Recording artist, record producer, cutting edge digital videomaker and visionary Internet developer are all titles Todd Rundgren can hang after his name. A Princeville resident for seven years, Rundgren is playing a solo concert Saturday evening as a benefit for
Recording artist, record producer, cutting edge digital videomaker and visionary Internet developer are all titles Todd Rundgren can hang after his name.
A Princeville resident for seven years, Rundgren is playing a solo concert Saturday evening as a benefit for KKCR, Kauai’s community radio station. The concert begins at 8 p.m. at the Kauai Community College’s Performing Arts Center. Tickets are available at Borders’s in Lihue and other locations.
From his North Shore base Rundgren continues to make music, tour with Ringo Starr and other rock greats and develop his revolutionary Web-based fan-artist connection he calls PatroNet. To rock audiences he is best known for his 1970s hits “Hello It’s Me” and “I Saw The Light,” plus his megahit producing work with Meat Loaf, Hall & Oates and other rock groups. On Kauai, he makes occasional mystery appearances on KKCR’s “Chick Rock, Chick Talk,” a talk-music show hosted by his wife, Michele Rundgren. The show airs Fridays from 4-6 p.m.
Rundgren’s Web site is located at www.tr-i.com.
Rundgren updated The Garden Island on his upcoming concert, current national radio issues and on his ever-evolving career in an e-mail interview.
TGI: How will the concert benefit the radio station?
TR: Aside from the usual ongoing quest for operating expenses, I understand that KKCR would like to expand the programming possibilities with things like remote location broadcasts and other such events. I benefit by buying myself some peace at home n Michele probably won’t ask me to do any heavy lifting for a while.
TGI: What’s your take on the recent FCC rulings, and how could that affect KKCR’s operation?
TR: Since KKCR is a public station, these horrendous giveaways won’t directly affect their operation. The rulings are meant to benefit giant right-wing media conglomerates who’s agenda is to reshape the population by controlling what we see and hear. Public radio is protected and necessary n until the bigs decide to legislate it out of existence.
TGI: What can we look forward to at your concert? For the past 9 months I’ve been doing an all solo show. It’s similar to what I used to do in the 80s n a man and his music’ sort of thing. I play guitar and piano, a little uke and some karaoke to liven things up. I do all the songs that my fans yell out to me when I’m in the middle of some other musical fusion experiment. A year from now I’ll be playing some entirely new music and everyone will go back to yelling “Hello It’s Me” to no avail.
TGI: Any new music or digital projects in the works? I spend a good deal of my time maintaining PatroNet, my online subscription service. Right now we’re completely rebuilding the system for a July 1 rollout. Simultaneously, I am trying to finish about a dozen or so new recordings before I have to go back to the Mainland in July.
