Alex Runions, originally from Kipling and now living in Saskatoon, was recently nominated by the Saskatchewan Country Music Association Awards in the category Songwriter of the Year for being one of the composers of I’ll Cheers To That.
“I was also nominated for Male Artist of the Year but it was such an off year in 2020 I just thought ‘I didn’t do a whole lot.’ Although I did release a song, I just decided to bow out for a year,” said Runions. “It was just such an odd year, I didn’t play any shows besides online stuff. There were other people who were promoting the music industry.”
Runions felt they were more deserving of this nomination.
“I had my first live show in basically a year back on Feb. 5 and 6 at the Happy Nun Café in Forget,” said Runions. “My fiancée is a singer/songwriter as well so we went and did an acoustic show there. It was sold out both nights which was good.”
“It was just amazing to play again,” said Runions. “It felt so good. Everyone enjoyed themselves. I think people just wanted to get out. People just wanted a reason to do something.”
“It feels good to get back in front of a live audience,” added Runions. “Absolutely it’s great and the crowd is so appreciative and it was a really attentive crowd. It was a good start to playing again after a full year.”
“It’s definitely a different landscape altogether,”
Runions explains of the COVID-19 restrictions. “There are all these requirements now when we book and play our live shows. We just have to work through it all.”
Runions also has another online show in Regina on March 3 at a coffee house.
Runions keeps himself busy throughout the pandemic with his music career, taking part in songwriting sessions once or twice a month.
He, along with a lot of songwriters across Canada and in Nashville, build their repertoire of songs and pitch them to other artists to record.
During these songwriting sessions, Runions and a few other songwriters and artists bat around a few ideas and melodies and try and come up with a song from scratch.
“It keeps things creative, it keeps my brain working,” explains Runions.
Being a songwriter, Runions always keep a running list of ideas and melodies. Runions explains that he’d rather write down a song with pen and paper but when it comes to a quick way to capture the idea in the moment his cell phone comes in handy.
Runions is currently working on a new album project.
“I am working on writing songs for a new album of mine,” said Runions. “It will be more of a singer/songwriter album than my last few projects which were more of a country pop type of style. The new album will be more about topics that are close to me, it is more of an emotional type of album detailing the ups and downs of life.”
Runions currently has a song out to radio titled Middle of a Country Song.
He wraps it up by saying “I’m just thankful to be doing this and people can come and watch the shows and that I can still record.
