Running Touch Chats Concept Based Writing, His New Album 'Carmine' And Adhering To External Expectations

Running Touch, despite being so early in his career is one of the most lauded electronic producers and songwriters in Australia. He's earned multi-platinum certifications, supported titans in electronic music, performed at innumerable festivals and his catalogue of music has been streamed over 170 million times. He's done it all without compromising anything, travelling the globe with his deeply introspective, conceptual and truely singular sonic world. 

After performing at the biggest stage in the world Coachella, he released his long-awaited debut record Carmine. Carmine is packed with grit and glamour and travels throughout the most inherent human emotions. Lust, anger, frustration, conflict, desire, passion, fear and fury drive the track list's narrative. Beneath the heart wrenching tales, lays one of the most gorgeous production runs seen on a full length project, one that sees Running Touch showcase his abilities as a fearless innovator, master of atmosphere wrapped in textures of indie, hardcore, pop and electronic music. 

To get to know the project better, we chat to Running Touch about its creative process, the benefits and challenges of writing to a concept and how to navigate a world where electronic music can feel so limiting. 

This is the debut album, what are the feelings around the music right now. Is it excitement, anxiety, anxiousness, or pure elation at this point?

Definitely all of the above. It’s different from the debut album. Because I’m a solo act, and maybe I’m reflecting on this because I’ve been in a band before. It's such a unique experience finishing an album because you don’t have anyone to share it with until it's released. You don’t have anyone to share the creative or personal side of the music making process. So when it’s finished, it’s just done. In a group you share the achievement, the peaks, the lows and filler in between. I’m very happy the album finished, the fans are enjoying it and everyone on the journey with me is also happy with it. That’s all what makes me happiest.

Being a solo artist, where do you seek validation from when making music? Is it from a peer, is it gut feeling? Is it trust in yourself or luck?

Anyone would be lying to you if they aren't influenced by fans, people or peers. It has a fraction of influence over me. Definitely the older I’ve got its taken a back seat. The deeper I got into this Running Touch project, the more solid, integral and smaller my team got. More than anything that’s who I get the validation from because I trust there experience. From my partner, my manager, and my brother. It used to be more external forms of validation but that’s changed. 

Working towards a debut project. It must be a daunting thing. You've been quite conceptual and sentimental throughout your whole career. Were the moments earlier when you thought you were writing for an album but it didn’t turn out to be? What made you ready for the record now?

I remember the exact moment that I was texting my manager telling them I’d write an album. I sent it in 2018 and didn’t start it until 2019. That was the first time I thought about it. It’s nice to have a foundation to stand up upon, a discography already established before diving into the album. Now that it’s out, it's so great to have an even deeper foundation. In single land, it’s very hard and grey and ambiguous. Having an album is very reassuring and useful as an artist. I’ve got Carmine to stand up on. 

You have such an incredible vast musical background, and it really is highlighted on this project. Was it a conscious decision to highlight as much breadth sonically as much as possible on the record because it is your debut body of work? Or was it just natural, and that's just you?

It’s just natural. I’m a producer before I’m an artist. If it sounds disjointed, that’s just the way I am. It’s hard not to chase all the sonic ambitions as an ambition, and sit still. 

I want to talk about the opener, It Starts With You. it was the last song you finished. What’s it like recording an intro after the fact? And talk through the creative process of it? Did you know it was an intro or did it just fall into place?

I didn’t have any intention in terms of its placement. The creation was really fun. I definitely had the most fun with that song because it's got such a relatable concept. It’s very authentic because it was written very real time. Everything was birthed from a jam or adlib, there wasn’t much thought. That all birthed from the intro. The concept and the rest of the song was established via the first batch of lyrics. Imagine sitting down with your friend and going through a certain crisis. Two people have made a mistake and are trying to rationalise it. The main point of the song is that you’re not giving into their self loathing or sympathy. It’s such a universal experience that feeling of ‘it starts with you’ and wanting to tell a friend that. It’s really nice and drawn out and there are ASMR parts in it to give it that real world element. All of those things really just fell into it. 

I love the title of it, it’s so perfect for what it reflects. People don’t always want to hear 'It Starts With You''.

The line after it is “I Promise You,” and I’m sure everyone has been in those situations. It starts with you, you’ve got this, I promise. It will be OK.

There are moments of indie rock, hardcore, pop etc on the record. You began as a more traditional producer. Was there any internal anxiety in moving outside of the electronic world, as many electronic artists get pinned into a certain vibe?

I do not care. I don’t give a shit.

I was hoping you said that.

Historically you’ve always worked deeply in sentiment and concept. The Carmine/Juno/Come With Me trio is great, and is this microcosm representing the themes of the record. Talk through your love for conceptual based writing? Why does it bring the best out of you as an artist?

It’s so much fun. Writing lyrics is so hard, people have full time jobs as top liners, those people need a lot of respect. That’s why pop music is so genius, you’re saying the most complex things in the most simple ways. Conceptual writing is really fun because you can run away with it and do the opposite. You can give yourself a license to write freely. You don’t need to be a Billie Eilish who is so clever with their lyricism. You can spell out a story, be stupid with it and reference what you want to reference in its own universe. For me personally, when I wrote Juno I was having a lot of fun throwing in real life references, heavily influenced by rap music. Rap music is so visual and I love that, or on the skirts of it like Frank Ocean. Juno is a lot about paintings and The Carmine is very similar. I was using names of paintings and painters and started there, and went into movies and art. 

Passion, rage, love, lust, fear, fury, are some of the key takeaways of the record. They’re very intrinsic, and passion fuelled, emotional key human emotions. What made you attracted to these sorts of ideas and feelings? Do you see it having a relationship with your creative process as an artist? One that's driven by gut feel and passion?

Definitely. That’s exactly how I work. I'm a producer first and all that skill is using the tools that you practice for ridiculous hours. I always put myself in a situation to let what I’m feeling just come out onto the screen. That’s all moment based, reflex based gut based feeling. All the stuff you’ve ingested for the last 10 years, you can just sit down and spit it out through music. 

Looking back, reflecting on this record. What's a key takeaway you want a listener to experience? It can be an emotion, a vibe, a feeling, a reflection?

When I wrote Why Do I? It was such a special moment because it’s truly influenced by the things that got me into dance music. That means a lot to me because it got me into my job and it changed my life. The two songs that Why Do I? are based on. I still listen to them every single day. So to answer your question, if someone was listening to that song and it was the first song that they’ve enjoyed in that genre, that would be so sick because that’s what happened to me. I had never heard anything like it. If I could do that for someone else and inspire them to start music or be the nostalgic tag from this part of their life, that would be awesome.