To start working on his new album, Ritt Momney needed to come home.
The singer-songwriter, whose real name is Jack Rutter, will release his third studio album — “Base” — on Friday. Everything about the record has Utah roots, even its name, which came to Rutter on a backpacking trip in Capitol Reef National Park.
“Base kind of means stripping it back down to base creativity,” Rutter told The Salt Lake Tribune. “It also means my home base … like this house in Salt Lake.”
Returning to Salt Lake City, after briefly living in Los Angeles and New York, directly informed the writing of this album — and it helped stabilize Rutter as he grappled with capitalism and creativity.
Separating capitalism from creativity
In the backyard of Rutter’s Salt Lake City home, a recording shack became his saving grace.
The tracklist for “Base” is scrawled on a whiteboard on the wall of the small space. It’s full of guitars, stacked amps and keyboards galore. Cables hang from up above alongside string lights. A harp lounges in the corner. The shack is a vortex that silences the outside world, where the pitter-patter of rainfall is barely audible.
Aside from visits from Rutter’s dog, Perry, the shack is still. Silent.
The shack is a place where Rutter can quiet the noise of the outside world after becoming an overnight sensation during the COVID-19 pandemic when he covered “Put Your Records On” by Corinne Bailey Rae in 2020.
The cover was Rutter’s first appearance on Billboard’s Hot 100 list, earned him a feature in “Rolling Stone,” and has over 650 million streams on Spotify.
The song also marked a sharp turn from his past music, which is more melancholic. Though he’s grateful for the cover, since it’s still paying his bills, the experience forced him into an “introspection” about the future of his music career.
(Jack Reedy) Album art for Ritt Momney's third studio album "Base."
“In order to make this [album] I had to really separate the idea of a career from my music,” Rutter said.
Rutter felt that he needed to separate the capitalism that drives the music industry from the more creative aspect of making music after his cover blew up.
“I could have put out an EP of 2000s covers and hope that another one blew up or something,” Rutter said, “Choosing to go against that was instrumental in where I am now with my music, which feels a lot better.”
A song inspired by the Utah Jazz
The thoughtful process resulted in a 12-track album where every song has a surprise element, leading listeners to unexpected places. Most of the songs swell with big, bold sonic build-ups.
“I don’t think anything really makes me feel more emotional in a song that I like than those builds,” Rutter said.
On “Lightshow,” which he wrote and recorded in the backyard shack, Rutter sounds dreamy. “Body” kicks off with a heavy, somber start and transforms into a quintessential bedroom pop sound.
“As someone who does tend to analyze everything, that’s been a really important kind of development for me, is to just feel the song that I’m writing,” Rutter said.
Meanwhile, “The Tank,” a bouncy track towards the end of the album, was written after most of the others had been completed, and came about when Rutter was feeling uninspired.
“It was one of those moments where I don’t feel like I really have anything deep to write about, so I’m just going to write about what I’m into now,” Rutter said.
At that time, Rutter was just getting into the Utah Jazz and watching highlights of Cooper Flagg, then a college star that every NBA team hoped to draft. He was inspired by the Utah NBA team’s effort to lose games in order to have a better chance of landing Flagg and wrote a song that’s an optimistic take on the feeling of tanking.
“I love the feeling of tanking and just the hope that comes with it,” Rutter said.
The lyrics state:
“Blow it up for Cooper
Go again we’re trying for AJ
It’s the tank
The tank the tank the tank”
Rutter wanted to capture tanking yourself or your future, even when there’s potential to be better.
“I’m honestly kind of nervous for when we start trying to actually win, then there’s stakes,” he said. “You can be the Donovan Mitchell/Rudy Gobert Jazz and just keep coming up short over and over, even though this is everything you wanted. You got your star players a number one seed, and it still doesn’t work out.”
As for his future, Rutter said he’s “cool” where he’s at.
“I’m not really expecting anything more than just being able to make music and just share it with whoever wants to listen,” he said.
Ritt Momney will kick off his “Base” tour at his favorite local venue, Kilby Court, on April 5 and end it at Kilby Block Party on May 15.