Run Remedy (a.k.a. Robin Koob) isn’t here to give you easy, breezy indie folk. Her music sits in that messy, vulnerable space where grief and self-discovery collide. Kind of like a journal entry that’s half poetry, half existential crisis. Her new single, ‘Kerosene‘, is raw and cathartic, and it might just leave you staring at the ceiling, re-evaluating your life choices.
Koob, who grew up in a strict Evangelical Christian household in New Jersey before finding a new home in Manchester, wrote Kerosene about a tragedy that changed her forever. As a teenager, she lost her first love, Lily, in a car accident. That grief and the lessons it left behind fuel Kerosene—a song about the brightness of youth, the terror of loss, and the strange kind of freedom that comes when life forces you to rebuild from the ashes.
“There are different ‘light motifs’ throughout,” Koob explains, because, yes, she’s also a bit of a musical architect. A dreamy, cloud-like synth captures the giddy rush of first love, while a fast, jittery Telecaster mirrors the chaos of the crash. Then, as the song closes, a rising piano sequence played by James Davis represents something softer. Acceptance. Add in some haunting harmonies from Niamh Feeney (The Deep Blue), and Kerosene hits like a gut punch wrapped in a lullaby.
The music video, directed by Luca Shaw, leans into that same contrast. It layers live-action footage with animation and, of course, real fire. Shot in a friend’s backyard in one take (because why overcomplicate things?), the visuals mirror Koob’s journey—reckoning with loss, peeling back layers of memory, and making peace with what remains.
Watch the official video for ‘Kerosene’ below:
If you’ve been keeping up with Run Remedy, Kerosene follows Disciple, a song that dug into her complicated relationship with faith and queerness. Together, they paint a picture of an artist who isn’t afraid to get personal—or existential. Think Elliott Smith meets Sufjan Stevens but with a uniquely offbeat and fiercely honest touch.
And if all this has you itching to see her live, you’re in luck. Koob has shared stages with Francis Lung, PIJN, Melanie Baker, and Dilettante, and her debut album is set to drop in June. If Kerosene is any indication, it’s going to be something special.
