Alt-Rock Band Running With Scissors On Their New Single “Stick Around”

Adelaide Alt-Rock band Running With Scissors have released their killer new single Stick Around to follow up their previous single Devout. Angus Porter, Henry Norton, and Patrick Femia are Running With Scissors and judging by the strength of this single the future looks incredibly promising. Angus drops by to answer a few questions about the single and what’s next for the band.

How would you describe the music of Running With Scissors?
Our music is mostly a more melodic spin on alt-rock. Though “alternative rock” in general is a pretty vague term. We often think about our music in a live setting, as we’re a three piece and it’s important to consider how we can pull off certain stuff live. If you see us live, we’re closer to punk than anything else, cause we sorta raise all of the tempos to a ludicrous speed due to nerves. But in the studio, we’re a lot more open to things like vocal harmonies and little background details that we can’t achieve in a live setting.

Collectively, what are some of the influences that inspire Running With Scissors?
Collectively, it’d be a mix of stuff, from Australian bands like You Am I, Radio Birdman, to more punk influences like Descendants. Individually, I’m a sucker for 60’s stuff like the Beatles and the Zombies, along with bands like the Replacements, Fugazi, and The Cardigans. Patty is more into bands like Amyl and the Sniffers and Private Function. Henry likes Chumbawumba and The Wiggles

What inspired the song?
Stick Around was written lyrically around the theme of a nautical siren. I tried to apply that to a modern relationship. The lyrics themselves came out line by line as I repeated the chords. The first part of the song I wrote was the opening riff, and around that I worked out a chord progression. But instrumentally, Patty and Henry added the bridge section breakdown, which in my opinion makes the song. It’s probably our most collaborative effort to date, and each member has left their own impression on the track. It was probably the most comfortable I’ve been in the studio for our recordings, as we experimented a lot more than on previous stuff and I think our producer Lachy Pitcher did a phenomenal job.

Can you believe how much work goes in to releasing a single?
Yeah its pretty intense! There is a lot of stuff that goes into every release and we try and make each release really special. We are an independent band that does all the promotion and releases ourselves so we try to share the track around as much as we can. Organising the launch gig and getting the promo photos sorted was also a good build up to the release of the single. It is always nerve racking putting out new music as you never know what the reaction is going to be, but we are very happy with how it turned out.

Are there plans for more music this year, maybe an album?
No album unfortunately, but definitely new singles for late this year or early next! We recorded some tracks recently at Depict Studios and can’t wait to share them all with everyone. We’ve been playing these songs for quite a while now at gigs and they have gotten some good reception, so I am sure people will be keen to hear the studio versions.

Any plans to tour more broadly over the summer?
We would love to tour and play some shows outside of Adelaide sometime. We currently don’t have any plans but hopefully next year we could do some regional shows and maybe interstate shows, who knows? We would also love to play interstate in some other cities across Australia, so if the opportunity arises we will definitely be keen!

What’s next for Running With Scissors?
Right now we are taking a small hiatus but we will soon be back better than ever! We’ve got some gigs planned for late this year and an especially rad gig in January that will be announced in the next few months so keep your eyes out! We’re also planning to release some new tunes as mentioned previously and even our first music video that is currently in the works

How exciting has the build up been to your new single Stick Around?
The build up to the new track has been awesome, as a band we have been thrilled to put this new single out to the community, building up to our single launch at The Jade was one of our best yet and we can’t wait to show you what’s next. We had also released our previous single, Devout, just a few months earlier, so it was cool to release new singles that close together.

Have you been blown away by the feedback?
The feedback we received for Stick Around has been really positive, the support from everyone around the local community has been so supportive from us and everyone seems to have got around the new track! It has kept us motivated to keep on going and to keep making more music that will be released in the future. We are excited to see what comes next.

How did the band meet?
The band met back in 2018 in middle school where we decided that we wanted to be in a band and we were in the right place at the right time, from that we really just gelled together well and started learning some covers together and eventually began playing a few open mic nights and then we wrote some original songs, then played some other local gigs around Adelaide and it’s eventually led us here.

Interview By Rob Lyon

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