Michael Runion: Music & Lyrics

I admit that I hadn’t heard of Michael Runion before learning that he was on the bill to open for Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band. Through my research, I learned that Michael has worked with some acts you’ve most likely heard of: Rilo Kiley (as a guitar tech), The Elected (bass player), and Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins. Michael is also a member of the Los Angeles super group, JJAMZ, made up of James Valentine (Maroon 5), Jason Boesel (Rilo Kiley, The Mystic Valley Band), Alex Greenwald (Phantom Planet), and Z Berg (The Like).






I listened to the songs on his MySpace and was pretty quickly hooked. Mr. Runion plays a mellow, grungy indie pop reminiscent of Nirvana meets The Beatles. Those are some lofty names to live up to, but Michael does good work.






As an opening act for Rilo Kiley and Jenny Lewis, Runion released the record Our Time Will Come, an accomplished introspective folk rock album. For this tour, however, he released an EP of only five hundred copies. Produced by Alex Greenwald (from Phantom Planet) and Jason Boesel (from Rilo Kiley and The Mystic Valley Band), the EP serves as a preview of the new direction Runion is taking his music in, and includes a version of Daylight from Our Time Will Come featuring Z Berg from The Like. If you missed Runion on tour, these songs are streaming on his MySpace, so be sure to catch them there. You’ll also want to grab the free download of the track Maxine at the and of this piece. As a bonus, we have two signed copies of the EP to give away to two of our readers (so leave us a comment, and make sure to include your e-mail address).

Michael Runion was the first of three stellar acts on June 17, 2009 at The Black Sheep in Colorado Springs. He played a fantastic set to a packed room, energizing the crowd. Runion began the gig with Til We Have To, a wonderful, upbeat guitar piece with catchy percussion. Another highlight of the set was the slower, lyrically profound S.L.S.. Runion played the set with skill and enthusiasm, as did his supporting band, The Royal Family.






It was a pleasure to meet and talk with Michael after the show. The man is well spoken and down to earth. Though exhausted from the long drive from Los Angeles to Colorado Springs, he was kind enough to spend a bit of time talking to me about his career and life.






How long have you been playing music and how did you get started?


At 13, I joined a punk band called “The Goods”. We were from Ventura, CA. I played bass. I wanted to sing in the band, but they made me play bass because they thought I wasn’t a good singer, which is fine, I probably wasn’t. I played in thrash bands and bands that really wanted to sound like Polvo and Unwound. About five years ago I started writing my own songs, which became my solo effort.






Who and what inspires you?


For the first record, I was really into Townes Van Zandt and listening to a lot of The Band and just enjoying that stuff. For a lot of the newer stuff, I feel more that my friends’ involvement had a lot to do with it. As far as the songs, where the songs come from, it’s typically like whatever bullshit I’m dealing with or whatever stress I’m having to go through. Whenever I’m feeling fertile, I guess, as I songwriter, that’s what will happen. I don’t want to get too specific because I could be specific and that would be not very nice. A lot of the stuff is about my relationships with particular people. For the most part, Los Angeles is a huge inspiration. Actually, I made this shirt that has a lot of stuff that inspires me: there’s Los Angeles, there’s a shot of a morgue because death is really interesting to me as far as the idea of being afraid or not afraid of it and the idea of having no control over it which I’m totally comfortable with, and other things like basketball. Which doesn’t really inspire the music, but just inspires me to not be worthless everyday. The desire to travel really inspires me musically, I really like touring and traveling a lot.






What is your favorite place to visit?


I really Scandinavia and I really like Berlin. I think it’s probably because I’ve toured the U.S. a lot over the last couple of years, so there’s a lot in Europe that is still new and exciting to me. The response has been really positive every time I’ve played there.






What is your songwriting process like?


I come up with words and melodies, then I write the music. That’s pretty much how it always is. It’s rare for me to write a piece of music before [the lyrics]. I’m not very adept, musically. I’m not a good guitar player, but I really like coming up with lyrics and then melody. Then I’ll just try and figure out how to apply the chords to whatever I’m doing.






