Credit: Run Dan Run

Run Dan Run [Official Site, MySpace]

If you dig The Postal Service, or even those UPS commercials where that guy turns a two dimensional square into a three dimensional laptop, then you should be listening to Run Dan Run. In a word: fantastic. You’ll find yourself singing “Your Name Escapes Me” all day long - the lyric delivery is timed in such a way that you’d think the band has an algorithm for enabling songs to stick in people’s heads - look out, Rivers Cuomo! You’ll also ponder about this name that has escaped, as you get lost in the upbeat cyclical nature of the song. Read on, as vocalist Dan McCurry stops running for a moment to give us some insight into the song and recently released album, Basic Mechanics.

Holly Perry (HP): What’s the story behind “Your Name Escapes Me?”

Dan McCurry (DM): Well, I was playing a jazz/funk gig one night at a local bar and on break. I was fiddling around on the keyboard as I always do, and came
up with the musical riff from the beginning that’s played through the verses. I really liked it so I took it home with me and worked on it later. I think at the time I had some lyrical ideas swimming around my head that weren’t attached to any music at all. I think about a week later I got a phone call from a friend asking me if I’d like to play some songs in this singer/songwriter showcase. I had never actually played out with my songs ever (I think my friend Erin was probably the only person who knew at the time that I even wrote songs at all) and I jumped at the opportunity. With that show coming up I was prompted to come up with something new and “Your Name Escapes Me” just happened over the course of one weekend locked up away from the rest of the world.

HP: Did the name ever come back to you (was there a name to begin with that influenced this song)?

DM: I have an obsession with everyday conversational language and idioms that we use to communicate. I’m often writing down what I hear my friends and random people say because I just love how direct this language can be. I know I had heard “your name escapes me” or maybe just “the name escapes me (at the moment, etc.)” before, and it was something that kept coming up as a strong lyrical/thematic direction to take.

HP: Please don’t take this the wrong way, but Your Name Escapes Me’s melody reminds me of old school Nintendo - like playing Zelda - it’s quite enjoyable, upbeat and fun. How did you decide on and develop this sound?

DM: I think I’d been listening to a lot of Postal Service and Figurine at the time. Keyboard is also my main axe so naturally I want to use all the retro keyboard/synth sounds. I think with this one I just went with it. Oh, and I kinda wanted it to be the next “dance dance revolution” hit song which i’m pretty sure it could be. Just think, all of those kids, “left-right-right-back-left”-ing it to the sweet beats of my Roland 808 drum machine. H-O-T.

HP: I love the irony of the repetition of words in the song and the imagery it creates - was this intentional?

DM: This was most intentionally intentional. I liked how the first verse opened up/tied in so when I was doing the second verse I modeled it after the first. I think the goal was to turn words in ways that make them new. I like to recycle ideas and make them my own (since I can’t come up with any new ones).

HP: Who are your influences, musical or otherwise?

DM: I’d say right now some of my biggest influences are Broken Social Scene, Benjamin Gibbard, The Notwist, Laura Veirs, Stars, and Slowrunner. I think these are probably the influences that I pull from the most, either from a lyrical standpoint or an orchestrational/sound spectrum standpoint, or both.

HP: What do you want listeners to take away from this song, and/or from your album Basic Mechanics?

DM: I think overall I’d hope that listeners can just find something they can relate to in there, something about a song or a few or maybe just in the entire flow of the record that feels like a friend, like someone or something understands them. I’d hope that there is a song somewhere on there that’ll harmonize with their feelings at some given point in time, and at that point they can put that song on repeat and feel like an equilibrium is being reached. And perhaps the music will help them define that point in their life and help them in their own defining/refining/redefining process for themselves. Simply put, I hope that the album is honest to them.

HP: What are you currently listening to?

DM: Right now I’ve been listening to the new Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew Spirit If… on repeat for a month. I just got the new Stars album, In Our Bedroom After The War, which i’ve been checking out along with their remix/collab. album Do You Trust Your Friends?. I usually work some Laura Veirs in there somewhere - she’s really big for me. I also have been into Halloween, Alaska recently and Steven Fiore & The Good People, The Makeshift EP.

Run Dan Run - “Your Name Escapes Me” [mp3]