Runo Plum is an artist that immediately captured my attention with a single song. “flip your pillow” is a track that articulates perfectly the idea of separation and newfound independence, not to mention the showcase of stunning soft vocals found in Plum’s entire discography.

From the moment I listened to more tracks, I knew I wanted to interview Plum, who has such a gorgeous way of painting imagery through lyrics and elevating this exploration through sound and music. 

It was an absolute pleasure to sit down on a summer afternoon to talk with the artist for her first ever interview on my show, Wrinkled Page Radio, on WXCI 91.7. I first wanted to dig into what inspired her to begin creating music. What has struck me about her work is her ability to write about things with such specificity that is admirable and displays immense vulnerability. 

“Oh gosh, I don’t even know. I guess I’ve been doing music my whole life really. Well, I was a singer… I honestly think probably just the feeling that listening to music gave me, maybe that was probably it. Yeah, I would just listen to a lot of this music. I was like, ‘I want to make something like this,’” Plum explained. It’s clear that music has always been a major impact in her life and something that she gravitated towards creatively. 

“I had been writing since my teen years, but when I really started writing music when I was in my 20s…These songs just felt more meaningful, I guess and then I was like, ‘Okay, I should do this.’” 

I specifically wanted to discuss “yin to yang,” which is the first single that was released on Spotify under the project Runo Plum. As the title suggests, the track captures this sort of disjointed feeling and search for balance. Specific images that stuck out to me was the comparison of the musician herself to a snowball in a flame. I asked where these specific images root from and what it’s like to navigate the imagery that she chooses to use and put together when creating a song. 

“I mean, each song is different. I think for that one… I don’t know, honestly [for] the chorus I was just trying to rhyme…which is kind of embarrassing, but the verses are what I really feel. I think I was just trying to be really dramatic and finding things [that felt] as accurate as I could describe.”

When asked where her ideas start or when inspiration strikes, the artist said, “Each project is definitely different. It’s kind of random, but also not. I have somewhat of an idea of the projects I want to make in the near future. I have a lot of songs that I’ve kind of put into groups. So that helps going into it. I guess writing is way different than recording and producing. Writing feels like the fun part and the less least stressful part. Recording is different…it definitely depends.” 

The artist specifically explained the process behind Jupiter, an EP released in 2022. “For Jupiter, it was easy because well, easy-ish, obviously nothing is easy, but it was just acoustic. So I just had to sit in front of the microphone and play the songs. But…I have another EP out on SoundCloud that is more like drums, bass and has other [instrumentation] like that. Stuff that is way harder because there’s so many other components that you have to worry about. So that process feels crazy, and maybe that’s just because I have done everything myself or with my partner. But yeah, it’s stressful and exciting and fun and not fun…There’s a lot of emotions, honestly, with it, but it’s very extremely rewarding at the end of the day. Especially after you finished it and taking the break and then listening to it and you’re like, ‘I made that. Like, literally. How did I make that?’ I don’t know. It’s so cool.”

Plum went on to tell what inspired her musical influence including fellow indie musicians. The likes of Mac DeMarco, Snail Mail, and Julia Jacqueline came to mind when discussing the musical influences Plum channels; however, the artist explained that she feels her music only sounds like her own rather than an amalgamation of other people.

“People tell me that I sound like specific people, but it’s never like what I think I sound like, so it’s really weird…I feel like there’s a lot of artists that inspire me that I, like, try to sound like, but I don’t actually sound like them.” When listening to any Runo Plum song, it’s clear there’s a distinct style and brilliance behind every track that she produces, which sounds unlike anyone else. 

At the time of doing this interview, the new EP re-recording of songs from 2020 had not yet been announced publicly. Plum delved into this project and what it’s been like to revisit this old project in a new light.

“I just actually recorded an EP in spring.” She explained that songs from 2020 was her first “production EP,” which will be available to listeners Sept. 29.

“It was super amazing…I kind of just wanted to leave it because there were some songs about  an ex. I was like, ‘I don’t want to think about this,’ but it’s been like a few years now. So, now I can objectively look at these songs and now actually thinking about it… [the songs] are just so much of me as an artist,” she said. 

