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Wednesday, May 14, 2008 Rocker reflects about life in HollywoodAlbuquerque Sergio Gutierrez is still rockin' - even with a broken guitar string. The 21-year-old rocker from Los Lunas is playing the popular "94 Rock Morning Show" on Albuquerque's KZRR-FM, and doesn't even make the chorus before a string springs from his fret board. But being a string short doesn't keep him from playing a rockin' acoustic version of the newest song he wrote for his band, Axson — a song called, "Tattoo My Heart." "I just changed these strings yesterday just for this," he said afterwards as he and guitarist Shay Cotton leave the studios at 94 Rock. "But we got through it." If the reactions of morning show co-hosts Swami Rob and Erica Viking are any indication, Gutierrez and Cotton did a lot more than merely get through the performance. Viking said Monday the recording she did with her computer is "great" and will be posted it on 94 Rock's website later that afternoon.
The band had gained acclaim for its '80s style heavy metal in the Albuquerque area — a bunch of guys in their early 20s playing music made popular before they were born. Moving to Hollywood turned out to be an experience for the foursome, and these days only Gutierrez is rockin' out under the Axson name. Gutierrez said the changes turned out to be "a fortunate thing." "A lot of people have said, 'Oh, it's just you from the original band,' but I look at it as being something fortunate that came about because I get to call the shots," he said. "I find myself getting further quicker that way. You know, being in a band is like being married. Everyone has their own ideas, their own wants, and their own needs. But when you have one person calling the shots, it just flows more." Gutierrez said Barela left the band not long after they arrived in Hollywood. Bryant left this past November, and Grifford left in January, leaving Gutierrez to carry the Axson name on his own. "Bryant had his own things he had to deal with, and Brandon was kind of an overnight thing, but he's got his own ideas and he's pursuing his thing," Gutierrez said. "Over all, you can say Bryant and Brandon had things change, and they had some different ideas and they didn't want to do this anymore. But the band Axson will be alive as long as I'm around." Gutierrez and Cotton came back the first weekend in May to visit and play a show at one of Gutierrez's old haunts, Harla May's in Belen, on Saturday, May 3, before making their morning show appearance on Monday, May 5. He said the experience in Hollywood was a tough but rewarding one. "We definitely underestimated what Hollywood would be like," he said. "It's expensive, it's wild, and it's fast. But it's incredible. It's something I always wanted to do, and I find myself asking myself 'Why didn't I do this earlier?' — Like right out of high school." The band found that Hollywood clubs don't book bands to play; they run by the "pay to play" system where a band is charged a fee to play and has to sell tickets for the show. If they don't sell enough to tickets to pay the club, they pay out of their own pockets — something many bands end up doing early in their careers. "We've played some incredible shows at the Whiskey-a-Go-Go in Hollywood, the Vodka Club, the Knitting Factory, the Jumping Turtle in San Diego," he said. "We just tried to hit the hot spots. We want to hit where it counts each time. "Playing the Whiskey was crazy," said Gutierrez. "We couldn't believe it. It was a dream come true. We'd sat in New Mexico, watching Motley Crue DVDs and seeing them play at the Whiskey like in the 'Kickstart My Heart' video. That's our dream, we're gonna do it. Sure enough, we moved out to California and had our first Whiskey show inside six months." Gutierrez said the business side of playing music was tough, but didn't surprise him. "It's pretty brutal, pretty cutthroat, which everyone warned us about," he said. "We weren't too surprised. It's just great to stand in the spot where people like Eddie Van Halen, Motley Crue and Guns 'N Roses once stood. Me, a little ol' boy from Los Lunas playing in Hollywood — it's a dream come true." These days, Gutierrez said, he's living in San Diego, where he's working as a diamond grater — a far cry from his first job in Hollywood as a telemarketer selling pens. He's also playing as often as possible, playing gigs on the weekends and sitting in on open-mic nights, as well as putting together another version of Axson. "In California it seems like everyone's a musician," he said. "You talk to this person or that person, and they say 'Oh, I play guitar,' or 'Hey, I know somebody who plays bass...' It's not as difficult as it is in New Mexico to find band mates. I actually have people lined up, ready and willing to rock 'n roll." He said he's also working on writing and recording new songs. He recently finished recording "Tattoo My Heart," and is going back into the studio to work on more songs when he gets back to California. "'Tattoo My Heart' is the first major song I wrote in California," Gutierrez said. "That's basically me writing a song about people I've met in life, not only people back home that have tattooed my heart forever, but also people I've met in California so far. I've had more to write about. I also talk more about my future in my music these days." Gutierrez said working in the studio has been hard but rewarding. "The music is only getting better," he said. "I'm just focused on the future. All I want to do is have fun. That's what music is all about. So that's what I wanna do — continue to have fun. "I still want to get out there and rock," said Gutierrez. "I wanna get signed and tour the world. You only have one life. Might as well go for the gold."
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