What were the beginnings of Borscht?

Ernst: It’s a Ukrainian soup and we’re a big mix of different ingredients: a bit of Welsh, a bit of Italian, German. Our first gig was in September 2024, so we’re still fairly new in London.

Your set earlier was great. I particularly enjoyed the track about a chicken anxiety dream, complete with chicken squarks. What happened there?

Ernst: I was very sick and I was in a place where there were a lot of chickens and a couple of donkeys. I had a fever, throat and neck thing, I couldn’t look at screens, and all I had for three days was my acoustic guitar, and hearing chicken noises all day long. Suddenly, you watch chickens and realise they’re quite peculiar animals.

There was a lyric about being a pigeon in a world of chickens. Were you the pigeon?

Ernst: Well, I like pigeons because they’re one of the last things that prove humans don’t rule everything, you know? They’re here to remind us; they come in and shit all over our pavements and heads. 

Blue: Maybe we could learn something from pigeons.

Your single ‘Up North’ off your debut EP ties in almost whimsical keys with something altogether darker lyrically. I wonder, how do you pull those moments of light and shade together as a band?

Ernst: This song was developed in a studio in Croydon and I thought it was going to be a completely different song to when it came out. It's actually not about up North in England, I used to live up north in Germany, and it was a very tricky time with my marriage but it's a funny song now, there is comedy. I’m also obsessed with Cate Le Bon, in a different way I’ve loved any artist. Everyone involved in that song loves Cate Le Bon, and I think that’s why it came out sounding like that.

She has such a singular way of making music. Who else would you say influences your writing?

Ernst: All my references are much older: Small Faces, Otis Redding, Bob Dylan. I like the quaint little stories.

There’s lots of storytelling in your songwriting. Is telling those stories cathartic for you?

Ernst: 100%. I’m motivated a lot by sadness and humour. 

Blue: They go hand in hand. The divine comedy of life, Comedia dell'Arte, it's all just sadness and humour.

I wanted to ask about your vocal delivery, Ernst. It’s so distinctive and I wondered whether you’ve ever thought about it, or if it’s been anything other than what you have now with Borscht?

Ernst: It wasn’t that long ago that I got into writing music. I used to play songs just to relax in the evening and I played a Lou Reed song to a friend of mine who’s a musician and he said to me: “you have a very unusual sounding voice, it’s better than a perfect sounding voice.” I probably never would have started writing songs if it wasn’t for that. We’re working with Ben Romans Hopcraft who’s with Warmduscher, and I asked if I should be taking singing lessons. They all said no, you don’t have the best voice in the world but it sounds the way it does.

How did the rest of the band come together?

Ernst: We’re all more or less friends or friends of friends with Ben Romans Hopcraft. I was doing open mic nights in London trying to find musicians to play with - I got zero interest from anyone. And then Ben put me in touch with Blue, who's been there from the very beginning and the rest followed.

How does it feel to be releasing your first body of work?

Blue: We’re excited about it.

Ernst: I’m happy because, to be honest, I don’t really understand how music promotion works nowadays - I've always listened to albums. But we waited, we played a lot of gigs and all sorts of places before releasing. 

The current music landscape of releasing singles is an interesting one but then making an EP or LP is just so expensive. Do you have any thoughts on this?

Blue: We're just fighting like tooth and nail. Ben's been very helpful with guiding us through the process, because we don't have a lot of experience of doing it. It’s definitely difficult getting started as an artist. As you say, the costs are so high and the cost does fall almost entirely on the artist. But you have to get yourself out there somehow and get people hearing your music. I’m definitely excited for the EP.

Ernst: It’s funny, I thought we were going to take off because we got added to a playlist with 1,000 saves and then to Mellow Mania with 310,000. I thought: “here we go!” but we got about 300 listens, I just don’t know how it works.

And this is the thing, you said you’re an album person, but we’re in the playlist economy, and that’s really tough.

Blue: It’s difficult, that whole ‘one song’ kind of thing. Ernst’s got music falling out of him and he’s had this awakening and artistic moment where things suddenly align, and it's difficult because it's not like the old days, where maybe you could just put everything out there, and that was the whole strategy. The one song at a time thing is a common enemy. The great thing about playing live is that you have people trapped in a room for half an hour.

And how was your first time at The Great Escape?

Ernst: We loved it.

Blue: It was our first Brighton gig, which felt like a long time coming. Hopefully, it won’t be long until the next one.

Ernst: I really, really enjoyed this. Sometimes we play at the Shacklewell Arms in front of like eight people but here was a very welcoming and receptive audience. Hopefully, the EP will bring all the labels knocking and then it’ll be the O2 next year - that’s the pipeline.

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