Lo-Fi Artist RITT MOMNEY Discusses Each of the Tracks on His Debut Album ‘Her and All of My Friends’

Jack Rutter is Ritt Momney, and vice versa. But who is Jack Rutter, the brains behind the blossoming lo-fi indie-pop solo project that’s gaining all kinds of momentum? Well, Rutter is a young (at the time of this article’s publishing he’s but 19 years of age) Salt Lake City-based musician whose debut album, Her and All of My Friends, just dropped on July 19th. (You can stream/purchase the music via traditional DSPs the likes of Spotify and iTunes.)

A thirteen-track recording, the music on Her and All of My Friends is a window into Rutter’s Mormon upbringing and eventual departure from the church. Very candid, emotive and raw, the songs sing stories of everything from God and religion to loss and loneliness to teenage angst and ex-girlfriends. From the album’s opening song, listeners are taken on an evocative journey highlighting the path of self-discovery on which Rutter has been for the past several years.

Rounded out by musicians Jonas Torgersen, Noah Hamula, and Sam Olson for their live engagements, the future looks bright as the gods of music shine down on Ritt Momney. Today, to further elaborate on his debut recording, Jack Rutter joins us for a fun and simple track-by-track wherein he outlines the themes or “raison d’etre” for his slew of new songs.

In all of its streaming glory, here’s the full Her and All of My Friends album:

01. “I”
– I wanted the intro to the album to be sort of representative of my very earliest music, which was all just my voice and my parents’ piano. I used this song’s chord progression as a sort of “theme” throughout the album: you’ll hear it in “II” and “III,” along with the second half of “Pollution / Disclaimer.”

02. “Lew’s Lullaby”
– Lew is my cat’s name, who I adopted simply because I was so lonely. Maybe I sort of subconsciously thought of him as a replacement for my ex. I love him.

03. “Command V”
– This song had been dragged through at least 10 different versions before I finalized it, which I probably never would have done had I not had a hard deadline for the album.

04. “On Love (An Alternative Response to Almitra’s Request)”
– This song started out as “James Comey,” which I released on my personal SoundCloud a long time ago. It was written during my first attempt at getting over my ex by getting with someone else.

Peep Ritt Momney’s video for the song “Paper News” here:

05. “Surely, You’d Burn the Same”
– In this song, I “make a friend” in the Devil, who argues that the only reason he’s as evil as he is is that his past had shaped him into who he was. It’s interesting to think about where we draw the line between what one’s responsible for and what their experiences are responsible for.

06. “Phoebe”
– I dated Phoebe for a while as I was writing and recording the album. She was a bright spot in a pretty dark time for me.

07. “II”
– I wrote and recorded this interlude with the live band’s guitarist, Jonas. It’s sort of paired with “Phoebe” as a pleasant, lighthearted break from the weight of the rest of the album.

08. “Pollution / Disclaimer”
– The “Pollution” half of this song also started on my SoundCloud a while ago. The two halves of the song sort of contrast how I felt when I wrote “Pollution” and how I felt when I wrote “Disclaimer,” a year or so later when things were getting better.

09. “Paper News”
– The way I felt when I wrote this song has stuck with me since then. Since Ritt started gaining popularity, I’ve been connecting more and more of my self-worth to my music. Way too often I find myself making songs not because I want to, but because I feel like I have to.

A song not from the debut full-length, this is the single “Young Adult:”

10. “Something, in General”
– If you don’t get the irony in the title, “Something” is already an absolutely general term.

11. “Wormwood”
– I wanted to write a song directly addressing God, or at least the version of God that I’d been taught about my whole life. Sort of like an accusatory prayer lol. The song is named after a character in C.S. Lewis’ “The Screwtape Letters,” a book my dad gave to me.

12. “(If) The Book Doesn’t Sell”
– This is an extremely personal song to me, and one of the few I’ve actually gotten teary-eyed while writing. The conversation I have with God and the Devil represents an internal conversation I was having with my ideas of them over the span of four or five years.

13. “III”
– Probably my favorite song on the album, I wrote this at a time when I sort of felt “at peace” with my nostalgia. To me, this song just looks back at everything that had happened since high school without really trying to make sense of it. I had spent the last two years trying to make sense of my past, it was really nice to just remember it for once. Another song I teared up while writing.

Upcoming Tour Dates:

October 1 – Des Moines, IA – Vaudeville News
October 2 – Iowa City, IA – Yacht Club
October 3 – St. Louis, MO – Rubar

The Her and All of My Friends album was independently released on July 19th, 2019; check the album art: