U Weekly. Serving The Ohio State University in Columbus Ohio

Eric Rottmayer: Goin’ it solo

By Chip Midnight

There are few Columbus musicians as prolific as Eric Rottmayer. Tiara, the band Rottmayer formed in the mid-90s, released five CDs before breaking up. At the same time, Rottmayer released seven solo albums under the name Eric Metronome. The missing link between Elliott Smith and Death Cab for Cutie, Rottmayer will celebrate the release of his eighth solo album, “You Should Be Happy,” this weekend.

ERIC rottmayer (also known as eric metronome)

While recording his new CD, Rottmayer was challenged by Robert Duffy of Sunken Treasure Records, the label releasing the new Eric Metronome CD, to record a new cover every week for the entirety of 2006. Now, 40 weeks into the project, Rottmayer has been keeping up with the challenge, covering artists ranging from the Mountain Goats to a-ha.

How did you pick the songs you are covering?

I wrote out a list of maybe 30 songs that I’d been wanting to learn. I try and do songs that I really love, but it’s also fun to drag an old gem out of the ground like that Pat Benatar song.

I’d like to hear you cover Rockwell’s “(I Always Feel Like) Somebody’s Watching Me.”

That Rockwell song is awesome. Maybe I can get Sean Gardner (Kopaz, Melty Melty) to sing the chorus, as he is sort of the Michael Jackson of the Columbus scene.

How has the Internet helped your career?

I’ve gotten a lot of attention from bloggers in the past few months and I think it’s great. Most of these folks are just music fans and they are simply writing about music they like. Plus, they post an MP3 for you to listen to. That has helped me more than I can even realize. Getting bloggers to post about your music is like word of mouth through a megaphone.

How did you hook up with Sunken Treasure Records?

I’ve been friends with Robert and I think he knew I was working on a new album. I passed it to him in some uncompleted form and he liked it and asked if he could help release it. I was feeling pretty hopeless and very anti-music industry at the time – I had sent out several of my previous solo albums to try and get some help from some small labels and I got virtually no response. Robert is really, really good at what he does and he has ideas about how to work things. I think every artist needs someone else like that to help guide them through the bullshit.

Would you consider using a full band to compliment Eric Metronome or will you stick to solo shows?

It’s been really fun putting together a band for my CD release show; I’ve got some serious Columbus superstars playing with me. But I also really enjoy the freedom of making all the decisions and doing what I want with this project. I can play solo if I need to, but it’s always nice to have accompaniment. I recently played some shows in New York City and Boston and had the pleasure of not only sharing the stage with Megan Palmer, but she also played violin with me on a few songs, which was incredible.

With such a deep catalog of songs, how do you decide what songs to play live?

I mostly do new songs when I perform. It’s hard for me to go back and re-learn songs that I did so long ago. My mind is like a conveyor belt with these songs; I can only have so many on there at a time. If I start putting new ones on, the older ones start falling off.

Eric Metronome will be performing at Little Brother’s on Saturday, Oct. 14. Megan Palmer and the Randys support. For more information, please call 421-2025 or visit www.littlebrothers.com online. To download the songs from Eric Metronome’s “52 Covers in 52 Weeks” project, visit www.ericmetronome.com .

Originally Published: October 11, 2006

↑ Back to the top