We recently connected with Roger “rj” Ruuspakka and have shared our conversation below.
Roger “RJ”, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
One of my most meaningful projects was a song I wrote. It’s a song called No More Bad Days. Charlie (our guitar player) had injured his playing hand and I had to take over and play guitar for the track. I wrote and recorded everything except the drums, the guitar solo and one backing vocal. Charlie and I came up with the arrangment and he came up with the guitar riffs. It was a lot of work and it was one of our higher streamed songs. The song was about a fan of ours on Twitter (at the time). She had struggled with drug addiction and was very open to chat about struggling to stay clean. She had gotten married and had a child. She seemed to be on her way to staying clean, but then suddenly she would fall off the wagon. She eventually disappeared and was never heard from again. I had taken notes and crafted the lyrics to try to describe her struggles. Unfortunately, the song wasn’t finished in time for her to hear it. I dedicated the song to her.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I started playing bass guitar in high school in Upstate NY. A high school friend of mine loaned me a bass and amp to learn to play. He actually went on to play with the popular bands Savoy Brown, Foghat and the Outlaws. I continued to play in college and eventually attended Berklee College of Music in Boston for Audio Engineering. I recorded some of the best student bands there. While I was at Berklee, I had taken an electronics course and that really interested me. It really helped guide my life beyond music. After Berklee, I worked in the music industry as a sound engineer with a touring band. It was a wild but tough life.
When the band broke up, I went back to school to get an Electrical Engineering degree and that is where I met the drummer (Mike “Spike” Hammond) of our current band. We were joined by Carl “Charlie” Miller on guitar soon after and called ourselves The Shrubs. We played out many times and ended up recording three albums worth of original music. After college, I got a job at Qualcomm in San Diego and the band more or less split up. After living in San Diego for a while, we got back together remotely and re-recorded our first album “Another Day Goes By” and released it. Since then we have recorded and released nine other singles. We currently are working on four new ones.
I have also produced and recorded another artist named F.I (creator of the podcast Floating Island). We released his first album back in April of this year and have a single in the works. On the day job side, I worked at Qualcomm for almost twenty one years before leaving to work at a couple of startups. The last startup was aquired by Illumina where I currently am employed.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
When I was at Berklee I would volunteer working at a recording studio in my hometown during my breaks. They were impressed with my skills and work ethic and told me I had a job with them after finishing school. After finishing school, I went to start to work for them but they told me that I could work there but they couldn’t pay me. Disappointed, I got a job working live sound for a touring band. It was a lot a work for very little money. I worked that for a year but I didn’t seem to get far in the industry so I decided to give engineering a try and go back to school. So I started at a local community college full time and got a job working at a bank at night in their computer room. My life was basically school all day, coming home, sleeping for 3 hours, going to work most of the night, sleeping another 3 hours and then repeating. It was a grind, but I ended up getting a scholarship at a state university to finish my engineering degree. I ended up being one of the top students and easily getting a job after finishing. I never forgot my music roots, just put it on the back burner for a while.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
There were two books that I read that formed a basis for a lot of decisions I’ve made in my life. They really changed my whole outlook. The first was called “The Prize” by Daniel Yergin. As a kind of history buff, it goes through the history of the oil industry. Now I’m not, and will never be, a cheerleader for the oil industry, but to hear the story of how world history and oil are so intertwined, from it’s discovery in western Pennsylvania through the oil crisis in the 70’s just blew my mind. It mainly taught me how grit, determination and a little bit of luck can lead to amazing results. The second book was “The Millionaire Next Door” by Thomas Stanley and it was even a bigger influence on me. It showed me that the truly wealthy in life don’t own a penthouse in Manhattan, but live humbly next door. It taught me to live within your means, save your money, plan correctly and you will eventually be rewarded. I would not be in the position I am today if I hadn’t read this book. I went from having basically no money to living comfortable life with very little debt.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rjoftheshrubs/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/roger.ruuspakka/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruuspakka-roger-4418214/
- Twitter: @rjoftheshrubs
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@theshrubs3
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/the-shrubs-911235784
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@theshrubsofficial
