TRIUMPH's RIK EMMETT On Crossing Music Genres: 'TAYLOR SWIFT Can Pretty Much Do Whatever She Wants To Do'

In a new interview with Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio, TRIUMPH guitarist/vocalist Rik Emmett was asked if he thinks if it's easier and more acceptable for musicians to change genres today than it was decades ago. He responded: "Yes and no. I think there are some artists that, right from their own get-go, when they start, they decide, 'I'm gonna be eclectic, and I don't care what anybody else thinks about what slot I might fit into, and I will build my own sort of career based on the fact that I am this eclectic kind of an artist.' And I would cite David Bowie, Madonna as people that, they climb right to the highest sort of echelons of the music business doing their own thing and being their own entity. I don't think anybody would be surprised if an artist like — I don't know — say Beyoncé, put out something that was real street and then something that was real dance, house and then something that was kind of real emo. I think Taylor Swift, she can pretty much do whatever she kind of wants to do. She's built a career, as a writer, that's allowed her to do that, and I give her a lot of credit for that, whereas at lower levels of the industry, perhaps, you find things where somebody's in a band and the band kind of builds up a following and then that people don't want them to change. They kind of need the same consistency of image and style and genre, and they don't want that to change. And some solo artists are like that. I think solo gives you a little more flexibility than being in a band or being in an act, because, let's face it, this is show business, and so that plays into it too."

Rik continued: "Some folks are really good at the idea of making videos and their music career is really based more on the fact that they make really interesting kinds of video things that they do, whereas some artists go, 'I don't really care about that.'

"I watched 'Saturday Night Live' this week. They had [Grammy-winning singer-songwriter] Kacey Musgraves, and she doesn't move around a lot. The music's pretty low key, and she's great — she's really, really great. I don't think Kacey Musgraves is gonna put out an album next week that's going to be rap — house beats. I think her genre is fairly well established and she'll kind of stay there."

After Erickson noted that Swift would likely be able to tackle any genre except for possibly death metal and have it be accepted by her audience, Emmett said: "If you do like metal or death metal or heavy-duty rap, there are certain things where the style of that music is the thing that kind of owns it, and that's what you're servicing. And so things like lyric and melody become a little less important to the style of what that recording is. And I used to teach music business, and I used to tell students, you write a song and you can now produce it in a way that it might be very different than what you originally intended as a song, because what you're doing now is turning it into a record. So a song is not a record. A record is something very different. And you can have records that become really successful and they're not really very good songs. And you can have great songs and then they fail as records — they don't find an audience that gets behind them. Whereas when we were talking about Taylor Swift, her songs are — they're good, and she produces them in a way that the production of it is remaining true to what the lyric is about. I think there are bands that do that. U2 is a band that does that really well, and they've been able to have a career. But you can tell a U2 record — the second you hear it, you go, 'Oh, that's U2.' You know it and recognize it."

Emmett recently completed radiation treatment for prostate cancer.

Rik, who quit TRIUMPH — acrimoniously, in 1988 — over music and business disputes, went on to pursue a solo career, while TRIUMPH carried on with future BON JOVI guitarist Phil X for one more album, 1992's "Edge Of Excess", before calling it a day the following year.

Emmett was estranged, both personally and professionally, from the two other members of the legendary Canadian classic rock power trio for 18 years before they repaired their relationship.

Rik's memoir, "Lay It On The Line - A Backstage Pass To Rock Star Adventure, Conflict And Triumph", came out last October via ECW Press.

After 20 years apart, Emmett, Gil Moore (drums) and Mike Levine (bass) played at the 2008 editions of the Sweden Rock Festival and Rocklahoma. A DVD of the historic Sweden performance was made available four years later.