Biography
Kasim Sulton earned his primary recognition through his tenure as bassist and vocalist in Utopia, the prog rock and new wave offshoot assembled by Todd Rundgren, while simultaneously ranking among rock’s busiest session players and maintaining an active solo career. His path began with performances in local groups on Staten Island, New York; by the mid-1970s he had moved to piano accompaniment for performance artist Cherry Vanilla. An introduction to Todd Rundgren soon followed, launching an extended creative partnership with the famously eclectic rock innovator. After Rundgren rebuilt the roster of his prog rock band Utopia, Sulton was invited to handle bass, completing the lineup that featured keyboardist Roger Powell, drummer John “Willie” Wilcox, and Rundgren on guitar, with all four members sharing vocal and songwriting responsibilities.
Prior to his first recorded appearance with Utopia, Sulton supplied bass and vocals to an album then being produced by Rundgren—Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell—which would become one of the genre’s perennial best-sellers. Two Utopia albums appeared in 1977, Ra and Oops! Wrong Planet; the first highlighted the band’s progressive inclinations, whereas the second pointed toward the stylistic blend of power pop, new wave, balladry, and hard rock that the quartet would refine thereafter.
Although Utopia would not release another studio album until 1980, the 1978 live set Back to the Bars—issued under Rundgren’s name alone—featured several Utopia performances, and in August 1979 the group served as one of the opening acts for Led Zeppelin’s two large-scale concerts at Knebworth Park, England. That same year Sulton, Wilcox, and Powell backed Alice Cooper in the film Roadie. Beyond these sporadic Utopia activities, Sulton contributed to additional recordings by Steve Hillage (L), Rick Derringer (Guitars and Women), Tom Robinson (TRB Two), and Shaun Cassidy (Wasp).
The year 1980 proved especially productive for Utopia, yielding two markedly different releases. The standout Adventures in Utopia generated the band’s only Top 40 single, “Set Me Free,” sung by Sulton, while the album itself peaked just outside the Top 30. Rather than follow that commercial peak with more polished new wave material, Rundgren and Utopia instead delivered Deface the Music, an album of Beatles parodies that did not replicate its predecessor’s sales.
Sulton was next enlisted for Meat Loaf songwriter Jim Steinman’s 1981 solo debut, Bad for Good, a project closely modeled on Bat Out of Hell. Utopia resurfaced in 1982 with the well-regarded yet commercially overlooked Swing to the Right and a self-titled three-sided album. Sulton also issued his debut solo effort that year, Kasim, released on EMI and promoted with a tour. He participated in two further Utopia projects—1984’s Oblivion and 1985’s P.O.V.—before the band disbanded. Throughout the remainder of the 1980s he toured with Patty Smyth and Cheap Trick, served briefly as a full member of Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, and appeared on albums by the Indigo Girls (their self-titled debut), the Rubinoos (Party of Two), Patti Smith (Dream of Life), Patty Smyth (Never Enough), Joan Jett (Good Music and Up Your Alley), and Steve Stevens (Atomic Playboys). He also formed the duo Price-Sulton with Blackhearts drummer Thommy Price, releasing the single album Lights On in 1986. Additional activity included Rundgren’s A Cappella tour and the 1989 Rundgren album Nearly Human.
Utopia reconvened in 1992 for a short two-week Japanese tour and the live document Redux ’92: Live in Japan before again dispersing. Sulton rejoined Meat Loaf for the rest of the decade, performing on the blockbuster Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell, Welcome to the Neighborhood, Live Around the World, and VH1 Storytellers, while also serving as a member and musical director of the touring band. Session work continued through the 1990s on releases such as Celine Dion’s Falling into You and Joan Jett’s Hit List; he also toured and recorded with Rundgren on With a Twist and One Long Year. In 1998 he issued a collection of previously unreleased 1980s solo demos, The Basement Tapes, through Earl Slick’s Slick Music label. Late in the decade Sulton began regular appearances at New York City venues including the Bitter End. He accompanied Meat Loaf on a European tour in 2001, subsequently launched his own U.S. solo tour, and released his third solo album, Quid Pro Quo, on Sound Sphere in early 2002.
Prior to his first recorded appearance with Utopia, Sulton supplied bass and vocals to an album then being produced by Rundgren—Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell—which would become one of the genre’s perennial best-sellers. Two Utopia albums appeared in 1977, Ra and Oops! Wrong Planet; the first highlighted the band’s progressive inclinations, whereas the second pointed toward the stylistic blend of power pop, new wave, balladry, and hard rock that the quartet would refine thereafter.
Although Utopia would not release another studio album until 1980, the 1978 live set Back to the Bars—issued under Rundgren’s name alone—featured several Utopia performances, and in August 1979 the group served as one of the opening acts for Led Zeppelin’s two large-scale concerts at Knebworth Park, England. That same year Sulton, Wilcox, and Powell backed Alice Cooper in the film Roadie. Beyond these sporadic Utopia activities, Sulton contributed to additional recordings by Steve Hillage (L), Rick Derringer (Guitars and Women), Tom Robinson (TRB Two), and Shaun Cassidy (Wasp).
The year 1980 proved especially productive for Utopia, yielding two markedly different releases. The standout Adventures in Utopia generated the band’s only Top 40 single, “Set Me Free,” sung by Sulton, while the album itself peaked just outside the Top 30. Rather than follow that commercial peak with more polished new wave material, Rundgren and Utopia instead delivered Deface the Music, an album of Beatles parodies that did not replicate its predecessor’s sales.
Sulton was next enlisted for Meat Loaf songwriter Jim Steinman’s 1981 solo debut, Bad for Good, a project closely modeled on Bat Out of Hell. Utopia resurfaced in 1982 with the well-regarded yet commercially overlooked Swing to the Right and a self-titled three-sided album. Sulton also issued his debut solo effort that year, Kasim, released on EMI and promoted with a tour. He participated in two further Utopia projects—1984’s Oblivion and 1985’s P.O.V.—before the band disbanded. Throughout the remainder of the 1980s he toured with Patty Smyth and Cheap Trick, served briefly as a full member of Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, and appeared on albums by the Indigo Girls (their self-titled debut), the Rubinoos (Party of Two), Patti Smith (Dream of Life), Patty Smyth (Never Enough), Joan Jett (Good Music and Up Your Alley), and Steve Stevens (Atomic Playboys). He also formed the duo Price-Sulton with Blackhearts drummer Thommy Price, releasing the single album Lights On in 1986. Additional activity included Rundgren’s A Cappella tour and the 1989 Rundgren album Nearly Human.
Utopia reconvened in 1992 for a short two-week Japanese tour and the live document Redux ’92: Live in Japan before again dispersing. Sulton rejoined Meat Loaf for the rest of the decade, performing on the blockbuster Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell, Welcome to the Neighborhood, Live Around the World, and VH1 Storytellers, while also serving as a member and musical director of the touring band. Session work continued through the 1990s on releases such as Celine Dion’s Falling into You and Joan Jett’s Hit List; he also toured and recorded with Rundgren on With a Twist and One Long Year. In 1998 he issued a collection of previously unreleased 1980s solo demos, The Basement Tapes, through Earl Slick’s Slick Music label. Late in the decade Sulton began regular appearances at New York City venues including the Bitter End. He accompanied Meat Loaf on a European tour in 2001, subsequently launched his own U.S. solo tour, and released his third solo album, Quid Pro Quo, on Sound Sphere in early 2002.
Albums
Singles
