Music Spot: Nagne – Can You Run

From time to time, we shine the spotlight on a SoundGym member by reviewing one of their releases for our Music Spot feature. This time around we’re going to look at Nagne’s new single, ‘Can You Run’.

Nagne was born in South Korea, and left with his family for Vietnam when he was nine years old. When he finished school, he moved to New York to study, before moving back to South Korea – where he is now based – after graduation. 

From the lyrics to the melody to the production style, ‘Can You Run’ is an exercise in classic song writing, and is clearly indebted to some of the greats from the 1960s and ‘70s. In that, it also bears a passing resemblance to modern artists like Father John Misty, who mine a similar set of influences.

The track opens with the vocals, delivered with raw emotion and supported only by piano chords. The simplicity of the arrangement at this point, along with a certain sweet naivety in the lyrics are reminiscent of James Taylor: “Can you run, can you hum can you teach me, every word, every song ever dreamed?” These aren’t the kind of words you regularly hear in pop songs in 2024 and they immediately recall earlier eras; songs such as The New Seeker’s ‘I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing’. 

From here the song builds gradually and satisfyingly. Drums, bass, gentle guitar figures and double tracked vocals entering on verse two, before things really start ramping up! The bridge very much recalls The Beatles – and comes complete with lovely stacked Beatles-esque harmonies. When the main refrain reappears alongside Brian May style guitar it strikes you that Queen also seem to be a big influence here – the melodic shape of the hook here not dissimilar to the verses of ‘We Are The Champions’. 

It's not often in a review these days that you find yourself reaching for so many ‘60s and ‘70s references, but this is a single that is in many ways gloriously out of step with the times. These heritage acts still command huge audiences however, and we have to hope that some of them find their way to Nagne’s music – his song writing certainly deserves it. 

"Nagne" Artist sounds for training are Now Available in the SoundCoins Store