Twenty years after Razorlight, Johnny Borrell joins Jai That Aussie Metal Guy to talk about the album that seemed determined to exist, rebuilding his creative relationship with Andy Burrows, returning to Australia and the raw live moment captured in “Wire to Wire.”
Anniversary conversations can easily become exercises in nostalgia, but my chat with Razorlight vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Johnny Borrell never stayed there for long.
Twenty years have passed since the band released their five times Platinum self titled album Razorlight, carrying songs including “In the Morning,” “Before I Fall to Pieces,” “I Can’t Stop This Feeling I’ve Got” and the UK number one “America.” Johnny, Björn Ågren, Carl Dalemo and Andy Burrows are now together again as the classic lineup, playing more than 100 shows a year, creating new music and preparing to return to Australia for the first time since 2009.
What emerged from our conversation was not simply a celebration of the songs that made Razorlight one of the defining British guitar bands of their era. It was a story about discovering songwriting almost by accident, surviving the rush that followed, rebuilding trust after years apart and learning why a real working band still matters.
The First Song Arrived Before Johnny Knew He Could Write One
I always love beginning an interview with somebody’s earliest core musical memory, and Johnny took us back to a childhood spent absorbing music long before he considered himself capable of making it.
He had grown up listening to hip hop, but hearing “Stairway to Heaven” coming from his brother’s room opened another door. With no streaming services or immediate way to find the song again, he waited, saved his money and eventually bought Led Zeppelin IV on cassette.
Hearing Joni Mitchell brought another revelation. Her songs sounded like pages from a diary, leaving a young Johnny amazed by the idea that somebody could turn their own life into music. The real lightning bolt arrived after he was grounded and picked up his brother’s guitar out of boredom.
The first song in the instructional book was “Scarborough Fair,” but its lyrics meant nothing to him. Instead, Johnny took the opening chords and began singing words he had written a week earlier.
“I stopped and I was like, ‘Oh, shit. I think I’ve actually written a song.’ I did it without even realising I was doing it, otherwise I would have been too scared to ever do it.”
That accidental beginning gave him what he described as a chance to communicate with the world. From that point forward, he wanted to take his guitar anywhere and play to anyone willing to listen, even before he properly knew how to play it.
Lost Kids, London and the Return of the Guitar Band
Razorlight emerged from an early 2000s London scene filled with young creative people searching for somewhere to belong. Johnny remembered himself and his friends as kids lost in the city, living in squats, making acoustic music and questioning whether forming a traditional guitar band had already become a worn out idea.
Britpop had left a hangover across British music, but bands arriving from elsewhere began changing the atmosphere. Hearing The White Stripes from Detroit and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs from New York helped strip away some of that overthinking. Electric guitars came back out, drummers were found and a new collection of bands began taking shape.
That urgency poured into Razorlight’s 2004 debut, Up All Night. Johnny readily admits he maintained intense control over the record, driven by the belief that this was his one opportunity to get everything right.
The next chapter changed when Andy Burrows joined the band following the departure of founding drummer Shïan Smith-Pancorvo. Johnny found himself inspired by Andy as a musician and began moving away from the sound and expectations attached to the first album.
Where Up All Night drew from Pixies, Buzzcocks and Television, Johnny described the second record as looking towards Blondie, Pretenders and The Police. He was determined to avoid the predictable darker and grittier second album that listeners and the British music press might have expected.
“That album just wanted to exist,” Johnny explains. “I was writing songs with Andy and that album just wanted to exist. I kind of said, ‘Okay, yeah, fine. I’m going to follow you.’”
Working with legendary producer Chris Thomas helped Razorlight enter a broader musical space while still retaining the identity that had carried the debut.
When Razorlight Sounded Like Its Own Greatest Hits Collection
Johnny was obsessive about album sequencing, but he struggled to determine the right running order for Razorlight. His eventual solution was to hand the songs to a classical musician with no real relationship to rock music and ask him to assemble the album in an order that made sense.
Johnny then took the finished sequence to his girlfriend’s basement flat and listened to the complete album.
“When I first heard it back like that, it was like, ‘Shit.’ It felt like a greatest hits because it just felt like every song had this quality of writing to it.”
Two decades later, Johnny hears the record from a different perspective. It remains one of the few albums where he feels he truly collaborated with a producer, allowing him to recognise what Thomas had been trying to achieve and the places where their competing ideas created compromises.
There is also genuine disbelief when Johnny and Andy look back at what they managed to create at such a young age. Johnny jokes that he could not drive, repair a leaking tap, keep food off his face or always remember to do up his trousers, yet somehow he and Andy could write enormous songs.
