David Hetrick
Introspection would have served well as a title for David Hetrick's
latest album. Deeds was a nickname given to David by a sibling who at
a young age could not pronounce his name. While listening to 'Deeds',
one can come to understand the title as a play on how we are who we
are at this point in our lives because of our 'deeds'.
"I'm driving home; detour’s got me on back roads, testing my memory of a time and space, when all I wanted was to leave this place."
David draws a lot from his up-bringing in a small town in the
Midwest. The values of the Bible belt while character building could also be stifling creatively. His family's strict religious lifestyle offered a strong work ethic albeit with a guilt-ridden sensibility. David's ironic sense of humor lends itself in part to his ability to find hilarity in circumstances from his childhood as in the odd jobs he held as a teen and living in a place that he never really felt he belonged "see Trade". He worked as a farm hand performing many maligned chores including pulling chickens, detassling corn and trimming pine trees with a machete. He worked in the family business at a Texaco station with no aptitude or interest in the automotive field and mixed paint after being diagnosed as colorblind. Combine this with the common angst and heartache related to losing a first love “see Drama" and losing his Mother and Brother at a young age see "MD" and "Brother”, you will find a rich complex set of lyrics that are truly unique in today's music scene.
“There’s more than corn in Indiana. They got a lot of wheat there too.”
David began playing the piano, acoustic guitar and the drums at an early age. Though he was most accomplished in drums and percussion through high school and college, he craved the creative freedom of a singer-songwriter as well as the front and center attention garnered by a front-man.
“The road to freedom it goes through you.”
David met his wife Marianna while (not) attending (class) at Ball State University. Marianna, an accomplished keyboard player and songwriter in her own right, co-wrote two songs on David’s solo album ‘deeds’. The two have and continue to play together in a variety of musical incarnations.
“Leave it to my friends to nurture my destructive side”
After college, David and Marianna moved to California where he built “Beagle Studios.” He produced and recorded over 100 artists in the Santa Barbara and Los Angeles area including: Kenny Loggins, Woody Harrelson, John Patitucci, Alan Parsons, Snot, members of The Beach Boys, The Moody Blues, Toto, Fleetwood Mac and many others. He also served as a studio musician and played live with many area bands including the popular California favorite “Spencer the Gardener”. David toured with “Spencer” as a percussionist for three years, peaking with a featured performance on “Good Morning America.”
“Freedom, talking about freakdom, it’s what I’m thinking about”
David played most of the instruments on “Deeds”. He also wrote, produced, and recorded all of ‘deeds’. Most of the writing occurred during his travels around the world over the last 5 years. “At any given time I’ll have 20 or 30 musical ideas or lyrical topics I’m working on, but completely finishing any particular one is what I find most difficult.” David said, “The frequent isolation of travel helped me focus on these songs enough to finally consider ten of them finished.”
Recording the CD was also challenging. “there was a lot of running back and forth between the recording console and whatever instrument I was playing/recording” Hetrick relates, “while it was often a pain in the butt and didn’t always result in the best takes, I guess I wouldn’t have had it any other way. While the CD isn’t perfect, it’s definitely all mine.”
“I try to put this in perspective, but I’m finding it kind of hard to come by
’Cause I guess if I was asked I’d say you’d be the last of us to be the first to die”
That being said, Dave took this unique, solo opportunity to invite many of his closest friends and most admired colleagues to lend not only their trademark sounds to the recordings but most importantly the influences that make David ‘deeds’ at this point in his musical life. These musicians include: Spencer Barnitz, John Schnackenberg, Nate Birkey and Cougar Estrada, all of Spencer The Gardener fame on a tribute to a late STG member on “Noah’s Song”. Mr. Birkey also lends a beautiful trumpet solo on ‘Jet Lag’, an intimate glimpse of DH the artist in his most deliriously fatigued state.
His music nods to funk, folk, rock, jazz and rap, but the consistent use of acoustic guitar on ‘deeds’ ties these many influences together in a way that can best be described as Americana.
After a recent move to Austin Texas, David was named as a finalist in the Austin Songwriters Group's annual contest. 'Malice In Wonderland' was picked as as one of 5 finalist among over 500 entries.
David is employed by KRK Systems as Director of Worldwide Sales and lives in Austin, TX with Marianna and their two beagles Shiloh and Junior. He is currently playing showcases in the greater Austin area and booking the same around the globe.