{"id":86770,"date":"2025-10-18T18:19:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T18:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/86770\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T18:19:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T18:19:07","slug":"kiwi-music-star-and-pluto-frontman-milan-borich-opens-up-on-heroin-addiction-a-near-fatal-waterfall-plunge-and-redemption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/86770\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiwi music star and Pluto frontman Milan Borich opens up on heroin addiction, a near-fatal waterfall plunge, and redemption"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019m flabbergasted I\u2019m still here,\u201d says Borich, who became one of New Zealand\u2019s most acclaimed musicians as frontman for the band Pluto.<\/p>\n

\"MilanMilan Borich: ‘I was a silly daredevil. I had this fascination with doing stuff that was super dangerous.’ Photo \/ Jason Oxenham <\/p>\n

Milan Borich sips on peppermint tea today, laughing at the irony of his choice of tipple. This rock musician barely drinks booze these days \u2013 perhaps two or three times a year on special occasions, such as around the Christmas barbecue.<\/p>\n

He is nervous about opening up on topics that \u2013 if not permanent scars \u2013 are certainly shadows. He is not seeking sympathy; he has been on a path of redemption for some time \u2013 guided primarily by family, rekindled relationships with his Pluto band members, and the power of jiu-jitsu martial arts.<\/p>\n

At 48, he has already had an eventful life. Some of these events have arrived through sheer talent, some through questionable choices, and some have been brought on by bullies.<\/p>\n

\"MusicianMusician Milan Borich on childhood bullying: ‘It was almost like an awakening of sorts.’ Photo \/ Anna Heath<\/p>\n

There were his early school days at a Catholic primary school in Auckland, where the teachers still carried leather straps, even after corporal punishment had been banned in New Zealand. <\/p>\n

One particularly sadistic teacher would stand on a desk, jumping with momentum as she belted the kids. Another took a run-up in a hallway.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kept on just happening,\u201d says Borich.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt 7, I played catch and kiss and got strapped again, but it was in front of a girl, and I didn\u2019t want to cry. So he kept on strapping me, until I cried.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also became the target of bullies from a nearby school. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d have to walk past this mufti school in my uniform, and just get bullied and bullied. One day, I just threw down my bag and said \u2018Right, let\u2019s go\u2019 and I was beaten shitless.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 12, he scored a prestigious lead role in The Champion, a TVNZ series based on Maurice Gee\u2019s book. About 400 kids had auditioned for the role of Rex. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe had an intuitive understanding \u2013 he was simply the best and right person for the role,\u201d producer Ginette McDonald said of her acting prodigy at the time.<\/p>\n

\"KeyKey cast members from the 1989 TV series The Champion (left to right): Scott Harman (as Leo), Michael James (as Prvate Jackson Coop), Milan Borich (as Rex), and Louise Perry (as Dawn).
\nPhoto \/ TVNZ<\/p>\n

It was an experience that Borich firmly loved on set \u2013 \u201ca beautiful experience\u201d \u2013 and it helped keep him firmly on a path of artistic creativity. <\/p>\n

He learned musical instruments such as the piano accordion and tamburica from the age of 4, before developing his singing voice with his mother Berta.<\/p>\n

But the TV role also delivered a lot of grief. Many of his friends ostracised him, and he was bullied again at his first secondary school, Rosehill College. He fell into trouble and started wagging. On the recommendation of teachers, his parents moved him to St Peter\u2019s in Auckland.<\/p>\n

His first day there came soon after that Coromandel waterfall accident \u2013 a tree branch had pierced his leg in the fall; he was on crutches and wearing a brace.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in a line waiting for my first class. This kid just came out of the line, walked up to me, and says, \u2018You are that f***ing dick off television\u2019. And I said, \u2018Yeah, that\u2019s me\u2019. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis guy loaded up and smashed me in the face. I\u2019m like, \u2018Welcome to St Peter\u2019s\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

Eventually, he became close friends with a member of the First XV, a guardian angel with muscles.<\/p>\n

\"MilanMilan Borich on music: ‘It just made me feel like I was part of something else that wasn\u2019t in the world.’ Photo \/ Jason Oxenham <\/p>\n

Borich reflects on the childhood violence and bullying today.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if it hindered me. It made me mistrusting of relationships and what people actually wanted from me.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also made me a bit more resilient in the fact that I didn\u2019t really mind anymore what people thought of me. I could be free or unshackled and wear what I wanted to wear and to say what I wanted to say and grow my hair, whichever way I wanted to grow it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was almost like an awakening of sorts.\u201d<\/p>\n

A battle with heroin<\/p>\n

Borich\u2019s waterfall accident at 14 reflected a wider, carefree approach to life when he was younger. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was a silly daredevil. I had this fascination with doing stuff that was super dangerous. I always had a weird fascination with taking risks and doing pretty silly things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heroin came into Borich\u2019s life after he travelled overseas in his late teens, to Croatia and London.<\/p>\n

\u201cI discovered it in Zagreb. We were hanging out with friends of my brother, and they were all into it. I was fascinated with the whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says all of his artistic heroes \u2013 icons such as writer William S Burroughs and singer-songwriter Layne Staley \u2013 were into the drug at the time. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just thought it was the thing to look for.\u201d<\/p>\n

He describes his relationship with heroin as \u201ctangled\u201d.<\/p>\n

Things got bad quickly in London; he became dependent. \u201cIt spiralled, and spiralled and spiralled.\u201d<\/p>\n

His first marriage was built on a toxic mess of drugs, and it eventually collapsed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t fully understand why I was so drawn to it at first,\u201d he says of heroin. <\/p>\n

\u201cLooking back, I think it came from a deep need to shut everything out. The first time … it felt like a warm blanket had been pulled over me \u2013 no more cold, no more fear and no more noise. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll the thoughts and anxiety in my head stopped. I thought \u2018wow, this is exactly what I need\u2019, but I had no idea I was opening Pandora\u2019s box.<\/p>\n

\u201cSlowly but surely, it started consuming me and pulling me away from the people I loved and who loved me. I was fading, getting emptier by the day. <\/p>\n

\u201cI could see the fear in my parents\u2019 eyes as they watched it happen like a slow-motion car crash. That\u2019s when I realised I had to stop. And I did \u2013 on my own terms, with the support of my loving parents.\u201d<\/p>\n

His mother came to London for his 21st and could see the massive toll the drug was taking on his life. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey tried to have an intervention, but it didn\u2019t quite work \u2013 it needed to come from me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says he saw an opportunity to leave London and his marriage when his grandmother turned 90. <\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to go back home for my Baba [grandmother] … I saw an escape route. I left for New Zealand and went cold turkey.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lure of music<\/p>\n

Music, says Borich, has always been pivotal in his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fascinating. I just loved it. It just made me feel like I was part of something else that wasn\u2019t in the world \u2013 it was an ethereal, spiritual thing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Pluto,Pluto, from left: Michael Franklin-Browne, Tim Arnold, Milan Borich, Mike Hall and Matthias Jordan. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

The genesis of Pluto came in London in the 1990s, when Borich wrote music with long-time friend Tim Arnold. They had collaborated with others previously. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe always had something \u2013 we knew we had something really good when we just put our two heads together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pluto \u2013 Borich and Arnold came together with Matthias Jordan, Mike Hall and Michael Franklin-Browne \u2013 released their first album in 2001. They played their first concert when they opened for Neil Finn. <\/p>\n

Their third album, Pipeline Under the Ocean, arrived in 2005 and sent Pluto into the stratosphere \u2013 the band will reunite next month for a one-off, 20-year anniversary concert based on the double platinum album. <\/p>\n

A single from that album, Long White Cross, won single of the year at the 2006 NZ Music Awards.<\/p>\n

Music writer Tim Gruar once wrote: \u201cCast your mind back to 2001 … when Pluto burst onto the music scene with their masterful brand of multi-layered rock that mixed and mingled indie, moody pop, hook-laden sing-alongs, angular, full-energy, anthemic rock and even lounge. Borich delights in being impossible to nail down when it comes to being pigeonholed into a genre\u201d.<\/p>\n

Today, Borich laughs as he tells me: \u201cI always call it psyphor-delic rock. That\u2019s the term I came up with. Not psychedelic, but psyphor-delic. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s otherworldly. Also, I think the fact that we weren\u2019t able to be pigeonholed could have been a detriment because people couldn\u2019t put you into a space. We were so eclectic that I think it may not have served us well. I don\u2019t know \u2013 maybe I\u2019m wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the height of Pluto\u2019s peak and Borich\u2019s fame, he relapsed into drugs when touring Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy character changed, my demeanour changed, and I just became obsessed with other things. Relationships started to waver.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to methadone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI swore that I was never going to come off methadone, because not many people do. I felt like it was fine to be like that. I didn\u2019t realise that it absolutely was not fine to be like that. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy voice changed, my moods changed. My relationships with most of the band got quite sour because of my mood swings.\u201d<\/p>\n

By 2011, Pluto had broken up, a \u201cdark point for me \u2013 we ended badly\u201d, says Borich. <\/p>\n

Borich\u2019s attempts to start life over in Los Angeles ended quickly when his second marriage collapsed. A possible contract with a music label came to nothing after he missed a critical meeting; devastated, he ended up becoming a bouncer at a prestigious hipster club on Hollywood Boulevard, dealing with patrons such as Lindsay Lohan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was alone in LA and LA can be tough at the best of times. This was the worst of times \u2013 it was pretty difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d have all these different kinds of calls; HGAA meant hot girl affirmative action, or hipster affirmative action \u2013 because there\u2019s not enough hot girls or not enough hipsters in the bar. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d have to walk down the line [to find them]. It just dehumanised me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it took five or six years, after returning from the stint in Los Angeles, to mend relationships with his former bandmates.<\/p>\n

