Country trio Runaway June are back with new music, sharing the boot-stomping, fire-worthy ‘Make Me Wanna Smoke’ everywhere now. The trio’s first release since replacing original vocalist Naomi Cooke with Stevie Woodward and signing with Quartz Hill Records, ‘Make Me Wanna Smoke’ is instantly relatable to anyone who’s ever been in a relationship that’s not quite over, but probably should be. We were thrilled to catch up with the band from deep in the bowels of the convention centre in Nashville during CMAFest.
It’s great to talk to you guys again, thank you for taking time out of your busy CMAFest schedule to talk to me.
All: Absolutely, of course! Thank you.
What does your CMAFest week look like?
Stevie: We are on at the Riverside stage at 4.30pm. (this performance was subsequently cancelled due to a severe storm blowing in but the girls still performed an impromptu set in the lobby of the Hilton in Downtown Nashville!) We actually have a show in Texas on Saturday! So, we’re flying out on Friday and flying back into Nashville at 7am and going straight to the venue!
Natalie: That Riverfront stage is one of the best stages around but it can be hard with the full sun shining down on you. At leats it’s covered for the artists now, there were a few years where it wasn’t covered.
It’s great to see Stevie in the band, when the announcement was made I thought you’d gone another way and Steve Winwood had joined the band!
(laughing) Stevie: That would have been a very different direction for the band to have taken.
Natalie: Yep…. and in a slight departure for Runaway June…………(laughing)
To Jen and Natalie – what was it about Stevie that makes her the right person and the right vocalist for Runaway June?
Jen: Everything. (laughing) There’s nothing that would make her ‘not’ great.
Natalie: She’s just the perfect fit. Jen and I talked about every single scenario under the sun in terms of us moving forward. Stevie was, literally, the first artist that Jen talked to me about. We looked at everybody but she was the first person we thought about. She set the bar, initially, and then no-one else was able to match her for us.
Jen: It was, like, you can’t just fall in love with the first person you go on a date with, right? So we forced ourselves to keep looking around but we had already fallen in love! (laughing)
Was Naomi’s departure sudden or was it something that you knew was coming down the pipeline?
Jen: We knew for a little while which gave Natalie and I a chance to try and figure things out. Do we keep going? Do we move forward as a duo? Natalie and I did play a few shows as a duo and we were just fine but we felt that Runaway June had always been a trio and we do love those three-part harmonies! Basically we decided that if we could find someone who made the band better, we would become a trio again and if we didn’t, we would stay a duo.
Stevie – Tell me something interesting you’ve learned about Jen and Natalie since joining the band.
(All laughing)
Stevie: Now that’s an interesting question! (laughing) When I met them, initially, it was obvious just how genuine they were. They are both so kind and great to be around. The more time I spent with them the more obvious how true those early feelings were. We feel more like sisters than band mates, honestly!
Natalie: When you are in a band together and spending so much time in each other’s company, it’s really important to all be on the same team and that’s something that, I think, the three of us do really well. We all balance each other out really well. We don’t always agree on everything but the way we talk through disagreements is really healthy and helps us to create our best work.
Jen: All of our intentions are in the right place, even when we do disagree on something.
Natalie – you had a rough start to the year, health wise, is everything OK now?
Natalie: Everything is wonderful now, thank you for asking. It was a wild ride and it was kinda unexpected but I am back to being 100% again now.
Before I talk to you about ‘Make Me Wanna Smoke’, let’s talk about ‘No Matter What’, the song you did with Chrissy Metz (This Is Us actress and singer). How did that collaboration come about?
Jen: Thanks for asking about that one. I co-wrote that song with her and Phil Barton. Chrissy is a sweet, wonderful and talented person. When we were in the room together she was, like, ‘Do you think Runaway June would want to be a part of this song?’ It happened naturally and Chrissy fell in love with the girls too. I just wrote with her again a couple of days ago and she was still raving about Natalie and Stevie.
When you write with someone like Chrissy, what does she bring? Does she bring lyrics? Melodies?
Jen: Both. She really knows what she wants to say too. As an artist she really knows what her vision is and what she wants to say, which makes working with her really fun and easy too.
You have a new record label in Quartz Hill and a new management company too. Is the process of getting new representation a stressful process?
Natalie: That’s an interesting question! (laughing)
Stevie: Change is always hard and you have to make sure you find the right people. You know, people who are in your corner and will have your back. Luckily, we’ve been able to find that with Quartz Hill. They are people who can see this band maybe moving the needle in a little bit of a different direction whilst still keeping those three-part harmonies and keeping to the core of who and what Runaway June is.
‘Make Me Wanna Smoke’ has a kind of Rock edge to it, a little bit more muscle behind it. Was that a deliberate move on your part?
Jen: Absolutely.
Stevie: Natalie and I grew up listening to Rock music and Jen listened to it to too, so just incorporating those elements into our sound seemed like a natural thing to do. We want to make the Runaway June live show really rocking.
Jen: These two girls alongside me make me way cooler now! (laughing)
So why ‘Make Me Wanna Smoke’ first as opposed to some of the other songs I know you’ve got up your sleeves?
Natalie: It was an immediate yes for me the first time I heard the song. I could see us playing it right away. That’s the thing, right? When you are a songwriter a new song or an outside cut coming in has to be something that makes you say, ‘oh my gosh, I wish I had written that!’ It needs to sound like something that could be in your brain that you just haven’t managed to get down on paper. I felt like that about ‘Make Me Wanna Smoke.’
Ella Langley was part of the co-writing team on ‘Make Me Wanna Smoke’. She seems to be an artist on the way up in Nashville right now. Have you much experience of working with her?
Jen: No, none of us have. When we found out she was a co-writer it was so cool. She ended up releasing the song too and all of us ended up listening to her music because we were, like, ‘well, if we like this song we might like a lot more of what she does.’ She’s amazing.
Can you give us a hint of what other songs you have that might be coming down the line?
Stevie: We’re in the studio right now working on new material. We’ve recorded two other songs. One is called ‘Kind of Whiskey’ and the other is called ‘Fine Wine’ so we’ve been joking all week that we’ll have the smoke, the whiskey and the wine out fairly soon! (laughing) We’re writing a ton together, we’re recording the best songs we can and we’re really excited about it.
Are you writing as a three or are you taking on co-writers as well?
Stevie: Both of the above! Solo writes, co-writes, the three of us. Anything and everything.
Natalie: We’re on the plate right now and we’re exploring what we can do. It’s great being in a band with two other songwriters too because it’s then not all on one person’s shoulders.
If you could phone an artist or writer that you haven’t worked with yet and book a writing room in Nashville with them tomorrow, who would you choose?
Jen: Patty Griffin.
Stevie: I have three. Sheryl Crow. Mike Campbell (Tom Petty’s guitarist) and Brandi Carlile.
Natalie: Kara Dioguardi would be top of my list. I’ve loved the songs she has written the whole of my life.
