Burning Lake’s Peter Bordui Talks About the Band’s Upcoming EP Below The Surface
In their latest release, Swiss folk‑rock quartet Burning Lake invites listeners into the tender world of “Beautiful Lie,” a song that captures the bittersweet feelings between longing and unrequited love. The track blends warm acoustic textures with subtle layers of electric guitar, bass, keys, and percussion, enhanced by the ethereal harmonies of Irish duo The Woodgies. “Beautiful Lie” is the fourth single from the band’s upcoming EP, Below The Surface.
The song, like the rest of the EP, took shape during a series of live recording sessions at Kitchen Studio in Geneva, where the band laid down the core tracks. Additional vocal and guitar elements were later added in the musicians’ home studios, before the project was handed off to producer Tom Maeder in Basel for its final polish.
Burning Lake borrowed its name from the droll Swiss adage — “Il n’y a pas le feu au Lac,” or “The lake isn’t on fire.” Now, as Below The Surface rolls out one song at a time, the band continues to mark its place in modern folk‑rock.
Today, Burning Lake’s Peter Bordui joins us to talk about the journey, the music, and what lies beneath the surface of their newest work.
Americana Highways: What inspired your new single/music video, “Beautiful Lie?”
PB: I suppose most of us have experienced unrequited love at some point in our lives, and those associated emotions remain fairly vivid. Regarding the music itself, I remember coming up with the melody and hooks several years ago while recovering in a hospital bed from some emergency surgery. I wasn’t happy with the bridge, though, and only realized sometime later, upon awakening one morning, that it needed to be done in five-four time to properly capture the feeling of frustration.
AH: “Beautiful Lie” is from your upcoming EP, Below The Surface. What can you share about the EP?
PB: There are six songs in total, and we’ve been releasing them one single at a time, “Beautiful Lie” being the fourth. I think the songs vary fairly widely, in terms of both lyrical theme and musical groove. I’m hopeful that listening to the whole collection front-to-back will make for a fun little journey.
AH: Is there one song on the EP that means more to you than the others? If so, why?
PB: While they all feel special to me for one reason or another, I think probably the next one we’ll be releasing, called “Horse Without A Rider,” is notable. I was sitting in front of my computer one evening with my guitar on my lap when I received an e-mail informing me that a close friend of mine had just died unexpectedly. Among his many skills, he was a horseman, and I was struck by the sad realization that his horse had just lost his rider. I sat there banging away on the guitar and worked out what ended up being the majority of the song before getting up from my chair.
AH: How did you get started in music?
PB: I played in bands during high school, university, and then grad school. We weren’t necessarily very accomplished, but we enjoyed enthusiastic audiences and had lots of memorable adventures.
AH: How did Burning Lake get together?
PB: We first got together back before the pandemic, essentially to work up and record the songs for what became our album Coming Into Shore. Although the songs had already been written and the initial rhythm-track recordings went quickly, various overdubs and the mixing process dragged out across the pandemic, literally for several years. There was no particular urgency to get anything finished, and there’s a relevant French-language phrase in this part of Switzerland – “The Lake is not on fire” – that described the situation. When we finally got the album completed and needed to come up with a name for the band, “Burning Lake” seemed like an appropriately ironic choice.
AH: Who is in the band and which instruments does everybody play?
PB: Pierangelo Crescenzio plays bass, Marcol Savoy plays drums and percussion, Mathieu Karcher plays electric guitar, and I play acoustic guitar. My bandmates are all better players than I am, but they’re patient and supportive. And we’ve been really lucky to have Hannah and Meghan Woodger (“The Woodgies”) adding backing vocals on the EP tracks. I should also mention Tom Maeder, who’s been a brilliant collaborator, leading all the mixing and mastering of our recorded work.
AH: Which singers/musicians influenced your sound?
PB: I’ve fed some of our recent releases into an AI analysis program looking to identify comparable artists, and for some reason, it keeps coming up with Ralph McTell and Paul Simon as leading candidates. I’m not sure what to make of that. My own personal listening covers a wide range, including folk, rock, reggae, jazz, and classical music. I tend to favor music where you get a sense of someone actually playing in real-time; synthesized electronic music rarely gets my attention. My bandmates are all accomplished jazz musicians, so occasional odd time signatures or meter changes are welcomed and go smoothly.
AH: What can you share about your creative process?
PB: Most of the songs I write start out while I’m doing something quietly mindless like driving a car, riding a bike, sitting on an airplane, or lying in bed. I confirm the main idea once I get to a guitar. Filling in the rest of it is a more structured and often protracted effort. For the songs we’ve recorded as Burning Lake, the fastest composition took 20 minutes, while the slowest took more than 20 years from start to finish.
AH: Which do you enjoy the most: writing, recording, practicing, or playing live?
PB: I like all of it, but I guess I get the biggest kick from witnessing a new song taking shape, all the way through from my original writing work to then working out the full group sound, and finally to the fun little surprises where Tom might tweak a mix to bring out some previously unappreciated element.
AH: What do you think is your greatest accomplishment?
PB: An interview with Americana Highways is right up there!
AH: What’s the most random fact you know?
PB: The congruent melting composition of lithium niobate is 48.38 mole percent di-lithium oxide. Fruits of an earlier career developing laser crystals!
AH: What is your definition of success?
PB: I suppose it’s figuring out what you’re meant to be doing and then being able to do it.
AH: What three things can’t you live without?
PB: In terms of material possessions, probably a guitar, a bicycle, and a laptop computer. I’ve learned to have at least two of each in order to cover breakdowns!
AH: What’s next for Burning Lake?
PB: In general, just making more music and connecting it with more people who enjoy it. Specifically, I’m hopeful we’ll be back in the studio before year-end, recording new material. I’d also like to do more live shows. In the last few years, I’ve spent summers in the US, which has limited our ability to schedule things, but I’m hopeful we’ll make progress sorting that out.
Thanks very much for chatting with us, Peter Bordui. More information about Burning Lake may be found here.