San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Working with Stefani ‘a dream come true’
The closest that San Antonio singer-songwriter Rudi Gutierrez thought she’d ever get to Gwen Stefani was watching the pop icon in concert.
So having Stefani serve as her coach on “The Voice” has been surreal in the best possible way.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Gutierrez, whose stage name is simply Rudi. “It’s a dream I didn’t even realize I had; it just seemed so far out of touch with my reality. I would never say, ‘Oh, yeah, one day I will work with Gwen.’ No! One day I would have liked to see her live, that would have been incredible, but not ever to be in the same room with her, having her give me feedback.”
Stefani’s coaching and Gutierrez’s considerable talents seem to be a good combo. Gutierrez won her first battle round on the show Monday, vanquishing teammate Joslynn Rose as they sang the moody Evanescence song “My Immortal.”
Gutierrez knew the song — “I grew up loving alternative music” — but it isn’t one she would have ever chosen for herself.
“That’s not who I am as a singer; I’m a pop and R&B singer,” said the 28-year-old performer. “When I got the song, it was a bit of a shock, but I tried my best to make it my own without jeopardizing the song. I didn’t want to do too much. I did want to do enough to make it a little bit different and sing it how Rudi would sing it. So I did that and it worked.”
Stefani noted Gutierrez’s restraint in her comments after the battle.
“She was so tasteful within the genre of this song,” she said. “She could have tried to put all these runs all over it. She did enough that we were reminded that she knows how to do that.”
It was gratifying to hear that, Gutierrez said.
“It just goes to show how great of a coach she is,” she said. “She knows exactly what she’s talking about. I appreciated that she noticed that I did that because I could have, like she said, done all these different things and completely ruined the song. but I tried to do just enough to set me apart from the original artist and also my teammate.”
Getting the chance to work one-on-one with a coach on Stefani’s level is the reason that Gutierrez auditioned for “The Voice” in the first place.
“It’s not just a show that you get up and sing, and they say, ‘Yes,’ ‘No,’ and you’re on your own for the next round,” she said. “You get to be in the room with your coach, and that’s just so cool to me. Getting to be in the room with Gwen Stefani and having her give me advice is something I will take with me forever.”
Gutierrez has wanted a career in music all her life. She got her first shot at it when she was 15 and signed a record deal with industry legend Tommy Mottola, talking her parents into letting her leaving Reagan High School for home-schooling so she could focus on music. Ultimately, though, it didn’t quite work out.
Mottola saw her as a Latina country singer, she said, but that wasn’t her kind of music. Her mom noticed that she didn’t seem to be enjoying it and told her that if that was the case, she didn’t have to keep slogging along.
“My parents always put my happiness first,” she said.
Later on, she moved to Los Angeles and spent six years trying to get her career going. That’s where she discovered her love of songwriting. She even got some airplay for her single “Good Bad Ugly.”
But it was hard to get traction for her career. So she decided she needed a break. She moved back to San Antonio and went to work for 911 Auto Centers, the body shop her family owns. She worked in the office at first, but it wasn’t a good fit.
“It was a little bit too boring,” she said. “I asked my dad, ‘Can I clean cars? I need to be busy. At least the people in the back can listen to music. It seems a little more entertaining.’”
Her dad let her try, she said, even though she wasn’t very good at it, and he ended up often having to redo what she had done.
“During that time, I was realizing, I cannot be here, this is not going to be my life,” she said. “Then I sent in my audition for ‘The Voice’ hoping they would call me.” And they did.
Her parents are devoted fans of the show, watching every episode and then poring over the snippets posted to YouTube. And customers at the body shop are clearly watching, too. A steady flow of gifts have been arriving at the shop since her first appearance.
“People are sending them packages and being like, ‘You worked on our car, congratulations to your daughter, we’re watching her,’” she said, laughing. “My mom will send me videos of packages, of congratulations messages, good luck, well wishes and stuff like that. I said, ‘You guys are more famous than me! I’m not getting packages at the shop!’”
Long term, she would like to be a touring artist who makes a living playing her own songs for people, she said.
“It’s never been about ‘I want to be famous,’” she said. “I just love music. It’s my life. It would be amazing if I could sell out the Staples Center, but even if I could do it in a small way, it would make me happy.
“Touring has always been the ultimate goal.”
For now, she’s working on winning “The Voice.” To that end, she’s prepping for the three-way knockout rounds that are next up in the competition. Gutierrez and her teammates are singing as much as possible without wearing out their voices.
“You don’t want to overdo it too much, but you also need to get in enough practice,” she said. “Your voice can only handle so much.”