“That was like the first time I really tried to produce with other instruments and it just feels really important to have it out there. It feels really special to me, and it feels hard to even think about recording and writing new things when I still have projects like that I want the world to hear too…With new projects, I just feel really excited.”

It’s been incredible to see the way that Plum’s music has been developing over the course of time. Listeners will be sure to get a brand new experience through listening to the EP from a new lens while still capturing the magic that it originally created.

Many people have resonated with the style that Plum brings to the table as her music has blown up on TikTok and before that was gaining traction on the social media platform Vine. In fact I went to follow her on TikTok while preparing for the interview and found that at some point I had already begun to follow her without even realizing it, meaning that I found appreciation for her music twice at two very different times. 

I wondered what it was like to balance the pressures of social media, especially with it being such a prevalent aspect of her artistry, with the pressure of putting out music and creating art that could be seen by anyone.

“It’s really hard, honestly, like posting regularly. I kind of go through these phases where I will post more on social media, but it’s really tricky. After I started posting, I feel like I got to a point where I was scared to post things that I wasn’t ready to release yet or hadn’t recorded because it can all just happen so quickly, I guess. I don’t know people, people are like, ‘Put this out,’ and I’m like, ‘I haven’t even finished writing it,’ and then it’s like a month or honestly like a year-long process. So that makes it more difficult to post, but it also is a huge gift…I don’t know if gift is the right word but It helps bring in an audience. I wouldn’t even have an audience if it weren’t for TikTok. Yeah, I guess there’s definitely pros and cons.” 

I then asked what it was like to share music before it was even finished and in a form that wasn’t the final vision. “I feel like it used to feel better than it does because now I’m thinking too hard about it. But when I first started [putting out snippets], it felt really good, and it felt easy to be in the moment and really feel this song, but now it feels like all I can think about is what people would think or how soon I can get the song done. It’s a me issue, but yeah,” Plum explained.

On the topic of dealing with so much pressure, I also wanted to discuss the themes of anxiety that feel present in a lot of the music and what it was like to balance that energy. 

“To me, anxiety is similar to sadness where I just assume that everyone deals with it. I’ve never really thought about my music having anything to do with anxiety even though it probably definitely does because I’m anxious.”

She questioned where I picked up on the themes of anxiety, and it’s then that I mentioned the Jupiter EP in particular. “Yeah, that whole project is, I guess, definitely about anxiety, health anxiety specifically. For me, it feels like health anxiety and regular anxiety are separate things. So I think it kind of feels a little easier and less exposing in a way. But I just know that there are so many people who relate to it…as much as it feels really vulnerable, I’m just trying to focus on the fact that I know that there’s lots of people who can relate to it as well.”

The separation between the types of anxiety made clear sense as especially generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) at times can feel even more exposing. With GAD, the symptoms can range from a number of different fears and triggers that relate to it rather than being strictly about health and different medical worries that might pop up. There’s still a strength regardless of the form of anxiety in being able to share those worries with the world and articulate them in such a creative and open way. It’s clear that these struggles have resonated with listeners including myself. 

Beyond the topics of anxiety on the Jupiter EP, however, there’s also a central theme of growing up and navigating young adulthood through your twenties. We delved into how Plum’s music has evolved with her as she has navigated these years. 

“So much of it was subconscious and also I’m kind of still in that, so it feels almost like something that I won’t be able to really think about until I’m out of my 20s…So much can change so quickly, and you’re not even realizing that anything’s happening until you look back. But I guess I would just say for my music evolving, I think really it’s more songwriting. The more I write, the more like me it feels, with the words and I guess everything else,” she said. 

The artist went on to discuss the production process specifically and how that ties into the exploration of navigating creative growth. “A big thing is the production side of it, I guess having faith in myself kind of. I don’t know, for so long, I was like, ‘I can’t produce, I’m just a girl.’ I don’t know. It was so stupid. But I feel like owning that and being like, ‘No, I can do this’ has completely changed my music as well.”

