The energy of a first festival appearance is a milestone that stays with a band forever. At Coca-Cola Sips & Sounds, I had the opportunity to sit down with The Runarounds, featuring William Lipton (vocals/guitar), Axel Ellis (vocals/guitar), Jeremy Yun (bass), Zendé Murdock (drums), and Jesse Golliher (guitar), to discuss this new chapter. We skipped the formalities to dive into the stories that define them as a unit, exploring the humor and the hurdles of life on tour and how they are carving out a space that is uniquely theirs.

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Sips and Sounds is your official Festival debut.  Before you go on stage, what was the first festival you attended?

Jesse: Boston Calling 2019.  It was the best place ever. I saw Tama Impala, Denzel Curry, Clairo, Anderson .Paak.

Axel: My first one was probably Summerfest in Milwaukee. I saw Steve Aioki. Or it was North Coast in Chicago — that was good — saw Chance the Rapper. I love festivals, I’ve been going to them since middle school.

William: I wanna say for me and Jeremy, we played a festival in our old band, which I think was my first festival. It was in Idaho. Idaho Rock the Falls 2014.

Is there a specific moment or memory from those festivals that you try to recreate on stage that make your sets stand out and be memorable for new audiences?

Jeremy: I think we opened up with the National Anthem, so we haven’t been doing that.

Jesse:  I remember Anderson .Paak walked on stage, and he took like 30 seconds, and he smiled before he even started playing.  He just took it all in, and I think that‘s the feeling I’ve always been chasing.

Most bands have heroes they look up to. Instead of a musician, who is a non-musical figure — an athlete, a writer, or a family member — whose work ethic or philosophy has most influenced the way you handle being in the spotlight together?

William:  Mom and Dad.

Zendé: What he said.

Axel: Yeah, same. And Anthony Bourdain.

Jeremy: Double-click that!

Jesse: Edmund McMillen — the creator of The Binding of Isaac — the video game.

Is there a quote or mantra you guys live by?

William: There’s no bad weather, only bad clothing.

Axel: Good days’ll come — John-Robert.

Has the transition from being in a band to a band featured on a TV show added any unexpected challenges or features?

Zendé: Honestly, we feel like there were even more challenges with the band. We thought the name thing might be tough for people, like which name to call us, but whenever we do a show, they use our real names.

Did you guys start with the name “The Runarounds” when you started the band? Were there any follow-up names that you were about to go with?

Jeremy: Untitled band project, or U.B.P.

Axel: The Currents was one of them. The Village Idiots, Sorry Mama.

What were some bumps you guys had to work out when starting to be together all the time between filming and performing?

Jesse: Me! Probably.

Axel: Jesse.

William: Oh no, I loved living with these dudes! It was great.

Did you guys ever room together when you were filming?

William: Yeah, I mean, we were hoteling it and stuff. We had apartments in Wilmington when we filmed the show.

Jeremy: Airbnb now.

Jesse: Me and Axel had a fight about this 85” TV that I bought.

Axel: It was too big!  It didn’t fit!

Jesse: It blew up into a real bad fight. I’m like Dude! It’s a TV man. I just want it in the living room!

Axel: I was like I’m done doing your laundry!  (laughs)

Jesse: The second he said that, I was like OK.

Axel: He put the TV in his room.          

Jeremy: Checkmate!

What are some things that inspire your writing?

Jesse: Every breakup I’ve ever had.

Axel: Yeah, every breakup, romance for sure.  We have a lot of songs based on the TV show — the script — for some of them.  A song called “Cellophane” is about social anxiety and isolating yourself in relationships.  We try to keep it pretty true to life and our experiences so that we can relate to songs while we’re performing them.

I love it! I bet you guys have so many people that relate to the actual story of the show that are like, “Hey, that’s me! That’s really cool that they made this happen, and now they’re playing large festivals and a big tour pretty much right away.”

Axel: That’s the whole goal: for people to connect with it.

Jeremy: We’re incredibly lucky.

What has been the best tour memory?

William:  I really liked Boston.  Boston was cool.

Jesse: Yeah.

Zendé: We went go-karting in Columbus.

William: That was sick!

Jeremy: Yeah, that was very fun.

Who won?

Jeremy: Not me!

Zendé: None of us.

Jeremy: Lowkey you, Zendé.

Zendé: Yeah, I was quick.

Jeremy: He was the fastest of the boys.

Axel: We went on a little quick, short hike in Phoenix… that was really fun.

William: Yeah…It was really short and quick. It was only, like, not hard at all…

Axel: I downplayed it and how long it’d take.

Jeremy: He took everybody rock climbing.

William: It was like 6 hours of pure rock climbing.

Axel: It was like a 2,600 ft elevation like bouldering excursion.

William:  I had been told about this hike and saw pictures, and it was pictures from the top, which was super flat, so I’m like, yeah, it’ll be chill…..And then we woke up and stuff, and I was like OK, and I downed a Yerba Mate or something like that, and I was like alright lets do it! And I was sooo cooked.  I was so cooked. I kind of messed up my hands a little bit, but it was so, so fun.

Jesse: I did not go on this hike… haha.

What has shocked you most about the tour?

William: There’s one thing I’ve been thinking about from venue to venue… like we’ll shower at the venue because we don’t have showers on the bus, and we do a lot of our stuff at each place, and I think about all the awesome musicians that have probably showered in the same shower!  I’m like, I’ve seen so many shows and stuff, and now I’m thinking about them doing the same thing as me. Like brushing my teeth, putting my pj’s on.

Jeremy: Yeah, that’s a winner right there. That’s great.

Axel: I think about everybody that came out — the energy and dedication that they’ve brought, and knowing every word to every song. I was surprised by how energetic the fans are.

William: We have the best fans.

Jeremy: Truly, yeah.

Jesse: We’ll see the same person at 10 different shows.

Axel: The same people will just keep coming.

Do you guys have a favorite sign that you’ve seen in the crowd?

Jesse: There was one group of people that I had a whole conversation with the whole entire show.  They kept on holding up their phone with different messages — it was really funny!

The Runarounds brought a high-energy set to the stage that was truly so much fun to witness in person. The tour is already in full swing, so make sure to grab your tickets here to catch the rest of their journey across the country.

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