Zach Deputy: One Man Soul Machine

© Tracy Block / RumBum.com

Zach Deputy lays it down

At Bear Creek 2008, the soulful solo teddy bear known as Zach Deputy fell into some drama with the resident 5-0. After being caught and nearly arrested for playing multiple unauthorized after-hours sets in the woods, Deputy’s doing things right this time around. On the last night of the fest, I took a seat at a picnic table with Deputy to hear about his ’09 experience and his love for The Creek.

After the drama that ensued in 2008, what was your schedule like this past weekend?

Well, this is my third Bear Creek and I had seven scheduled sets, one illegitimate set, so technically I played eight. Last year was crazy and I was asked to do a couple of main stage sets and one in the Music Hall, in addition to the Zach Shack, which was on the map. I was supposed to set up and play ridiculous amounts of sets, since that’s what it was built for, but I didn’t want to play the Zach Shack because it wasn’t set up right, so I moved it a few feet down. The cops were really bad last year, came at 4 a.m. and shut everything down.

Why'd all this go down?

Why? It’s a music festival. I don’t know why, I was just playing music.

OK. Let’s change the subject. Where does all of that energy come from? Playing a one-man show requires plenty of fuel.

Love comes from a lot of places. I’ve got a good woman and a beautiful daughter and great friends. Life is good. Everyone has his or her own well to draw from. I try to amplify the good things in life. I believe that music is a tool to amplify emotion and infuse people with emotion – whatever emotion that may be. What I try to do is send love to everyone out there from what I have in my life. What I’ve seen in front of my eyes are a bunch of people who all want the same thing. They all want to be loved and all want to love, that’s what most of my songs are all about.

What exactly is going on up there instrumentally?

Everything’s pretty much done on my guitar or my mouth. What I’ve got going up there is that my guitar is a synthesizer, so it can sound like a bass, or a sax. If I lay down a rhythm track, I’ll pull out the drums [Deputy starts beatboxing as if on cue] and then the bassline, and then all of a sudden, it starts becoming full sound, and I try to treat it like it’s a band or an instrument to make the song happen. I do it quick so you don’t have to dwell on the process of me making the loop, you can just enjoy the jam.

What’s the feedback like for first-time listeners?

I really enjoy that people seem to know me just after hearing my music. I’m like a reflection of my music. Most people come up to me and hug me as if they already know me and that’s kind of what I want. I try to connect at that level where it’s a really personal thing, which is cool because I never want to be separate from the people. Especially at an event like this, there’s a lot of good folks here.

Are you close with any musicians here this weekend? Do you collaborate with any of them?

The Ryan Montbleau Band, really awesome band, really good friends of mine. They’re great players and really big up north. They’re some of my best friends – as far as musically, we get down and do shows together and have a lot of fun. But other than that, I’ve been making awesome connections. Those are my closest compadres in the country.

You must be in the studio making music whenever you’re not performing. What are you working on?

I’ll at least put out one album this year, maybe two, if it’s a studio album, it will be number three, but I’m probably going to put out a live album and a studio album this year. I’ve been thinking about recording a track every couple of weeks and putting it up for sale, and then I think it would be easier to take those songs and make an album out of them. To make an album is nothing but money. I have more than 350 songs written, and so it’s nothing for me to make an album. My last album was made in four days.

The question on every Creeker’s mind: Will you be back?

I’ll definitely be back. My plans and the promoters’ plans are that I’ll be here every year no matter what; it’s just like family here for me. Next year, I think it’s definitely going to be set up differently, I think I’m going to be playing a super amount of inbetweeners [set breaks]. But, I’ll be back and it’s going to be bigger and better, that’s for sure.