Houston alt/indie trio Jonah The Runner released their latest EP, Cardinal Park, before Christmas, which features an ambitious and multi-layered rock sound with a resonating, grunge-infused vocal, set to dexterous instrumentalization and captivating post-rock tones. Check out the band’s track by track breakdown of the EP below.
I found myself driving back home one day and took a different route to try and avoid traffic. Unfortunately I still ended up getting stuck for the better part of almost two hours, but what came out of it was this song. Valigura was the name of the street I was on when I finished up the lyrics, essentially this song was an “after the fact” view on problems I was having in my life that I felt like needed to be said. Also a special note, this EP was live tracked, and the bird in the background of this song wasn’t added in and just happened perfectly while we were recording.
Cardinal Park will probably forever be one of my best songs that I have written, and I know collectively as a band we all love to play it. This song (much like the common trend of most of the songs off the EP) is about relationship problems that I was experiencing at a point in my life. The first lyrics of the song- “You’re keeping me on edge/Wrapped around your finger/I can’t be just friends/A sour taste that lingers” is quite literally the perfect way to explain that situation for me. This song pushed me personally as a musician as it helped me overcome some blocks I have had in the past with soloing. Regardless of how many people like or even listen to this, I will always be extremely proud.
This song is also essentially dealing with the same topic as Cardinal Park. We have been sitting on this one for quite some time as a band, and it has always been one of our favorites to play live. This song just jams hard honestly (that’s the only way I feel like I could accurately describe it). Daniel’s slide guitar in this song is an incredible representation of his skills as a musician and his live performance of it is equally as good. This song lyrically is also sort of a darker version of what was going on in my head compared to Cardinal Park.
Irreversible was the first song I wrote after our first EP Distances. Daniel had been pushing me to write and sing more with the band, and I solely attribute my comfort on stage to him. This song deals more or less with the emptiness and loneliness that I had felt after a breakup. This song was the representation of a low point in my recent years, but listening to this song now, it feels so much more meaningful. I think lyrically it was one of my stronger songs, and all the guitar lines and really every part of this song just came together so well to create sort of an anthem for me to sing to kind of get all the angst out.
Of all the songs on the EP, this one is my personal favorite. This song is purely just instrumental, but it was written to be somewhat of a release for the EP. There’s a lot going on musically which perfectly represents all of our individual lives in the band, but I still believe that this song comes off more as uplifting than anything else. I’m extremely glad that we decided to keep the song in its’ raw musical form instead of having it be over produced. The name is actually a nickname to someone that has been very important in my life, and I very truly believe this track to be extremely special.