Rundgren takes the high-tech road

By John Chandler

The Portland Tribune, Sep 21, 2004, Updated Oct 30, 2009

The book on Todd Rundgren has always been that he needs a challenge in order to produce worthwhile music. But what constitutes a challenge?

Here’s a guy who’s been making music of one sort or another since the late ’60s. He’s had hit singles (“Hello, It’s Me,” “I Saw the Light,” “Can We Still Be Friends?”), albums that critics gush over (“Something/Anything?” “A Wizard a True Star”), played in bands (the Nazz, Utopia) and produced landmark albums by other artists (Patti Smith, the Band, Badfinger, XTC, the New York Dolls and Meat Loaf’s “Bat out of Hell,” among them).

Rundgren is a technology whiz, recording an interactive album in 1992 called “No World Order.” The album allows listeners to tinker with individual tracks and create alternative versions of his songs.

And who can forget his terrific score for the riotous Jim Carrey vehicle “Dumb and Dumber”?

He lives a seemingly idyllic existence on the island of Kauai. But with so many laurels to rest on, can he still get properly motivated?

Rundgren, 56, is on the road again, with his biggest tour in over a decade. His new record is “Liars” (Sanctuary Records), a meditative concept album that focuses on the nature of truth.

“I’ve never actually felt that I could, with certitude, say, ‘This is the absolute truth,’ ” Rundgren says. “But it is a much easier task to say, ‘That is definitely not true.’ The basic message of the record is Ñ not that this is the truth or that is the truth or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah Ñ but that you really need to care about the truth if only to determine which side of it you’re standing on. It’s better to know that you’re deluded. Or it’s better to know that what you’re saying is not true, even if you persist in saying it.”

The song “Liar” finds Rundgren reaching the boiling point, fueled by righteous anger at world events unfolding on CNN. But when queried about his political take, he turns somewhat diplomatic.

“When you listen to the whole thing, you realize that not very much of it is political,” he says. “That’s because politicians are not a special class of human being. They don’t become liars once they become politicians. Probably what made them adaptable to politics is the fact that they already were liars. É It made them ideally suited for that particular thing.

“People just love to be told things that are unproven or just plainly not true, but often just never subjected to any scrutiny,” he says. “Like, ‘America is the greatest country in the world.’ We like to be told that because it makes us ignore all the undesirable traits about Americanism.”

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