Hello my friends and happy Tuesday to you all! I know, I’m a day late with the post but it’s worth the wait because this week we meet the one & only Mr. Klawson Borges!
Klawsons’ story takes us back to the summer of 1995 when a west coast friend of his named Jesse Naval distracted him with the music of 311 while he and some other friends smoked pot. “He asked if I ever heard of them, I said no. So he gave me his Walkman and I was instantly hooked. This happen shortly before 311 dropped the blue album.” It was then his first show at the Roseland Ballroom, where No Doubt opened, that the deal was sealed for Klawson. “Seeing how much energy they put into their show made me swear to see them any chance I could.”
He kept that promise to himself and while he doesn’t keep track of the number, he believes its close to fifty at least. “I personally don’t care about how many shows I’ve been to. All I care about is the next show.” The first cruise holds a special place in his heart because it was the first 311 cruise ever and as he says, “making me the fanatic that most of you know me as today.” However, the second cruise is where he proposed to his wife Stephanie, mother of his son Kayson. “The second cruise also had great weather, the craziness of the beach show, it had white out glow out and it didn’t have the banana drama of the third cruise.” He said the second cruise didn’t have the energy of the first, but it had the better experience for him. It really in the end doesn’t matter which was the better one. “I’m just happy that I got to go on all three, soon to be all four.”
Like many 311 fans, there isn’t just one song that means the most to Klawson. Currently his jam is “Freeze Time.” “I’m always looking for balance in my life.” His favorite quote is one of mine as well, “If you don’t have someone to do it with, it’s not worth doing.”
Klawson was born in Brazil, raised in Brooklyn, N.Y. He’s lived in the neighborhood of Bay Ridge since he was four. He said being an immigrant in a neighborhood built on immigrants you would think he was easily accepted but that wasn’t the case. “It was trying at times to say the least. In my pre-teen years I was often made of fun of and called a sissy. The name calling came from the fact that when I would get teased I would tear up out of frustration and not because I couldn’t handle it, but is was taken as me being a fairy. I heard fairy a lot in my life.” What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger and Klawson believes that the majority of the hatred directed towards him was out of jealousy. “I’m not full of myself but I’m not that hard on the eyes and my mother worked her ass off to provide the best of everything. I always wore name brands and had more than most what a immigrant from Brazil should have according my Irish and Italian counterparts.”
It was right before freshman year when Klawson met Jesse and things started to change for him. He began hanging with an older crowd, one that was less judgmental and they helped him become more comfortable with himself. “The music of 311 reinforced that.” He said that listening to 311 also gave him peace with his way of thinking. With his high school years came more isolation, and as he says his refusal to conform to the mainstream way of thinking. “The mainstream way would become the lesser road traveled. This was the beginning of my stay positive attitude and the end of my needing to fit in need. The majority of my funds that feeds my 311 habit has come from tax returns, my mother’s generosity,credit cards and some savings.”
I think it’s fair to say that Klawson is pretty much an open book. “There isn’t much people don’t know about me.” However he did reveal that he was a skateboarder for over 10 years and was really good at it. He also speaks two other languages besides English, which are Portuguese and Spanish. One of his unique traits is that he’ll never forget a face! “Over my years of working in the hospitality industry I’ve developed an ability to remember faces and names associated to them.”
Some guilty pleasure time! Klawson loves watching reality television shows…everything from Survivor to Property Brothers. His guilty pleasure band he says is the Ting Tings. “Their “We Started Nothing” album was at one time on heavy rotation.” He also said that, “The Hebrew Hammer is so bad that it’s good.”
There are so many bands he loves that there are too many to list, but he did give up a few, including new recent faves Full Service and Passafire. In the past he was into RHCP, NOFX, Green Day, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Aerosmith, GNR, Tupac, and Wu Tang Clan. “I’ve never been into punk but I can appreciate it’s history and its influence on music.”
Klawson has been privileged to meet 311 on numerous occasions. Each and every time he see’s them he simply says thank you. “Thank you for so many book marks and experiences that had have given me the strength to strive for more.”
With that, his message to all of the awesome members of 311 nation is:
“Learn from your past, live in the present and plan for the future. Always remember the grass isn’t greener on the other side it’s just another shade of green. Also try to stay positive whenever possible.”
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That my friends is the man Klawson! If you haven’t met him in person, definitely do yourself a favor and make his acquaintance! He’s a good human being. I hope you all enjoyed and were entertained by his story!
Thank you all for reading over & over and getting to know your fellow fans! Until we meet again.
Much love! -The Runt