Hi, everyone! A couple weeks ago, I sat down to chat with Jack Rutter, the creator behind the Salt Lake City/LA-based project Ritt Momney. Named for the former Massachusetts senator Mitt Romney, Rutter started the band. Rutter released his dark, depressing debut full-length Her And All of My Friends this past July, and had a nice run of cross-country live shows with his touring band. He's received a lot of hype from various sources, praising his lyrics about breaking up-- not only with his girlfriend, but with his Mormonist ideals as well. Additionally, this brave young man and his band got to perform at SXSW in April and played a few shows with veteran rockers Death Cab for Cutie. I was really amazed with how well Jack's been doing for himself so early on, and it's needless to say I wanted to sit down for a chat with him.
bazzreviews: Which artists or albums had an influence on you to start a music career?
Jack Rutter: When I first started taking music more seriously, I would have to say it was James Blake’s first album and Vault, Vol. 1 by STRFKR. I also really became fond of Phoebe Bridgers and Feist’s albums, and, although he’s not a direct influence of my sound, Earl Sweatshirt was a huge influence for me as well.
br: Before music, I hear that you happened to be an excellent lacrosse player, did you ever consider going to college and play?
J.R.: Yeah, actually I did, I don’t think anyone has ever asked me that in an interview until now… great research! All throughout my life, even in high school, I would get super into the activities I was involved with. At the height of my lacrosse excitement, or “career”, if you will, I did have plans to go to college and play. After a while, I just moved on to other things because wanted to pursue a more creative career. I wouldn’t consider myself the same athlete I once was, but I’m still doing some coaching for some local youth leagues here and there.
br: You played Joseph Smith’s son in a movie once, so would acting have been another possible career route if music didn’t pan out?
J.R.: No, but I guess you could say I was some “self-proclaimed” Mormon movie star at one point. That gig was just my parents pushing me into the role. I think I got like seventy-five bucks for doing the role, but my parents put that into a savings account without me knowing. It’s safe to say I was pretty mad. In hindsight, I don’t think I could ever be an actor because I feel like they need some sort of superhuman comfort with themselves and be deeply self-realized. It’s insane to me how people can be that vulnerable through acting, but I’ve never thought twice about pursuing it as a career.
br: How did you meet the other members of the group?
J.R.: There have been around twelve to fifteen different people that have been in Ritt. The original group was all my friends that went on their Mormon missions, and they helped me record my first EP as well as my single “Young Adult”. I knew all of them since elementary school, and we just decided to form a band. Afterwards, I just wanted to make it solo and just have a bigger live group, so I brought about in four or five different people before we got to the most recent installment of Sam [Olsen] (drums), Noah [Hamula] (bass) and Jonas [Torgerson] (guitar). Each person who used to be in the group brought in one of the current members so when someone left, they said, “Oh, I know a guy”, and that’s how Noah and Jonas got in. Once someone else left, Jonas brought in Sam, and that’s where it stands right now. It’s turned out really well, these three guys have been amazing to work with on our last tour.
br: What’s the significance behind your name, Ritt Momney?
J.R.: It’s basically a flipping of the senator, Mitt Romney’s name. The funny thing is, he’s not even from Utah; he moved here because he’s a Mormon, and that’s how he got elected. Initially, there was no meaning behind it beside the fact that we were from Utah. If I had known that the band would have turned into what it has now, I would have put more thought into the name. It’s all honestly come full circle now, though. The music I’ve been making has become a lot more about Mormonism, and Mitt’s a Mormon icon. It’s made more sense as time has gone on.
br: You’ve also played shows at South by Southwest and had an opening gig for Death Cab for Cutie, how have you guys reacted to such large success so early on?
J.R.: Since the beginning of the band up to now, there’s been some big changes for me. I dropped out of school, moved from Salt Lake out to LA, and now I’m here living in a small house by myself trying to figure out the world out there. It’s made me alone a lot more, which is good and bad. In high school, I’d always dreamed about trying to get famous. I wasn’t super popular then, but I wasn’t unpopular. Going back to what I said earlier, my work ethic of putting all my energy into stuff I was involved in took over. I soon had so many people turning their heads towards me and looking like I was this “cool kid” all of the sudden. It was super overwhelming, and I didn’t like that in a lot of ways. Part of me definitely wanted to leave that environment and escape, so it’s been nice to not have to worry about being “popular” or pleasing so many different people. Don’t get me wrong, it’s been exciting to have the opportunity to do these things that so few people can do. I’ve been off to a great start, and I’m super fortunate to have the opportunity to make a living off of something I’ve wanted to do for a while now.
br: You’ve done your first wave of cross country touring this year, would you say that you prefer performing live over recording in a studio?
