Music, mental health... and running
Rod Jones of Scottish indie rockers Idlewild is a runner, a musician, and a mental health advocate.
Idlewild was the second band that I ever went to see live (London Astoria, 24th January 1999). Their chaotically grungey indie-punk was a heavenly sound to a green-behind-the-ears 15-year-old. I was hooked, and on October 26th 2000, I met their guitarist Rod Jones backstage at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire. It was my second assignment as a budding music journalist. Along with the rest of the band, he signed my CDs. It was fucking cool. For me, anyway.
Yes, the Scottish band is celebrating 30 years of existence right now, but I’m positioning this article as a 25-year anniversary of that moment, so I reconnected with Rod to talk about how running, music, and mental health permeate every facet of his life now.
Music & Mental Health
While Idlewild is into their fourth decade as a band, there was a moment in 2010 where the band took a step back for a three-year hiatus to re-energize their creative spirit. Rod talks about being burnt out and losing the love for it after 15 years of either recording or being on tour. He says that they felt like they “needed to make a record to live, and that felt like the wrong reason.”
During that downtime, Rod formed something of a Scottish supergroup with Emma Pollock of The Delgados called The Fruit Tree Foundation. In conjunction with the Mental Health Foundation, the group’s aim was to “raise awareness of mental health and challenge perceptions of mental health problems by creating great art.”
His next move to combine music and mental health was running community-based music therapy workshops in a more deprived part of Edinburgh. When 30 people signed up who weren’t working due to health reasons, retirement, or they were just bored or lonely, he had to think fast about the format. He split them up into bands and tasked them with writing a song together.
“Songwriting is a form of communication, as is music in general. Would that help mental health? What could it do? I really had no idea, but by getting them to jam together, quite quickly people were doing it, and they were laughing and engaging with each other.”
Soon, doctors were referring people to the workshop, and Rod saw people who were socially awkward or anxious in group situations coming out of their shells in the sessions.
“That really helped me open up about [my mental health], and other people were then willing to open up about theirs.”
We’re getting to the running part of this story, fear not, but if you want a direct link right, consider how I talk about run clubs being an antidote to the loneliness epidemic. I think group activities are crucial for mental health. There is instruction in group settings, and while it’s common for runners to stand around awkwardly before a run club heads off, it’s just as common for bonds to form on that route, and to see people coming out of their shells in just the same way that Rod saw in his workshops.
Humans are social beings. We crave human contact. Understanding that with compassion can really boost a community, and there are run clubs like R.A.M.P. in Los Angeles and INTRSPCT in Manchester that openly advocate for mental health through running.
Mental Health & Running
With his 40th birthday looming, Rod decided to get back into running. He ran cross-country at school, you see, but found Sonic Youth at age 16. So he leaned on an old friend who was a running coach to build him an intensive four-week plan to get up to a 10k. He knew he wouldn’t have the patience for a 12-week plan. He tells me it was harder than he expected.
A big reason why he took up running again was the work that he did with music and mental health during that hiatus in relation to his life as a musician.
“Music can be such a positive thing for mental health. People with dementia can remember songs and music can bring them back to life, and I think it is very good for calming the brain.”
He talks about the “bipolar existence” of being onstage with “all that adrenaline” but then packing his bag alone in his hotel room. He talks about music becoming more of a stressor for him, as he has to link it with deadlines and touring, with the duality of emotions.
“A buzzword [when I was doing the workshops] was ‘resilience,’ and training yourself to be more resilient with micro-moments of meditation to reset your brain so you were able to deal with them more. They’ve been training surgeons, when they’re washing their hands, to use that time as a micro-meditation so that when they go into a high pressure environment, they’ve had that break from the stressors.”
Resilience is a buzzword in the running world as well, and there are many interpretations. One big proponent of how acknowledging that you’re doing a difficult thing while running can be used to build resilience in other parts of your life is British ultrarunner, coach, author (and former music industry player) Allie Bailey, for instance. Rod’s method is less about performance enhancement, and more about finding stillness.
“My brain works [so fast], and exercise is the only thing that really focuses it. I like exercise that involves solitude.”
He continued running those 10k loops from home, but wasn’t finding the mental clarity that had been promised. Then, one day, he decided to keep going. Another 3km. Then another, and another. Then he realized that he was 6km from having completed a half-marathon.
That’s when he got it. It had become meditative and “realized that [he] hadn’t really thought about anything else for the past two hours.”
Since then, Rod has run every other day without fail. It’s not about racing. Because the band takes precedence on the calendar, so signing up for an organized marathon is simply not possible. He just runs for running’s sake. He runs for his mind. When he goes on tour with Idlewild, half his luggage is filled with running gear. Skipping a run simply isn’t an option for him.
Running & Music
Being a musician he has an internal metronome and when he runs a 10k, they often have nearly perfect splits. Does Rod listen to music while he runs? Yes, but not always.
“If I’m running in the countryside, I like to listen to music more. I quite like psych music, dronier Krautrock that I can get into. If I’m in the city, I have a ‘90s hip hop playlist. If I’m feeling angry, I put on a pop playlist where everything’s really fast and bombastic.”
Along with his place in Idlewild, Rod also produces records for others. Sometimes he listens to a record that he’s mixed. He says that when he’s running it becomes more like background music, giving him a little distance from the work he’s been immersed in. With a clear brain, he is able to notice previously unseen problems.
The brain is a curious thing, isn’t it? I believe that everyone’s goal is to try and achieve something as close to happiness as possible, and that all starts in the brain. Whether it’s human connection, resilience, or mental clarity, we want the best for ourselves, and when running can help to provide that, it’s a beautiful thing.
That thought that Idlewild didn’t simply want to create an album for the sake of living, but because they genuinely wanted to make some art with their friends says it all. That little bit of extra thought led to Rod Jones finding out more about himself, and a greater level of happiness for the rest of his life, but also for everyone that touches his work.
Go for a run. Go listen to your favorite band. Go do the thing that makes you happiest.
Idlewild’s excellent self-titled tenth album was released on 03 October 2025 on V2 Records and was produced by Rod Jones. It’s got a Metacritic rating of 75/100, which is very good. Listen for yourself!
Housekeeping
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Thanks for reading,
Raz x