Video: Tom Freund, ‘Runaround’

S.Lo on January 15th, 2019

0

Life can be a winding road yet sometimes one has to get through those twists and turns before arriving where one needs to be. Singer-songwriter Tom Freund considers this in his latest single, “Runaround,” off his latest album, “East of Lincoln,” self-released last year via his Surf Road Records imprint.

Freund cut his musical teeth in his teen and early adult years on jazz bass, guitar and vocals on New York City’s theater and club circuit while attending Columbia University and doing TV music work on the side. The wunderkind then followed the winds to fairer weather and soon after arriving at Pitzer College on the very east end of Los Angeles County, met his first songwriting soulmate Ben Harper and adjusted his meter to alt folk Americana, later joining up with roots rockers the Silos, then picking up a few side gigs (with Brit pub rocker Graham Parker and soul artist Bret Dennen), collaborations (with Elvis Costello, Jackson Browne, Victoria Williams, KT Tunstall, Diana Krall, Dave Matthews, Mandy Moore and Rachael Yamagata, among others) and more TV and film work.

Eight solo records later, Harper (who produced Freund’s 2008 album “Collapsible Pains”) returns as a contributor on a couple tracks (“Abandoning the Ship” and “Dream On (Believe in Yourself)”). The bright and thoughtful new full-length is co-produced by Freund and Sejo Navajas (Smoke Season’s Gabrielle Wortman, Vintage Trouble), with legendary producer Jim Scott adding his sonic touch on “Homer Simpson’s Clouds (Day of the Locust)” and “Poached Eggs.” Freund is featured front and center on vocals, guitar, mandolin, ukulele, synth and his signature upright bass on the album, while drummers Matt Johnson (St. Vincent, Jeff Buckley) and Michael Jerome (Toadies, John Cale, Blind Boys of Alabama), pedal and lap steel guitarist Ben Peeler (Dawes, Shelby Lynne, Father John Misty), keyboardists Rami Jaffe (Foo Fighters, Ryan Adams) and Chris Joyner (Sara Bareilles, Rickie Lee Jones), and violinist Jessy Greene (Wilco, the Jayhawks) join in around him.

Though the recording is fully staffed up, the video for “Runaround” (directed by DJ Pierce and Freund) keeps things plain and simple, with just Freund singing the song with his guitar in different beautiful spots around the Recovery 2.0 addiction recovery center in Joshua Tree. Take this moment to breathe in, consider all the places you’ve been, breathe out, and do the sun salutation.

||| Watch: The video for “Runaround”