Minnesota Musician Jonathan Rundman: An Interview With This Independent Artist

Jonathan Rundman is a Minnesota-based independent musician. He's been playing music since the early 1990s. He plays guitar, harmonica, piano, and a variety of other instruments. He tours around the country playing for both secular and religious groups. I recently had the opportunity to interview him.

Did you always want to be a musician?

Yes, I think it really hit me in elementary school when I first heard "Jack & Diane" by John Mellencamp. It sounded like something I could do, and that I'd like to do.

What musicians are your major influences?

My two favorite and most influential bands put out rootsy-rock albums in the late '80s: The Rainmakers and The Silos. I'm also influenced by '60s bands like Simon & Garfunkel and The Rolling Stones, '70s bands like Kansas and Styx, '80s bands like The Eurythmics and The Cars, and '90s bands like Aimee Mann and Jason Falkner.

You play a lot of different instruments. Have you taken lessons on how to play these instruments or did you end up teaching yourself?

I took piano lessons for many years as a kid, and played trombone in the school band. everything else I taught myself.

Your music has been described as folk-punk, Lutheran-Americana, and musical power pop. Would you say that any of these describe your sound or would you define it differently?

The best terms that the music/radio business or rock journalists would understand are Americana and power pop. but those words don't mean much to the general population, so I usually tell regular people that I play folk-rock, or I tell them that I sound like Neil Young or Tom Petty.

You perform for many religious groups, but at times you also perform for secular groups. Which groups are your favorite?

I always swing between the two camps, and I love them both. If I only played for one of those crowds, I'd really miss the other.

You write your own songs and most of the songs you perform in concert are your own. Which of your songs is your favorite? Which of your songs is your favorite to perform?