Born and based in Austin, Texas, singer-songwriter Xoe Haze strings listeners into the cracks and crevices of his mind in his debut album “Runner.” Following up his cut-and-dry shoegaze EP, “ANGEL SPIT,” Haze was determined to take on a challenge. In a bedroom filled with speakers and Garfield plush toys, Haze pieced together his first full-length project, an introspective exploration of desire and self-reflection. At its heart, the album serves as an ode to personal reckoning.
Haze spent the better part of a year locked into the making of his album, handling every step from writing to mixing to mastering on his own. His sessions often stretched from afternoon into the night, experimenting with heavy distortion and his layered vocals, but the most challenging part wasn’t technical; it was mental. The solitude grew obsessive, at times leaving him drained and neglecting basic needs. Yet, that same intensity gave the record its cohesion, conveying the weight of both exhaustion and perseverance in every track.
“It was a very lonely experience, but I’m truly grateful to be able to do that,” Haze said.
The album’s ten tracks unfold with a raw, deliberate intensity, blending glitchy distortion with moments of hazy tenderness. Ranging from gentle bird chirps and synths in ‘Tape 1’ to softened skeleton tracks in ‘Broken Bones,’ each song hums and whirrs, pushing against its boundaries as if striving to escape silence itself. The struggle between mechanical chaos and control creates the unique graphic energy of “Runner.”
“Each track is a different idea of running away from something towards something,” Haze said. “Going into the album, I was really struggling because I felt like I had no story to tell. And then through some self-reflection, I realized what I can talk about is being away from home, navigating life myself, my work ethic and running from things.”
Amid the distorted beats and fragmented samples, you hear someone discovering what it truly means to keep moving, even when stillness is the real desire. Haze’s songs trace journeys that are both personal and universal; attempts to escape, to confront and to arrive somewhere new.
‘The Still’ opens with lyrical clarity, setting the album’s theme in quatrain form. Without the flourishes of metaphors, listeners do not have to spend time decoding lines: It is an instant punch. But while a theme of running away opens up, the line “I crave the still / but leave it be,” opens up a longing for settlement- a longing for peace.
‘Dead Dog’ is one of the strongest tracks on the album, with a heavy, addictive introduction, repetitive riff and conversational background sampling. Haze’s glitchy yet clear vocals are ideally suited for the doubtful and almost insecure tone that the synths, vocal samples and strong bass create. Playing with the semordnilap between “Dog” and “God,” Haze frames ‘Dead Dog’ as a metaphorical run from religion. The lyric “Dead dog free / knows no loyalty” sharpens this idea: while living dogs are defined by their faithfulness, a dead one is stripped of that trait, just as Haze feels detached from any loyalty to a god or organized belief. The metaphor twists further through cultural echoes like “all dogs go to heaven,” flipping devotion and afterlife promises into something more ambiguous and unsettling. For Haze, the dead dog becomes the only creature unbound by devotion- both to its master and to divinity itself.
In pursuit is a familiar track, ‘Makeshift Cure.’ Released as a single before the finality of the album, Haze opens up with warped, glitchy DJ scratches followed by a dreamy murmur of industrial style vocals. The single continues Haze’s reflections on running before ending in howling feedback that singles out the strum of a guitar underneath.
“I think I was eight tracks in and I was like, ‘you know what? I’m almost done, let me just put a single out,’” Haze said. “‘Makeshift Cure’ is about being medicated on antidepressants, and this fear that I have that I can’t get off of medication, because, back to the theme of running, I don’t want to face what I left.”
Similarly, ‘Broken Bones,’ the seventh yet first track finished, grapples with intimacy and desire, exploring how connection can feel both comforting and unfulfilling. Its upbeat animated vocals, followed by a drowsy, naked declaration of love mirrors the euphoric push-and-pull of human relationships, translating emotional nuance into a sonic texture. A love story also quietly emerges across tracks like ‘Chasing Planes,’ ‘Tape 1,’ and ‘Bit Off.’
“Truly, in the end, what I’m running away from is the intimacy,” Haze said.
The album’s title track, ‘Runner,’ crystallizes the central theme of pursuit. The song opens with the line, ‘I wanna feel like nothing hurts / and the sting feels like love,’ a statement that captures the paradox of wanting release from pain while chasing the very intensity that defines life at twenty. Interludes and recurring motifs continue to weave in a subtle love story. At the same time, dramatic low-end pulses and brooding vocals create a sense of stiff, transcendent movement, as though the listener is moving through Haze’s world alongside him. Haze’s vocals drown out and a celestial droning takes over, hiding heavy breaths on the close of the album.
“I think the themes all go back to the title, but by the end of it, there is no answer,” Haze said. “When I was writing, the last track I wrote was the last track. I couldn’t finish it for a little bit because I was trying to come up with a conclusion to wrap it all up. But the true conclusion is that there is no conclusion, because I don’t think I’ve fully learned how not to run from things.”
The album as a whole feels like a deliberate step into uncharted territory, fusing a conceptual framework with unique experimentation, ideas coming from none other than Haze’s late-night YouTube deep dives. Each track leans into dissonance, distorted circuitry and oscillation in ways that blur the line between structure and chaos. In a city like Austin, often defined by its rock traditions and live-scene familiarity, this project stands apart as something newer, stranger and more forward-leaning. It sets a reminder that the local music landscape still has room to bend, stretch and reinvent itself.
“I would want people to take away something for themselves. Whatever they’re going through, they can use the music and put it in a playlist and have a good time,” Haze said. “Another thing I would want them to take is me as an artist. What I can offer.”
Now, as Haze prepares to bring “Runner” to the stage, the meticulous experimentation of the album is translating into a fuller, more dynamic live sound. Rehearsals with a backtracker and in-ear monitors for the drummer and bassist have recreated the dense layers of samples, noise and textures from the album. For Haze, the performance isn’t just about playing the songs but an extension of the artistry he’s cultivated. He connects with the audience not only through music but through the character and energy he embodies on stage.
“I love this album. It’s all that I thought about for a year,” Haze said. “I’m excited for people to hear it. I’m excited for people to critique it. Eat it up. Poop it out.”