Songfacts®:

• Sam Fender's parents broke up when he was 8, and his mother moved up to the Scottish borders. After his father kicked him out of their North Shields home, he moved back in with his mum. Fender based this song around his time growing up in Scotland.
• The story Fender recounts of him and a friend growing up together is semi-autobiographical. He described it as, "memories inferred but not directly addressed."
• In verse one, we learn that Fender's friend had a tough upbringing, which turned him into an angry bully. His father walked out on the family when he was a baby, and he resented the fact that Fender still had a relationship with his dad.
  
  Fender admits in verse two that he had issues too, but his friend's godmother helped calm him down.
  
  The two friends went their separate ways after Fender moved back to northeast England to live with his father. In verse three, Fender remembers hearing how his friend's violent tendencies got him into trouble.
  
  Heard you glassed a boy back in the borders
  Some naughty family boys are after you
• Fender wrote the song after winning the Critics' Choice Award at the 2019 Brit Awards. He told Virgin Radio that things were rough at home, which "triggered a lot of memories."
• Fender recorded the song for his debut album, Hypersonic Missiles. He laid it down in his studio, which he and his producer Bramwell Bronte built in a warehouse.
• That's Fender's fellow Geordie, Johnny "Blue Hat" Davis, playing the saxophone.
• Before writing "The Borders," Fender wrote message songs about celebrity culture ("Poundshop Kardashians"), Geordie masculinity ("Dead Boys") or with political statements ("Play God"). This was different - a song penned about his childhood.
  
  Speaking to Elton John on Apple Music, Fender said it was the catalyst for his 2021 Seventeen Going Under album, which is centered on his growing up and coming of age. "It kind of opened up the door, it opened up Pandora's Box of all of these memories and things that I could delve into and write about," the North Shields singer-songwriter said. "And it's one of my favorite songs on the first album."
• Thomas James' video tells the story of a toxic friendship between two boys. It stars young actors Ryan Nolan and Alex Drape.