Real or Fake?: The Fascinating Origins of Amazon’s Newest TV Indie Rock Band
The Runarounds. Photo by Isaiah Pate.
I have commitment issues when it comes to TV shows.
Whether it’s Netflix, Hulu or HBO Max, I always have a lineup of at least five series in my “Continue Watching” tab, most of which are paused mid-episode in season one. Best case scenario, I love the series and rewatch it over and over again, heightening my expectations for any new show I try to start.
About a week ago, I found myself streaming service hopping, starting and stopping shows in a failed attempt to overcome my short attention span. “Breaking Bad?” Too serious. “Buffy The Vampire Slayer?” Too predictable. “The Summer I Turned Pretty?” Too cringe. Returning to the drawing board, I toggled to Amazon Prime. Enter “The Runarounds.”
The eight-episode series premiered this month and follows five recent high school graduates who form a band and journey to make it big before college sends them their separate ways. Throw in some slow burn love stories, lots of parent drama, unforeseen setbacks and a satisfying ending, and “The Runarounds” has the makings of a YA television classic.
Yet, what makes the show actually captivating are the catchy songs the TV band writes and performs, which have that DIY indie rock energy of early Backseat Lovers, Royel Otis and Arcy Drive (all of which you’ll hear in the background of episodes). The originals are compiled in a 17-song soundtrack, but to my surprise, on what I thought was a fake band’s Spotify artist page were also singles and an EP dating back to 2022 and 2023. One Google rabbit hole later, and the story of The Runarounds has become my current obsession.
The Runarounds performing a small show at the University of Southern California in 2023.
The band consists of vocalists and guitarists William Lipton and Axel Ellis, who play Charlie and Neil in the show, respectively, bassist Jesse Golliher, who plays Wyatt, drummer Zendé Murdock, who plays Bez and guitarist Jeremy Yun, who plays Topher. Their origin goes back to 2020, when each auditioned to be members of a house band featured in season three of the ubiquitous show “Outer Banks,” which has the same creator as “The Runarounds”: Jonas Pate.
In an interview with Zach Sang, the band clarified The Runarounds were always meant to have their own show; an “Outer Banks” casting call was simply the perfect excuse to find true musical talent. After all, the only bandmate who has any previous acting credits is Lipton, who played Cameron Webber on the long-running soap opera “General Hospital.”
Maybe I’m too deep into this hyper-fixation, but the Zach Sang Show interview is truly fascinating. In it, the band talked about the 2022 and 2023 releases, which were basically practice live performances at the University of Southern California — where Lipton went to college — since the show didn’t actually start filming until 2024.
Most of the time between the band’s formation and the show’s production, then, was spent writing songs and learning how to actually act. Ellis explained they “had a ton of liberty” with songwriting, and most of the time the show writers would actually write the script based on the music they came up with. Sometimes, Pate would ask the band to tailor a song around a specific plot line, but they otherwise had free range over the creative process. Yun even noted the chronology of the songs viewers hear in the show mostly matches the order in which the band wrote them.
While some elements of the show itself feel out of place — the script is far from groundbreaking — it’s the band’s performances, which were all filmed live, that are the most exciting moments of the series. You can tell the quintet truly developed musically chemistry and the show runners valued the members’ musical expertise.
“Ghosts,” the track that sparks the band’s virality in the series, is a classic garage rock banger, while “15 Rootbeers” is a Mom Jeans-esque sad boy acoustic jam. My personal favorite is “Shoelaces,” a punchy two-minute track with elements of surf rock and lots of high-energy yearning.
“The Runarounds” is slated for a five-season run, and while I will surely be tuning in, I’m more interested in seeing where the music takes William, Axel, Jesse, Zendé and Jeremy, rather than Charlie, Neil, Wyatt, Bez and Topher.
In addition to streaming “The Runarounds” on Amazon Prime, you can catch the real band on their east coast tour this fall.