J.R.: I totally prefer recording by myself. My music is super personal to me, and it’s almost like the only recording system that I have of my life. I don’t write in a journal, so it’s fun to document my life in a different way. Think about it like this: An author is most likely going to prefer writing new material over reading the same book a hundred times to different people. Sure, I like the aspect of performing and seeing such big crowds in places I’ve never been to, but I definitely enjoy making new music whenever I can.
br: Can you describe your process for making a song?
J.R.: It usually starts with a chord progression. I really like sitting down at a desk and work out a cool sound from that. I’ll then write a melody over those chords, and that isn’t too difficult. What does take the longest, however, is the lyrics. It can come quick, but sometimes it’ll take longer to get a few verses and chorus churned out. After that, I’ll build a song out with whatever else I think is necessary for the song. Finally, I’ll throw it all in ProTools or Logic and make it work from there.
br: What’s more important to you, lyricism or production value and instrumentation? J.R.: When I started out, it was all about production, but now I tend to focus more on lyrics. The songs that come later on the debut were super lyric-heavy, and I spent a lot of time writing those. At the same time, I got so caught up in lyrics that my production skills were a little rusty. I’m still trying to find a balance now, but sometimes it can just be fun to mess around with different techniques and craft a song from that.
br: You’ve been quoted as saying that you’re “incapable of writing happy songs”, what fuels your motivation to write sad songs?
J.R.: I honestly wish I could retract that statement, because as I’m getting to be a stronger writer, I can now throw out a happy song here and there for whatever reason. That being said, I feel like being happy is something that everybody understands really well already. People have talked forever about feeling happy and whatnot in songs, so it seems really redundant and not as necessary to me. Because people haven’t dealt with sadness and depression in songs for as long, it can be hard to understand. I want to write songs as poems about the different sad feelings I’m having so that people can really see where I am as a person. STRFKR is a great example of this, because on their Vault albums, they have darker topics being discussed in the lyrics over these ironically happy instrumentals. I’ve been trying to employ that in my work, but sadly, not as well as they have.
br: What songs are you most proud of in your discography?
J.R.: That’s a great question. I’d have to say it would be “(If) the Book Doesn’t Sell”. It proved a couple things about myself. First off, it was that I am indeed capable of writing something that dark and moody and have people be into it. Secondly, it was great to see so many people reach out to me and say that they’ve been through the same type of stuff I had gone to. I’m just so amazed at how one of my songs can have such an effect on specific people. Whether it’s kids in Utah who are Mormon, even kids like me who were contemplating leaving the church like I did. Whatever the case may be, the idea of helping people through music made me felt like I’d done something great in the process.
br: What do you want people out there reading this to know about you and your music?
J.R.: I guess I would want them to know less about me and just let the music express itself. I don’t like having the pressure of all these people knowing who you really are. I don’t want people to paint pictures in their head of who I am or who I’m supposed to be. I wish everyone wouldn’t be so expectant of my music to keep going in a certain direction and just let me work it out, and I hope that everyone still be able to like it regardless.
br: What music goals do you have for the future?
J.R.: One of the main reasons that I moved out to LA was to pursue the commercial songwriting scene. My main goal would be to make enough money from something else in the industry so that I don’t have to worry about my stuff being my only source of income. I’m worried that if I get risky with my sound and my music gets to be too weird, I might run out of money. I don’t want to be poor, and other avenues would certainly give me an opportunity to pursue my own music without fear of going for broke doing it.
LIGHTNING ROUND:
Who are your non-musical heroes? Mother Theresa and Gandhi
If you could have an actor play you in a biopic, who would it be? Paul Dano
If you could put together a band of any four musicians- living or dead, who would be in it? Feist, Earl Sweatshirt, Josh Hodges, James Blake.
I'd like to thank Jack for giving me his time to do an interview, and I hope you guys will go check out some of his tunes- they'll definitely put you in the feels. In the meantime, thanks so much for reading this article, and more awesome stuff is coming your way soon!
To check out Jack’s music, head on over to https://open.spotify.com/artist/7MPGCB854Qo4alYMOPkBka?si=7-tdWStFQai230CpNTI-yg
(EDIT: 1/7/21): thanks so much for reading my content. this is somehow my most read-interview and pre "Put Your Records On" fame. I have a YouTube channel now, where I post other interviews like this one and more. If you find it in your heart to subscribe, that would mean a lot. click this: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiRrb8yLj6YG36I-bfJZzUw -Bazz
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