RECALLING FOND MEMORIES
Ritt Momney brings new life to a song that never gets old
POPULAR video creating platform Tiktok has had a hand in creating unexpected hits in the music scene for quite some time now. From reviving old hits in a new light to bringing new artists into the spotlight, Tik Tok is an unpredictable playground for all artists to explore.
So when 21-year old singer songwriter Ritt Momney suddenly found his cover of Corrine Bailey Rae’s “Put Your Records On” making waves on the platform, it was a massive surprise. Moreover, the cover was able to reach a top 10 peak on Spotify Philippines’ Top 50 and continues to impact mainstream radio stations such as Monster RX 93.1 (No. 8), 99.5 Play FM (No. 8), and more.
“I didn’t expect the cover to be anything more than a fun little release in between albums,” he said, “I was super surprised to see it taking off on Tiktok. It has been the coolest thing ever to see people from other countries enjoying it.”
According to Ritt, the original song by Corinne Bailey Rae has always been a significant part of his life, evoking memories of riding in his mother’s minivan and later driving around with friends.
“It’s just one of those songs for me that I’ve always remembered and I’ve always loved. It was really interesting. I mean, I’m always finding songs that I love and songs that I find interesting, and that these songs can get old. But “Put Your Records On” never really got old for me, so when I heard it again for the first time after a long time, I was like: ‘this is a really good song, maybe I should cover this,’” he shared.
At the time, he expressed that the song “felt like what he needed” as the global lockdown had just begun.
“At first I was like: ‘this is an awesome time to be a solo musician, I could just work all the time’ but I’ve realized that it’s hard to write when you don’t have inspiration. And if you’re just sitting in front of your computer all day, it’s hard to write,” he recalled.
Notwithstanding the rocky start during the lockdown, Ritt shared that he was able to find inspiration within himself.
“Recently, I’ve been pretty productive, and I’ve noticed that my previous songs have been about relationships with other people, a lot of my writing now kinda focuses on myself and what’s going on in my head, which probably has something to do with having been alone for a lot of the time,”
Born as Jack Rutter, he first started creating music in the 9th grade, when he put together his first garage band and started messing around with the music production software Logic. He found himself in love with the production process of music and immediately knew he wanted to make a career out of it.
It was also around this time that he first came up with his later stage name; Ritt Momney, which started out as an inside joke with his friends.
“There wasn’t much inspiration behind it, honestly. Ritt Momney started out as a band with my friends in high school, and Mitt Romney (editor’s note: yes, the American senator who ran for the U.S presidency) was kind of a big guy in Utah where I live, and it was a stupid little joke; “hey, what if we call it like Ritt Momney?’ and it just stuck from there,” he recalled.
Since scoring a huge worldwide hit with his cover of Corinne Bailey Rae’s “Put Your Records On,” Ritt has released two more new singles. One is the somber track, “Not Around,” which he cowrote and co-produced with fellow recording artist Dayglow and also features an epic guitar solo by Palehound. The other is the more upbeat, “Set The Table,” produced by Palehound’s Ellen Kempner and also features fellow recording artist phenom Claud.
All three songs by Ritt Momney are now available on all major steaming platforms.