“It’s one way to avoid the AI conundrum” – An Interview with Run Remedy
Run Remedy, the project of New Jersey born singer-songwriter Robin Koob, have just released a fantastic new EP Not at the Table. Recorded in a converted shipping container in her current hometown of Manchester, the six tracks were completed over a two week period with longtime collaborators Sean Rogan and Rhys Jiang. After last year’s debut LP Xtian Skate Night drew critical acclaim and airplay from 6 Music’s Guy Garvey and Craig Charles, Not at the Table looks certain to continue Run Remedy’s upward trajectory.
The new EP showcases the range of styles that make Run Remedy such a compelling listen and balances delicate folk intimacy with art-pop edge, post-rock builds and moments of off-kilter humour. Opening with lead single “Big Nothing” which reflects the hyper-awareness of walking home alone at night, where every shadow sharpens and every sound amplifies through brooding verses and a frantic chorus. Newest single “Friends with cars” is an alt-pop beauty that examines the transactional edges of modern friendship, where care and convenience blur and there is a new version of 2024 single “Turf War” that is more reflective than the original.
We had a lovely chat with Robin a few weeks ago and talked about the new EP, having Guy Garvey on speed dial and confusing the Spotify algorithm.
IDOV – Hi! Thanks for chatting with us. How’s things going?
Run Remedy – Really good, I’m having a good summer. I got loads of festivals, I’m doing Camper Calling, two festivals on Sunday.
IDOV – I saw that. You’re trying to get some transportation sorted?
RR – I succeeded! I got a friend with a car! I feel like a chicken, though, because I’ve got my Jersey license and I have my UK license, but I was looking at 6 hours of driving and I’m doing 4 sets. I’m playing as Run Remedy and then I’m playing violin and singing on my mate’s set. Then we’re doing that again at the second festival, which is called The Big Festival, an hour away.
IDOV – Yeah, that’ll be a lot.
RR – Yeah, so, thankfully my friend, she’s an artist as well, and she does live sound, her name’s Hannah Ashcroft, but she’s mid-tour right now, and she’s like “I’ll do it!”. Hannah, coming in clutch. Love you!
IDOV – That’s great! So, we ask everyone three questions – the first one is which classic album cover art is your current mood?
RR – For me, it’s Tigermilk by Belle and Sebastian, if we’re allowed to call 1996 Classic.
IDOV – Oh yeah, totally. That’s 30 years ago. That’s classic.
Run Remedy: It’s dreamy and bizarre, black and white, and they have all that imagery that’s like very 90s and it’s Glasgow, but it’s the 60s, you know? There’s always that 30 year influence happening and she’s sitting in a bathtub, literally breastfeeding a baby tiger. When I first looked at it, it caught me out. It catches my male gaze. All I see right now is, ooh, pretty nude lady. And then you look and you’re like, is that a freaking tiger? I’ve been revisiting all of the Belle and Sebastian stuff because I just love it. It’s twee and silly and makes me happy and you know that was the case for them as well, in the 90s when Glasgow was completely down and out. They were just making wacky, weird, slightly melancholic, but romantic stuff.
IDOV – So your new EP, Not at the Table, is out in a couple of weeks. I’ve been having a listen to it and it’s awesome. When did you write and record the songs?
RR: Gosh, I guess two years ago. I like being a body of work ahead. So whenever I’m in release strategy mode, I’m still in creative mode doing something else, doing the next thing. So anytime it’s time to work on music, it’s not just the slog of admin and release strategy and making social media content and promotion. I can still escape.
I wrote all the songs over the span of maybe 6 months or so, and then got all my pals together in what was then a shipping container studio in a field up here in Manchester.
IDOV – You can’t tell. It sounds really good.
RR – I also really like that sound of things sounding where they’re made. It’s one way to avoid the AI conundrum. We’re all staring down the barrel of the gun at the moment. I’ve been keeping mistakes in. Not huge mistakes, but things like if you bump a microphone in a record in a live recording, or my drummer dropped his sticks at one point, and I was “keep going!” you know? That’s just in the background now. I was talking about that with Guy Garvey, I did an interview on 6 Music with him, he’s such a legend.
IDOV – Namedropper! I was going to ask about that later on.
RR – He just messaged me because he’s gonna play “Dissent” on Sunday on 6 Music so I’m excited. I’m trying not to pester him too much, because I have the power of having his number, but I’m such a fan.
IDOV – I’ve loved Elbow going back years and years. How does that feel when someone like Guy Garvey reaches out and loves your music?
RR – Dude, it’s been so wild. I was living in China when I first heard Elbow. I was literally making mixtapes because you have the Great Chinese Firewall, you can’t get a lot of music over there. I had a friend and we did a little exchange… it wasn’t a mixtape, it was mixMP3 and I was cycling. I think it was “Mirrorball”, and I lost it and I had to pull my bike over to the side, stop cycling and listen to it. You shouldn’t cycle and listen.
I met him because I was working at a pub in lockdown, just mopping up, and I was whistling Billy Joel “The Stranger”. I was being a little melodramatic, closing up the pub, and he was there a lot with his nieces because it’s right next to Blueprint Studios. I never wanted to be that guy that was like, “Hi, I’m a musician!” But he pointed at me as he was leaving the pub and went, “The Stranger by Billy Joel”. And I was like “Yeah!” So when I just cold emailed him, the subject line was “Whistling Billy Joel at the Eagle Pub” and he read out my email, he didn’t read the copy online, he read my email, my cringy email, I was like, “Hi Guy!” And he’s played almost all of my stuff since then. I did an interview with him and we just chatted for hours and occasionally swapped karaoke locations. Apparently he does Neil Diamond. I asked him, “be honest, do you ever sing Elbow?” And he’s like, “no, no!”
IDOV – Back to your new EP, Is it kind of a companion project to Xtian Skate Night? Because some of the themes seem to kind of cross over there a little bit on some of the songs?
RR: Well, Xtian Skate Night was my splatter art piece, I just put it all in. I was learning how I recorded, how I like to produce, how I wanted my voice to sound so I threw all the paint at the wall with that one. And this was pretty soon after so yeah, you’re right. But also a lot of my songs don’t necessarily follow a specific arrangement, they follow the story so I’m always word painting. This is the song, this is what it’s about, what should it sound like to bring forth those themes. That’s why I get classed as genre-bending all the time. Because I’m not playing a genre, I’m crafting a song.
IDOV – Yeah, you’re hard to pigeonhole into one genre – I think that’s a good thing though.
RR – I mean, Spotify doesn’t like me for that. I don’t fit an algorithm but I don’t care!
IDOV – You’ve also recorded a new version of your 2024 single “Turf War” which is a bit more subdued. Why did you decide to record that for this EP?
RR – I’m so curious to ask people when they hear it, which version they like more. I love covering my own songs. Sometimes I feel like the way I’ve approached the song production wise is really good, but it’s got more to say. There are two different approaches and I’ve got loads of live versions of my song “Tribulation” that are out there, and sometimes people find the live version, and that brings them to the studio version, or brings them to version B. I’ve been putting out demo versions of things, anything that is showing the process and showing some of the decision-making along the way, I think it’s cool, I’m not hiding the strings of the marionettes, it’s like, here we go!
And “Turf War” for me, the first one is such a bop, I feel maybe you don’t pay attention to what I’m saying as much as the energy of the song and I really wanted to do a closer and intimate-focused version of it to really get people listening to the lyrics and my voice doing really different things that it knows how to do now.
I’m also a huge ASMR person, I have a really strong auto central meridian response. So, I make music with lots of little ear treats and stuff that triggers that for other people that enjoy a good brain scratch. I want people who listen to it a second time to hear something else this time, you know?
IDOV – Okay, second question we ask everyone. If you could only listen to one record, what would it be?