When asked if there is a favorite production process that she gravitates towards, Plum said, “Honestly, probably doing it really, really fast. I have like this template which is on Logic that’s just simple drums and has everything set for me, a bass track, a guitar track, vocal track. If I just do it really quick, make a super quick demo, those are always the best, when I’m not thinking about it and just doing the basics right away.” 

Plum went on to explain what it was like to do the production process for a particular track called “till I go red,” which has two different versions currently released. The original release, which was off of the Jupiter EP, featured much more soft instrumentals with all of the tension present vocally.

The newer version takes on not only a darker color vocally but more bite through the use of drums. Plum revealed that she always pictured drums being a part of the track, the updated version makes sense with the current musical direction that Plum is heading in as she later revealed that she’s currently working on songs for a rock album. 

I asked about what instrument Plum gravitates towards, especially with such differing instrumentation on certain tracks like “till I go red” and the way that the artist’s sound has developed over the course of her discography. An EP on Bandcamp stuck out to me in particular called piano songs, etc and the way that it’s so singular in its idea and how it decides to hone in on one instrument to get the body of work across.

“Definitely guitar right now, when I was doing that piano song one, it was definitely piano and before I even did the Runo Plum project, it was always kind of more piano. Yeah, I knew basic chords on the guitar, but I had never really focused on it…once I started producing, it was like guitar is now, like my main thing.”

Digging deeper into her artistry, I noticed that she refers to Runo Plum as a project rather than herself at times. I asked what it was like to have this separation and what inspired a separate name for this project. 

“I’m just really anxious about the world, and I just like separating it, I think. It feels good and it feels like I can identify more with it as a name. So it is my artist name and my artist project, but also, people in my life call me Runo too, except for my family and [those] who knew me before the project. But it was like a confidence booster, kind of. I could separate myself from it a little bit when I needed confidence…It just helped me take myself more seriously.”

We then explored the topic of the musician’s most recent EP, a project that is entirely collaborative, called mountain songs created by Runo Plum and her partner Philip Brooks. 

“It was really wonderful. I felt so insane when I was making [the previous] projects… I had only been producing for like a year and I didn’t really know what I was doing. It felt so hard and I was doing it all alone and it’s so hard not to have another perspective. [With] mountain songs…it just felt like a snap of a finger and that was done,  probably because I didn’t produce it. I just wrote the lyrics and melodies and then Philip did the rest. So that one honestly was super easy for me.”

She then delved into what it was like to take a step back from producing, especially since Plum was so used to working on that part of the project on her own. “It felt freaking incredible, and it made me realize that I need to let other people help me and not do everything on my own.”

On mountain songs, a lot of the writing feels externalized in comparison to previous works, even in the physical sense, while also feeling very specifically like snapshots in time when you listen. The artist explained that it definitely was exploratory of memories for her partner because they grew up in the area that the pair were exploring in Germany. That familiarity with the area is sort of where that feeling stems from. 

In terms of the external aspect of the EP, Runo said, “We were outside a lot… I mean, that was kind of the basis for the EP. My other projects. I wrote in my room alone in the winter, and then I met Phillip. That whole experience was just extremely magical. You can imagine in 2020, I spent the year in my room basically because of COVID, it was so depressing, and then I went to Germany and we were like outside and we were in love and just so happy. Then yeah, we got the EP.”

Talking more about COVID and the way that it impacted her creative process as it did for many artists during this time, the musician said, “For me it felt like… Well, I wasn’t really in the music scene, so I was just kind of doing my own thing… It felt like I wasn’t really thinking about any other things going on. I kind of forgot that anything was even happening outside of my bedroom, to be honest. But at the time, it felt perfect. It felt like exactly what I needed. I mean, there were little feelings of isolation, but I feel like I was so focused during that time that I was just so happy and content, I guess.” 

Going beyond the beginning of her project and how it sort of came to be during COVID, I wondered what it’s been like to integrate into the music scene given that prior to then, Plum felt as though she was on the outside. 

