Clash takes some time with this utterly unique – and legendary – figure in American music…
1. How did you approach the new album? Were you always intending to do a fist-pumping rock record, or did that evolve as the sessions progressed?
A few summers ago I was working with the New Cars, expecting we would be touring for a year. Early in the tour, an accident on the bus took Elliot Easton out (broken collarbone), so I was left with nothing to do. Jesse Gress, who had been gigging with the Tony Levin Group, suggested we team up and we did a 10 day tour of Canada. The response was quite positive, so I continued touring with a guitar quartet, eventually adjusting the personnel to what was essentially The Liars minus keyboards (Jesse, Kasim Sulton and Prairie Prince). The audience response indicated that there had been a lot of pent up desire to see me in my old Utopia role: guitar-playing frontman. When it came time to make a record, I knew that the guitar would be the central instrument.
Looking back, what was the most memorable experience you had producing other bands? And how were the New York Dolls to work with?
I always remember the Grand Funk Railroad “We’re An American Band” experience as being unique. In an industry where success has so many variables, to see the music and marketing plans mesh so perfectly and the result come so effortlessly is something I have yet to experience again. Maybe it’s much more commonplace now, where personalities and their music are so fabricated and predictable. I suppose the Dolls recordings were equally unique – probably closer to the carnival-style fantasy that people have about making records, or had before Let It Be demonstrated how potentially miserable it can be. In some ways the band was always trying to undercut themselves, rushing through the mixing and mastering because they didn’t understand the importance of the finishing touches.
5. PatroNet was an incredibly prescient idea – what do you make of the problems the music industry is facing at the moment, and what would your advice be to labels, artists etc?
Up until digital distribution destroyed the foundation of the industry, labels had become banks for artists. Performers would take as much money as the bank would give them in advance, and the bank would try to make up for many ‘bad loans’ by creating mega-artists like Michael Jackson who would magically erase all the red ink. It was in everybody’s interest to prop these superstars up, even if it meant that better music was being ignored. The internet essentially destroyed that control, putting the decision about who was worth hearing into the hands of the audience. The industry had no backup plan (indeed, they resisted any change at all), and the mighty have fallen. The result has been an industry-wide reboot. Smaller startups with fresh models have a greater chance of success than debt-strapped behemoths. And artists’ free money fantasies are giving way to the reality that was always there: you make your living playing live, not in the studio.
Looking ahead to future albums and shows, do you think you’ll stick with the back-to-basics approach, or are there still a million new ideas you want to explore? Anything in particular?
Since an artist is supposed to make his living in front of an audience, keeping and building that audience is always the priority. I expect to be on the road to the point of exhaustion before I’ll consider making another record. And if the audience continues to grow, the stage is as good a place to explore new ideas as any. I have always enjoyed the spectacle of a big arena show, lights and smoke, floating and spinning drum kits and pianos, fog machines and pillars of flame, the parting of the Red Sea…
Todd Rundgren’s new album “Arena” is released by Cooking Vinyl / Hi-Fi Recordings on 29th September, followed by UK concerts at: Manchester Academy 2 (Nov 6), Edinburgh Picture House (Nov 7), Norwich Waterfront (Nov 22) and London Kentish Town Forum (Nov 23).
Click here to buy tickets!
