Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Noah Weinman has announced his debut album as Runnner, Like Dying Stars, We’re Reaching Out, coming Feb. 17, 2023, on Run For Cover Records. Lead single “i only sing about food” is out now alongside a music video.
Our first preview of Like Dying Stars finds Weinman continuing to refine his sound, splitting the difference between the ghostly indie-folk of his peer (and collaborator) Skullcrusher and the hooky bedroom-pop confessionals of Field Medic. Looping banjo plucks and acoustic guitar chords fade in over a rapid-fire drum loop, with whirling synths flickering in and out of the mix. Meanwhile, Weinman wrestles with his own internal monologue, struggling not only to express himself, but also to deal with the emotions that disconnect engenders (“I cried in your car / When I couldn’t find the words I was looking for”). Hooky and brief, the track pairs its lightness with the urgency of a search for badly needed relief from the pitfalls of one’s own mind. Piano and wordless vocal harmonies carry the track through its home stretch, Weinman’s vocal falling silent as if he’s focused on imagining a future in which he can just be understood.
“I wrote this song at my friend’s house one morning. They were on a phone call in the other room so I remember playing very quietly and kind of mumbling until I just started saying ‘I’m an idiot,’ which made me laugh so I decided it was a good starting point,” Weinman recalls in a statement, continuing:
It’s a song about trying to reckon the discord between how I thought of myself and how I felt like I was presenting myself. I was in a stage in my relationship where I wanted so badly to be known on all sides and layers, but felt frustrated at my attempts to convey them. For both production and video, I was really inspired by Madonna’s work from the late ’90s for the Music and Ray of Light records.
Like Dying Stars follows Runnner’s 2021 compilation Always Repeating, which was his Run For Cover debut.
Check out “i only sing about food” and Runnner’s 2022 Paste session below, and the details of Like Dying Stars, We’re Reaching Out further down.
Like Dying Stars, We’re Reaching Out Tracklist:
01. plexiglass
02. i only sing about food
03. bike again
04. raincoat
05. chess with friends
06. reach
07. noah needs a haircut
08. runnning in place at the edge of the map
09. scabpicker
10. string
11. NYE
12. a map for your birthday
Like Dying Stars, We’re Reaching Out Art:
