RJD2 sounded like a pretty busy guy when I had the chance to speak with him over the phone. Despite the short run time of the interview, it wound up being a pretty decent conversation with a guy who’s obviously intelligent and something a bit more than passionate about his work.

We spoke more about his recent work – Third Hand and The Colossus, his newest release, being the main focus. But there was also a bit about what RJ would have done differently and how that’s going to affect the future of his career. For now, he’s about to head out on the road, though…

Have you found that your audience has shifted over time because of the stylistic changes that your work has undergone?

It’s really hard to say. It’s hard for me to make a visual assessment. I couldn’t tell too much from just looking at the crowd. Maybe the group has shifted to a 30/70 ratio as opposed to it being a ‘bro-deo.’

Is that as a result of the change in your music?

I don’t know. I remember playing shows in 2003 or 2004 being just an amalgamation of weirdoes, misfits and hip hopers. But I don’t know if I can identify a change. If there is a change, it’s that jam band kids have really gotten into me.

I saw you in Cleveland at the Grog Shop during the Second Hand tour. It seemed that everyone was between 17 and 20. I was surprised that the crowd was so young.

You might be right. I think that it might also be indicative of music today in general. I really don’t go and see bands too often at all. The bands that I do go and see aren’t the bands that I’d have gone to see 10 years ago. I know that’s a somewhat common occurrence.

Atmosphere for example, plays to 17 year old kids on every tour and they’ve been doing this longer than I have. Obviously, something’s happening.

I hate to say this – from a live perspective, though, I can definitely remember indie rock kids coming to shows back in 2003 or 2004. But I play to young crowds, old crowds, whatever. It’s gotten to the point where someone’ll come up to me and tell me that their dad likes a record. I’m not surprised.

Third Hand was a pop record, but a direction that you wanted to go in. The Colossus seems to be the middle ground between that album and the rap stuff that you were doing before. What prompted you to combine the two approaches to music?

I felt like for the first three records that I’d done on my own, I’d touched on a number of different things. In terms of how I was recording – whether it’s rap or something else – with The Colossus I was able to make it a retrospective. I don’t want to say that record was a rest stop. It’s not like part way up the mountain I need to take a breather and look back on what’s been accomplished so far.