Rick Springfield Still Goes For The Big Hook With His ‘Automatic’ Album

When it came to making his 22nd studio album Automatic, rocker Rick Springfield went for a different approach from the usual way he usually recorded. It resulted in a creative wind of 20 songs on a record–a first in his career. “What I did was I wrote a song and then went into the studio and recorded the whole thing,” he says, “and then came out and wrote another song—and then went back in and recorded rather than writing them all, and then just going in with a band and recording them all at once. So they all have a kind of different vibe to them.”

The dynamic-sounding Automatic is a collection of straightforward pop-rock that recalls Springfield’s classic works but with a more contemporary sheen, incorporating even elements of EDM. Its release last month comes as Springfield has played to fans during his recent I Want My ’80s tour with fellow acts Tommy Tutone, the Hooters and Paul Young.