You may know Noah Guthrie as the avid YouTuber behind the bluesy version of “Sexy and I Know It,” but you may not know him as Roderick on “Glee” or as the latest performer in Carolina Production's "Meal Time Music Series."
In May 2012, the Greenville County native's YouTube page exploded with more than eight million views from his unique, soulful cover of LMFAO’s jam “Sexy and I Know It.”
“['Sexy and I Know It'] really has propelled my career in the last couple years, so really I’m just kind of thankful for it,” Guthrie said. “I’ll be playing it for a long time, and that’s fine with me. You know, the audience loves it. I don’t know, that’s all I can really ask for.”
You can add Guthrie to the list of artists discovered through YouTube along with Justin Bieber, Greyson Chance, Cody Simpson and Boyce Avenue. He began publishing cover versions of songs and found management that encouraged him to keep posting on YouTube. From there, his videos only increased in popularity until his LMFAO breakthrough.
The Americana singer-songwriter artist said he doesn’t have a specific process when it comes to producing songs. It could take him an hour to be completely satisfied for one song and a week for another. His favorite band of all time is U2, and he specifically draws from several Nashville singer-songwriters including the Dave Matthews Band, Mark Grizzard and The Civil Wars.
“It’s just playing the song over and over, you know, so you’ll hear a certain part in your head and you’re like ‘oh, that can go there’ or ‘that might work,’ and a lot of times it doesn’t,” Guthrie said. “But once you find that right — like with ‘Sexy and I Know It’ it just happened... I didn’t really even think about it.”
Guthrie hoped he would gain recognition for his voice, but never for his acting skills. He said that acting has never been on his radar, but he would definitely tackle another acting project again. He expanded on how "Glee" writes the characters close to the actor’s personality, so while it was difficult at first, he slowly got the hang of it.
“So, basically, I played a house show in San Francisco and one of the guys there had been on 'The X-Factor' I believe, and he was also judging a talent show the next day in Los Angeles,” Guthrie said. “One of the other judges on the board was one of the casting directors for ‘Glee’ and she said ‘Hey, we’re having trouble finding someone for the role of Roderick — he’s a chubby, shy guy that has the voice of Otis Redding. Do you know anybody?’ and the guy was just like ‘I just saw him last night!' So they called me, and I auditioned and yeah, I was just lucky enough to get the part."
Even though he has been featured on "Glee" and various talk shows and has released a full-length album in August 2013, he remains loyal to his YouTube fan base.
“I don’t want to stray away from [YouTube videos] — I actually need to do one soon, but I don’t think they will be as regular,” Guthrie said. “I will definitely keep doing them as long as I can just ‘cause that is where I was born, basically. You know, I think it would be unfair to the fans if I just stopped abruptly."
Guthrie is happy with the response from his fans and hopes to keep creating covers and adding his own songs to the world’s playlist.
“(I) just wanna play music and, you know, make a few albums and tour,” Guthrie said. “I would love to go on a world tour at some point, and maybe (do) some acting here and there other than “Glee,” and, I don’t know, I’m kind of taking it a day at a time.”
CP will feature one artist on each of the four designated dates in April on the Russell House Patio for their “Meal Time Music Series,” so check your CP event calendars for upcoming artists.
“More YouTube, we wanted to go more YouTube artists,” Jeni Adamo, CP’s concert coordinator, said in response to being asked how they picked who would perform. “But it was mainly just who we thought was best.”
Adamo is bringing in local and nonlocal artists, well-known artists and artists you may have never heard of.
“I’m really excited about it,” Adamo said. "I wanted to do something different and try something new, that’s why we’re doing the "Meal Time" series.”