is totally invented by the media,” he bristles. “I don’t know anything about their band.”
I conclude by mentioning Razorlight’s impressive performance at the RDS Arena earlier this year.
“We really enjoyed that show,” says Johnny. “I had no idea we would be playing such a big place, but it was really cool. We’re looking forward to coming back.”

Razorlight play Oxegen on Sunday July 8.