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" So there was a way for you to get promoted and survive as an artist without worrying about AM radio hits. "
Todd Rundgren
Radio
You
Way
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" Sometimes being a musician has little to do with viability and everything to do with survivability. Many musicians start out great, and they wind up out of the business in 10 years. "
Todd Rundgren
Business
Musicians
Great
" It's hard for me to say that what I'm doing isn't even really music, because deep inside of me, what I want to do is much greater than music. "
Todd Rundgren
Want
Music
Me
" When I got out of the Nazz, I had it in my mind that simply to be eclectic was an important aspect of making music. It was something that I derived from The Beatles. "
Todd Rundgren
Out
Got
Important
" When I got out of high school, I was in a blues band. It was the kind of music I was interested in, and listening to, mostly because it was becoming a vehicle for a generation of guitarists - like Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton. Mike Bloomfield. And that's what I wanted to be, principally: a guitar player. "
Todd Rundgren
Music
School
Listening
" My very first records, I was very interested in how you get the particular quality you want out of it, and I began to learn about the engineering and aspects of production and things very early on. I got hands-on with the process and taught myself how to engineer, as opposed to just being a producer who asked the engineer to make it sound nice. "
Todd Rundgren
You
Myself
Nice
" That's what I like about Frank Ocean or Bon Iver - they try to capture a feeling in the most sincere way. "
Todd Rundgren
Capture
Way
Like
" Because of the way the record business has kind of stumbled and disintegrated, in a way, you're as likely to sell records at your merch table at your gigs as you are to sell them in a regular record outlet or even online. "
Todd Rundgren
You
Table
Business
" I don't use any real vintage hardware any longer. That's always been the object as far as gaining control of the studio environment, going back to when I built my first studio, Secret Sound, in New York City. The whole point was to not have to pay studio bills anymore and not be looking at the clock. "
Todd Rundgren
Control
New York
Looking
" I've always done very 'composed' music and worked-out solos. But sometimes it's fun not knowing where you're going. "
Todd Rundgren
Done
You
Not Knowing
" I figure it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy; if I make a successful arena rock record, I'll wind up playing arenas! I wouldn't mind being back in that kind of venue because of the kinds of things you can do with production. You can make your shows more interesting, which would be fun to do. "
Todd Rundgren
Fun
Wind
Rock
" I am a laptop boy. People say: 'Where's your studio?' I say: 'It's in my laptop, in my rucksack.' "
Todd Rundgren
I Am
People
Boy
" I think there are always people who, when they get the bug to play an instrument, they want to get as good as they can with it rather than just be simply adequate at it. You run into them every once in a while - some kid who wants to be the next Stevie Ray Vaughan, for whatever reason, and plays exactly like him. "
Todd Rundgren
Think
You
Play
" I used to have sort of mixed feelings about a producer whose only skills seemed to be going into the studio, schmoozing the artists and making them feel good. I can see now that in some cases, that's what you have to do because that's the only way you're going to get them to produce. "
Todd Rundgren
You
Good
Feel
" I don't have a long history of hit singles of my own. I had a few, and I had a little hot streak in the '70s, but I've had a lot of success producing other people. "
Todd Rundgren
Own
History
Success
" The God that can only love something like this man. And from then on it was all downhill. "
Todd Rundgren
God
Like
Love
" When you come to a place like Kauai, you don't go for a high tech world. "
Todd Rundgren
Like
Go
High
" Celebrities are the fodder of much of the media business, so they're always interested in making you seem provocative when you're not, or trying to bring you some sort of embarrassment by revealing something you'd rather not have revealed. That's the downside of celebrity. "
Todd Rundgren
Always
Business
Media
" So I don't think I'm gonna pull my head into my shell just because a bunch of people start acting like idiots. "
Todd Rundgren
Like
Start
Acting
" I've become kind of a haven for people who like pop music, but that's not the only thing they like. They also like music in general and want to be able to expand their own horizons. They haven't completely given up on music and are willing to have somebody mediate new things that are happening in music to them. "
Todd Rundgren
People
Kind
Want
" If I have an opportunity to do something safe or something challenging, I'll often choose the latter. Sometimes, the objective is to submerge my viewpoint with the artist. "
Todd Rundgren
Sometimes
Opportunity
Choose
" 'Something/Anything?' was kind of a different record, since I'm playing everything myself. A lot of the songs on there have a particular kind of instrumentation that is much like a guitar quartet, and in some ways, it's an exceptional song on that record because so much of the writing on 'Something/Anything?' is piano-oriented. "
Todd Rundgren
Writing
Song
Myself
" I can't stand Beyonce. The way she sells it so hard, constantly. Everything is shoved right in your face. Like, you don't have the sense to make a judgment of your own. "
Todd Rundgren
Stand
Judgment
Face
" I write in a very strange way. Things are very fragmentary for a very long time, and then they come together very quickly near the end of the process. "
Todd Rundgren
Long
Together
Process
" I first started doing some somewhat technology-based shows in the '80s. If you wanted to get real technical about it, back in the '70s I used to open up with Utopia with just me on the stage with a four-track tape recorder. So, technically, I've been using the help of various devices pretty much throughout my career. "
Todd Rundgren
Career
Back
Help
" It's no longer necessary to slave over the vocals. I don't sing the lyrics until I write them, and singing is the very last thing I do. I record the entire track, and then I worry about lyrics and vocals. The music will suggest where the words are going to a certain extent. "
Todd Rundgren
Will
Worry
Words
" The Nazz survived for 18 months - that was my first taste of fame on some level and of the overall experience of being in a band. There are good and bad aspects, and I got to taste some of both, and, well, it's not as much fun as what you see in 'A Hard Day's Night,' let me just say that. "
Todd Rundgren
Experience
Good
Fun
" I never look for music by genre. I look for an artist who puts a dependable trademark on things. Like Elvis Costello - he's a great songwriter who presents his songs in a number of contexts. I feel the same about my own music. "
Todd Rundgren
Great
Feel
Artist
" While I used to make my living principally as a record producer, as time went on, I had to depend more and more on my live performances because of the evolution of the record industry, which has de-emphasized what made it possible to make a living. "
Todd Rundgren
Evolution
Living
Possible
" I'm a guitar player, really - I mean, first and foremost - I grew up with all that great 1960s music, in terms of growing up, becoming a musician, so it's like first-love stuff; I'm always going to go back to it. "
Todd Rundgren
Great
Music
Guitar
" I'm not a one-hit wonder as some suggest. I've had a couple of hits, but still, all of my hits were in the '70s. There was pretty much nothing in the '80s, '90s, or in the first full decade into the next millennium. "
Todd Rundgren
Decade
First
Pretty