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[title]Running Touch is no ordinary musician. The Australian singer, songwriter and producer is an innovator who blends different genres seamlessly, drawing inspo from indie, electronic and rock music to create a sound that’s entirely his own. He’s also known for his captivating stage presence – so it’s no wonder he’s played at festivals from Splendour in the Grass to Coachella. Now he’s performing at an event that will be no ordinary gig – Live on the Lanes.
Live on the Lanes will be a party at Strike Bowling Wintergarden on May 4, a night of bowling, booze and, of course, an intimate performance by Running Touch. Each of the three Live on the Lanes events – in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane – will host just 250 guests. And you can’t buy your way in – Strike is giving away 75 double passes to each event (the only way to get in on the good times is by heading to the Strike website and entering the giveaway).
Ahead of this May event, we chatted to Running Touch – who’s known by his fam and friends as Matt Victor Kopp – about why he’s so psyched about the event and what else is coming up in 2023.
Why were you keen to do the Live on the Lanes event?
It's unique in that it's invite-only, and it’s going to be intimate – basically Strike Bowling is converting their venue into a kind of intimate festival for 250 people. I’ve been playing music since I was 14, and I haven’t seen anything like this before, it’s so special. Who knows when I'll ever do something like this again? It's just different. I feel like so many events these days are centred around just going to a festival for the sake of going to one, or finding an excuse to drink or get [messed] up, but it’s pretty nice to just have something that’s about clean fun.
Do you enjoy a bit of bowling yourself, when the mood strikes?
Yeah, we went semi-recently while we were on holiday. You can't really not have fun when you go bowling. I love how competitive things like that get, so quickly. Like, if you go to mini golf or bowling, it's meant to be fun, but it gets really, really competitive, really quickly. I love that.
Have you been to Strike Bowling before?
Yeah, I’ve been to one of the ones in Sydney. It reminds me of, like, an epic Netflix show. Like, early Riverdale vibes – just like, larger than life. Like the set of a teenage rom-com series.
I’ve heard the stage will be custom-built over the bowling lanes for Melbourne and Brisbane…
Yeah, we’re making the show a little bit ‘one off’ – the set list and productions are different to what I usually do, and that’s also how we’re going to approach the stage design. But all I know at this point is that, for some of the cities the stage will be over the lanes. We're trying to [push the limits of] what we can do.
Outside of Live on the Lanes, what are you working on at the moment?
A bunch of music. I've got this next two months, because I just finished two albums – one with another group and one myself. A live show, because I have a tour, as weird as it sounds, it takes two or three weeks to program for a live show. So for the next two months, I have a few collaborations I'm working on. Then I go to the UK for a bit, so until then it’ll be collaborations and sessions.
What else are you most looking forward to this year?
This year, I go to UK, Europe and the US. In all these places, I'll be doing a lot of collaboration and session work. I really want to work the work I do with others into my releases, rather than, like, working on other people's music. I’ll do as many sessions as I possibly can and learn from those sessions. Looking back, those sorts of situations are where I've learnt the most.
What’s inspiring you at the moment, music-wise?
A lot of production in hip-hop and rap is amazing at the moment. The instrumentals are what I've been listening to – like, Tory Lanez (his ‘Broke in a Minute’), and Young Thug and Gunna doing Hot. The production in all of those. In the past, if those things have come on, I've listened to that kind of stuff, but I've never really paid attention that much to the production until now. Some of the music I've been making lately for myself – like, I wouldn’t release it – I've been messing around with that kind of production, because it's just so different to anything I’d do. It's very sample based and so aggressive, some of it. I really like that. Being from the hardcore world, I guess there are some similarities. But as far as Running Touch goes, if anything, it’s getting tamer [laughs].
By tamer, do you mean, more accessible?
That’s a good way to put it, I guess. Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, why not [laughs]?
For Live on the Lanes you’re performing in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane over three nights – what are your favourite things to do in each of those cities?
I was born in Sydney, but I moved to Melbourne when I was nine or ten, so I live in Melbourne – close to the city, just before St Kilda. When I have time off here, I play heaps of tennis. In Sydney, it’s going to the beach – Coogee or Bondi, or the Central Coast, because we lack that quite hard in Melbourne. And just enjoy the weather. In Brisbane, the Valley past 9pm is always interesting.
What about your favourite venues in these cities?
The Tiv [Tivoli] in Brissie is iconic. But the last time I played in Brisbane it was at the Princess Theatre, and that's probably the best venue of that size in Australia, in my opinion. That’s insane, I couldn't believe how nice that place was. In Sydney, it’s hard to go past the Enmore Theatre. And then in Victoria – I guess the Forum.
We guess soon you’ll be able to add Strike Bowling to the list!
Yeah, I'm looking forward to Live on the Lanes – I’m hoping to have new music by the time this show comes around, a new song coming out around that time, which is nice timing, to be able to share that with this tour.