Much like a hare darting around a misty field in the pale dawn light, Todd Rundgren can be incredibly difficult to pin down. Ever since his earliest days in the late 60s as guitarist of the Yardbirds-influenced psych rockers the Nazz, Rundgren has rarely hung around in one particular musical corner for too long. A naturally curious musician and autodidact intrigued to see what the form can offer, he’s spent most of his career effortlessly slipping in and out of various genres that have included power pop, garage rock, electronic music and, of course, prog with his former band Utopia.
But there’s so much more to Todd Rundgren. By his own admission, rock stardom came to him by accident and he soon rejected the attention that was afforded him. Eschewing the trappings and expectation of celebrity that came in the wake of 1972’s classic Something/Anything? double album, he elected to stretch his musical vision thanks to his own psychedelic excesses – and the resulting A Wizard, A True Star took decades to be acknowledged as work of a singular talent.
His 70s prog band Utopia harnessed the power of both synthesisers and the emerging multimedia technology of the day. This interest would later develop into the world of interactive albums and pioneering work that saw Rundgren bridging the gap between himself and his audience – all via the opportunities of the then-nascent internet.
Having produced a diverse roster of artists, including the planet-shagging success of Meat Loaf’s Bat Out Of Hell, Todd Rundgren shows absolutely no signs of slowing down on either side of the mixing desk, as Prog discovered when we managed to pin him down for a chat.
You’re a multi-instrumentalist musician, producer, sound engineer and songwriter. Which hat fits you best, and why?
I’m always kind of like a carnival act, you know? I’ll take off a hat
