Me and my Drummer are a German duo consisting of singer Charlotte Brandi and drummer Matze Prölloch, as the bands title would suggest. You’re a Runner is a minimal yet moving track with a striking video to accompany it. The song has been described as being about “someone driven to the edge and an abyss”. This lonely sentiment reigns through in the stripped back sound and powerful
lyrics as well as in the understated yet saturated visuals.

Out of the opening, controlled, XX style rhythm and keys comes Charlottes unique and naturally beautiful voice with lyrics that instantly grab your attention; “You’re a runner, why do you wanna kill yourself?”. The simple instrumental accompaniment in the song forefronts the very interesting lyrics on display and the rhythmic changes in the song come in a slow but measured fashion. There is a control within Pröllochs’ rhythm which is definite and confident in its approach. The beat has an essential role within the song gaining as much influence and importance as a recurring guitar or piano riff would. Within the sparse and tight instrumental make-up of the song, the drums take on a presence beyond their usual accompaniment status, and drive the song forward, creating and solidifying those more intense, dynamic shifts on the track.

The video comes across as something similar to an abstract art installation. Different scenes are set up in the stark studio space used, making the naturalistic and domestic creations which feature, seem eerily alienated and lonely. There is an air of competition brought forth in the scenes depicting sport as well as in the scene depicting a couple dining at a table; the pair seem determined outdo each other.

The scenes of the couple grotesquely and savagely dining on food, and drowning themselves in wine work particularly well in the video. They display an aggression, anarchy and disorder that are not as obvious in the music, though they seem implied in the lyrics. The song and video simultaneously climb toward a climax that is heightened by the use of repeated lyrics such as “There are more
heart’s pumping like your own, don’t you dare to hurt mine”.

The excess exhibited in the video brings forward the underlying stress indicated in lyrics like “crumbled hopes, a failed career”. In this sense we really do get the intended meaning of the song mentioned as someone driven to the edge, that desperation and fight is delicately but unmistakably portrayed within the audiovisual combination. The song depicts the sensitive side of this arrival at the edge and subsequent plunge into the abyss, while the video illuminates the more violent, animalistic struggle that this arrival uproots.

I have mentioned a similarity to the XX and I also hear elements of Kate Bush and Florence and the Machine but that said, I think that Me and my Drummer are doing something which is incredibly difficult to do these days, which is be original. I don’t mean originality in the sense of doing the most bizarre thing for the sake of it, but a genuine originality that is not forced. The music and video from
the duo indicates they have a natural, creative, and emotive style and one can sense they are paving their own way as they see fit.

Me and My Drummer prove that keeping things minimal creates no compromise on quality or intrigue. You’re a Runner will be released as a single on May 14th.