The playlist: Great Lake Swimmers’ Erik Arnesen

Runners are always looking for new ways to stay inspired when out on a run. For many of us, music is the way. Epic playlists are a runner’s best friend and while we love rounding up our favourite songs and asking you for yours, we thought there’s no better way to compile the best tunes than to reach out to Canadian musicians who run.

Bringing us this weekend’s playlist is Erik Arnesen, long-time guitarist and banjo player for Great Lake Swimmers. (You may also know him from a Vancouver project called Siskiyou. They just released their third album in January.) Right now, Great Lake Swimmers is celebrating the release of their new album ‘A Forest of Arms’ which came out April 21 (Below we’ve included Don’t Leave Me Hanging, a song from the new album, as well as Your Rocky Spine, a favourite from their album Ongiara).

The band is currently on a tour of North America to support it and Arnesen is running all around the states to take in the new scenery while doing so. When he talks to CR, he tells us he’s just been running five miles through the Mammoth Caves National Park in Kentucky hurdling turtles along the path by the Echo River.

This tour will take them across Canada to B.C. and down to Los Angeles and all the way through to New Orleans. In the summer, the band has a lot going on in Ontario. Guelph’s Hillside Festival is one thing they’ve got scheduled and the rest of their summer will be peppered with smaller festivals across Ontario (so catch them if you can!) After that, this Canadian bunch will be hopping across the pond to showcase their talents to European crowds for five weeks in September.

And when he’s not busy with all the touring, Arnesen is running. He started running in 2010 when his then girlfriend, now wife, Ashleigh, was organizing a team for Run for the Cure. Afterwards, they decided to continue training for a half-marathon. Since starting running, they have run two half-marathons as well as 5K and 10K races.

“After taking some time off, I’ve recently come back to running as part of my exercise regimen while on tour,” says Arnesen. “It really is the perfect way to get in a workout on the road.” He says he includes strength training and yoga as part of his workout routine. Though he usually opts to go music-free when running, he’s put together this list that he thinks runners will love. “I’m going to road test it in the next while,” he says. “It’s full of epic rock songs for motivation when you find stones in your pass way.”

Here are Arnesen’s recommendations:

Beach House: Walk in the Park (warm up)

The War on Drugs: An Ocean in Between the Waves

LCD Soundsystem: Time to Get Away

The Constantines: Working Full-Time

Chad VanGaalen: Flower Gardens

Goat: Run To Your Mama

Daft Punk: Superheroes