For 24-year-old CASHFORGOLD, aka Jacqueline Torgerson, her new single “Runaway” is not just an effervescent electropop anthem, but a concrete mark in the pages of her own love story with Berlin-based producer, Tim Schaufert. The two met on Soundcloud circa 2016 when CASHFORGOLD was living outside of Detroit in West Bloomfield, Michigan. She had just returned to Michigan from San Francisco after quitting her desk job as a social media manager in pursuit of creating content that was most meaningful to her – music.
“One of my favorite quotes is by the author Guy Debord: ‘We’ve gone from being into having and from having into merely appearing,’” says CASHFORGOLD. “I hated that I was sitting there ‘creating content’ when I felt like I really needed to be creating my art.”
After leaving her job in the Bay Area, the artist sought refuge in the Detroit area and saw it as a place to recharge and focus on creating music. The same way many of us find our favorite musicians, CASHFORGOLD discovered Schaufert on Soundcloud and asked him if he wanted to collaborate. This marked the beginning of a prolific creative partnership and, later, an overseas romance.
CASHFORGOLD says the first few months of her and Schaufert’s collaboration was strictly professional, but in March of 2017, a magical romance started brewing. Although the two hadn’t met face to face yet, she felt something euphoric and sacred about her dynamic with Schaufert, and decided to express those feelings the best way she knew how. She wrote “Runaway,” she says, “about wanting to leave Detroit and be in Berlin with Tim… and that unfolding love story.”
CASHFORGOLD, who now splits her time between Berlin and Metro Detroit, got her wish, and the song is just as majestic as her love story. Starting with gorgeous, ethereal vocals on top of a whimsical piano melody and haunting strings, she creates the perfect setting for an enchanting romance. “How long would it take / to really escape / I’d meet you halfway / your mind’s my hideaway,” sings CASHFORGOLD, directly to her co-producer and collaborator. After an airy introduction, the song breaks down into booming synths scattered with more resplendent vocal runs. Oscillating between delicate and beautiful to intoxicating and intense, “Runaway” succeeds at mimicking the disorienting feeling of falling in love.
