A decade after his career began, Australian singer-producer Running Touch is nearing the release of his debut album titled 'Carmine' – a record that explores the concepts of violence and love.
Set to drop 6 May, the founding guitarist with Melbourne grunge punks Ocean Grove (he's now a studio-only member of that outfit), Running Touch has already teased 'Carmine' last year with a number of singles: 'Juno' and 'Ceilings'.The album's latest release is lead single 'Come With Me' that finds Running Touch digging into his sonic palette to construct anthemic soundscapes.
"I love the idea of having these chorus stabs with depth enough you don't know what the sound source actually is," Running Touch says.
"It's really given me something to chase and explore. I'm always trying to find a balance between organic and synthetic, so I can be in the electronic space but solo over things live.
"'Come With Me' follows the thoughts from my songs 'Juno', [2020 single] 'Signs' and unreleased track 'Carmine' – wanting and needing to escape wherever it is you are.
"Go wherever life leads, but wanting to do it with someone, but you're unsure if they want to. Obsessiveness and escape.
"The 'Juno' story is inspired from art and film. I tried to have a lot of colour, names and film excerpts around me while constructing this."
The music video for 'Come With Me' was filmed with director Cian Marangos across a variety of Victorian locations including Daylesford and the Dandenongs.
"Our goal was to use contrasting landscapes and textures to put us in the mind of our character," Cian says. "As a brief overview, the video aims to transport us into the mind of a painter in the moments of artistic expression.
"We wanted to explore the feelings of isolation, frustration, and anxiety that often come with creating art, particularly when working towards something that feels too big to achieve.
"Working with Running Touch was a super-collaborative process; while there was so much freedom for me to build our world, we were constantly bouncing ideas back and forth to develop the look and feel of the clip into something that was different yet familiar to the RT visual landscape."
'Carmine' will be released 6 May.