The power of jiu-jitsu<\/p>\n

\"AtAt 48, Milan Borich has already led an eventful life. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Borich is a black belt in the martial arts discipline of jiu-jitsu. He credits the sport with helping turn his life around over the past 10-12 years, with constant training, \u201cpretty much every day\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s pressure testing and problem-solving under pressure. <\/p>\n

\u201cI find it fascinating. I like chess as a game. I find jiu-jitsu to be like human chess. There\u2019s always a conversation that goes on between two people when you start sparring. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike other martial arts like karate or taekwondo … they spar a little bit, but they don\u2019t spar hard. There\u2019s no real pressure testing. With jiu-jitsu, you really do test the functionality and the ability of these techniques to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says Japanese and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, like music, has set him on the right path.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was not feeling that fabulous about my own life and when I was in a dark place, I found a local Japanese jiu-jitsu club in West Auckland. <\/p>\n

\u201cI started training there and I just became fascinated with it. All my other issues and problems just vanished. It\u2019s almost like it\u2019s a meditation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Love wins<\/p>\n

\"MilanMilan Borich is married to Sarah Kapeli. They have a young daughter. <\/p>\n

Today, Borich is married to Sarah Kapeli; they have a young daughter together. Milan also has a teenage daughter from his second marriage, to actor Kate Elliott.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had only been back from New York a few months when we met at a friend\u2019s Christmas party … we\u2019ve been inseparable ever since,\u201d Kapeli told the Herald in 2019.<\/p>\n

Borich told the Herald at the time: \u201cSarah is a huge inspiration, our meeting came out of the blue. My dad passed away in November last year after a long illness, so finding love was the last thing on my mind. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd with our newfound love, I managed to pen the entire lyrics to Alight, one of my favourite tracks on the upcoming album. There will be many more songs surfacing from this deep love I feel for Sarah.\u201d<\/p>\n

That same year, Pluto came back together to release its fourth album. Relationships with the band in the past six years have been \u201cfabulous\u201d, says Borich. <\/p>\n

Pluto is reuniting again for the concert at Double Whammy in Auckland on November 8. Tickets are on sale now.<\/p>\n

I ask Borich if we might see more of Pluto together. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment, it\u2019s quite difficult because everyone has their own life and their own admin and lots of family. Just trying to get them all together is quite a task, but we do plan to release more music and play more. It\u2019s just the logistics of getting it all together and making it ticketey-boo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahead of this interview with the Herald, Borich says he\u2019s been reflecting on memories of a life already chock-full of events.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome I still forget, and then they come back to me. I\u2019m flabbergasted that I\u2019m still here. Maybe my Baba\u2019s looking out for me. I\u2019ve been remarkably lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u25cf Pluto is reuniting again for a concert at Double Whammy in Auckland on November 8. Tickets are on sale now at undertheradar.co.nz<\/p>\n

Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand\u2019s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor. As well as a weekly media column, he has a regular interview series featuring noteworthy and leading New Zealanders including Wayne Brown<\/a>, Ruby Tui<\/a>, Paddy Gower<\/a>, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa<\/a>, Scotty Stevenson<\/a>, Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick<\/a>, Simon Power<\/a>, Josh and Helen Emett<\/a>, Sir Ian Taylor<\/a>, David Kirk<\/a>, Sir Ashley Bloomfield<\/a>, Paul Henry<\/a>, Simon Barnett<\/a>, Sophie Moloney<\/a>, Brian and Hannah Tamaki<\/a>, Sir Grahame Sydney<\/a>, David Lomas<\/a>, Carrie Hurihanganui<\/a>, Sir Russell Coutts<\/a>, Steven O\u2019Meagher<\/a>, Juliet Peterson<\/a>, Sir Brendan Lindsay<\/a>, Tony Astle<\/a>, and Anna Mowbray<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019m flabbergasted I\u2019m still here,\u201d says Borich, who became one of New Zealand\u2019s most acclaimed musicians as frontman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1443,37111,579,95,65793,65797,156,71,65792,65794,194,424,2882,14430,157,65041,65795,111,139,69,90,2680,54323,14255,52591,34693,65796,20441,2737,35636,810,48941],"class_list":["post-86770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-about","tag-acclaimed","tag-addiction","tag-and","tag-borich","tag-currie","tag-entertainment","tag-from","tag-frontman","tag-heroin","tag-kiwi","tag-life","tag-love","tag-milan","tag-music","tag-musician","tag-nearfatal","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-opens","tag-plunge","tag-pluto","tag-redemption","tag-reunion","tag-shayne","tag-sometimes","tag-star","tag-turbulent","tag-up","tag-waterfall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}