For a 21 year-old guy, Running Touch has lived an extraordinary amount of musical lives. He’s played in a heavy metal band, had a turn as an EDM producer/DJ and has now landed in his most comfortable role to date as the singing and producing Running Touch.

Releasing a handful of rad tracks over the last year, he's postioned himself as an artist able to adapt to anything from funk to future bass. It's a multi-discplinary back catalogue but one that makes absolute sense because it's all tied together with his brooding dense voice.

He’s just released his first track for the year Courtesy Of - a funk-driven track with smooth guitar licks and emotive keys. It’s another step forward for the Melbourne producer who continues to improve all facets of his songwriting. If you haven’t seen Running Touch live then chances are you’ll see him on bigger and bigger stages this year and this track will be a highlight of the set.

 

We caught up with Running Touch to discuss his musical journey so far and also dig into the influences of his new tracks.

Do you make music in the day or at night?

Both man. When time allows it.

Are you someone who can stay up late and work or do you need to get to bed at a reasonable hour?

I went through a period when I started, especially mid last year, I’d go to bed at like 8 o’clock in the morning. It was not good.

Does it become a time warp when you’re working on something that you like?

Yeah I don’t know what it is. I’ve always been...I don’t know how to say this. You feel like you’re putting in more of a sacrifice if it’s that time of night if you know what I mean. It’s a weird mentality. But you get into a habit. It’s like anything. When you start going to bed late, it’s quite hard to get out of it.

You think you’ve pulled yourself out of that now?

Yeah. I actually live with my girlfriend now and she goes to bed at a reasonable hour so that convinces me to do the same thing.

So, how long have you been producing for?

This project is a year old almost to the dot but before that I was producing a year and a bit some other stuff and then I transitioned to this.

What caused the change? Was it just a shifting musical taste?

Yeah man. I was part of a band before that. And it went from that to writing my own stuff and I got into the EDM thing and thought I’d try my hand. It’s good to extend your form of expression because I had no individualism with a band so I thought I may as well try my hand in something singular. The EDM scene, you can’t get that much across though because of the saturation and it’s hard so that morphed into this. It was a big mess but it worked out somehow.

How does it feel now playing shows as Running Touch?

It’s amazing. I could not even begin to tell you. It was called Paper Tiger when I first started it and when it first started I was DJing every week. When I was DJing the only thing I could think about was, “fuck I cannot wait to abandon the decks.”

Electronic musicians gets grouped so often as DJs where people almost expect you to get up and press play. Your sets are completely different to that though. Did you find it hard to carve out your niche and convince your managers you want to play live?

Yeah absolutely. The music that I showed management first - it was downtempo. A lot of the music I have now could only be translated live. They knew I came from a band and it was never really in question. They knew I was hunting for that excuse to pick up an instrument and play it live.

Were you a vocalist before you were a producer?

No. I only started singing when Running Touch started but very badly. My girlfriend recently told me, when I showed her my first song, it was like Waves by Mr. Probz, and it was the first track I ever sung on. At the time she was like, “that was amazing.” And then she told me recently, “yeah, your vocals sucked on that track.” I’m not a singer naturally and it’s taken a long time.

How have you found going from recording vocals in your home to going out and singing in front of crowds?

I don’t know why but when I started in a band I was playing guitar and just screaming but it’s why I made the transition from trance-y stuff to this. When you’re playing CDJ’s there is only a certain amount of expression you can get across. If I couldn’t sing and I was just playing piano or drums on stage I’d feel like something was missing, but when I’m singing I feel like it’s that extra limb like it’s meant to be there. It’s not so much I love hearing people say they like my singing or that I’m proud of myself it’s more so that it feels right. It would feel weird if I didn’t do that.

I feel as if you’re someone who has had to deal a lot with genre labelling going from a metal band to EDM to now this. But it seems like you’ve got more room to move with this new project. Do you feel like you can do a lot more?

Yeah for sure. I’m still in that band and we’ve always been very heavy on expression but as you get older I think you can really transcribe that a lot more clearly and honestly. And with Running Touch too, the older you get the more you can filter through what you do and don’t like and find your identity. The experimentalism shines through and with Running Touch that has been the case. I don’t feel like when I sit down I have to write a certain type of music. I sit down and go, “Ok, this is how I feel at the moment.” When I write an EP which I’m doing right now hopefully that’s what comes across. I want it to sound bipolar as shit. I want people to get to the end and think, “fucking oath I’m confused and that’s great.”

Have you considered getting other singers on your tracks?

Yeah for sure. Down the track. I’d like to hold back on that though. The whole future bass scene, like that whole Majestic Casual vibe that’s going on, literally every track these days is just these guys featuring this. I want to be reliant on myself first before I get other people involved. Just to be different, man. I feel like that’s been done. That’s why I like what someone like ZHU did. He had no features, it was just him and then he got huge and branched out.

What can you tell us about the new track Courtesy Of?

I wrote that before This Is Just To Say. I was going to release an EP at that time but I didn’t do that. But I’m really excited about it. It’s a good medium of where I am at at the moment. It’s indie-ish and it’s my best vocal display. That’s why I’m quite proud of it. It’s also definitely a step lyrically for me. As a lyricist, it’s very easy to put pretty phrases and words on paper but to actually have them hold substance and have consistency through every line, it’s hard. Very fucking hard. That’s the first track where I’ve been able to kind of do that. It’s actually got a story in it which I’m really proud of and I’m really excited. I hope it does really well.

Running Touch's Courtesy Of is available now where all genre bending singles are sold | streamed.

- Interview conducted by the interns' Sam Murphy for Cool Accidents