PEL Presents NEM#240: Jonathan Rundman, Multi-Branded

What It Covers

Jonathan Rundman discusses his 30-year DIY recording career spanning rock songwriting, Lutheran church music, and Finnish folk traditions, detailing his collaborative process with Walter Salas-Humara and analog recording techniques for his 2024 album Waves.

Key Questions Answered

• •Collaborative songwriting process: Rundman co-wrote "Diner by the Train" with Walter Salas-Humara through email volleys over months in 2016, starting with Walter's character names and plot outline. The breakthrough came when Walter insisted "somebody needs to die" to raise emotional stakes, leading to the fourth verse that transformed the song's impact.
• •Analog recording approach: The Waves album was recorded live to two-inch reel-to-reel tape in Nashville with no click track, featuring four musicians playing simultaneously. Rundman then overdubbed keyboard parts in Minneapolis on vintage instruments, creating a hybrid production method that balanced spontaneity with layered arrangements for a more organic sound than digital recording.
• •Multi-brand career strategy: Rundman maintains three distinct musical careers under one name rather than creating separate artist identities: rock songwriter, Lutheran church musician, and Finnish folk performer. This approach mirrors jazz and bluegrass artists like Bela Fleck who refuse genre boundaries, though it creates audience confusion when his most-streamed track is a 1600s German chorale arrangement.
• •Narrative songwriting technique: Writing "Diner by the Train" taught Rundman to raise emotional stakes and embrace vulnerability in storytelling. The song's power comes from focusing on mundane details like small business ownership and stay-at-home fatherhood rather than dramatic events, creating pathos through ordinary American life and the weight of inheriting a family business across generations.
• •Finnish folk music structure: Traditional Finnish instrumental folk music uses simple A-B section melodies repeated in four loops, with different instruments taking the lead on each repetition. Rundman applied this structure to "Home Unknown," writing it as a hymn with mathematically rigid meter on staff paper before adding lyrics, creating a timeless quality that transcends typical rock song construction.