Grutka, a Saratoga Springs resident, has been influenced by music for as long as he can remember. The indie artist started his career in music on the violin, which has since blossomed into his ability to play a multitude of instruments, including the bass, keyboards and the guitar, to name a few.
In 2007, Grutka released his first single on commercial radio. Song for the Rain charted 12 on the Indie Up and Coming chart and 29 on the Indie top 30. It also was added to Hot AC, AC, Modern AC, AAA and Country stations.
Grutka has also toured the Northeast with a changing lineup of musicians who perform under the name the Mike Grutka Project – a group that can perform varying styles from acoustic to electric rock. He hopes to release his fourth album, Ria, sometime in November. I recently sat down with Grutka to talk about his music, songwriting and new album
When did your interest in music begin?
I just remember being around music all the time when I was a kid. My parents used to play records in our house that were set on a stacker so they would just fall down and play albums like the Carpenters, John Denver, Peter, Paul and Mary and the Moody Blues. After that I started playing violin, which led to the bass, which led to French horn, then to music theory classes and finally around the age of 20 I started playing the guitar. I guess just being around it all the time is where it all started and it has just kept on going from there.
How would you describe your sound?
What I came up with is ‘acoustic-based funky modern roots rock ‘n’ roll,’ because I love so many different kinds of music and bands. And since I like so many different genres, I have all of that mixed into my music. I have some songs that are funky, some that are acoustic, some that sound like a 70s rock song and then there are some experimental pieces – so I think that string of words covers them all. It also serves as a good trademark for my music. But it is hard to often define your own sound because people will always tell you what they think you sound like.
How do you approach writing a song?
That’s an interesting question because my approach has changed over the years. I wrote everything on my first CD and I never thought I would be able to do it again. Since I started working on a new CD, I have been in the middle of this huge writing cycle that started back in January. Since then, I have come up with 70 new song ideas, which is a good problem to have until you try to narrow them down to 10 or 12 songs to feature on the CD. But I always come up with the music first and then I try to take the chords I have come up with and add a verse or a bridge to it. Then the last thing that comes is always the words. But all songs come out differently depending on what you are trying to go for.
I know you do a lot of recording. Do you prefer recording or live performance?
The reason you do either is to get people to hear your music, so you need to do both. Like in the case of my last two CDs there were approximately 200 radio stations somewhere playing my songs every so often. So there are people who you are never going to see who have heard it. You also have to have a recording so you can reach people across the world, not to mention it is a lot of fun when you are doing it. And live performance is what you really do it for – it’s great to see people’s reaction when you are performing the songs for them. So I would have to say I don’t really prefer one over the other – I like both aspects.
What will be different about your new album compared to previous ones?
The first thing is instrumentation. For example on the new CD there are a lot more keyboard and piano sounds. I also think it is more up-beat than before. There are also a lot of harmonies on all the songs, so as the instrumentation changes the sounds that I get change. The weird thing that has happened is there are simpler structure lines on this CD. What I mean by that is there are more three chord structures going on in the base of the song to build around, where before I would try to throw in a weird key change or chords that didn’t make sense together but seemed interesting to me. I also think the tone is different and my vocal melodies are more adventurous then they have been in the past. It used to be the interesting stuff was in the instruments and now it seems to be more in the melody.
You have appeared on various radio stations across the country. What is it like to hear your song when it comes on the radio?
It’s cool. The funny thing is if you know they are playing it, it is kind of weird and you almost start to expect it. But when I first started to get my music played on the radio, I would get the report of where they were specifically getting played and I would try to find them through their webcasts. There was this radio station in Texas that played me the very first week my album got released. I was in their top 10 rotation so I figured I would check it out. I listened for like five minutes and my song came on and I was just so shocked to hear my music being played in Texas. But it is really cool to get in your car or walk into your house – turn on the stereo and hear one of your songs come on.
To learn more about Mike Grutka, visit: www.mikegrutka.com.