RR – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco. I grew up in South Jersey, Philly as well. They’re from Chicago but that sort of Americana indie ecosystem – somewhere between folk rock and indie and still earnest singer-songwriter approach like all the Philly stuff that I grew up listening to because of my older sister, like Dr. Dog, Kurt Vile, all of the Bruce torchbearers. But, that album, I have listened to it about a million times from beginning to end and it just hits me in all of the feels for the different things. It’s really touching songwriting. If you ever approach some of the songs, some of it’s really hard to play. There are odd bars, there are key changes, there’s all these scruffy little bleep loops, and that’s the same DNA that informs my production. You can go from the track “Kamera” which gives you that “I’m just walking around the neighborhood” bop with really dry guitars and the drums are so dead and cool. To “Ashes of American flags” which is a complete heartbreaker and also kind of gets the joy and loathing of being American. I think about that a lot because I’m faced with it out here. I can’t tell you how many times people in a cafe hear me talk, and they’re like, American!
IDOV – So that’s a good segue because you’ve lived in a lot of different places, like China, South Korea, and now you’re in Manchester. Do you think that’s one reason your music is so genre-defying? Do you think you’ve kind of taken influences from everywhere, or is it just the way you’ve always approached music?
RR – Well, it’s also because I’m a session player. I’m a violinist, and I play rhythm guitar and sing backing vocals. I’ve played in post-rock projects, I’ve played in twee indie stuff, I’ve played in big band stuff, I’ve played jazz. I’ve done weird tours, doing black metal in the Netherlands, doing backbends on stage with a violin, being dramatic, wearing black, like, whatever! So little snippets of all that creep their way in and it just means your whole horizon is really broad. But sometimes that’s why I like working within limitations song by song. Not every song can be every genre. But yeah, I felt a little bit that way with Xtian Skate Night, but I’m getting more and more concise now.
IDOV- I was reading that you had a classical upbringing but you had an injury that stopped you really taking that where you wanted to. Do you still miss that side of it, or have you kind of got over that?
RR – Sometimes, but I see a lot of classical kiddos out here and I miss the pieces, I miss the feeling of sitting in the orchestra as we swarm into a Dvorak piece and you’re like, oh my god, I’m a cog in this massive wheel and here we go! That’s so sick, but, ugh, the life around it of 6 to 8 hours of practicing scales in the practice room alone and you’re competing for positions that are filled. It’s dead men’s shoes, you know, people will not move out of those orchestral seats. Not as many people are buying symphonic orchestral tickets. It’s a really stressful world and it’s really lonely and really competitive. I also don’t miss playing the Canon in D for weddings, although I still have to do that every once in a while to pay the bills. The ceremony slot at the wedding is still the best one. You have 3 songs, high stakes, good pay, get out! But I like when people are a little more creative. I did Evermore Festival recently. That was fun.
IDOV – Your first release was in 2021, your EP Wife. What did you learn from that that you’ve applied to recording the new EP?
RR – That was a real hack job. I don’t hate the songs, you know, but I didn’t really know much about production, I just sort of put a mic in front of me and went for it, which is cool. The third track, the one for my sister, Jenny, that’s a whole raw take, it’s just me on guitar and singing, and then, I added a few little overdubs, but the whole thing is just a raw live take. So even from the beginning, I knew that I liked capturing live sound in different ways as much as I can, and I do that again with “Turf War” the first version. I do it again with “Unwaltz” on Xtian Skate Night. That’s all live with overdubs in a room on the same day so I’ve always been enamored with live recording and then I just learned how to do it a little bit better.
IDOV – Run Remedy. Where did the name come from and what were the other names that didn’t quite make the cut?
RR – I think it was always gonna be Run Remedy because I love alliterations. My name’s Robin and I’ve been a teacher for so many years, on and off that I can’t use my actual name and I also like separation of church and state in that regard, you know? When I’m Robin, it’s usually when I’m accredited for strings on a track, or something like that, and when I’m Run Remedy, it’s this corner of my creative brain.
But it’s a bit of a sad story from when my mom passed. She always used to make fun of me because I’d run away as a kid a lot. And I did run away. The whole Christian enclave thing. If you listen to Xtian Skate Night, you get the idea. Two preacher parents. So when she was passing away, she was really sick, she fought cancer for 15 years, and she won until she didn’t. We had a lot of really good moments and hard nights towards the end of her life when we were looking after her, but she scolded me for always playing other people’s music and not really doing mine. And I threatened her. I was like, “if I do it, I’m gonna dig into some of the heavy stuff in our family”. And she was like, “eh, I’ll be dead!”
