Well Paul Myers has done the pop star thing, the radio talk show host thing, the writing thing, and was even nominated for a Canadian Emmy! Recently, however, he released the definitive Todd Rundgren biography, “A Wizard A True Star, Todd Rundgren in the Studio.”

Being both a musician and a writer, do you feel words are more meaningful when they are disguised behind a melody or is a word simply a word?

Funny you should use the word "disguise", that says more about you! I think the way I see it, words in songs are "aided and abetted" by melodies and chords, and therefore the best analogy is music and film, where a cello rumble means more when you see a shark fin, you know? For me, words in songs are generally simplified to convey a lot in very little time, with the knowledge that the vibe, or mood, of the tune will color it in further. In a book, you have no way of knowing what the mood of the reader is, so if you want to really convey something, you pay more attention to broader palletes of words to invoke or evoke emotions or understanding. That's a long answer. It would have been shorter if I'd sung it.

Your 90’s, power-pop band the Gravelberrys were successfully able to conquer the Canadian charts. Is it easier to get a hit in Canada or was the record not pushed in America?

Well, it's kind of you to assume we "conquered" the Canadian charts. We had a following and national airplay, and in Toronto we were in the Indie/Alternative top ten for a few weeks. But the band really only existed in name, I was the only constant, and there were literally three whole lineups. All of them great by the way. The record was never released in the States, and you have to remember this was 1993 and the internet wasn't an option. That would have changed everything. Canada was still a world away and unless you could afford to tour in the USA, there was no point in trying to get college stations (which would have been our only option) to play us. Population wise, it's probably easier to have the whole country know you in Canada but it's not necessarily any easier to have a hit. There's a lot of things that have to line up for that, and even then, luck is a big part of it.

Didn’t a similar thing happen to Kasim Sulton?

You mean he had in Canada? I wasn't aware. Love Kasim though, one of the great voices in pop and a killer bass player. Oh, and an awesome dude.

How did the Gravelberrys change after they achieved commercial success?

Well, we never really achieved commercial success, so to speak, so that's not really a thing.

Being the front man of the band, how did the media react after you replaced, essentially, the whole band?

There was no real controversy, I think most people understood that it was Paul Myers writing and producing the songs (with Michael Phillip Wojewoda, a great Toronto indie producer and a lifelong friend).

Did changing the lineup allow you to achieve more than creating a band like 'the Paul Myers Band' would?

The band lineups changed because each step of the ladder had different personal demands. The excellent guys who played on the record weren't really on board by the time the album came out, the next lineup was just for in-Toronto showcases, and the touring band probably had enough of me after two road trips. And then I basically quit my own band to figure out my life. Still working on that one. I did solo acoustic for many years.

Are you retired from the stage? World tour?

Over the last few years, I have gotten back into having a recording project and a duo has emerged called The Paul & John. I wrote a batch of songs with a great guitarist here in San Francisco, John Moremen, who also plays in The Orange Peels and has his own solo instrumental project called John Moremen's Flotation Device, you should check out their new CD. John and I wrote a bunch of songs in his apartment in the Inner Sunset district near Golden Gate Park, so we are calling the P&J CD "Inner Sunset" which could mean "inside your mind, man!". These are the best songs I've ever written in my life. John and I collaborate 50-50 on the music and he lets me write 100% of the lyrics. Having to write words that he might sing, or I might sing, gave me a responsibility I've never had before, the words can't just be whatever I feel like being clever about, these songs actually mean something. I summon all the word chops that I've been honing as a journalist and author but return to that poetic style (like I said before) that only music can allow. I love this stuff. John and I both sing and play guitars, but John also drums and I play the bass. There's a few other sounds like the odd Mellotron but it's only stuff we can play ourselves. Live we're using different bass & drum teams and we've even had DJ Bonebrake from X play with us one time. I think we're hoping to "tour" as a duo when the album comes out and use local rhythm sections in New York, DC, Toronto, Vancouver, Portland, San Francisco, and L.A.- we have musician friends in all those places.

Your first book, “Public Stunts Private Stories,” put your name out, internationally, as a writer. Do you feel working with such a commercially successful band allowed you to start ‘at the top’ as a writer?

