for a long time I was not into having ma-
chines play the music. While everyone
else was doing a lot of sequencers and
stuff like that, I was obstinate and wanted
people to play the music. So when I finally
did get into that, I had a different ap-
proach, and it just seemed different than
what other people were doing. So it’s more
about trying to not repeat what everyone
else does.
How does your approach differ?
For me, the biggest change came when
the Internet started to become more of a
household technology. I very early on real-
ized it would change the way music was
marketed eventually and went to some
trouble to point it all out to anybody who
would listen. Now I’m at something of an
advantage because I’m already at a place
where other people have just started to re-
alize they should be going to. [In 1998,
Rundgren launched www.patronet.com —
a subscription service that enabled fans to
download his music directly from his web-
site.] A lot of people have been hugely suc-
cessful, and now not a lot of people can re-
member them, so having support from
your fans when you venture out in these
experimental forays is always kind of es-
sential!
Tell me about your upcoming album.
As soon as I finish up this little bit of
touring, I’m going to be sequestering my-
self in the studio to complete a new record.
I had a record come out a couple years ago
that was extremely well-received [2004’s
Liars], and it surprised me sort of, because
I wasn’t calculating to make a well-re-
ceived record! So since then I’ve been try-
ing to figure out what it was that made peo-
ple respond so well to this record. It’s in a
way like the records I used to make. They
have a high concept to them, they have a
certain degree of eclecticism to them and
the lyrics are about something, they’re not
simply local noises to go to the melody of
the song. I also want to work in a genre that
I haven’t really invested myself very much
in before and which I think there isn’t
enough of but that there may be some inter-
est in or need for. And that is what
we used to call arena rock —
the pre-punk golden age where it was like
Genesis and Yes, Foreigner, Boston and
songs with big hooks to them and big gui-
tar riffs, large arrangements and a bit of
musical prowess here and there, and that
was designed to sound good in an arena. So
I figure if I do a good job with this, it
may be a self-fulfilling prophecy, and
I may find myself playing in a lot of
arenas!
ew
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