Runaway June Plans to Release Album Ahead of Carrie Underwood Tour

Runaway June has been working on their debut album for a long time – since before the release of their debut single, “Lipstick,” in 2016. The trio, made up of Jennifer Wayne, Naomi Cooke and Hannah Mulholland, released a self-titled EP last year, while they finished the work on their first solo project.

But when Runaway June received the invitation to open for Carrie Underwood, the women knew the May 1 tour start was the perfect target date to finally get their first project completed.

“We have a timeline, but not a date,” Cooke told PopCulture.com. “But the Carrie tour is really gonna, hopefully, push the project to completion. So, in March we’re gonna hopefully be finishing the album, and then they’ll put their little magic on it, and then hopefully by super early in the tour, we’ll have it.”

All three women are prolific songwriters, who together wrote several of their songs, including “Lipstick” and their current single, “Buy My Own Drinks.” But in spite of their talent, Runaway June is including a few outside songs on their next record, and writing with some of the best writers in town.

“We have been really lucky to collaborate with some of the best writers in the world here in Nashville and to have to opportunity to hear some of the songs that they are writing is really, really incredible,” Cooke acknowledged. “So we’re just trying to find the best songs that fit the record.

“I think we’re getting a different caliber of songs because of all the writers that we’re able to write with now,” she continued. “That, and we’ve been in the scene a little bit longer, and people are hearing the stuff that we’ve written. They’re kind of like, ‘Okay, we can get on board with this project.’ I feel like people are starting to figure out what our niche is, and they want to write with us, and so just by default our caliber has gone up from that.”

Runaway June still doesn’t know how many songs on their upcoming album will be written by them or not, but they do know they can’t wait for fans to hear their new music.

“We’re just trying to get the best songs that we can, do the best that we can until we close the door on that,” Cooke said. “But it feels really good. It’s looking good. We have a really exciting little batch of songs.”

Download “I Can Buy My Own Drinks” on iTunes.

Find a list of all of Runaway June’s upcoming shows by visiting their website.

Photo Credit: Getty images/Tommaso Boddi