Biography

Homeland was the outlet for the solo material of Nicke Borg, frontman of Swedish sleaze rockers Backyard Babies. After the Babies went on indefinite hiatus in 2009, Borg, who had lived the rock & roll lifestyle to the full for 20 years, decided to clean up his act. The example of Social Distortion's Mike Ness, who quit drugs and went on to record a solo album which paid homage to his country music influences, inspired Borg to do the same. Released in 2010, the resultant EP, Chapter 1, was a primarily acoustic effort heavily inspired by the likes of Johnny Cash and Steve Earle, and opened Borg up to a whole new audience. At the same time he launched a parallel career as a pop songwriter, and the exposure when his track "Leaving Home" reached the 2011 finals of TV song contest Melodifestivalen, and became a massive hit, led to his collaboration with a number of other writers for his first full-length album, Chapter 2, in 2011. On it, he continued to explore the acoustic sound, with detours into related styles such as country rock and cowpunk. After two years of touring and writing, Borg returned in 2013 with the single "Making Out with Chaos," an ultra-catchy, melodic hard rock number that had something of the feel of the old Backyard Babies material. The second full-length Homeland album Ruins of a Riot, which continued in much the same vein, followed later that year. ~ John D. Buchanan, Rovi