As one American musician tells it – “Baby, we were born to run”. Jogging, you see, is in our human genes, especially over long distances. A few million years ago, when we started hunting, early humans developed persistence in pursuit of their prey. Thus, we can’t outrun a horse over a hundred metres, but thanks to our well-adapted sweat glands, we can outlast them.
Jesse Chandler plays keyboards and woodwind with Midlake, Mercury Rev and a host of other acts. He started running in earnest back in 2010 on Midlake’s The Courage of Others tour. Speaking to KLOF from his home in Denton, Texas, Chandler recalls: “Midlake’s two Erics (Pulido and Nichelson) would often go out and run. On tour, it’s like you can go off and explore the city, or just sit in the Green Room wasting away. I realised it was a fantastic way to sightsee quickly where you can cover more ground. During that year I lost seventy five pounds in weight. It coincided with the birth of my first child, my daughter Nico. It’s strange that my dad began running when my mom was pregnant with me.”
Chandler has just released a double album, Runner’s High, on the quirky English label Belbury Music, part of the Ghost Box setup. An instrumental work based largely on synth scores and flute solos, it comes with another set of recordings designed as meditations for a post-run chillax, or a pre-jog warmup. “The so-called runner’s high is a feeling you can’t get on drugs,” says Chandler. “I was trying to capture it with music, which is the only way I can express certain things. At the beginning of 2024, I recorded anything that came to mind, five different things a day. After six weeks I had a hundred tracks and gave them grades, with most of the higher scores featuring on the record. I realised a few tracks were more ambient and it felt like music I’d want to hear in the morning before a run. In the pandemic I was searching for relaxing morning albums to have a coffee with and do a crossword puzzle to. They invariably didn’t have drums or beats. I wanted Runner’s High to be a full warm-up experience, where you’re stretching, getting ready, then there’s the running record which is forty-five minutes, a decent run, then a cool down period after where you’re lying on the floor. There’s that euphoric feeling which goes with all exercise.”
Another influence on this project was Jesse’s late father, Dave Chandler, who was captured on film among the crowds at the original Woodstock festival. Dave’s image from that Woodstock footage adorned the cover of Midlake’s last album, For The Sake of Bethel Woods. Dave was also an ardent runner who came to the UK for fell runs, alongside doing marathons in America. Jesse recalls, “He did nineteen marathons including Boston and New York. I remember as a kid going to watch him, we’d all stay in a hotel. I remember his 80s short-shorts and running singlets. He would do the ‘carb load’ the night before, eating a lot of spaghetti to fuel up. Later when I moved to NYC the marathon would come down 4th Avenue and Brooklyn and I’d watch it. Seeing runners has always been a moving experience for me.”
Jesse admits that his father’s memory finds its way into all the music he creates. “This new record is no different, he was such a big presence. Dad started running in the 70s and kept journals from day one which my mom still has (image below). There’s about forty volumes and I started reading through them. Some are quite simple, saying I had a tough time, this is my mileage. Then sometimes he’ll write reflections which can be poetic and poignant, especially to me. So I took that as inspiration for this record.”
Having done a few races himself, Chandler concedes it’s not really for him. He says, “Running for me is more about mental health than physical. It’s like a meditation. When people meditate and they chant, the chanting is a way to quieten the brain and give it a focus. Running, with its constant footfall, looking at nature views or a cityscape, that helps quieten your mind too. This album is a musical representation of all that. It’s a more mellow, magical and mystical vision of running.”
All the tracks were improvised, though they sound tightly composed. Every morning, Chandler would go running to clear his mind, come back and write whatever popped into his head, not censoring himself. Overdubs were added later, including vocals, bass clarinet (what Chandler calls his secret weapon), pedal steel and bells. “There was also my jazz background,” says Chandler. “I almost see this like a jazz record with the use of certain chords.”
Chandler’s flute gives the two records a sacred air, something which isn’t lost on him. “When I started playing with Midlake I found people reacted to the flute in a very visceral way. It has a transfixing sound. I used an alto flute which has a deeper darker sound, also an Indian bamboo flute which has a breathier woodier tone. You could almost call this new record a flute concerto.”
Music, like running, seems to be a Chandler family trait. Jesse’s son Harper (think Harper Lee, Roy Harper, Harper’s magazine) is twelve and plays trombone, whilst his daughter, Nico, is fourteen and plays the viola. Jesse’s own music collection is very broad, including a double album by renowned flautist Paul Horn that he found in a bargain bin. “It’s music Horn made before he played with Joni Mitchell. I know he played on Pet Sounds too. Classical-wise I’ve always loved the Impressionists – Debussy, Ravel, Faure. Also, the minimalists like Terry Riley. Bartok’s music is notoriously difficult to play, he was like an uber virtuoso pianist himself. Most of his pieces are in five or six flats, or six sharps, they’re beasts.”
Tying his two great passions together, Chandler says, “Running, and playing music, are the methods I’ve used to sublimate and sort through difficult and confusing times in my life. Art museums and just being in nature are other go-tos. Running becomes a mind game at a certain point when your body and brain are telling you to stop and shut down. Then you have to tell them, no, I’m gonna keep going.”
Runner’s High, out today (August 22nd) via Belbury Music, is a double album described as a thoughtfully optimistic album of ambient, psychedelic, American Kosmiche. Also appearing on the album are Paul Alexander (formerly of Midlake), Meg Baird (formerly of Espers), Jim Jupp (Belbury Poly), Martin Keith, João Branco Kyron (Beautify Junkyards), Ben Sloan, and Tim Smith (Harp, formerly of Midlake).
Order the album via Belbury Music. The golden yellow LP version comes in a gatefold sleeve that includes the companion ambient album Warm Up & Cool Down on CD, and it also includes a free download code card. The CD version comes as a double CD Digipack. Artwork is by Jim Jupp and liner notes by Justin Hopper (spoken word performer and author of “Old Weird Albion”).
Order it here: https://belburymusic.greedbag.com/buy/runners-high-0/