"Runaway" is a song by American

pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre and form of rock music characterized by a strong commercial appeal, with more emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than standard rock musi ...

band

Self In philosophy, the self is an individual's own being, knowledge, and values, and the relationship between these attributes. The first-person perspective distinguishes selfhood from personal identity. Whereas "identity" is (literally) same ...

, released on July 11, 2014. Distributed by El Camino Media, it was the second single for the band's second EP '' Super Fake Nice''. The track utilizes

power pop Power pop (also typeset as powerpop) is a subgenre of rock music and form of pop rock based on the early music of bands such as the Who, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds. It typically incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, ...

instrumentation that samples the song " Do That Stuff" by American

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

band

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

. A music video for "Runaway" was released alongside the single, featuring cats pantomiming with instruments. The video went viral, helping the single commercially succeed.

Background

Since 1990,

Matt Mahaffey Matt Mahaffey is an American multi-instrumentalist, record producer, composer, and recording engineer best known for his band Self (band), Self and his composer collective Cake in Space. Early and personal life Mahaffey grew up in Kingsport, T ...

had created multiple songs sampling

's song " Do That Stuff", denouncing them as demos and withholding them. His fifth attempt came in 2010 as "Runaway", the first time he found the product satisfactory. Two years later, Matt Messer of El Camino Media heard a demo of "Runaway". He was drawn to it and expressed interest in marketing it as a radio single. This led Mahaffey to sign his band

to the independent record label, recording more songs to form the EP '' Super Fake Nice'' (2014). Mahaffey finished the song in 2014, releasing it as the EP's second single on July 11. The band performed "Runaway" on ''

Jimmy Kimmel Live! ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', sometimes shortened to ''JKL'', is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, and broadcast on ABC. The nightly hour-long show tapes and is based out of the Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywo ...

'' on July 30, becoming the band's first televised live performance.

Music video

A music video for "Runaway" was directed by Ballard C. Boyd and released on July 11, 2014. The video features a band of cats playing instruments while several other cats move to the beat of the song and play with cat toys. Later into the video, cats are shown jumping through the air, driving a car, and being blown with

hair dryer A hair dryer (the handheld type also referred to as a blow dryer) is an electromechanical device that blows ambient air in hot or warm settings for styling or drying hair. Hair dryers enable better control over the shape and style of hair, by a ...

s. It ends with a cat eating from a food bowl labeled "Runaway" and a disclaimer that no cats were harmed. Filmed at Plywood Pictures in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, studio personnel wore black clothing and moved the cats with gloves to successfully

pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment, generally combining gender-crossing actors and topical humour with a story more or less based on a well-known fairy tale, fable or ...

. They also created custom instruments and props to match the cats' sizes. After release, Mahaffey stated to ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

'' that the video's focus on cats was strategized to go viral.

Reception

Bob Boilen and Stephen Thompson of

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

denounced the lyrics of "Runaway" as trivial but praised its instrumental, calling it an "infectious pop-rock track". Lyndsey Parker of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' described the song as a memorable comeback, likening its music video to

Keyboard Cat Keyboard Cat is the first video-based on cats internet meme. Its original form was a video made in 1984 by Charlie Schmidt of his cat Fatso seemingly playing a Electronic keyboard, musical keyboard (though manipulated by Schmidt off-camera) to ...

and ranking it at number 10 on a list of the top 20 music videos of 2014. Patrick Rodgers of ''

Nashville Scene ''Nashville Scene'' is an alternative newsweekly in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1989, became a part of Village Voice Media in 1999, and later joined the ranks of sixteen other publications after a merger of Village Voice Media with ...

'' similarly praised "Runaway", calling it "bleeping, blooping, ndcharacteristically catchy". On July 29, 2014, "Runaway" was featured as the

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

Single of the Week.

Personnel

Credits adapted from the EP's liner notes. *

– lead vocals, instruments,

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

audio mixing Audio mixing is the process by which multiple sounds are combined into one or more audio channels. In the process, a source's volume level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated or enhanced. This practical, aest ...

, arrangement * Mark Chalecki –

mastering engineer Mastering is a form of audio post production which is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the Audio mixing (recorded music), final mix to a data storage device called a master recording, the source ...

Sample credits * "Runaway" contains samples of " Do That Stuff", written by George Clinton, Gary Shider, and

Bernie Worrell George Bernard Worrell, Jr. (April 19, 1944 – June 24, 2016) was an American Keyboard instrument, keyboardist and record producer best known as a founding member of the Parliament-Funkadelic collective. In later years, he also worked with ...

, as performed by

References

{{authority control Self (band) songs 2014 songs 2014 singles Songs written by Matt Mahaffey