Localized: Runestomper

Come get electrified at this month’s SLUG Localized! Dive into the digital cyberpunk world of synthwaves, as you indulge the 16-bit vibes of Cathode, the Tron-like experience of Runestomper and the futuristic club sound of Jandro. Come to Kilby Court on Thursday, April 23 for a night of sensory overload! Buy your tickets here!

I stepped away from the gorgeous, sunny day outside and into the dark, neon-tinged Quarters Arcade Bar in Sugarhouse to find Chris Herrera and Lizz Blount, the duo behind Runestomper. Clad in matching black bomber jackets and looking like they stepped out of a cyberpunk movie, it was they who actually asked the first question: “What kind of music do you like?” I said I’ve been listening to a lot of The Killers’ Hot Fuss lately, and they immediately nodded in agreement and started talking about how much they love that album before listing off their favorites that go from Periphery and Kendrick Lamar to Ozzy Osbourne to HIM to Elvis Presley. It was clear the two loved music deeply, and that came through as well with how they got their starts in music.

“My setback is when I record vocals. I get very nitpicky to the point of being a perfectionist.”

“I’ve been playing guitar since I was 10, then I found electronic music back in 2015,” Herrera says. “I didn’t have a band. I was going to college and needed something to work on. I had my laptop, I knew Ableton, and I decided electronic music was dope. So I got into Carpenter Brut and wanted to make music like this, where it then snowballed into all of this.”

Blount’s path was a bit different. “I started making music when I was 11 and 12 years old on CDs on the old desktop with dial-up. It was a challenge, but I still did it! I never stopped writing, and I sang in choirs and musicals. I became a DJ in North Dakota, and I never stopped writing lyrics. Chris reignited that passion for making music, and then being able to write my own lyrics with the music is the ultimate healing.”

“I didn’t have a band. I was going to college and needed something to work on. I had my laptop, I knew Ableton, and I decided electronic music was dope.”

Runestomper fully came to be when the two first met and became a couple, with Herrera initially shy to show Blount the music. She really enjoyed it and began to encourage him to make more. Blount took on a managerial role, posting to social media, handling shows and doing more backend work while Herrera focused on the music and performing side. It wasn’t until their song “Spectral Webs” that Blount was on a track with her own lyrics. “One day she told me, ‘I want to be up on stage with you.’ I was like, ‘Hell yeah, but once you do this, there is no turning back. Once in, you won’t want to quit.’”

At this point, the arcade truly buzzes to life, with all different people playing the pinball machines, the Pac-Man cabinet whirring and a couple furiously and loudly throwing basketballs into hoops. It’s enough to make us all laugh as they talk about their setbacks and how they overcome them. “We just love each other’s company, and I will get frustrated with him sometimes but only musically ‘cause we have both been doing our own things for so long.” Herrera replied. “All arguments are not against each other; they are just petty arguments and disagreements.”

“I make her take a break, and I produce the vocals a bit in order to show her how amazing her voice is.”

“My setback is when I record vocals. I get very nitpicky to the point of being a perfectionist,” Blount says, to which Herrera responds, “I make her take a break, and I produce the vocals a bit in order to show her how amazing her voice is.”

When it came to the local scene, both of them lit up and began to rattle off like winning prize machines. Herrera especially talked about his time with the people from the SLC Synth Alliance. Among their local loves were Advent Horizon, Arsenic Addiction, Judicator, Proxy Wars and Cathode, the last of whom they’ve collaborated with for a new song dropping soon. They also talked about a new album they have planned for early fall that is going to take a more fantasy and epic approach to their synth sounds as opposed to their usual industrial and cyberpunk scene.

Read more of past Localized features:
Localized: Gracemaker
Localized: Seeking the Sun