Alex Runions, an award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter has just released his third album, Above the Clouds and On the Ground. This album represents a significant departure from the country sound that has defined his national success on radio and his multi-award winning record career. In this interview, Alex is refreshingly candid about his struggles and accomplishments (sobriety, marriage, fatherhood) that currently inspire his songs. Throughout, he maintains his finely crafted vocals and his James Taylor-like soothing style upon which he creatively builds his lyrics. In the end, Alex says it so well, “With this album, my purpose is to lift people up into the clouds while keeping them grounded by what can be the harshness of reality. It’s about humanity, hope and healing.” Check out Above the Clouds and On the Ground available on all streaming platforms.
Interview by Maria Passannante-Derr. Photos courtesy of Alex Runions, Nolita Studios.
Maria Passannante-Derr: You have garnered quite a bit of attention with your songwriting and I would like to congratulate you on the release of your third album, “Above the Clouds and On the Gound”. I have a selection of your songs that I want to discuss with you, but first tell me how you feel about the final product?
Alex Runions: I’m so proud of it and so happy about how it turned out. It was a different approach from what I’ve done in the past. I am more vulnerable in the lyrics, writing outside of the box but overall I am proud, happy and excited.
MP-D: When you say a different approach, do you mean musically or lyrically?
AR: A little bit of everything, you know musically, sonically, lyrically. In the past I had this pop country sound. It was really polished and neat and writing inside the box. Every song was about a relationship and checked all the boxes, you know, dirt road, riverbed, beer, tailgate. There are always some of these elements that help you to get on radio.
MP-D: Sounds like you have been previously writing with a formula in mind and you let go of it. It makes sense. For most artists, much of their craft is autobiographical and one’s struggles with emotions and feelings. I have my favorites on “Above the Clouds….”; however, while each of these songs in and of themselves reflects where you are or some part of your life right now, all of the songs together are a very cohesive statement on your part.
AR: I appreciate you saying that because that’s important. In today’s world, a lot of people just write a single; they release it, but it doesn’t connect to the last song. It’s not part of an album. “Above the Clouds …” has this cohesiveness. From one song to the next, it all makes sense. There is a progression throughout and that is exactly what I was going for with this collection of songs. Some of them I wrote strictly for the album. Some of them have a special place in my heart like the first song I wrote, “Our Backyard” in Nashville more than ten years ago. During that time, the song remained half produced because the producer, at that time, wasn’t getting the idea; however, after I brought the song to Chris, my current producer, we re-wrote some of the lyrics to fit the cohesiveness of the album and where I was in my life. I want everyone to know that each song has a special meaning, a special place on the album.
MP-D: I am glad that you mentioned your producer, Chris because I want to discuss the issue of the producer/artist working relationship. But first, I want to go into more detail about your songs. The lead off song on “Above the Clouds …” is one of my favorites, and “On An Island”… people being far apart and maybe never getting back together again.
AR: I actually released “On An Island” a year before the album was out. It stemmed from a relationship where my partner said, “I feel so alone on this relationship.” I had no clue what she meant. I was trying so hard. I was doing everything right. How could you feel so alone when I was working so hard and then the relationship dissipated and was gone.
In my current relationship with my wife, Erin, we were dating and at some point, she said the same thing. That sparked something inside me. I realized maybe I am the problem and that started self-reflection. Instead of me pointing the finger at other people I started pointing at myself and realizing, “Okay maybe it is me”.
It takes two in every relationship and I wasn’t really taking responsibility, so there was a lot of personal growth. That song, it’s really about two people who are essentially together but they just feel like they’re so far apart. I built on the phrase, “I feel alone in this relationship.” from the singer’s perspective that the relationship is failing even though they are somewhat close.
MP-D: Such a beautiful song and quite an accomplishment.
AR: Thank you so much.
MP-D: My next favorite is “Missing Piece”; but you may want to discuss “Day by Day” first.
AR: I really do like “Day by Day”. It’s a dark song. I struggled with alcohol for many years. In the industry that happens. I’ve done a lot of work on myself so there’s probably some other issues along the way that that resulted in abusing alcohol; but, I’m an introvert at heart, that’s for sure. A lot of artists are and I didn’t realize that but now I can see that through the years I used alcohol as a way to come out of my shell and perform. Suddenly, it made me this cool guy that I never felt like before. Fast forward twenty years. I was struggling with it and at one point I took it too far. I wrote “Day by Day” while under the influence of alcohol. It was a call for help. There is actually a line that my mom always said to me. I’d call her because things weren’t going well and she’d say, “You just get through day by day and tomorrow is a new day.” That’s really where it stemmed from. With a lot of these songs I wanted to break out of the box of writing for radio so I didn’t necessarily want a “relationship” to be the key aspect for every single song. I didn’t want any result. Sometimes when I’m sad I just want a sad song to be a sad song, just to be there in the moment.
MP-D: I want to focus on “Missing Piece” because I love the lyrics you wrote in the bridge: “the king without a queen, the sun without a moon, the heart without a beat. You are my missing piece.”
AR: I appreciate that because I think it might be my favorite song on the album. I knew that it was special as we were writing it. I brought this song to the producer. It is simple love song but we wanted to create some imagery with these polar opposites, you know, the moon pushing through the pines or that line at the start, two people driving in the dark and the lights shining on them, really just a heartfelt love song saying essentially that this person is your missing piece. I wanted to step away from traditional straight and narrow ways that I would normally sing so vocally we used some more falsetto. It’s more sonically interesting and I really love the vibe that we came up with. It’s a simple love song but presented in a different way with more vocal and lyrical experimentation.
MP-D: Are you playing the banjo on “Our Backyard”?