Behind the humour sits an honest sense of wonder. They were still figuring out how to function as adults while creating music that would remain part of people’s lives twenty years later.
Rebuilding Trust and Becoming a Working Band Again
The emotional centre of our conversation arrived when Johnny spoke about reconnecting with Andy. Their creative relationship had helped shape some of Razorlight’s biggest songs, but the years that followed eventually left them with no trust between them.
“Redeveloping a level of trust between us is probably the most surprising thing that’s ever happened in my life,” Johnny says. “We really went to a place where we had absolutely zero trust.”
The reunion is not simply about standing together and replaying the past. Johnny and Andy are writing again, while Razorlight have returned to life as a genuine touring band.
For Johnny, the fact that they are playing more than 100 shows a year matters enormously. Razorlight perform without backing tracks or a click track, leaving the four musicians responsible for everything happening onstage. He sees the same principle carrying into the studio, where Andy’s drums are played rather than digitally assembled into something that only resembles a performance.
The repetition of touring is making the band tighter, more instinctive and increasingly capable of turning new ideas into fully realised songs.
“A band has to be, there’s no half measures. You have to be doing it all the way or you’re not doing it at all,” Johnny says.
That renewed trust and growing live chemistry have left him convinced that the reunion’s most important creative results may still be ahead of them.
“I definitely feel like the best stuff is yet to come out of our reconnecting.”
The Unrepeatable Moment Inside “Wire to Wire”
I had to give “Wire to Wire” an honourable mention during our conversation. It is a song that connected with me when it was released and has stayed with me through different moments of my own life.
Johnny explained that Slipway Fires came from a strange period when he no longer wanted to be making music and felt increasingly separated from the commercial demands surrounding the band. “Wire to Wire,” however, seemed to emerge independently of everything happening around it.
After playing the song to American singer Alela Diane, whose reaction gave him confidence in what he had written, Johnny entered the studio, sat at the piano and sang while Andy played alongside him.
The recording captures that performance. It was not constructed from polished individual pieces, and the vocal can still be heard bleeding into the drum microphones.
“That was just that moment,” Johnny says.
Even Johnny was uncertain whether it was a finished song until the record label heard it and immediately declared it a single. It went on to become an enormous hit in Germany and developed a lasting connection with listeners around the world.
Johnny still sees that connection happening. Certain people hear “Wire to Wire” and recognise something in it that reaches beyond its chart history. The song has now returned to the Razorlight set, although performing it requires Johnny to step into a very different emotional space from the rest of the show.
For me, that rawness explains why the song has endured. It does not sound like four musicians trying to recreate an emotion. It sounds like the emotion happened in the room and the recording equipment happened to be running.
Razorlight Return Down Under After Seventeen Years
Razorlight last toured Australia in 2009, closing out a very different period in the band’s history. Johnny could hardly believe seventeen years had passed, recalling a short stretch when the band visited regularly before Australia disappeared from their touring route.
Now, with the classic lineup active, the songs carrying another generation of memories and the band finding its strength through constant touring, the timing feels right.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to be getting back around the world,” Johnny says. “Coming out to Australia, that’ll be an amazing thing.”
Before joining James in Australia, Razorlight will perform their first New Zealand headline shows at Auckland’s Powerstation and Wellington’s Meow Nui. The New Zealand performances will feature Razorlight in full alongside other fan favourites.
The Australian shows will place Razorlight alongside James for a run that brings together two distinctive generations of British alternative music. For audiences who have waited since 2009, it is a long overdue opportunity to hear “Golden Touch,” “In the Morning,” “America,” “Before I Fall to Pieces,” “Wire to Wire” and more from a band that Johnny believes is still becoming better.
Watch the complete conversation above as Johnny Borrell takes us through his earliest musical discoveries, the London scene that produced Razorlight, the making of Up All Night and Razorlight, rebuilding his relationship with Andy Burrows, returning to Australia and the live recording that gave “Wire to Wire” its enduring pulse.
Razorlight New Zealand Headline Shows
Saturday 3 October 2026
Powerstation, Auckland
Sunday 4 October 2026
Meow Nui, Wellington
James Australian Tour With Special Guests Razorlight
Thursday 8 October 2026
Red Hill Auditorium, Perth
Saturday 10 October 2026
Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
Sunday 11 October 2026
Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne
Tuesday 13 October 2026
Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane
Tickets and complete tour information: Destroy All Lines
