Video: Runnner, ‘Heliotrope’

Kevin Bronson on February 20th, 2020

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Members of Runnner — the electronic-folk ensemble helmed by Noah Weinman and Nate Lichtenberger — are wearing yellow rain slickers in the video for their latest single “Heliotrope,” even though there’s not a drop of precipitation in sight. It’s as if they expect gloom to descend at any minute.

It turns out that the only thing in the atmosphere is the gentle coat of electronics that give the acoustic guitar- and banjo-driven ballad a propulsive, ethereal feel. The song, the follow-up to the band’s 2019 EP “Fan On,” is named for the plant whose flowers always face the sun. So why so cloudy?

Weinman explains that the single came from a batch of songs he wrote “all kind of meditating on the same theme of feeling bad in really nice situations.

“Whatever the opposite of seasonal [affective] disorder is essentially, when rather than being able to blame your sadness on the cold or snow or rain, you can only blame yourself, and that makes it harder in some ways,” he told The Line of Best Fit. “It’s also about feeling that way publicly, and being exposed in that way. All the songs on the last EP were written more or less about just being alone. Now that we tour more and Runnner just exists a bit more publicly, I’ve really had to become more aware of how my mood gets perceived and how it might affect those around me.”

Enjoy their emotional weather report here.

||| Watch: The video for “Heliotrope”