To steal a quote from Steinbacher, Sarah Borges plays “rock ‘n roll with a little bit of country and a little bit of punk rock.” But whatever labels you choose to apply to her, it’s clear that her songwriting chops, voice and charisma are above-average. Sarah will play at the Cowboy Monkey tonight along with her band, the Broken Singles, including Lyle Brewer on guitar, Binky on bass and local boy Mike Ingram on drums. I chatted with the band electronically this past week, covering the band’s tour, left-field merch ideas, and the challenges of maintaining an original voice when recording covers.
SP: How has the tour been going so far? Looking at the website, this is your last show before you go home. Have you ever played in Champaign before?
Sarah: The tour has been going really well; we’ve returned to some cities we’ve played in the past, as well as hit some new ones, and we’re always trying to increase our fan base. We haven’t ever played in Champaign before, but Mike Ingram, who’s filling in on drums for this tour is from there, so we expect it will be a good show.
SP: The covers on the record stretch from Smokey Robinson all the way to the Magnetic Fields. What was the most out-there tune you were considering for the album?
Sarah: Hmmm…That was about as broad as our spectrum went in terms of cover choices. We really ran the gamut, and we kept the most extreme ones (like the ones you’ve mentioned) in there.
SP: Considering the breadth of covers on the record, are there two or three artists that you’d consider to have been the main stylistic reference points while you were recording?
Sarah: We didn’t choose a particular artist as a benchmark for the record, but we recorded our cover of “No One Will Ever Love You” by the the Magnetic Fields first, and that song became the touchstone for the record because we were so happy with it.
SP: Do you feel that having the covers on the record impacted your songwriting on the originals? Did you feel pressure to put forth an especially strong/original voice as a counterpoint to the covers, or do you feel that the covers have almost been transformed into your own songs?
Sarah: We wanted the whole record to be cohesive, so we didn’t use any covers that I didn’t feel like I could sing honestly. The same was true for the originals; there were several that we didn’t include because we didn’t feel like they were in the same vein as he rest of the album.
SP: You have beer koozies in your online store (which is awesome). What’s the strangest idea for merch you’ve ever had?
Sarah: Porn videos. Our guitar player, Lyle Brewer, thought that they would probably sell really well, but I vetoed that one.
SP: You also have a DVD coming out soon. Where was that recorded? How was putting it together different from getting a CD ready for release?
Sarah: The DVD was recorded in Benton Harbor, MI at a place we love to play at called the Livery. It was certainly different than putting out a CD in that we have no expertise with the whole process of making something visual like that. It was sort of liberating, because when you’re making an album you cringe at every bad note, knowing you could do better. With a video/DVD, everyone feels a little funny watching themselves on camera, so you just leave the editing choices up to the good folks who do that stuff everyday.
Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles perform tonight at Cowboy Monkey with opening act Kayla Brown. The show starts at 9 p.m. and carries a $5 cover at the door.