What is the first album that you remember feeling passionate about?


I really loved The Cars’ self-titled album. I really loved Michael Jackson’s Thriller. But in a passionate and inspired kind of way, in the early nineties when I started liking music I was more into songs, I guess. I really loved all of Guns N’ Roses singles and stuff, then I started getting into the records. I really hated Nirvana at first. I really hated Smells Like Teen Spirit, but then Lithium won me over. Once I realized how great Nevermind was, I got on board.






What have you been listening to lately?


For the tour, I have my iPod and it’s just a 30GB, but there are 5000 songs on it. Basically, we put it on shuffle and you can’t fast forward. So if there’s a skit, if there’s a ten minute interlude, if there’s one of my rough mixes, you can’t skip it. The things that I’ve been listening to that aren’t that, well, I’m making a new record so I’ve been listening to a lot of roughs [rough drafts of songs] lately, which gets really tiresome. I’ve been listening to a lot of the first half of the new Camera Obscura record. I love Tracyanne Campbell’s voice. I think it’s fucking awesome. I’ve been listening to Ted Lucas, this old record. I have a lot of Bob Dylan and Morrissey on my iPod, so that’s been playing a lot.






I used to love to put my iPod on random, but now I have too much stuff. I have a bunch of live recordings and I’ll put audio from interviews on there so I can transcribe them. It just wouldn’t be cool to have one of those come up while I was driving.


Yeah, that wouldn’t be good.






What are you favorite and least favorite things about touring?


My favorite thing about touring is being in a new place every day and my least favorite thing about touring is the occasional thirteen hour over night drive. My back is already fucked enough as it is and that doesn’t help it. What I also like about touring is that you create this insular world. You have your inside jokes that don’t translate to the regular world.






What is your favorite restaurant and what do you order there?


Wow, that’s really rough.






You can do top three if that’s too much to narrow down. I’ll allow that.


I’m vegan, so I have a new favorite restaurant in L.A. There are a lot of Thai vegan places in L.A. and a lot of them are very similar, but there’s one that while making my record we discovered called Lotus Vegan and their yellow curry is pretty incredible. I’m also a big fan of Real Food Daily in West Hollywood. I’ll either get the nachos with the works or the burger with the works. If I’m feeling healthy, I’ll get blackened tempeh with the daily green and some quinoa. I try to be healthy.






Tell me about some of the jobs you’ve had in the past.


My first job in L.A., well I had a lot of freelance in L.A. My roommates and I used to self publish Zines and sell them outside of shows, like at The Troubadour and The Roxy and The El Rey and stuff. I worked at Vegan Express which is a sweet Thai vegan place. I worked there a little while. Then I worked at 20-20 Video, this video store, forever. The first job I ever had was at Blockbuster Video. I was seventeen and worked there for seven months. I saved up and moved to L.A. I’ve been Rilo Kiley’s guitar tech, Jenny Lewis’s bass player. They’re jobs, it’s like the best job ever, but I guess I consider those jobs because I was hired. Those jobs, playing with The Elected and playing with Jenny [Lewis], are not really jobs, they’re like vacations that pay you. Other than that, the last real job I had was working at 20-20 Video. I’ll do other stuff, like hustles here and there, assistant photographer, design a t-shirt, I’ve designed shirts for Conor [Oberst] in the past and Rilo Kiley.






Is there any question that you wish people would quit asking you?


I’m pretty open to most questions. The only question that people ever ask me that’s not music related is, “Why are you vegan?” It’s not their fault, I’ve been vegan for twelve years so I don’t want to answer that anymore. It’s philosophical and habitual.






Is there anything else that you wanted to add?


I want to come back. Come see me if I come back. I’m working on a record right now with Alex Greenwald and Jason Boesel, and Macey Taylor played bass. I’m really excited about it. I’m really looking forward to finishing that when I get back.








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To keep up with Michael Runion, catch him on MySpace and MichaelRunion.com.