I never thought of it that way, I had worked with Barenaked Ladies in their early days on the Toronto club scene, and my friend Michael Wojewoda had produced some of their earliest albums so they were just my friends. Then I moved away to San Francisco in 1997, and they called me in 1998 to work on this book for them. At the time, Warner Bros was telling them that they were about to become huge in America, which ended up being true, just as I was writing the book. It was picked up by Simon & Schuster, so I guess in that respect, yes I started at the top. The band wanted me to be a "character" in the book, which I always warn people about because it's a little obnoxious of me to be "in the story" but hey I was in the story so that's the truth of it. It was an exciting time to be with them, in places like Austin, Texas, as they were top of the charts. I'm still friends with those guys.

There was a quite a gap of time between your first book and your second, “It Ain't Easy: Long John Baldry and the Birth of the British Blues” what were you doing in the mean time?

Yeah, I didn't know if I was ever going to write another book, and then I moved to Vancouver for a while. It was weird to have lived in San Francisco and then suddenly be back in Canada, but a whole other Canada, not the part I grew up in (Toronto). I started writing for local newspapers, freelance, and when I was promoting the Barenaked Ladies book, I did a lot of media (radio and TV) and realized I love broadcasting. I fell into my own radio show on a talk radio channel, where I brought in musicians and stuff and also talked about current events. It was neat. I was also a judge on a Canadian TV series that was along the lines of American Idol, it wasn't Canadian Idol which is a thing, it was called Popstars. I think I was a good judge. Being on TV was both humbling (am I that fat?) and confidence building (I could be in front of people and not embarrass myself). I was a pundit on other culture shows and wrote a weekly column in The Georgia Straight (Vancouver's Village Voice type paper). Life was good. Then I was asked to write about Long John Baldry, who had just died while living there. He had lived there for many years.

Your first two books are on Canadian-ish people. Were you trying to sell to the Canadian market or did you feel John Baldry and the Barenaked Ladies were the only topics you were passionate about?

Baldry was an Englishman, but I see your point. In both those projects, I was asked to write them and never considered if it was, or wasn't, for the Canadian market so no, it wasn't conscious. With the BNL, like I said, I was excited for my peers who had built a real career and were now becoming big. It was an honor to be "their voice" on that biography. With Baldry, while I hadn't been that much of a fan, I certainly knew his reputation. But the key for me was, after I was asked to write the book, I said I'd do it if they didn't mind me making it also about the broader history of the UK blues scene in London in the late 1950s, that way I could relate to it because I'd been a big Jeff Beck, Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin and Stones fan. And there was the fact that Baldry had personally "discovered" Rod Stewart and Elton John, the "John" in his stage name being in tribute to Baldry. And the song "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" was about Baldry and Bernie Taupin intervening on Elton's faux suicide attempt. So there was lots of stuff that I was really interested in talking about.

Your latest book is on Todd Rundgren, a non-Canadian Godd. This is really one of the few books on Todd, why do you feel people didn’t write about him for so long?

I think, rightly or wrongly, Todd has never been embraced by the Jann Wenner's and serious critics, but the guy was clearly a secret catalyst to a lot of music that we all knew and loved (and some that people loathed as well). I was impressed that he was always himself and that besides being a really unique and challenging artist in his own right, he was also the producer for such diverse records as XTC Skylarking, Patti Smith Group's Wave, New York Dolls first (and later, their second comeback album) and then also did Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell. Who else has been around so many things and hasn't been written seriously about?

How did the project come together?

Well, unlike the previous two books, this one was all my idea. I pitched it to this company that I just knew it would be perfect for, the UK publisher Jawbone Press, and they were interested. But first, I wanted to make sure Todd would sit down with me for several sessions and talk about his productions. He said yes, with no hesitations and no ground rules, save for the fact that he didn't want it to be about any private life dramas, what he called "gossip", which I assumed meant we wouldn't talk about raising Liv Tyler. This was never even a thought, though. I always wanted to only write about the making of records by a master record maker at a golden era for producers and bands. I even spoke to Bebe Buell to assure her that I wasn't writing a tabloid book. I spelled this out in the forward too, just to be fair to anyone who wanted a dirt book. Nope, not in a Paul Myers book.

I personally learned quite a few things; I always thought Todd was the engineer of the records he produced. Do you think he is a “heavy handed producer?”

