REVIEW: Dave Gutter – ‘The Music Industry is Trying to Kill Me’

With his debut solo album ‘The Music Industry is Trying to Kill Me’, Grammy-winning songwriter Dave Gutter throws open the curtains on a world too often glamorised but rarely understood. Acting as a full-blown theatrical unraveling of the artist psyche, the record is delivered with biting wit, a chameleon-like soundscape, and a healthy dose of creative chaos.

Longtime fans of Rustic Overtones might recognise Gutter’s unmistakable vocal DNA throughout, but this solo venture is something else entirely. It’s theatrical, irreverent, occasionally unhinged; equal parts rock opera and existential spiral. From the jump, Gutter crafts a narrative around an artist battling the machine, navigating a minefield of disillusionment, absurdity, and the quiet horror of trying to survive doing what he loves.

What makes this album stand out isn’t just the candour, it’s the deliberate tonal dissonance. Gutter leans into the surreal, often asking his collaborators to “embrace the ridiculous” rather than shy away from it. The result is a genre-warped fever dream that pinballs between vintage glam, lo-fi fuzz, absurdist ballads, and synth-soaked satire. It’s Bowie in a breakdown. It’s Broadway on bad acid. And somehow, it works.

There’s a definite sense that ‘The Music Industry is Trying to Kill Me’ was born out of necessity. It plays like a coping mechanism, an exorcism, and a satire all rolled into one. And while it may be rooted in the absurdity of an artist’s life, the themes cut across boundaries: burnout, identity, chasing validation in a system built to exploit.

In the end, ‘The Music Industry is Trying to Kill Me’ is a celebration of the mess, the madness, and the music itself. Dave Gutter doesn’t just look to survive it, instead he turns it into something truly unforgettable.

Dave Gutter’s ‘The Music Industry is Trying to Kill Me’ will be available to stream from the 10th June.