Dave Gutter, An Xperience Interview

Dave Gutter, An Xperience Interview – by Rob Smittix.

Dave Gutter is a Grammy Award Winner. solo artist and member of Rustic Overtones and Paranoid Social Club.

RRX: How’s life in general?

DG: In general, it’s great. I got married during the pandemic, low-key and didn’t tell anybody. And then I noticed today … I was trying to put my Linktree up because I’m trying to be internet savvy with this record and get some people to hear it. So I’m trying to put my Linktree up on my Facebook, and I accidentally delete that I’m engaged, which we’re now married, but I’ve never changed it on Facebook. So I hit the thing, and then all of a sudden it looked like my wife and I are broken up.

RRX: Oh, Jeez.

DG: I just updated it to married, so in the last hour, I’ve got like 2000 messages of congratulations for getting married today. So it’s a big day for me!

RRX: Yes, it is. Congratulations, because if it’s not on Facebook, it’s not official.

DG: I know I forgot to tell Zuckerberg about that whole s***.

RRX: So the last time I talked to you, you didn’t have your title of Grammy Award-Winning Dave Gutter, but now you got it, so congratulations on that, by the way.

DG: Thank you very much, Rob.

RRX: I thought it was the coolest that you brought your daughter with you as your date to the award ceremony. That was dope!

DG: The coolest part was that it stems from when she was like 5 years old and we were just at home watching the Grammys because it was on during dinner. And she was just like … they make music just like you Papa, someday when you get nominated for a Grammy, will you bring me? And I was like, of course, I’ll bring you, thinking it would never ever happen. The day that I found out, my now-famous-on-the-internet wife said, I know you gotta bring Connie, I understand. I was like, wow. She said, I remember sitting there with you and you told her you’d bring her, so it was kind of a cool moment. Also, there’s a lot that my family sacrifices for me to be a musician, so anytime that I can amend what I bring to the table … anytime something like that comes up where my family and I can celebrate together and we can be part of this together, I try to do it.

RRX: Yeah, that’s the best. And having a supportive family when you’re in the music business and making a living off of it is certainly … you’ve got to have the right people in your corner for that.

DG: That’s actually like a thing that I haven’t talked about with my new album, that I guess we can kind of start off getting into it. If you listen from front to back, especially the very ending, a song called “Gold Records,” it’s basically an apology to my family for dedicating my life to something that … I mean, it’s real, but it’s the closest thing to not real that there is. It’s the pipe dream aspect of it, the obsession, the expectations, the letdowns, and the rollercoaster ride of finances. It’s like the record’s kind of me taking accountability a little bit for that, by saying the music industry is trying to kill me. It’s kind of bizarre, and it’s something that we take for granted, but the way that people will sacrifice themselves, the desperate environment that is being created by the business of music.
We see the business of music more than we think, as just a listener. If I was not a musician or anything and not involved in this, it would affect me every day because … I was watching “A Complete Unknown” last night, the story of Bob Dylan, and it doesn’t always work the way that you think it does. You don’t just walk into a room and the famous guy there is like … you know what, kid? “You’re the next” … and “Here you go, here’s the keys to the castle.” I’m the poster child for that not being the case. You’re a little disillusioned throughout it all because you would think when you were a kid that if you spent three months writing songs with David Bowie, making music with David Bowie’s producer, you win a Grammy, you work with Naughty by Nature and you signed all these major deals with all these major players … Clive Davis and Simon Cowell, you know? You’re there, and nothing is promised. I know a lot of people in the music industry, like our heroes, people who are much more significant than I am, who have done crazy things, they’ve lent an incredible contribution to music, and they’re just scraping by. Even though we see them on a jumbotron, we see them in a tour bus, they have nice clothes, they have these big guitar rigs, and everything. If they break their leg tomorrow, they can’t pay for it, and they’re f***ed. You know what I mean?

RRX: I do.

DG: Myself and many others who are just in my close friend circle … a lot of us have Grammys, and the ones that I’m thinking of right now, we live in apartments. So there’s this side of it that everyone’s too proud to show and too proud not to put that foot forward. They’re afraid that they’ll look like they’re failing. For some reason failure, and whether your music’s good or not, somehow matters. I don’t know how, but at least on social media, if you’re not doing well in the eyes of whoever, it can kind of be like a detriment to your brand. I’m trying with this album to bring those things to light. I think the conversation has already been started, and that was part of the reason why I thought this was a good time to put out an album like this. At one point in this record process, which has been over the last two years, I tried to start a health insurance company for musicians with some people that I knew.

RRX: It is necessary.

DG: Can’t pat me on the back. I didn’t do it. It was too hard. It was like $3 million, and by the time I get $3 million, people who already have $3 million will know about my idea and just blow me out of the water.

RRX: Yeah, but you were thinking in the right direction.

DG: I mean … it’s very self-serving too because I feel it. I’m a 50-year-old musician. I’ve made music since I was 8 years old, and to me … think of anything else that you trained for; even as an actor or another entertainment industry job, I mean, you would have work of some sort. You would be in commercials, or you would do a TV series, or you’d be an extra, or you’d be a stand-in, or you’d do something. But it would be more of a career, you know? If I was a plumber this whole time, damn. You know how good I would be at plumbing and how successful I would be as a plumber? But that’s not what music is like, it’s not practical. It’s all subjective. So, therefore, the closest thing you have to sports is these stupid things you have, like the Grammys.

RRX: You’ve got to keep up with the illusion of the whole thing. But then, if it’s not paying the bills, then you gotta get yourself a real job, and that can be a humbling experience

DG: You can just eat dirt for nutrients. You can actually eat dirt. I fed my daughter dirt for years. You don’t have to get a day job, just stick to it. When you hit like 48 or so, you’ll get a Grammy, you’ll have a gold record or something.

RRX: (Laughs) Of yeah of course!

DG: Oh, I wanted to shout out that there’s a whole bunch of people that helped me with the record, but Evan Smith from the band Bleachers co-produced and played on the record, and he’s super huge. He played with Father John Misty, St. Vincent, Tame Impala, Diana Ross, Taylor Swift … he worked on the new Sabrina Carpenter record, and he’s a super powerhouse producer and musician.

RRX: You could definitely tell by the final product, that’s for sure.
Dave Gutter’s “The Music Industry is Trying to Kill Me” will be released on June 9th on all platforms!

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