Meet Russ Hewitt

 

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Russ Hewitt a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Russ , so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.

There is always something to learn or get inspired by. I still get excited when I hear a great piece of music or song. Is it in a mode? What’s the meter? Are there borrowed chords or a key change? Is it using an exotic scale? If something catches my ear, I’ll reverse engineer it and find out what it was that caught my attention. Maybe it’s something simple that I already learned, but forgot about. This also applies if I see an incredible musician or guitar player. I’ll think, ‘How could I incorporate what their doing to what I’m doing?’

There are new discoveries along a musical journey, you just have to be open to them. Then it comes down to a very simple question for myself, ‘Now what can I do with this new piece of knowledge?’ Sometimes it’s just doing the mundane task of doing the work, then something special happens in it that takes it in a completely different direction and sparks inspiration. The key is to not stop or wait around for the ‘perfect situation.’ There is a lot of truth in the Thomas Edison quote, “Success is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.”

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I have been very blessed recently in my music career and look forward to what the future holds! Last year I won an Emmy in musical composition/arrangement for my original song ‘Palma de Mallorca featuring the Bucharest All-Star Orchestra’ and received two Grammy nominations on projects I played on. I have several recording sessions lined up this year with Grammy winning artists and a movie score I’ve been tasked to do. I’ve also started the writing process for my fifth CD, which in a perfect world, I’ll begin recording next year.

I have also recently put out the second of four videos on YouTube the feature me playing live with the 62-piece Irving Symphony Orchestra. It’s been a real thrill playing my original music with a symphony. Often times when I write music, I think of how it would sound with a full orchestra behind it, so it’s been amazing that I’ve had an several opportunities to perform live and in the studio with one.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

There are many skills I learned along the way that have really help me, I’m happy to share the ones I found most helpful. The first is being able to multi-task properly. I had always been a single task, finish to completion, then move to the next thing kind of guy. Once I started working with high-level musicians and producers, I noticed they had at least five projects going at the same time. I watched how they managed them and not get overwhelmed. There is an art to be able to divide your time to get the most done, while still hustling for future projects.

The second skill is believing in the old saying, “Say yes and you’ll figure it out afterward.” Persian singers coming to town and need a guitar player? Guitarist from India that plays songs in 18/8 needs a second guitarist? Say yes to it all and being willing to go way out of your comfort zone would be my first advice. The best example of this for myself is having a film and TV director ask if I wanted to do the soundtrack to his new web series. Of course, I said yes and then proceeded to purchase the ProTools software, good monitors, a keyboard, and Native Instruments. I figured it out and had songs to him in three months, I’ve been his go-to guy ever since.

The third skill is being able to acknowledge when a song, project, task, etc. is done and movie on. You can tweak and tinker with something forever, but at some point you have to finish it. If I’ve exhausted all possibilities, I feel comfortable enough to let it go and release it.

Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?

For me the answer is both, let me explain:

Any artist, regardless of their field, is a culmination of everything you’ve learned or studied. So to that point in my personal journey, I got a degree in Classical guitar, played Heavy Metal and Rock guitar, studied Bluegrass, Jazz, Flamenco, Country, Blues, Gypsy Jazz, and any other style I could come across. I also delved into exotic scales and musical styles of other countries. At some point I decided to take the sum of my knowledge and create original music. I focused on the strengths I have in each genre to forge my own sound and style.

This approach has served me well in establishing my style of playing where I pull in influences and make them my own. I fuse Spanish, Classical, Flamenco, jazz, Latin, Cuban and Brazilian together simultaneously without worrying about what particular rules that go with each style. This allows me the freedom to create without boundaries.

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