Yeah, she’s funny. She was like, stop just doing everyone else’s songs. I used to run up to my room when the family was fighting or when things were harder. I’d get stressed out and then music was always what healed me or helped me figure stuff out. So, yeah, run, remedy. Remedy is the music, right? And I like alliteration!
IDOV – You’ve got some shows coming up, some festivals and things you mentioned. I read that you “couldn’t be arsed to do a fancy poster”. That’s not a very social media literate way to go about getting people to come and see you
RR: Well, I’m doing it all myself for the most part, I’ve just gotten a manager recently named Carrie, she’s American.
IDOV – We know Carrie! She also manages Wynona Bleach and we met a couple of years ago.
RR: She’s such a sweetheart. Anyway, recently I played Kendal Calling and a few people saw me there and approached me to play a couple of other festivals. And I just did a post recently where I just listed all my gigs I’ve got coming up and I was like, somebody help me! I can sort out a gig, time, place, who’s playing, but I need to make it a proper tour and my brain’s just not framing it the right way. I’ve got all the get up and go, I have no problem making an ass of myself, calling people and making stuff happen but I need someone to help me just organize it in my head.
And this guy, Tom, got back to me with “I’ll do it, I’ll be your live booker, I do it all the time for different artists.” We’ve been hitting it off, having Zoom calls, because he lives a little far away, and he’s got a cute dog named Bundo, and he’s finally made me a spreadsheet. We’re gonna actually plan things out so that I have a form. I just have a ton of gigs but they’re not tethered together as a tour or anything. I’m not complaining. I got a lot of gigs, and they’re original gigs, and it does the same thing as a tour, right? People will see me sing and perform my own music and buy my merch and build up hype. I just haven’t made a poster where it’s “These are all part of the Not at the Table tour”. I’m more, they’re just a bunch of gigs, come to whichever ones you can, I don’t know.
IDOV – Last question we ask everyone. What would go on your signature pizza and what would it be called?
RR – This one was brutal for me because I am lactose intolerant which sucks because I love cheese. It hates me but I love it and I have, over the years, carved my way back into eating as much cheese as I can. I’ve tested and figured out which ones are really low in lactose and which ones I like. I’m not vegan.
IDOV – Vegan cheese is just the worst.
RR – It’s plastic, it sticks to the roof of your mouth, I am not here for it. It’s a joke. I have so many vegan friends that are like, “but have you tried this one from cashews or mushrooms?” Get it away from me! So, I have blessedly discovered that buffalo cheese is much lower in lactose so I can usually get away with buffalo cheese.
I’ve got 5 possible names cause I love puns. You can tell me which one you like the most but they’re all basically a joke. The whole pizza will just be a regular red sauce pizza, covered in buffalo cheese and cheeses that are low in lactose. So, option one…”The Lactose Loophole”. Again, an alliteration. All right, number two is “The Dairy Escape Plan”.
Three is ”The Coward’s Whey Out”
IDOV – Oh, I like that. I like that.
RR – Because we’ve got cow and whey. Next is “No Whey Jose” on the same theme And then finally, just for fun, “The Buffalo Soldier”.
IDOV – I like the middle one. I like “The Coward’s Whey Out”. That’s my level of Dad joke.
RR – Okay, well then there you go. I love dad jokes. If you pay close attention to some of the lyrics on Not At The Table, I’m constantly sneaking in puns. Zoom in to the lyrical content. Find the puns. Count them. If you just listen to “Turf War”, there’s a lot of puns.
IDOV – That’ll be my afternoon listening then. Apart from all your festivals and stuff, what’s next for Run Remedy in 2026 and into next year?
RR – I’m at the mixing stage of the next album and I’ve written four songs after that that are little ditties. That’ll probably be the next EP, but I’m releasing little demo versions of them now because I’m not interested in holding back. Guy Garvey played two of my songs that are in progress on 6 Music. They’re not mixed, they’re not mastered. Yeah, more festivals, some more showcase festivals, hopefully I’ll get back to New York and New Jersey and get to Philly as well.
You can find out more about Run Remedy and get tickets for one of the upcoming shows by visiting her website and follow Robin on Instagram and Facebook for all the latest news on new releases.
Feature Image Credit – Emily Mercer
