1. Wesley Louden Borland was born on February 7,1975 and is an American rock musician.
55 Facts About Wes Borland
1. 2.
Wes Borland is the guitarist and backing vocalist of the nu metal band Limp Bizkit, the lead vocalist and guitarist of the alternative and industrial rock band Black Light Burns, and the co-founder of the experimental metal band Big Dumb Face.
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Wes Borland formed Big Dumb Face with his brother Scott in 1998 and left Limp Bizkit in 2001 to start side projects including Eat the Day and The Damning Well.
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Wes Borland is known for his sonic experimentation and elaborate visual appearance, which has included face and body paint, masks and uniforms.
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Wes Borland has drawn album covers and created artwork for many of his music projects as well as oil paintings.
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Wes Borland was voted number 37 in Total Guitars Top 100 Guitarists of All Time.
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Wes Borland formed the label Edison Sound, which releases his own music projects.
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Wes Borland then switched to taking guitar lessons from a member of his parents' Presbyterian church.
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However, Wes Borland quickly found his own musical tastes and interests at odds with local music trends which, due to his proximity to Nashville, skewed heavily towards country music.
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Wes Borland found his interest in hip hop music piqued with the release of "Bring the Noise", a collaboration between heavy metal band Anthrax and hip hop group Public Enemy.
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Wes Borland then relocated to Jacksonville, Florida with his parents where, disillusioned with the local music scene, he began attending the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts.
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However, Wes Borland continued his pursuit of music through guitar lessons, working with a guitar teacher that specialized in jazz music.
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Wes Borland joined Limp Bizkit, a band formed by Fred Durst, Sam Rivers and John Otto.
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The band attracted crowds by word of mouth and covering George Michael's "Faith" and Paula Abdul's "Straight Up"; the band gave energetic live performances in which Wes Borland appeared in bizarre costumes.
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However, Wes Borland rejoined after the band signed with Mojo, a subsidiary of MCA Records.
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In 1998, Wes Borland formed a side project, Big Dumb Face with his brother, influenced by Ween and Mr Bungle.
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Wes Borland contributed the other half of the album's title when the band was standing around at a truck stop, looking at bottles of flavored water, and Wes Borland joked that the truck stop didn't have hot dog or meat-flavored water.
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Wes Borland then formed the band Eat the Day, in which he and his brother Scott would both act as co-lead vocalists.
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Shortly afterward, Wes Borland had found three potential singers for the project, with one presumably being the previously announced Adam Yas.
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Wes Borland stated that this was now his main project, and anything else he did, including Limp Bizkit, was a side project.
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Wes Borland toured with From First To Last roughly since early 2006.
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Wes Borland announced planned for a fall 2006 tour that never went through due to Black Light Burns needing to find a new record label after Borland left Geffen Records.
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Wes Borland had discussed plans to write and perform on the next From First To Last album, but he left the band when Black Light Burns' busy schedule started to pick up, leaving no room to work with From First to Last.
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Wes Borland designed the album artwork for Fear and the Nervous System's 2011 eponymous debut album.
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Wes Borland has gone onto a remixing career with his distribution of alternative versions of songs by metal bands.
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Wes Borland played guitar in the soundtrack of Resident Evil: Afterlife by Tomandandy.
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Wes Borland collaborated with Riot Games to develop Hybrid Worlds, the theme song for the League of Legends Season 3 World Championships.
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Wes Borland performed live for the event on October 4,2013, along with The Crystal Method, Tina Guo, and Black Light Burns alumni Danny Lohner and Joe Letz.
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On May 3,2016, Wes Borland released an instrumental solo album named Crystal Machete on his personal record label, which saw him stepping outside his comfort zone by featuring no distorted guitars or vocals.
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Wes Borland blamed his time in Limp Bizkit for difficulty in getting jobs with other acts such as Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson in the past, stating that the other bands didn't want to be associated with his previous band.
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Wes Borland did say that he would not tour with Big Dumb Face as he has prior touring commitments with Limp Bizkit and his ex-wife's band, Queen Kwong.
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In February 2018 Wes Borland teased images of him working in the studio with Travis Barker on an "as yet untitled project".
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Wes Borland played guitar on five tracks from Jonathan Davis's debut solo album Black Labyrinth, which was recorded between 2007 and 2018.
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In January 2023, Wes Borland filed a defamation lawsuit against Callaway for statements Callaway made during an interview.
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In March 2023, it was announced that Wes Borland's lawsuit had been dismissed by a Detroit judge.
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Callaway and Wes Borland were passionate about rescuing abandoned cats around the Detroit area, and together starred in a DIY Network renovation show, which followed their relocation to Detroit and subsequent renovation of a large house.
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Wes Borland says "growing up as a minister's son in a Christian family who were conservative with that kind of stuff had an effect on me".
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Wes Borland is an atheist, but although he does not believe in heaven, he hopes he is wrong.
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Wes Borland revealed on Dean Delray's Let There Be Talk podcast, that he had invested most of his early earnings in risky stock market investments.
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Wes Borland used Ibanez seven-string guitars exclusively from 1997 until 1999.
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Shortly after embarking on a tour with Korn, Ibanez contacted Wes Borland and gave him a number of seven-string Universe guitars, essentially for free, which he continued to use extensively.
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Wes Borland is currently one of two American owners of one.
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Wes Borland is one of the few guitarists to utilize tenor guitars, which has 4-strings as opposed to the standard 6-strings.
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However, Wes Borland did not tour with this guitar and instead used Paul Reed Smith guitars, one of which is a Standard 24 in a Platinum Metallic finish, a Custom 24 in a Black Slate finish, and a 4-string baritone.
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Wes Borland was endorsed by Jackson shortly before the release of Gold Cobra, and owns several Rhoads guitars, which he uses on Limp Bizkit shows.
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Additionally, Wes Borland uses a Fender Bass VI, tuned to one octave below E standard tuning.
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Currently, Wes Borland plays EVH Amps and cabinets for his heavier tones.
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Wes Borland's guitar playing is experimental and nontraditional, and he is noted for his creative use of six and seven-string guitars.
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Wes Borland's guitar playing has made use of octave shapes, and choppy, eighth-note rhythms, sometimes accompanied by muting his strings with his left hand, creating a percussive sound.
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Wes Borland has made use of unevenly accented syncopated sixteenth notes to create a disorienting effect, and hypnotic, droning licks.
51.
Wes Borland said that he got the idea to dive notes down an octave then have them come back up from trombone players.
52.
Wes Borland's playing is still identifiable in Black Light Burns, but by his own admission, he strives to go for a cleaner type of sound in Black Light Burns, where the heaviness comes from his bass playing, instead of in Limp Bizkit where he seeks a more metal-oriented sound.
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Wes Borland plays keyboards and textures more overtly as tools to layer Black Light Burns' sound where in Limp Bizkit the layers are considered by the full band more.
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Wes Borland writes songs by forming them in rough outlines and filling in the details later.
55.
Wes Borland is known for performing in costumes and body paint during concerts, appearing in bunny and kung fu suits, and painted as a skeleton and what he describes as a "burnt match".