Stefan Runstrom had a unique relationship with Johnny Schou. They were best friends, confidants and the anchor of their band, Tickle Me Pink.
As the rhythm section of the Fort Collins rock quartet, drummer Runstrom and bassist Schou were the band’s core. As confidants, Runstrom and Schou were always there to talk each other through the struggles that come along with being a 20-something in a confusing world — a fact exaggerated by the fact that their band was taking off.
Last Tuesday, the group released its major-label debut, “Madeline,” on Wind-up Records. That same morning, Schou was found dead in his Fort Collins bedroom by his bandmates. And Runstrom, singer-guitarist Sean Kennedy and guitarist Steven Beck were left to console one another without the presence of the 22-year-old man they’d grown to love and depend on.
“This morning I woke up hoping to feel a lot better,” Runstrom told The Post on Wednesday in the band’s first interview after Schou’s passing. “But it hasn’t got much better. I still miss my friend.”
The circumstances surrounding Schou’s death aren’t yet widely known. Police said CPR was performed but that he was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators don’t suspect foul play, but the coroner is investigating the cause of death, according to the Fort Collins Police Department. Toxicology reports routinely take several weeks.
When asked about that morning, Runstrom shuddered.
“Obviously everybody who knows Johnny knows that he had a lot of struggles in his life,” Runstrom said. “There were various things going on, so it’s hard to say, really. I don’t want to get into it too much. But he’s had a rough life, and let’s leave it at that.
“Just to be fair to his parents, I’d like to keep the rest under wraps for now.”
When asked if a note of any form was found in Schou’s room on Tuesday morning, police Sgt. Jon Holsten had no comment. But Runstrom did address one of the most-asked questions since the announcement of Schou’s death.
“The most obvious question: People are going to assume that, since we play in a rock band, that this was because of an alcohol or drug overdose, but I can vouch for him. It wasn’t anything like that at all.
“That said, everybody needs to know that Johnny was a troubled kid in the past, but he was my best friend, and (Monday night) was the happiest I’ve ever seen the kid.”
Monday night, the night before Schou’s death, was a big one for the band. The members were fresh off two raging Vans Warped Tour dates. The Sunday-night Denver Warped Tour was “one of the best shows we’ve ever played,” Runstrom said, and Monday was a chance for rest and recollection.
That evening the band members were hanging around the Fort Collins home they share. The following morning they had scheduled an interview at The Denver Post at 11 a.m., and later that day they were to mark their CD’s release with an in-store performance at Independent Records.
“So stoked”
“We were stoked from the night prior,” Runstrom said. “I’ve never seen Johnny so stoked. We were back from tour, and our album was coming out. He had rented a tux for the event last night.”
That changed the following morning.
“We were all in shock when we realized what had happened,” Runstrom said. “Before we knew it, paramedics showed up, and chaos ensued from there.”
The sadness cast a large shadow over a day that was to be the biggest in the band’s career. The release of a major-label debut only happens once in a band’s life, and now the three young men who make up Tickle Me Pink are reeling instead of celebrating.
“It was such a bittersweet day for us,” Runstrom said. “If Johnny was still alive, I know he’d want us to continue with something he put his heart and soul into.”
The band canceled at least one show — July 14 at the Black Sheep in Colorado Springs — but Runstrom said the members plan to fulfill most, if not all, of the Alternative Press Tour 2008, which will stretch coast to coast for two months with Scary Kids Scaring Kids and Finch, starting July 18 in San Diego.
The next Colorado gig, part of that tour, is set for Aug. 3 at Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom in Denver.
“If Johnny was still alive, that’s what we’d be doing,” said Runstrom, who noted that the band is already working on signing a bass player for the tour. “We talked with (Johnny’s) parents, and they told us the same thing.”
“Madeline” is a sprawling rock outing — a guitar-friendly record that focuses on youth, love and loss. Kennedy wrote all of the lyrics, but Kennedy and Schou wrote the majority of the music, and Schou penned the single that first got the band noticed, the catchy “Typical.”
The record hardly shies away from difficult subject matter. The title track tells a heartbreaking story about a friend calling out for help and later overdosing on drugs. The narrator, Kennedy, pleads: “I never said goodbye. I wish I would have tried. I couldn’t hear her cries as she filled her veins with lies.”
It’s a stirring song, accented with violent guitars and a carefully crafted build that will raise the hair on the back of your neck if you give it the chance. It could be this generation’s take on the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Under the Bridge,” proving there’s more to Tickle Me Pink than the catchy single. “It’s ironic that a lot of the songs on this record deal with death,” said Runstrom. “A lot of the songwriting that Sean and Johnny did was mortality-based stuff, really heavy (expletive). So if anything, I’d say that the album speaks for itself in terms of us trying to honor (Johnny) in some way.”
Ricardo Baca: 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com
