Havoc Traffic Interview with Running Out the Clock

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AT THE HAVOC TRAFFIC LIGHTS WITH

Running out the Clock are Opening Havoc Traffic’s First Alt-pop Summer Show In an exclusive interview, they unzip the story behind how their synth-pop magic started and just what we're in store for this Saturday at the OhYeah!

How did the band meet? What started Running out the Clock?

Photograph by Anna Burnett The seed of the band was planted when the duo who came up with rhythms together (more often than not at 2am, I'm told) were joined by the groove at the heart of this group's sound, bassist Anisa McConnell, in early 2024. The prose to the trio's melody came along when they found their lead singer, Yasmin Fitzpatrick, through a Facebook music page and the band was born in that springtime.

The band's guitarist Aaron Boles and drummer Joshua Crudden met each other in their teenage years, when asked how long ago, Josh recollects “40 years ago”.

The maths doesn't add up here with their fresh faces, but there's a sound of a friendship stood the test of time in the symphonic blend of the beat and waves of riffs in the band's synth-sunshine single “Why Wait for Love?”.

Why "Running Out the Clock"?

When asked how they settled on the name of their group, Josh tells us he was inspired by beloved comedian-rockers Tenacious D: “I was reminded of how they got their name from an NBA sportscaster's commentary on aggressive defensive plays on basketball courts, which he referred to as tenacious defence; ergo, Tenacious D. This had me looking up sports terminology that could potentially sound good and I happened upon the phrase, "Running Out the Clock", which is when the team with more points starts making safe plays and slow movements to waste time until the game ends to guarantee a victory. This is boring and lame, but the phrase "Running Out the Clock" out of context sounds cool and vaguely philosophical, and no one had taken it yet!”

Photograph by Anna Burnett

Sounds that Influence the Songs In an era of musicians being encouraged to wrap themselves into specific niches for the purpose of branding, this group refreshingly have formed their sound from the joy brought to them from a wide variety of the genres and music cultures.

When asked what they listened to when forming their sound, Josh answered “Jazz and soul, pop and RnB to rock and indie. The compromise we reach between all our differing ideas and inspirations definitely contribute to our sound, and despite our varied ideas and inspirations, the fact we all want our stuff to sound catchy, exciting and interesting but still having a wide appeal definitely dictates how the songs end up sounding."

Photograph by Anna Burnett

The Songwriting Process Yasmin shares on her lyrics, that they become a haven for processing her emotions, “the song is like a diary entry to sort through something I'm going through in my life, or something my friends are going through (sometimes I'll write from their perspective). I really enjoy writing the lyrics and the melody, it's where I'm comfortable.” When asked about the song she’s had the most fun penning, she divulged, “the song I found the most fun to compose was probably "Do U Even Know?". I wrote it about a guy I was seeing at the time who explicitly asked me not to write a song about him, oops. I just think lyrically it's clever. We used to call it the "Spanish Song" because Aaron wrote the guitar riff inspired by flamenco music. Writing music is kind of like a Jigsaw puzzle.”

Photograph by Anna Burnett

Live Performances

Photograph by Anna Burnett

Whats On the Horizon Anisa gives us the inside scoop on what the group are working on at the moment, “We are in the middle of recording our next single, ‘Without U’, which we plan to release at the end of October this year! We are planning a release party gig for when it comes out, which will be our first headline gig! We’ve also been working on a fun little project where we recorded and filmed a few cover songs with other local musicians to create a fun Tiny Desk Concert-inspired vibe. It was so much fun to work with all these talented people. We will be posting these to YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook so keep your eyes peeled!”

The band shared their favourite performances, Anisa recalls her favourite live show to date is “Definitely at Mandela Hall when we played at (and won) the Queens SU Battle of the Bands in November 2024! There were over 300 people in the crowd and the energy was electric! I remember looking at the others and we all had the same expression on our faces of just pure fear - it was the biggest crowd we had ever performed to so it was quite a shock, but from the moment we played our first song the vibes were immaculate. This show was also where we covered ‘Red Wine Supernova’, by Chappell Roan for the first time and the girls in the front row jumping up and down have made that my favourite cover song that we’ve ever played live. I would love to go back and relive that moment knowing how much fun we had.”

Article by Anna Blakely