In 2016, the talk about a single that some friends of some friends put out on Apple Music circled around the hallways of Highland High School. It was called “Cold” by The Spooks, with a little drawing of a white ghost for the cover art. Jack Rutter, who had a Salt Lake presence through Soundcloud, with his girlfriend Lindsey Lloyd, formed a band their junior year at East High School with other band members Auden Winchester, Hank Thompson, Zach Olson, and Chris Kearl.

With only one song released, The Spooks were left in the dust as they discovered it was a derogatory term and probably not something they want to be known under. As Salt Lake City natives leaning more to the left, Ritt Momney was the perfect mix of wit and creativity. As Ritt Momney finished out their high school career, more and more music was being released through Rutter’s Soundcloud with occasional Spotify and Apple Music releases.

As the band released music throughout the past three years, their music defined many Salt Lake teens’ high school career. “Young Adult,” released in 2017 (and most popular song to this date), talks about the things we struggle with while becoming young adults.

But if your sentences are short or you have to clear your throat, let the devil through the door and call yourself a young adult. Seems like all the ones you lost were the ones you asked to stay. Best to pick upon your thoughts before they do to you the same.


   In the summer of 2017, we blasted their EP Theater Kid / Probably in our Subarus in high school parking lots and in the small house party basements. The EP consisted of the songs “Theater Kid,” “Probably,” and “Golden Slumbers” (a dreamy Beatles cover). “Theater Kid” tackles the ideas behind high school cliques and presenting your “colors.” They talk about wanting to be a theater kid due to their lack of care for image and identity. “Probably” is about wanting to be good enough for someone you love.

This was the summer they had their first live show at Kilby Court. The venue was probably halfway filled. They played their new hit singles in front of parents and high school friends and got their first feel of live adrenaline.

My perception’s too narrow to know who I want to be. Maybe if I’d been somewhere else in my life, I’d be more than what you see. And we have been told all our lives that our colors must be seen. I just want to hide some colors away, some colors just for me.

I wanna be a theater kid. We draw all over them and they just erase it.

I don’t want to be another slice of the high school pie of sacrifice. Another wrong, another right. If we’re all the same, there’s no need to fight.

        Ritt Momney’s entire image and sound changed in April 2018 with the drop of the single, “Something, in General.” I became closer with the band around this time, as Auden Winchester, the keyboardist at the time, was one of my close friends and creative coworkers. I then was attending all live shows and defined myself as their very own “Ritt Mom,” selling their merch at a few shows and helping them pack the van up before. (Yes, I’m bragging).

Frontman Jack Rutter and I had a conversation about a magazine I was creating. I was planning to make a release video and was struggling to find music for the video we were creating and he granted me the gift of being able to use “Something, in General.” Thereafter, this song became both their most popular song and my favorite. The lyrics talk about being unmotivated due to heartbreak but wanting to mean something in this world.

I haven’t been incredibly social as of late and I think that that’s okay, but my left brain is gonna kill me and I know my songs will still be here at the end of the day. Those who still believe in fate should listen to me intently.

I don’t care to be anything to someone.

I just want to be something in general.


   By summer 2018, they had shows booked at least every month. They played a setlist at the release party for my magazine and had sold out Kilby Court twice. With their sudden success, they released an old song from their Soundcloud that had been polished and reproduced: “Paper News.”

Rutter, being the mastermind behind the band and the lyricist for all the songs, makes Ritt Momney’s lyrics based more around the struggle of self identity rather than the generic high school band love songs. While relating his lyrics to his love life, he always ties the lyrics to the deeper meaning of relationships, self-identification, and creativity (or creative block for that matter).

Day one at my therapist’s building. All these cars are so expensive. I guess the money brings expenses. Well, pay up. So run along through this life with no sure ending. Create what you like and break the rest. Let’s hope for more than just the best. Probably. We’ll see.


       With their most recent single release,Pollution / Disclaimer” in 2018, the band is now at about 110,000 monthly listeners on Spotify with “Something, in General” at 1,240,355 listens. The band now consists of (infamous) creator and lead singer/guitarist/keyboardist Jack Rutter, Jonas Torgersen on guitar, Noah Hamula on bass, and Sam Olson on drums.

The “Pollution / Disclaimer” song takes the deepest meaning of any songs so far, covering creative blockage and heartbreak. He ends the song with a “disclaimer” and a rap-type monologue about where Rutter stands as the frontman of Ritt Momney, not promising his listeners anything and how the music he’s released “started out as a vie for attention from an ex,” but has become something so much more serious. This alludes to the idea that Ritt Momney will become something much larger and not just a high school band with lyrics for high school locals to relate to. As Ritt Momney has been by my side throughout my high school career, they are taking off into something much more meaningful and real as musicians and lyricists (and adults). With their first album coming out sometime in 2019, Her and All My Friends, we can only expect something original and revolutionary from the Ritt Momney crew.

Pollution: Well there is plenty out there still to see. And you were not required to stay with me. And there’s no other like you, but that’s okay because there’s billions like me. You were very difficult affection, but I prefer easy mediocrity. I think I know more with each stage I pass through when I think I like the thought of not seeing you.

Disclaimer: As soon as the tone leaves my voice, I start trying to sound like I’m an actual rapper. I never claimed to be and honestly, I never promised you anything. I don’t do this for the sake of satisfying the fans, while it’s nice to know I wrote this song that’s making them dance, I find it necessary now to say some things in advance:

This started out as a vie for attention from an ex. And I'm the most creative when I'm an emotional wreck. Every happy song I've written ended up pretty bad. And it's hard to smile when they only cheer if you're sad. I never promised you a genre or a dance-able song. I never promised that this one wouldn't go on for too long. And I don't care if they listen. They either won't or they will. But I've been just talking for two minutes and you're listening still.