The core of Charleston, South Carolina's Slow Runner is singer and songwriter Michael Flynn and multi-instrumentalist Josh Kaler, who favor a low-key, melodic sound equally reminiscent of the Shins and 1970s singer-songwriters of the Nick Drake school. Following a short-lived major-label deal that produced 2006's NO DISASSEMBLE (which had originally been self-released as a Flynn solo album), Flynn and Kaler moved into the indie world with a pair of self-released albums, 2007's slightly more aggressive SHIV! and 2008's pensive, chamber pop-influenced MERMAIDS.