With over 15 years of musical accomplishments, it’s easy to see why Alex Runions’ hometown of Kipling, Saskatchewan raised a billboard in his honour. After taking his first industry steps with his debut self-titled 2009 album, which was produced by CCMA-winning Bart McKay, the Canadian artist broke through in 2013 as Big Dog 92.7 and Astral Media’s choice for “The Next Big Thing”. Through the decade, Runions enjoyed a string of charting Canadian country radio singles like “Passenger Seat”, “FM Dial”, “Little Bit of Sunshine” and a second album, “South of the City”, to go along with the collaboration track, “Just Watch Me” -with Dean Kush and JJ Voss -that served as a cornerstone to a fundraising campaign for the Canadian Cancer Society.
Today we’re excited to be teaming up again with Alex Runions to give our readers an exclusive behind the scenes look at his new album, Above the Clouds and On the Ground!
Hey Live in Limbo!
Alex Runions here. I’m really happy to be sharing my new album, “Above the Clouds and On the Ground”, which you can hear on all streaming platforms right now.
Thanks for inviting me to take you behind the album!
“On an Island”
“On an Island” is a song that I started in my basement. I was feeling lost and alone in my relationship and I remember I had some drinks that night and I was feeling like there wasn’t a lot of hope.
I brought this song to Chris Burke Gaffney and we wrote it together and tried to create the imagery around being on an island even if you are living in the same house as another person. This idea stemmed after I heard for the second time someone say to me that they felt alone in the relationship. This was the first time I looked to myself as being the problem.
“Day by Day”
“Day by Day” is another song that is about sobriety and trying to come clean. It’s a hard pill to swallow when you realize and you start to look internally. I brought this song to one of my most trusted co-writers, Steve Mitchell, and I will never forget how grateful he was to be a part of this song and how grateful he was to listen to my open and honest story over sobriety.
The idea came from a phrase that my mother used to say to me when I would call her when things in life weren’t great, she would say “Alex, you just need to take it day by day and things will get better.”
“Tell ‘em All”
This is a song that I brought to Chris Burke-Gaffney to write together. He really loved the song and came up with some incredible lyrics around a person who is trying to do good, they mean well, but they keep missing the mark.
This is how I was feeling when it came to drinking. I felt that I needed to leave and be alone and I didn’t know what was going to happen, but it was the only way for me to figure myself out. The idea behind this song is that it doesn’t take much for you to slip up and start drinking again, it is an insidious addiction.
“Missing Piece”
As Chris and I were writing this song, I knew that it was going to be one of my absolute favorites I’ve ever written. This is a simple song that’s basically been done before but we just added our own twist to it.
I feel as though it fits the theme of the album because it’s not a standard love song in that the focus is the missing piece, but the lyric almost has a somewhat negative tone to it. I felt I was truly able to try something vocally that I haven’t done in the studio before.
“Watching the World Go By”
In 2018, my wife Erin and I went to Nashville to do some co-writing. It was a great trip – we stayed at my then-manager’s pool house. The morning we were about to go for another co-write, we were sitting around the pool and everything seemed right in the world. We didn’t have an idea going into that day, but I had this idea that popped into my head and I thought it made sense to me. It was how we’re just sitting here watching the world go by.
I think in essence the idea around the song is we’ve got everything we’ve been looking for and that we’ve worked for, but we want the world to slow down a little bit and go back to a time where it was easier and we were carefree and just watching the world go by. We brought this song to Joey Ebach and Ryland Fisher. From there, Chris Burke Gaffney and I made some adjustments in the studio when we went to record it.
“My Reason”
I wrote this song about 10 plus years ago. I’ve always loved the song and thought it was catchy and that the lyrics were great. For some reason, I don’t think it fit in with the style of music I used to do. I’ve always kind of written this type of music but it just never hit with radio, so I never got this one recorded.
I brought this one to Chris, he made some adjustments and rearranged some of the choruses and pre-choruses that we had and truly brought it up to the next level. If I’m being honest, this song to me sounds like a Backstreet Boys song and as I’ve secretly always been a Backstreet Boys fan, I decided to keep the song exactly as it is and I absolutely love it. It’s a love song in its simplest form.
“Our Backyard”
In 2014, I went for my very first Nashville co-writing session, which was with Steve Mitchell. This was the song that we wrote together. I’ve always loved it but wasn’t sure how it would do on radio, so it’s been sitting in limbo for 11 years.
It is just a simple and fun song, truly the only song that isn’t of a serious nature on the album. It’s about my favorite place with my favorite people, and I love that we wrote it to include my daughter when we re-wrote some of the lyrics in the studio.
“Agreeable Grey”
My wife went on our writing trip in Nashville a few years back and she wrote this song. It was clearly inspired by our relationship, which was not amazing at this time. I always thought this was one of the most beautiful songs she had written and loved to hear her sing it at live shows. She wrote this with Joey Ebach.
Chris and I reworked some of the lyrics and melody changes in the studio to make it what it is today. We wanted something simple and sad. I feel as though the cello in this song truly makes it what it is and delivers the message. It’s a sad song but we got through the tough times.
“A Song for My Dog”
The title basically says it all. My dog, Kinsey, passed away on March 16th, 2022 at our house on her favorite spot on the couch in my arms. She was a dog that I had through my late 20s and all through my 30s. She was my best friend and helped me get through so many tough times. They say you grieve as much as you loved, and I believe that is true.
I still think about her often. I cried in the studio when we were recording this song. It’s a way to commemorate her memory and it is for others who are grieving the loss of their dog.
“Settling Up”
I met up with one of my most trusted co-writing partners, David Leask. I told him the story of my sobriety and where things are in my life. I showed him the idea of this song that I had and the reasons behind it. He loved the song and a couple of years down the road when I sent him the rough mix of the song, he had mentioned it’s interesting that we wrote this song before I knew my daughter would be here but we somehow speak of her in the bridge of this song.
This song is about redemption, making amends, owning up to what you’ve done and the people you’ve hurt in the past and moving forward to be a better version of yourself than you were the day before. It is the cornerstone of this album.