“I still feel like I am relatively on the outskirts. I haven’t yet played my first official Runo Plum show. I’m going to in a few weeks. But it still feels kind of like looking from the outside because I’m still independent. I haven’t played a show, haven’t been on tour, don’t have a team of any kind or a label or anything like that. I have some friends that make me feel more connected to the scene, which is really, really cool and good. But yeah.”

Plum has been able to build such a following through social media completely independently and is creating organic and  honest music in the process of being able to explore herself fully without limits placed from the industry. It’s a beautiful thing to see an artist be able to cultivate an audience completely on their own terms and thrive while doing so.

The musician mentioned having a group of friends who also create music and make her feel sort of plugged in to the musical scene and everything that it has to offer. Given this connection, I asked if there’s any artists specifically, outside of her partner Philip Brooks, that Plum would like to collaborate with. “I have a friend who is only just beginning to put out music, but they’re one of my favorite artists right now. I’m just freaking obsessed with their music. They’re in a duo, like kind of popish duo. It’s called Cry Sometimes…I’m just so obsessed with their music and there’s one song that they asked me to sing on and I recorded it. I was just like, ‘I hate this. I just want to hear you sing.’ I think it would need to be a thing of like, we wrote the song together… I don’t have any desires. I also feel really focused on putting out the projects that I have planned, so I can’t even think about [new collaborations] really. But I think someday it could be fun after I have more of an established [project].”

We talked about playing as well and the fact that Plum is playing a show with multiple other artists, which is the first show to be known under this project. She explained that she typically feels self-conscious or nervous given that a lot of her songs are acoustic, and she fears it would be boring on stage. Overall, there’s a lot of excitement given the audience that she is playing for and the other artists that are involved. 

“I feel confident that the crowd is really into music like that. So it feels comfortable. Yeah, it feels super comfortable, and I know that the people in the crowd will appreciate music like that, and also Canadians are really nice, so that’s also a plus.”

Plum mentioned that the song she is looking forward to playing most is “the really quiet, depressing ones. I’m excited for that. Those feel the easiest for me to sing. I just feel like that crowd is going to actually understand it and then it’ll feel so good, hopefully.”

The musician did say that there are no plans for a tour currently but that she would love to play more shows if the opportunity arose and that a tour is eventually a goal in the future.

I then asked overall what Plum feels she has learned about herself over the course of her discography and the growth she has experienced both as an artist and as an individual. “Maybe that I need to have more confidence in myself? Or [to] try to be more objective or neutral, I think. I find that the way that I see myself is so different from the way that I appear, and just to relax. Like hearing old recordings or even videos. It’s always like people are more connected to the things that I’m really relaxed [about] and not trying hard for. So I guess that’s a good reminder. Less is more.”

“I’ve written lyrics that are just so accurate to how I feel and I’ve never been able to articulate that before and being able to articulate it just perfectly, like even… Sometimes I can write lyrics that are very minimal that just feel so much more accurate than full sentences could,” she explained. 

Overall, the next big goal for Runo Plum is also an album. As mentioned when discussing the re-recording of “till I go red,” multiple songs are being worked on that are more in a rock-influenced direction.

“There are a few little projects that I want to do, just more of my acoustic, quieter songs, and then I really want to make an album soon. More of like a rock album. Which I have a few songs for, but I need to write more of it. I don’t know. It’s just so fun there are some emotions that they just come out perfectly in [rock] music like that too. More intense,a little bit angry feeling.” 

For now, while Plum is working on that full album and exploring a new sound, listeners can get excited to see a previous project in a whole new light. So far off of the new EP re-recording, the track “red lights” has been released, which perfectly captures this feeling of needing self-control And the emotions that come with such intense feelings towards a person. The next track entitled “very overdue goodbye” is being released on Friday and can be pre-saved now.  

To hear the full interview audio, you can listen on YouTube. To stay up to date on any news regarding Runo Plum’s music and live shows, you can check out her Instagram. 

It was through being able to have this interview with Runo, especially for her very first, that I was able to understand where her writing process really stems from and the influences that she hopes to explore next. I cannot wait for a future record to be released and I know I’ll be listening to the EP Sept. 29.