Cumsleg Borenail is an experimental, IDM, Noise, vaporwave artist from UK.
Also he is the founder of Borenail Records.
https://cumslegborenail.bandcamp.com/
https://borenailrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://linktr.ee/cumslegborenail
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8Lkq6hB2nbtf3G4Bbg7R3A
https://archive.org/details/@borenail_entertainment
https://whatjoyisthereinliving.bandcamp.com/
https://frishprence.bandcamp.com/
- What is the meaning and the concept behind the name of your music project?
Hey, the original name was Ploist Drencrom, but it just didn't sound right to me. Drencrom from Clockwork Orange?? I think? It lacked that punch I was looking for. I came up with Cumsleg Borenail and I think it has a better flow. I had a remix track on BBC Radio 6, they couldn’t bring themselves to say the word ‘Cumsleg’ so settled on ‘Seesleg”. Plus, Borenail; kind of reminds me of Withnail from that classic British film Withnail & I;. You know, the eccentric and alcoholic actor? It gives the name a bit of that same kind of quirky, unpredictable vibe. Most tracks I wrote jump from genre to merging with another genre.
- What equipment do you use for create music?
Gear4music Fretless bass, Eagleton electric bass, Akai MPC One, Elevation acoustics guitar, Violin, Serum vst, reaper, Tx16wx, mooer harmonic square, korg kaoscilltor, Donner electric guitar, Saxophone
Yamaha PSR-340 as midi keyboard. All of the above are sampled, chopped up, repitched into something new. The running theme of cheap hardware, the MPC an exception, runs through Cumsleg Borenail.
Cheap, British, Pay as you go, nasty.
- Tell us a little biography about your project, when you started to make music?
I began with classical piano training from the age of seven to eleven. I eventually became obsessed with the electric guitar, from exposure to Nirvana and Guns ‘n’ Roses. Even though I was raised on Godley & Creme. Then finding myself in the derivative world of metal bands for the next decade. This period,while partly fulfilling, followed a secret history of 15 years, culminating in the birth of Cumsleg Borenail around 2022. I’m nearly old.
Initially, I experimented with popular genres like Vaporwave and Ambient, but found my attempts consistently sounding nowhere near the confines of these established styles. My work, though attempting unique, struggled to find its place within these existing frameworks. I couldn’t stay ambient for more than a single track and in vaporwave hated going through 80s city pop samples.
Kept plugging away, I embraced a more balanced approach, seamlessly blending samples, analog and digital equipment, and even incorporating AI-generated sound effects. This layered approach allows me to explore uncharted sonic territories and cultivate a fairly distinctive sound. Not ambient!
- Who are your main music and artistic influences?
Throbbing Gristle (The use of imagery and sound are inspirational and I always have an album on in the mix of everything else I consume. Albums like Mission Of Dead Souls are perfect. It is something I plan to do when playing live. All original and improvised), Coil (A Throbbing Gristle offshoot never fail to reach a new level with every release, even post mortem. I do think about the look of their corpses, not sure if they were cremated), Van Der Graaf Generator (mostly their 70’s output but the reform in the 2000’s was even more complex. Recently saw them in Bath forum. My back ached in the seats.), Nine Inch Nails (Only the downward spiral and broken. The rest is just nostalgia to those albums), Psychic Tv (First two albums are superb, the acid house and beyond not so much so), Giacinto Scelsi (The structure and space of all compositions are masterpieces).
- What underground artists from the netlabel scene do you like?
So pretty much anything off Irregular Patterns ( https://irregularpatterns.bandcamp.com/ ), just started getting into Mortality Tables (https://mortalitytables.bandcamp.com/) and Third Kind records (https://thirdkindrecords.bandcamp.com/ ) and finally Adventurous Music (https://adventurousmusic.bandcamp.com/ ) who don’t have a bad release. Underground work has waymore heart. More perceived meaning and context.
- Do you have some influence from your country in your music?
The grey British skies crush my soul in a temporary body and I am fine with that until I am reborn in a future genealogical slant. An equivalent to Adonai operates a frequency that holds our body parts together. Hobbs leviathan provides me a system of worship and taxation.
- What is your favorite album/ep composed by yours? And why?
“An Occidental Felo-De-Se” due to the leaps in my confidence in vocals, production and the general “quality” of the work. Which, from my home studio, seems great to me. Granted me an assurance overall that I could produce a piece listenable to my ears if not anyone else’s. The earlier work on 60th listen seems a great task. Tiring.
Occidental : “Is an adjective that means "of, relating to, or characteristic of the Occident or its natives and inhabitants"; The Occident refers to the western part of the world, especially the countries of Europe and America. The term occidental is often used in contrast to oriental, which refers to the eastern part of the world.”
I am here, raised here, stuck here.
Felo-De-Se: “Is an obsolete legal term derived from Latin, meaning "felon of oneself"; It referred to a person who had committed suicide. Under English common law, suicide was considered a felony and was punished by forfeiture of property and an ignominious burial. The concept of felo-de-se was abolished in England and Wales in 1961 with the passage of the Suicide Act 1961. However, the term is still sometimes used colloquially to refer to suicide.”
Humorous that post mortem your punishment still stands. That’s very British.
- What are your preferred music platforms/websites? Why?
All the music platforms and streaming sites bring someone from somewhere.
- Any news for 2025?
One definite live gig and my usual album a month.
LATEST RELEASE: "Birds With Vertigo"(with Sammy J Matthews):
https://cumslegborenail.bandcamp.com/album/birds-with-vertigo