Meet Gabriel Borda | Singer Songwriter / The Sound Lizards

We had the good fortune of connecting with Gabriel Borda and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gabriel, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
The truth is that we’ve been doing music for many years and in one of my previous projects things took off pretty quick to the point that I lost control of life. Kind of burnt me out. After a few years of staying away from doing anything formal artistically, I found a way to get my priorities straight. As I’ve gotten older I realized that I could be artistically creative and still have a functioning life. I learned to make family, friends, faith and thinking of others first the priority. Those are truly the most important things in life. They form who we are and without those core things, it’s really very hard to be creative. Being creative is not about chasing fame or what one can gain from it…it’s about expressing oneself and giving joy to others.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’ve been involved in music since I was very young. In my late teens I moved to Texas and was forced to do music without the support of my friends or band mates. This was good because I started writing my own songs. A love hate relationship that I’ve had my whole life. When I write, I’ll write 4 or 5 songs at a time. Sometimes I’ll write two or three at the same time…switching between songs in the same session…it’s truly a euphoric feeling. But when I go dry, I can’t put two words together. So I go thru this emotional rollercoaster. One thing for sure is that when the songs come out, they come from deep within. Usually based on my own experiences or that of close people around me. Writing is a way to get all those things out. With The Sound Lizards I get to write songs that I feel are earthy and very organic. I get to work with my musical partner Sebastian which is an incredible young musician. He’s also my son and best friend. We connect very well musically and he really adds the missing touch to my songs. Another nice thing about The Sound Lizards is the other great musicians we get to work with when we do live shows. Our good friend John Calverley plays drums with us on a regular basis and he’s a true pleasure to work with because he’s also a singer songwriter and understands our music very well. Tom Cianflone is our current lead guitarist and on occasions Joe Diaz joins us on percussion. We are truly 100% indie band. Although we’ve had interest from management and record companies we prefer to have our freedom. We book our own shows, we self manage, self finance and self promote. It’s a little more work but It allows us to keep freedom and our priorities straight. This is a major lesson that I learned from the many years being around the music business. When you let other people handle your business, you start losing control of your life real quick and that can lead to losing other more important things in life. So we keep everything real close to us.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Being in Florida, the first place to take my friend would be the beach. Florida has a lot of great beaches and each one has its own perks. There are many places to visit in Miami but if I had to pick one place I would say Wynwood. Just driving around and checking out the art is a perk but a great place to hang out is Gramps. They have a pretty good rotation of interesting bands that go thru there, so that would be one of the places to hang out. For pizza we would go to Primanti Brothers in Oakland Park. For coffee, Brew Next Door Lounge. To clear the mind, Family Farms in Davie. For seafood, Southport Raw Bar. Then a long drive up the coast hitting some of the different hidden bars a long the way. That alone could be a week long trip.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Without a doubt, any success that I’ve ever had is thanks to my beautiful wife Aida. She’s always been the one that supported me and given me the push when things were not so great. When we met my priorities were just all over the place, but she patiently stuck with me and taught me where true love and happiness comes from.

Website: https://thesoundlizards.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesoundlizards

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lizards_sound

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesoundlizards/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgnGCTlL_X5XIWI5k7pI8dw?view_as=subscriber