Chicago-based Red Scarves are bundling up and gearing up for a busy year ahead. They’ll be releasing their new album Nice Try sometime in the spring. Today, Scummy Water Tower is excited to premiere the band’s first taste of their new music, with the music video for album single “Runner.”
The video was produced by the band and directed and shot by Olivia Luna on 16 mm film on location in the Irving Park and Portage Park neighborhoods. It was based on a concept by Olivia Luna and band member Ryan Donlin and features sets built in fellow member Ayethaw Tun’s home and garage in Portage Park in Chicago.
The studio version of the song was recorded at Palisade Recording Studio by Dave Vettraino (Deeper, Dehd, Lala Lala). Says member Ayethaw Tun, “We made our most ambitious music video for the song, shooting it on 16mm film, building sets in my garage, etc.” The song’s release coincides with the band’s show December 14 with Olive Avenue and Niko Kapetan of Friko at Chicago venue Schubas.
You can follow news on the band’s new music at Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Below Donlin, the songwriter and singer on “Runner” pens an essay explaining the song’s origin.
Ryan Donlin On The Origin of “Runner”
When I wrote “Runner,” I was delivering pizza. I was running to my car from a delivery on a cold, dry winter day. The sound my corduroys were making as I was running reminded me of strangers shouting at me to scare me or make fun of me as I ran, which happened kind of often in high school and college.
I’ve often felt like I’ve been missing some important detail in understanding other people and social rules. I feel like I have to contort and exert myself in uncomfortable, unnatural ways to accomplish things that seem to come naturally to most. I have strength and kindness, but in a weird, alien way that has to go through a rough translation algorithm to be expressible.
“Runner” is about feeling graceless and alien.
“Like a monkey’s paw, I might get it done, but not exactly how you want me to.
Not with the grace of that sparkling rock in space.”
I want to be a positive force in the lives of people around me, to have and to give peace and comfort, but often I seem to go about it in the wrong way.
In the music video, things close in on me. I can’t escape my obligations, and my overcommitment and need to satisfy all promises and debts makes me appear strained and desperate. Ghostly reminders of my possible insufficiency haunt me at all turns. At the same time, none of it matters; it’s a joke. The song and the video are silly and fun, even though they’re based on painful feelings.
An earnest essay about “Runner” is kind of antithetical to the final work, with its balance of sincerity and humor. And yet, here it is. Thank you for listening and reading.
-Ryan Donlin
Joshua is co-founder of Scummy Water Tower. He’s freelanced for a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites, including: Rolling Stone, The Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Guitar World, MTV News, Grammy.com, Chicago Magazine, Milwaukee Magazine, MKE Lifestyle, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, A.V. Club, SPIN, Alternative Press, Under the Radar, Paste, PopMatters, American Songwriter, and Relix. You can email him at josh@scummywatertower.com.
Ryan Donlin
Contributor
Member of Chicago-based band Red Scarves
