BØRNS delivers his dreamy harmonies at Union Transfer

Last year, singer-songwriter and magician Garrett Borns left New York City for Los Angeles, where he dropped the legerdemain act and his first name, becoming simply BØRNS.

As if inspired by the shorter moniker, he immediately wrote an anthemic hit single, "1Ø,000 Emerald Pools" and got the coolness seal of approval, as it seems everyone must, from Taylor Swift. He'd soon create a debut album, Dopamine, that rivals the best of latter-day Beach Boys. That release brings him Wednesday to Union Transfer.

What about that tree house he once famously lived in when he first got to L.A.? "I am no longer living in this fantastical tree schloss," he says, "as it is now being used as a sacred fruit garden and rare butterfly oasis."

BØRNS calls "1Ø,000 Emerald Pools" and its follow-up, "Electric Love," the "genesis of a new sound I was tapping into when I first moved to California. I wrote it with a feeling of passion towards someone special, so I'm glad the message is permeating into different amalgamations of love."

Wafting, weary love songs - which seem to be his musical sweet spot, melodically, vocally, and lyrically - fill Dopamine with a buoyant weightlessness.

"I find myself drifting off in a sea of it," he says. "This introspective lovelorn reverie, I don't know, I just put it in songs to make sense of it." Some of Dopamine "came from musings I've been cataloging while touring. Lots of it was sonically crafted in the studio between [producer and sometime cowriter] Tommy English and me, and caffeinated beverages. Lyrically, words are constantly playing poetic Tetris in my head."

Starting with an EP titled Candy, BØRNS sought to explore dreamy production and "get more intimate with the songs I was writing. 'The Emotion' was the first song that came from that intimacy. Plus, I had to squeeze in time between touring to be in the studio and finish this album. I was forced to write more instinctually. Not much time for second-guessing, so I had to trust my initial thoughts." The handsome, lustrous Beach Boys harmonies in the cranked-up "Electric Love"? A "romantic notion," he says, of how many touching human voices could fill the track. BØRNS comes up with higher-pitched harmonies in "Holy Ghost," inspired by a Juno 6 keyboard and the "feeling of wanting to write for Frankie Valli."

That was the sound that, back in January, merited an Instagram fist-bump from Swift, who posted a screen shot with a caption that read, "So 'Electric Love' by Børns sounds like an instant classic to me..... #justsayingggg @garrettborns." That post has gotten 572,000 likes. BØRNS calls her thumbs-up "truly a big surprise." No word on whether he and she will share a stage anytime soon. Instead, BØRNS is busy with Dopamine, album and organic chemical alike, "that lusty brain chemical that inspired all of the songs" and the misty magic of its harmony-filled sound.

BØRNS plays at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at Union Transfer, 1026 Spring Garden St. Tickets: $20-$22. Information: 215-232-2100, www.utphilly.com.