AR: I am not playing banjo. That is the producer playing. There is the notion of experiment throughout a lot of these songs. Again, this was special because it was the first song I wrote in Nashville with a straightforward instrumentation, leaning more towards country than the other songs which are Americana folk pop, so we added the flavors like the banjo. In the second verse we changed the lyrics in the studio. Before, it was about people partying on the backyard, drinking all types of mixtures but we changed all that. I don’t drink anymore so we made it about how we love our backyard where we garden our raspberry bush and “one plus one and my daughter, makes three, a totally family song as opposed to this party song. It fits the album.
MP-D: I would like to discuss your choice of producer on “Above the Clouds …”. Is this the first time you have worked with Chris Burke Gaffney?
AR: Yes, in or about 2014, I was selected to go to Nashville for the Americana Music Festival. Kind of odd because I wasn’t an Americana artist. Chris was on the panel listening to the artists. He really liked some of my songs. We talked and wrote a bit together, so, Chris and I have a history of writing but not recording together. He has a creative way of crafting a song. I initially contacted him to see if he wanted to write, not produce; but after we spoke I decided he was clearly the right guy to produce the album. He understood my vision.
MP-D: I believe that recording requires an element of trust between you and your producer because once you get into that studio your producer may be leading you creatively somewhere you may never have been before and you’re trusting this producer to take you there.
AR: Totally! You’re trusting a producer with something that’s so sacred and so special to you. I had a prior experience in the studio where “Our Backyard” did not really come out of the studio well. I went in, asked for revisions and it wasn’t getting there. It has been my experience through the years that I have a song written, the producer schedules a session, you come in and sing with the band. They play it exactly how it’s charted and then that’s the end of it. A few weeks later you get a mixed product. With Chris, we sat down with basic piano tracks before a band was involved. Chris said, “ I’d rather you sing these songs and we work around your vocals, go through the emotions of your vocals and build tracks around that.” So, we had the opportunity to rewrite a lot of the songs as we went along rather than being held to the charts. As we were doing that I wanted every song to just be just voice and piano because it was just so pretty. He would send it back with some instrumentation.
MP-D: A lot of artists share the experience of substance abuse particularly alcoholism; and, they also share how their music becomes their hope, their cure, their path to healing and redemption. However, self-awareness for an artist can be very tricky, very painful, very eye opening if you’re willing to confront your mistakes as well as your accomplishments.
AR: I drank and I was not being my true self and so this album is a reflection of a lot of the heartache that was brought about through those years of not looking inward and not doing any work on myself. A lot of struggles that go with that; but, life has its ups and downs so I wanted to incorporate some happy songs, sad songs and some love songs.
MP-D: How do you how do you process your creative sparks, paper notes, manuscript writing, recordings?
AR: A little bit of everything. I start with a nice melody that will come into my head, put it on my on my phone in voice notes and then go through all my notes and see what inspires me to write. The melody will usually have a vibe to it where I can write some lyric around it. Other times I’ll just get a cool idea that maybe rolls off the tongue, a line or something. I’ve got a running list of things I meant to bring up to Chris so there’s more there for down the road.
MP-D: What does this album represent to you on your artistic musical journey?
AR: It’s a stepping away from my past life. I am more authentic. It represents freedom to create how I feel like I was supposed to create all these years and I was just too afraid thinking that people would reject me. It’s not always comfortable but that is growth. You’ve got to iron out the kinks.
MP-D: here is a very authentic sound and approach to your music and songs and vocals in a very soothing James Taylor kind of way. What is your style when you perform? What instruments do you like to bring into your live performance?
AR: I always feel that live performance separates the artists. If you have the money you can go into a studio but I never perform with backtracks and I hope I never do. I like to have live instruments, steel guitar, fiddle, bass drums, piano. I like big band support and I like to surround myself with musicians that are better than me, you know to lift me up. As for venues, a smaller, more intimate setting suits what we are trying to do with this album. More scaled back from the big country festivals where I used to play with a full band; but, that was more to help people have a good time and party. This is more for a listening crowd.
MP-D: What are your plans for the rest of 2025?
AR: Getting out, booking shows, promoting the album. I really want to work at getting it out there for people.
MP-D: As for your personal life, you are married to Erin and you have a little girl?
AR: Yes, Erin is a co-writer. We thought when we were first dating maybe we’ll do a duo and we found out early that it was too close for comfort but we co-wrote “Agreeable Grey” and “Watching the World Go By”. There is something special about creating with your partner. My daughter is two and a half and we are in the thick of things right now. She loves to sing. We don’t teach her. It’s just kind of in her and it’s so cute and so amazing to hear her.
MP-D: I read that people in your hometown, Kipling, installed a billboard in your honor. How did this come about?
AR: Around 2015-2016, I won awards with my second album when I received an email from the town saying, ”We are proud of you and we would like to put a billboard up in your honor.” I was so choked up. I could not believe it. You don’t always get an honor like that. It’s pretty cool! I’m grateful that they valued what I’ve done.
MP-D: I want to circle back to the album again to the last song called “Settling Up”.
AR: It is a song about settling down with my family in my hometown. It’s about redemption and healing and songwriting leading you or putting you on that path again where you believe you should be right now. I was selfish along the way and more focused on my music career that anything else. So that song is about stopping and realizing … There’s a line about showing how slow the river flows on by or how tall the mountains are when they touch the sky. It’s like taking a second to just slow down, look at your life, look at the beauty of this gift of life that you have in your child now as a parent and a father.
Alex Runion can be found here:
Instagram: @AlexRunions
Facebook: @AlexRunionsMusic
TikTok: @alexrunions
X: @AlexRunions
Spotify: artist.sptfy.com/R2jD
YouTube: @AlexRunionsMusic
