Daily Inspiration: Meet David Simutis

Today we’d like to introduce you to David Simutis. Them and their team share their story with us below:

Denver Meatpacking Company is one of those don’t get rich and don’t do it quick stories. 

The band is Alfred Mueller, David Simutis, and Jerome Bellian. Jerome and David went to college together in Ohio. David played bass in an early incarnation of a band Jerome was in and David formed a band of his own. Their two bands, flowerfist, and the Newspaper Taxis played a lot of shows together. 

After graduation, they only saw each other once, by chance, at a bar in Houston. Jerome moved to Northern California after that. David moved to Southern California. 

It was in Southern California that Alfred and David met and formed a band called Karate Pants. In 2013, both Jerome and David moved to Denver, lured by all of the great things the city has to offer. Less than two years later, Alfred packed up and followed and the seeds were planted. 

After a couple of months of practicing and writing, we were ready to record and start playing out. Naturally, we went to record in Ohio. The first album was recorded before we played our first show, which is a very unusual way to do it. That first show was also opening a reunion show for a band David and Jerome’s bands had played with in college. Kind of full circle. 

Back in Colorado, the first show here was at a fundraiser in Silver Plume. We’ve played at most of the bars or clubs in town, but we’ve also made a concerted effort to play as many shows as we can that are benefits or fundraisers. We know we’re not going to be rich or famous playing music and we’re fine with it. Thankfully, we’re in a position where we’re able to try to give back as much as we can. As part of this mantra, we’ve played at the Steele Street Elementary school a couple of times (very early in the morning!), we’re ambassadors for Youth on Record, and we helped raise money for other causes such as victims of the Marshall Fire at the end of last year. 

We’re not patting ourselves on the back for this, it’s just something we agreed we should do when we can. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It hasn’t been a struggle to get the band together. There are definitely challenges in everyday life with jobs and families and kids that make playing music together a form of group therapy for us at times. It’s also a good support group for each other. So the road outside of the band might not always be smooth, but we have each other to get through it. 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Our last album, Here, was recorded in bits and pieces in our basements and our home base recording studio, Taco Labs. We invited a couple of our friends to sing backups on it, Kyle Chason from the Swindlin’ Hearts and Ryan Brashier from Stocks. We also had friends play guitar on a couple of songs, Michael Joncas from the Kneads/Harrison Ford Mustang, and Josh Calisti from Waves Crashing. So it felt very much like a big, collective effort among friends beyond our little trio. 

As luck would have it, Brad Wood — who has produced records for Liz Phair, Seam, Veruca Salt, and Sunny Day Real Estate, seriously he’s amazing — posted on Instagram that he had some free time if anyone needed a song mixed. So we jumped at that and he not only mixed a song, he added some piano on it. It was just a thrill to work with him. 

Of course, we went back to Ohio to mix it, just across the river actually at Candyland Studios in Dayton, KY. Another old friend, Mike Montgomery, did the mixing and mastering, right before the world shut down. It was very much teamwork to get that album done. 

Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
The internet is both a great way to network and a great way to annoy people. We tend to err on not annoying people, but when we get introduced to someone, we don’t just try to make it all about us, we try to make things mutually beneficial and give as much public praise and support as we can to people who’ve been helpful. 

Mentoring is something we would love to do, but there aren’t many kids interested in loud rock bands. If you know any of them, we’d be happy to do concerts with them. 

Contact Info:

• Email: cowbells@gmail.com
• Website: https://www.denvermeatpacking.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denvermeatpacking/
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/denvermeatpackingco/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/denvermeatpack
• Other: https://denvermeatpackingco.bandcamp.com

Image Credits
Shannon Debique
Michelle Simutis