David Ramirez Music
Words by Janine Stankus Photos by Eric Morales
Contentment will always be a shimmering mirage to a musician married to the road, the life, and their own self-image. Love and heartbreak are twin muses; the touring lifestyle is a gyre. But even after releasing an uncharacteristically hopeful album in 2020—wrested from the wreckage of the love that inspired it—David Ramirez is ready for a bigger shift.
“I’m kind of over worshiping myself and thinking that I’m the shit,” David admits. “I think my purpose right now is just to enjoy things a little more and taste the sweetness rather than just wallowing in the bitter.”
A Houston native and long-time Austinite, David made his name as a quintessential Americana folk rocker. With My Love is a Hurricane, completed in January 2020, David decided he didn’t want to do another folk record. Not that he was done with the genre, he just found himself bored. Serendipitously, he partnered with producer Jason Burt, who works with hip-hop and soul artists. Together, they made a heart-rending record that’s laced with new influences—from the Sade reference on “Lover, Will You Lead Me” to the undercurrent of smooth, D’Angelo-inspired bass lines.
Heartache still hangs heavy over the album, but there is always a light shining through gloom. “It’s not about rainbows and butterflies and Milk Duds,” he says of his themes. “It’s about real love: intimacy and vulnerability and admitting faults.” The hurricane signifies the determined, dualistic force of love and its aftermath. Destruction leads to rebirth, and, hopefully, it gets rebuilt better. Aptly, the album arrived during a maelstrom of a year during which David finally found his eye-of-the-storm.
When we talked to David in 2017, he was fiending for the road after being off for three months. Today, even after a canceled world tour, he’s happy to be at home. “It’s been a very positive thing, for mother nature to force me to sit down and take a beat.” He’s healthier in body, mind, and spirit, and his relationships are thriving. “I’m relearning that my entire identity isn’t wrapped up in those 45 to 90 minutes on stage and that I do possess other interests.”
After parting with his manager of 10 years in February 2020, David’s focused on fulfilling himself creatively rather than worrying about bigger stages and more money. That means continuing to color outside the lines of his genre. He’s been recording a gospel album titled Backslider, going against his manager’s advice. Another album in the works lands more in the rock-and-roll camp: the kind of stuff he grew up writing. Titled Rules and Regulations, the record is a light-handed response to the pandemic and its impact on personal freedoms.
Funny enough, the pandemic afforded David a kind of freedom that he did not anticipate. It enabled him to break out of self-gratifying, self-destructive cycles, and reconnect with his role as an artist. “The most powerful thing about art is its ability to bring people together,” he says with true conviction. “I lost track of that years ago, and now it’s coming back. If it isn’t about bringing a group of folks together, then I don’t really want to be a part of it.”
The Show
David would like to see more than his own name on a marquee once shows are allowed to resume. “I’d like to play a festival, you know, with everyone backstage where we’re all hugging and kissing and sharing martinis… I want Kelsey Wilson of Sir Woman there. I want Jeremy of Small Houses there. I want Kalu James, Jonathan Terrell, Caroline Rose: all the homies who play music that I love dearly.”
