from Music Sound Output Magazine
November, 1985
It may be de rigueur in the music business to pigeonhole rock artists, but Todd Rundgren's lengthy and checkered career defies simple categorization. After leaving the Nazz and embarking on a solo career over a decade ago, Rundgren has proven himself as a multi-instrumentalist and a do-it-all-yourself artist capable of writing everything from beautifully simple melodies to complex, 30-minute performance suites.
Besides his solo work, Rundgren has been the leader of Utopia, a supremely talented ensemble of musicians whose music, some say, has been far too heady for mainstream rock fans. However, it makes little difference to Todd's large and loyal following whether he tours solo or with a band; they always flock to his live performances to pay homage to the Wizard of Woodstock.
Rundgren is also acknowledged as a technocrat in the recording studio, dabbling with tricks like tape loops and rhythm machines long before they came into vogue. As a producer, he has worked with the Tubes, the Psychedelic Furs, Jules Shear, the New York Dolls, Meat Loaf, Grand Funk and, most recently, What Is This. To top it off, he was one of a handful of artists to delve into video long before MTV with numerous Utopia performance videos and an hour-long video interpretation of Holst's The Planets.
Yet Todd Rundgren is hardly the flashy rock prodigy whose arrogance is exceeded only by his hype. Currently, he is ensconced with his family in Woodstock where he works out of his own studio and creates whatever new musical concept pops into his fertile mind. Lately, some novel approaches to pop music have come forth.
Rundgren the producer has been one of the first to utilize digital sampling in a non-gimmicky fashion during his recent work with the Tubes on their Love Bomb LP. Rundgren the artist has just released a record that's a startling departure -- not in substance but in style -- called A Cappella, a vocal album with no instrumental backing. Outside of a few studio tricks derived from "aural" rhythms, Rundgren relies on the original musical instrument -- his voice -- to express his newest music.
It all comes out of his homemade studio in upstate New York, one he originally built in the Big Apple in 1973. "After five years there, I decided to move the operation to Woodstock," he says. But it's not quite the state-of-the-art facility one would expect from a recording pioneer. "I only know analog recording. In fact, I've never done a digital record. I don't think it's worth the money to install it right now. I'm happy with what I've got."
Not only does he do all his work there; the bands he produces have to travel there to work with him. After all, he may be a "name" producer, but that doesn't mean he has to go looking for potential clients. "I've never gone out and asked to produce a band. It's too big a responsibility to take over someone's direction like that. They have to want to work with you more than you want to work with them. You have to be in that proper position as a producer when you start recording."
There are those who criticize Todd Rundgren the producer for using that "position" to impose his identifiable style on all the groups he works with. "That doesn't bother me," he responds. "That's a natural consequence of the state of these bands when they come in to make a record. A lot of people want you to reflect your musical focus; that's why they wanted you in the first place. The exact degree of your input depends on how much focus the band already has."
Sometimes, however, a new group's focus isn't developed enough to be unique. "One of the biggest problems artists have is they only see themselves as a combination of existing acts. They want to have a Foreigner drum style, a vocal style like so-and-so, and a guitar sound like somebody else. Bands don't get very far with that kind of attitude."
Obviously, a group with a fine-tuned focus won't need the so-called "Rundgrenization." Members of What Is This noted in a recent interview (MSO, October 1985) that Rundgren was careful not to stick his sound on them. "It's more a question of carefully tailoring production to a band and avoiding any studio tricks that would call attention to the production. I wanted to concentrate on their actual performance, since What Is This is a performance-oriented band."
Thus, there was little use for Rundgren's current toy, the Fairlight digital sampler. He first got into sampling about two years ago; although he first came up with the idea for an a cappella album back then, he wasn't able to use the Fairlight during the recording. "At that time, the only thing available was the Emulator. I actually didn't get a Fairlight until A Cappella was finished." He did put the sampler to good use on the Tubes' Love Bomb album, especially on the side-long "Night People" suite. "It all started off as a bunch of unrelated musical ideas about how night people operate. We entered each piece individually into the Fairlight and synched them end to end. Then we listened to it and found places that might need extra bass or tempo changes. After the Fairlight played it through, we replaced some of the sampled sounds with real instruments."
Rundgren describes sampling as the "essence" of recording, but he asserts that it's more a means to an end and not vice versa. "Using an analog synthesizer locked into certain combinations of waveforms creates structures where you can control even the smallest part of the composition," he states. "You're not just creating a musical style, but a skill. The degree of your skill can define that style, but the complexity of your work isn't necessarily the end product. It's more a question of appropriateness. In each particular case you decide to use, the bottom line is to use the technology so it directs attention to the song and not the process."
Actually, Rundgren claims he used the Fairlight more for songwriting than for production. "I see digital sampling as an excellent compositional tool," he says. "In terms of real-time sequencing, it's a boon to composers because it displays the relationship of the notes on the screen. You can change individual notes or the key's velocity -- the very minute aspects of editing."
As much as he enjoys his sampling, Rundgren realizes that its influence on the musical world will not be totally overwhelming, especially in the live arena. "It's certainly going to replace bands in Holiday Inns, but with heavy metal being the premier performance music today, fans still want to see posturing guitar players. Fairlights and other samplers won't replace those musicians."
Rundgren asserts that writing songs for an a cappella album was not all that different from his usual methodology. "I knew the songs were going to be sung in that manner, so I did write in that direction," he admits. "But I don't know if that way was any different from my past songwriting. I did use some old-fashioned recording techniques on A Cappella like tape looping." Once the listener gets used to the unusual vocal effect, the end result is a greater concentration on the lyrical messages. That makes songs like the antiwar "Johnee Jingo" and the depiction of the demise of the blue-collar workforce in "Honest Work" more compelling.
Be that as it may, it's still not surprising that Bearsville, his former label prior to his new pact with Warner Brothers, had second thoughts about A Cappella." Record company wrangling held it up for two years," he asserts. "It had a lot to do with me being at the end of my contract. When I told them what I was trying to accomplish, they originally thought it was going to be some sort of doo-wop record. They never heard it until I gave them the final product, which is what I do with all my work."
Rundgren has just finished holding auditions for a 10-voice backup choir that will be his sole means of support for his upcoming tour. "Most of the singers are people I know, but they don't know each other yet," he says. "Two weeks of rehearsals are going to start in a few days. There just aren't enough people in Utopia to perform all the vocals; there are as many as 12 different parts in some songs. We're going to take some Fairlights and some MIDI gear on the tour as well."
He also plans to review the arrangements of his older material to fit his new lineup. "By nature, most of it has to be very structured. I'm not into random vocal histrionics to create mock excitement. The vocals aren't going to be heavy-handed or obtrusive, but I am going to take advantage of the vocal power."
And what's going to happen to Utopia? "We don't have any plans to make another record at this point. When you depend on the band for funds, it's not a very profitable situation. Of course, it doesn't affect me as much as it affects the others, because I still have my solo career. Everyone is going to do his own thing for a while until everyone's career stabilizes."
It has been said that the reason Utopia never broke as big as their potential was because their brand of power pop was too smart for its own good. "There is an audience for Utopia," Rundgren retorts, "and our music is the only thing we're capable of doing. We've done records as commercial as we can make them, although I don't think POV [released in early 1985] was all that commercial. I think one reason for our lack of huge success was caused by not being signed to a major label. [Utopia recorded for Bearsville, Network and Jem during their 10-year history.] When we were signed to Network, Elektra Records, the parent company, went through some changes and the label never got off the ground. We seem to catch a lot of that kind of 'luck.'
"We have no problems being signed to an independent label like Jem in terms of artistic control, but at the same time, the disadvantages are a lack of promotional funds and no money to defray the costs of extensive touring."
With Utopia on the shelf and Rundgren considering A Cappella a one-time experiment, that doesn't mean he's running out of ideas. "I have a whole catalog of ideas and songs to record," he declares. "There are a lot of other weird voices in me that come out from time to time. The thrill is in the experimenting, not whether a project is successful or not. That's the basic element behind my existence. There are probably a lot of people who don't see it that way; their goal is to go straight for success on the charts.
"I want to meddle with as many things as possible."