Deming, New Mexico native Richard Gutierrez draws inspiration from a wide range of influences in his composing and improvising.  Reconciling the seemingly disparate worlds of modern high charged virtuoso guitar heroes such as Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Eddie Van Halen and musical greats like Frank Zappa.  The poetry of ee Cummings, the artwork of Dali, the Folk genius of Ani DiFranco, bebop, jazz, funk and a heavy foot in the avante garde, Richard emerges as a logical extension of all of these traditions, whilst clearly establishing his own voice. 

Born into a musical family was a true blessing for the guitarist.  The musical history that surrounded him was a haven of discoveries.  Music from the big band era, jazz and bebop, to his older brothers penchant for the rock music of the day. 

"I was enveloped by such a smorgasbord of art, literature, comedy and music...I couldn't help but form a very eclectic style, that incorporates anything and everything."

A part of Richard's genetic makeup is in the spoken word pieces and poetry that have found their way into his work.   Drawing upon the likes of Sekou Sundiata, Dick Gregory and the formless forms of ee Cummings, Richard is finding a voice in the written word as well. 

"My literary heroes and mentors are as diverse as my musical idols.  My spoken word poetry, lyrics or songs, all portray different sides of myself.  It's a very powerful medium, to write your mind, heart and soul into a piece." 

"Ani...There is so very much I can say about Ani, for  many years I've had this ugly feeling that something was missing, something bigger than the guitar playing.  I bought one of her albums, then another, ect ect ect...It was like a musical transfusion.  I had that, 'I want to do what she does' epiphany. What I really wanted was to marry instrumental guitar with my poetry, my viewpoints and opinions. Express my emotions in written word, emotive guitar playing, or both. Ani's music and spoken word come from such a truthfulness, a personal place, that wonderful 'folk-storytelling' place where an artist creates from deep within, revelling in the poetry, the 'truth' of their lyrics, the unblinking eye of the spoken word pieces that have finally been revealed in my work." 

"I'm so very happy to be able to play the guitar, but I'm also overjoyed in knowing that my other  'passions' feed each other.  My love of reading fuels my output as a writer, the written work starts a fire in my playing, the intellect works symbiotically with the humor, the structure supports the improvisation, the compassion let's the cynic have a word or two, straight forwardness with elusiveness, my playing is a product of a refusal to ever put up walls in my work." 

The techniques of his playing are an ever evolving progression.  Richard's dexterity and speed have been developed to serve the music.  A large vocabulary is crucial to a writer, so in turn, for the musician, is an enormous musical vocabulary of techniques.  Moving from standard well worn techniques to unorthodox ones such as playing the guitar like a piano, playing extended chords with both hands on the neck are colors the guitarist needs to express his music.

"My technique has been developed to such a degree for the reason of playing the music that I hear in my head.  I hear phrases and chunks of music that technically, I may never be able to hear in the real world, played by real hands.  It's <technique> never been some kind of show off effect, the work and results have always been to support the actual music being striven for.  But, it's in these extremes that you'll find my music, from very basic chords or vibrato to the polar opposite using extreme speed, unorthodox techniques such as blowing on the strings, manipulation of the basic controls of the guitar, violently shoving the guitar neck against the floor and leaning on the back of it to cause the strings to go slack, all support the different colors that I need in my palette." 

There seems to be a lack of musicians or artists in this day and age of "corporate controlled" music who will take the proverbial "Road less traveled". 

"I truly believe that I have a weird genetic wiring that won't let me conform to being 'like everyone else'. I'm a person that goes visually from waist long hair to short blue, green and purple hair, my viewpoints are on a different wavelength as well." 

"As studious as I may be, I'm just as aloof, I'm a walking contradiction, shy but gregarious, very structured yet very easy going, conservative yet a 'beatnik' at heart.  I love to play very structured heavy guitar music but can just as easily shoot over to music that is filled with plenty of 'air' and dissonance." 

In the music industry it is of the utmost importance to be able to label who and what an artist is.  For Richard it was a mole hill that had become a mountain. 

"I've struggled for years wondering how I should go about packaging my music.  I create very eclectic and strange music, and also have pieces filled with humor, instrumental guitar works, music that is created in such a way that it will "only" exist for that one playing.  Part of what was hampering my writing was a aged old idea of following a 'rock guitar' formula.  It's a very straight forward plan, long poofey hair, thin as a rail, everyone looks the same, loud music heavy on the distortion, make sure it sounds just like fill in the blank, ect ect ect.  I'm a musician, I had such a problem with the part of the formula that was conforming to an image instead of 'Hello' to the music. Also the machismo in male testosterone driven music was such a bore!  I started to get into the female songwriters, and I tell you, it was the best gift I could have given myself. Listening to Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, Sarah McLaughlan, Aretha Franklin, Alanis Morissette, Joni Mitchell and especially Ani Difranco and Julie Wolf, I found that they have more 'balls' than the MetalliDeath's of the world.  Listeners usually equate 'heaviness and attitude' with distortion, it's a depressing reality, one which doesn't find heaviness in substance.  As if thinking, absorbing song craft has to take a back seat to 'the dirge', the funeral march and redundant, exalted and tired themes of mythical figures used by most male musicians to avoid looking inside themselves. Or moving over into the 'everything in the world sucks' mentality with all it's depression, doom and gloom.  Hey, don't poison me with your depression, go poison yourself and get it over with!"

  

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