CNET personalities -
movers and shakers - Todd Rundgren
By Bronwyn Fryer
A self-described "interactivity poster boy," Todd Rundgren is a recording artist, video pioneer, software developer, and interactive artist all rolled into one. Rundgren, who was once front man for the 1960s cult group The Nazz, went on to record with such diverse performers as Patti Smith, Cheap Trick, and The Psychedelic Furs. His newest offering is an enhanced CD called The Individualist. Find out more about Todd Rundgren and his newest company, Waking Dreams.
Q: You were probably the first musician ever to get seriously involved with interactive entertainment--way before Peter Gabriel or Laurie Anderson came along. How did you get started?
A: I got into interactivity around five years ago. In fact, I'd been leading a double life for a while--both performing and producing audio and video. When I 'came out,' as it were, I dedicated myself to bridging the gap between performance and computers, and to giving listeners some control over the way music is presented to them.
Q: Some people think of you as a kind of white Stevie Wonder, a multitalented musician with a vision of what can be done through art. What is the personal vision that most informs what you do?
A: My vision is driven by the kind of life I want to lead. My personal goal is to eliminate commercialism and popularism from my own creative process. I'm not willing to make a record that doesn't make me happy first. Take The Residents, for example. I'm very pleased with their success in the interactive medium, because they showed that fine artists can market their art and imprint their vision without compromising, and it works perfectly.
My essential message, embodied in The Individualist, is that the human race is being bogged down by its tendency to institutionalize itself. At some point you become a member of an institution, whether it's as simple as a family or as pernicious as Scientology or Republicanism. My whole point is to get people to identify with themselves instead of with institutions, because by institutionalizing yourself you deflect personal responsibility.
Q: You're quite a philosopher, a deconstructionist...
A: A Camille Paglia, if you like... (laughs)
Q: You must be thinking about using the Internet to bring your vision to people. Are you?
A: Well, we're already doing that somewhat with The Individualist; you can download a demo and all the tracks from CompuServe's Music In(tr)Action Forum (Go Imusic). Right now the download times are prohibitive, but when the higher bandwidth is here, artists will be able to distribute their art directly into people's homes without the middleman of corporations, plastic, packaging, or whatever else adds to the expense.
Q: Tell us more about The Individualist.
A: For me, The Individualist was an opportunity to give people a more content-related experience. Most performers who use the CD-ROM use it as an opportunity to give you biographical information about the band and to find new anecdotal avenues of expression, with a lesser expense and effort in the enhanced area. On The Individualist, we spent six months developing the content and the technologies. For each song there's a graphical accompaniment to the music, along with an interactive component such as a game.Todd Rundgren's enhanced CD, The Individualist, includes several video clips of his live stage performances so you can see the rocker in action.
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