A Conversation with Tony Lunn – HuffPost 9.24.10

Mike Ragogna: You have a new album, Reckoning, and we’ll get to that. But we should start by catching people up on your past. You started out as part of the Chicago scene, right?

Tony Lunn: Yeah, I started playing music in Chicago. I had a band called Brennantown which was a bluegrass rock band back in the late ’90s. We played all kinds of fun bluegrass songs, but also some originals. That went over big in Chicago, and we had airplay on WXRT and we played all the great places in Chicago like Shubas and Cubbie Bear. Then, when that broke up, I moved out to California and worked in music for a little bit and got kind of entrenched in the music scene out there. I worked at Virgin Records, I worked at Capitol Records, but when the music industry really started to fizzle out is when I really started taking my music very seriously.

MR: Your previous album was titled Last Days Of Diresville, and the title track has something to do with that, right?

TL: When I wrote “The Last Days Of Diresville,” it had a lot to do with the end of the music industry in a way. It had already been such a strange and horrible place to work, and now when it fizzled out, it was kind of the last days of something that wasn’t that great in the first place. So, that’s where “The Last Days Of Diresville” title came from. I understand there is a Dyersville in either Iowa or Indiana–I think it might be in Indiana–but I didn’t know that. It was more of a metaphor for the music industry, and what was going on in my life at the time.

MR: But there’s more to that song’s story.

TL: The idea for the song actually came from where I was living. In Laurel Canyon there was a big fire, and I had this dream about the fire and losing my house. In the dream, I just wandered around for days, looking to put back the pieces, so that’s also kind of where “The Last Days Of Diresville” came from.

MR: One of the songs on that album was called “Change,” and it was everywhere. You also had a couple songs on television.

TL: Yeah, I had a couple of songs that were used for a WB show back when the CW was called that.

MR: Which one was it?

TL: “Change” was used for an NBC show, and that was back in ’06 or something.

MR: Do you remember the name of the show?

TL: It was a show called High School Reunion on WB. Then, I had two songs that were used on Rosanna Arquette’s documentary, All We Are Saying, along with a bunch of other good songwriters. So, I’ve had some songs placed in film and TV, so that was really good. As a DIY artist, it’s always good to get paid back a little bit for making an album, and those really helped to get me paid back after putting a lot of time and money into making that album. I pretty much did everything in the studio because Pro Tools was just kind of coming, for me, and I liked to do things in the studio with the full band and everything. So, you know, it takes a little, but it was good to get some placements and get paid for that.

MR: It’s very hard for a musician, especially a DIY musician to get placements. You really have to work your butt off, don’t you.

TL Yeah, you do, and we did. We did a video for “Change” that we did in one day that’s on YouTube. We ran around L.A. all day and shot that video, and it had good timing along, picked up by the Obama campaign. I heard it got shown in some Democratic headquarters. Yeah, change was a definite metaphor for that album. A lot was changing in my life, and all around at that time, so that was a big song from that record.

MR: I remember they took the song and actually made a commercial out of it, didn’t they?

TL: Yeah. For some of the Democratic headquarters all around the country, there was a little clip that showed Obama or people holding up signs, and it was playing my song. That was exciting, and I’m glad it got used for such a perfect purpose.

MR: You keep your eye on all things social consciousness-wise, don’t you?

TL: I do to some extent, yeah. I try to just write what kind of inspires or evokes emotion for me. For instance, when Katrina happened back in ’07, I wrote a song that is on my new album called “Salvation,” and that was just a response to what happened down there with Katrina. It was just the idea that we were going through this together with those people, and yet no one felt like they could help in any way. There was such a lag of people seeing all this but feeling like they couldn’t do anything. So, that’s kind of where “Salvation” fit, with the hopelessness that arises from these situations, but then also the hope and help that comes through in the end. There’s always a light shining for you somewhere, whether you find it through God or friends and family, or whether you find it by just lending a hand. Salvation can be found just by reaching out a hand to help you through the day.

MR: Nice. Now, I’m curious as to why you called your album Reckoning?

TL: Well, that’s a good question. I think most people would say other bands have had albums named Reckoning. R.E.M. had an album named Reckoning, and there are others, but I knew that and I still called it Reckoning because the definition of “reckoning” struck me. I never really knew what it meant.

MR: What does it really mean?

TL: It basically means, “The sum of all your calculations.” I thought that was such a neat idea. I always thought a reckoning was sort of like an apocalypse, but in actuality, it’s the sum of all your calculations. So, it hit me that I’d been working on this record, and I said, “I’m a DIY artist, so I kind of have to spend my money wisely and thriftily.” But it takes a while, so I’d been working on this record for like three years now. In those past three years, I really played with a lot of people starting out with Jim and Dani Lacey-Baker who are Austin musicians that were out here in Los Angeles. They were really my first band as a solo artist, but I played with a lot of different people and wrote all these songs and kept recording. Ultimately, this album is the result of all that. So, it’s the sum of all the writing, because I wrote thirty to forty songs for this record, and these are just the ones that I wanted to put out.

MR: Wasn’t there a story behind “I’m In Tune?” Weren’t there a couple of different recordings of it?

TL: I had recorded that a while back with Rick Parker, and it was definitely when I was more into some rock and pop kind of things, but it changed. That song is really about being in a band, playing music with a bunch of people, and just the feeling that you get form being able to do anything you want. Playing on a Friday night, it was always one of our first songs, and it was a rocker, for sure, but it went through some different incarnations. It’s still got a rock vibe, though. I actually tried to change it to acoustic for this record, and it just didn’t have the same vibe. So, I actually ended up bringing back some of the more rock elements of it. “I’m In Tune” can be taken both as one on one with another person or with a band. You know, “I’m in tune with you, and we can do anything.” It’s that kind of idea, but that’s one of the ones that most people seem to gravitate towards.

MR: Can you talk about “Train Song?”

TL. Yes, I’ve always been a big fan of trains. My dad was obsessed with trains, and I’ve always had a fondness for them. But that song was one of those songs where I just sat down at a piano and had the chords right there. I literally think I wrote it in one day, and I didn’t even change it very much. I loved it from the day that I wrote it, and for some reason, it was just a fun song. It’s always kind of been a fun song to play live because it’s an audience favorite for sure. It’s a lament for the Old West and the way that trains used to run across the country, taking people to and fro. It’s a lament for the way trains were meant to be and should have been before cars took over the country. We could have had trains running all over this country, and it would have been great.

MR: Tony, what is your advice to up and coming artists?

TL: What would I say to a new artist right now? I’d just say keep doing what you’re doing and be persistent. If you want to make music, be persistent and just keep at it. I would also say be diligent about sending your music out, sending your best music out, and getting the right lists of people to send your music to, from record companies to music supervisors to publishers. Just be persistent and diligent about getting your music out because you can send one hundred e-mails out, and ten people might get back to you, but those ten people you have to work on. Yeah, I’d just say be persistent.

Transcribed by Ryan Gaffney