Todd is pragmatic in a business filled with romantics. That said I think Todd has room for the artist's he produces but he came up at a time when producers were taskmasters and quite often Todd was brought on board to "save" a record or a band (Badfinger, Meat Loaf, XTC), so perhaps he was rewarded early in his career for taking the reins on runaway projects. I believe him, though, when he says that if you know what you want he'll say sure let's get that. I think you have to have a secure ego with Todd, some people have been hurt by their transactions in the studio with him. I think that's unfortunate too, and I guess TR would be the first to tell you that he's not that concerned with making friends. It takes two to tango, although I hear the Japanese have been working on a machine for one to tango.

How did he pair up with punk rocker Stiv Bators and the Lords of the New Church?

I believe the Lords came to him via Bebe Buell who was pals with Stiv at the time. They probably dug that he'd done the New York Dolls debut and he was a "name" producer with a pedigree. He didn't work on much with them ultimately but I think they did a good cover of that Grass Roots song.

Do you think Todd Rundgren, as he is obviously trying, can still reinvent the wheel?

I think underestimating Todd Rundgren is not a growth industry. Sometimes, Todd's answer to reinventing the wheel has been to bypass wheels altogether. He's a lateral thinker, an individualist and sometimes a squeaky wheel himself. That means that sometimes, only he knows why he did something. But if you're around him for any period of time, you start to see that these things he does aren't random. He's always got some very practical motive. He's also willing to fail. That's rare among people of his stature and reputation. Technologies change, the structure of the "music business" changes. Todd is Todd.

“Bat Out Of Hell” is always stated to be modeled after Spector’s wall of sound. I don’t hear that- do you?

I think the key is that it's Steinman's "idea" of Spector's Wall Of Sound, filtered through Todd's notion of a wall of Springsteen, which is itself based on Spector. So it's a distant cousin of Spector. Reverb. Saxophones. Lots of players in the room.

Spector, innocent or guilty?

If I told you, I'd have to kill you.

Tell us about your blog!

A few years ago, I was waiting to hear back from an editor about a story I wanted to do. While I was waiting I had this other idea for a story that was more personal opinion. I am not really well-known enough to just ask real magazines to let me ramble on whatever I want, so my wife (the source of all my best ideas) suggested I start a blog as a place to "park" these little ideas. One of the keys to it's growth of late has been my Twitter feed and to some extent my Facebook page. I can write a blog entry and link it on my Twitter feed, which is also growing every week. This means more people are likely to get my blog in their face, it's really up to them if they want to read it. I added a subscribe function recently so it could come to your email box whenever I publish. I make no promises that it will blow your mind. But I have fun and perhaps you will too.

What do you feel the advantages to blogging are? Being able to write whatever you want when you want?

I don't always update it, because it's more of a place to take something that I either can't sell because it's too personal, or it's not a fully formed thing so it's better I just publish it myself.

Who’s the next book going to be on?

Not sure yet, I had a few projects implode last year. I've been doing trade stuff, like I recently wrote all the booklets that go in the Edsel Records reissues of the Bearsville Records catalogue. This included all the Todd and Utopia albums from those years (and Nearly Human as well) but also the whole Foghat catalogue, plus Felix Cavaliere and Randy Vanwarmer. Some of that I never would have written about but the gig made me learn it and I'm glad they did.

Desert island album time. . .GO!

XTC Drums And Wires & Skylarking, Beatles Revolver & Abbey Road. Elvis Costello This Years Model & Imperial Bedroom, Joni Mitchell Blue, Talking Heads 77 & Remain in Light. James Brown Live at The Apollo, Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique, Brian Eno's pop albums and Music For Airports. Steve Reich Music For 18 Musicians, Lennon's Imagine, McCartney's Ram, Ringo's Ringo, Harrison's All Things Must Pass, Several Dylan albums. ?But I think I'd also want food and shelter.

Thanks so much for the time, Paul! Could you give the aspiring writers out their some advice?

Try and read other writers. Learn about form and learn from other writers about process. Like any art, try and tell the story before you put your flashy words in. Obviously having a flair and a voice is important but if it distracts from the story you're telling, people won't come back to read you more. I get advice from Cameron Crowe, sometimes just by example, he's a great studier but he writes from a place of passion and truth. Your excitement for the music is what will take your ego out of it enough to let you get out of the way of the story. Believe me, your "voice" can't help but come through if you're excited and focused. Oh and if you have to take money gigs that aren't exciting, try and find the one thing that you can relate to it. I never listened to Randy Vanwarmer until I got that gig, and by letting down my bias, I learned that he actually was a really great guy who really cared about his music. I could relate to that.