Today we’d like to introduce you to Zach Black.
Zach, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Well, I’m a Navy brat, and I mostly grew up in Hawaii. I’m definitely the black sheep of my family, and that certainly manifested itself in my decision at 18 to come to Austin and pursue a career in music alongside my studies at the UT Liberal Arts school. While I had a variety of experiences working different jobs, living in different places, and getting to know different communities here in Austin, my participation in the local music scene was the only constant. And I can’t understate the influence a lot of older musicians here in town had on me. They showed me the path if you will. Even though I played in projects of different styles, I’ve always been a rocker, ever since I started playing the drum kit at seven years old. Working at a guitar store through high school, I got into electric guitar and songwriting, and although I was and am always experimenting with making different genres, it was pretty obvious that the genre I had the most education in was the one I was best at making, rock n’ roll. After a while, I finally found the right guys, JP and Joe, and the timing was right, and I had a band concept that they liked. The rest is history! We’ve just been hustling, having a great time and great experiences, and watching our baby grow!
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 depends on how you look at it! On one hand, we’re very fortunate that we’ve never had to be ‘starving artist’ types because we’ve all been pretty lucky to find day jobs that are flexible enough not to limit our musical pursuits. And they’ve also helped us to fund a lot of those pursuits! In addition to that, Austin is so welcoming to musicians, especially in terms of local support, but also great organizations like HAAM and SIMS Foundation, and great music infrastructure in terms of venues, recording studios, equipment rental, etc. In all those ways, we’ve got it pretty good, and we’re super thankful to be a part of this music scene. On the other hand, I think everyone comes to Austin hoping things will happen fast, and at least for us everything has taken a pretty long time. It took years and years just to get my shit together, find the right guys, have the right idea and get us out there playing on a professional level. But luckily, you know you’re doing the right thing when you enjoy the process. And no matter how fast or slow things happen or what’s to come, I’ve always had so much fun doing it. I love this shit!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Okay! First and foremost, I’m a songwriter. That’s what really drives me more than anything else to pick up an instrument and play, and it’s also what inspires me to do music publicly. The relationship that you have to others when you relate and share understanding through songs is what it’s all about for me. After that, I love playing guitar, singing, and a jamming, and I love the science of figuring out how to present a song as well as planning and executing performances. Playing live is another big reason that I love to do this, because of that same connection with your bandmates and the other people in the room when you play. And nothing is cooler than rocking with your band to an engaged crowd! I believe that I’m known for being a very authentic and enthusiastic rocker. Not only in my own music and accomplishments with Souls Extolled but also as an avid supporter of the Austin Music Scene and the other bands we play around. I also think that I’m recognized for having a unique musical style and being a very theatrical entertainer, which are, along with my distinctive take on rock music with Soul Extolled, also the things I believe set me apart.
As far as what I’m most proud of, I’m just so proud of everything Souls Extolled has accomplished since we started in February of 2019! I’m especially proud of our last record ‘Seraphic War’ as well as the current record we’re promoting ‘MMXXII’. I’m also very proud of some of the amazing shows we’ve played!
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
If I could go back in time, I think I would have done a lot more market research before really putting myself out there. No regrets! I had a lot of fun and great experiences that taught me a lot in those early days. However, there was a lot of wasted time as I had no direction and had no idea what I needed to succeed or how to make anything happen. When things really started to grow for me was when I became a fan of other projects in the Austin scene and started going out to shows and meeting people. I learned so much from not only experiencing what other artists had put together, but then as I met older, more accomplished musicians and got to know them as people, they gave me a lot of great advice, and more than anything showed me a possible path to success through their example. In addition to that, It may not have taken me as long to find the right people to work with or to know where to go for different things like recording or making a music video if I had just been out and about sooner. In a nutshell, find the places you want to play and the bands you want to play with, show up, and say ‘what’s up’! From my experience, you get a lot of your music scene education just going out to shows, observing, hanging out, and partying!
Contact Info:
- Email: manager@soulsextolled.com
- Website: https://soulsextolled.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soulsextolled/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/soulsextolled
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/soulsextolled
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/soulsextolled
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/soulsextolled
Image Credits
Personal photo Caden Leavell images 2 and 4 Caden Leavell the rest are Patrick Kirk Thomas of Austin artist spotlight
