We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Zachary DeFour. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Zachary below.

Zachary, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

I have been able to earn a full-time living from my creative work. But it wasn’t always like that. When I first started with my dual passion of wrapping cars and playing my saxophone. It was a struggle getting to the point where I could have a comfortable living. I feel like if I had taken more risks when I first started I would have gotten to this point a lot faster. But because of my own insecurities and my goal of what I thought was perfection, I held myself back until I finally decided to take more risks and put myself in situations and opportunities to get to where I am now.

Zachary, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My music venture started in 6th grade, when my mom decided to put me in band. Since then I have practiced and honed my skills as a saxophonist. I also just seemed to have a natural talent for it. Which did help me a lot but I put in a lot of hard work. Once it was time for me to go to college, that is when things got tough. As saxophone is a none orchestral instrument and even tho I loved playing classical music. Jazz was calling my name. It was foreign, but the freedom of jazz is what pulled me in. To be able to express myself through music. But once I stepped foot in the music hall of the University of Texas at Arlington. The intimidation of hearing other saxophone playing how I wish I could. I knew at that moment I was playing catch up. Through my 4 years of university I worked harder then I had ever worked for anything. I wanted to be on the same level as my peers. But my insecurity of not being good enough held me back. But I didn’t give up, regardless of the thoughts I had of giving up. But one of the only other thing that kept me pushing is a promise that I made to my grandfather who was one of my biggest supporters that I would never stop playing. So I pushed through finished school with my bachelors in jazz. But after college I took a 2 year break. And that’s when my venture into working on cars started. Besides music work on cars was my other passion.

As I learned more and more about working on cars I started going from shop to shop. Starting at pep boys as a lube tech and then going to a high end performance shop working on exotics. When Covid hit sadly I got laid off from doing that but ended up having the opportunity to wrap and modify cars. Which learning the ins and out of that presented other difficulties the satisfaction of making someone’s else dream of how they wanted their car to look became something I am to repeat. As my work life progressed with that I started playing my saxophone again with a band called Able Delilah, and over time I started playing with other bands as well. Even though it took some time to be able to juggle being a traveling musician and wrapping and modifying cars, I manage to figure it out and now I am able to play music that I want to play with other really great musicians providing an experience things that I never thought I would experience. But I have also made the dreams of many customer’s ideas of how they wanted their car to look also brings a lot of joy to my life.

Now I playing for about 5-8 different bands. Azwalf and the love sessions orchestra, Reggie T and the boneheadz, the Larry Gee project, Empire 6, and mid town 10 just to name a few. I’ve met a lot of great people with amazing talents that also make me finally feel like all the hard work I put in to be able to express myself and create an atmosphere that the listener would feel to their core. And as for wrapping and modifying cars I have been contracting since January of this year. Which business is steady, and just preparing for the next step of my life to take.

My new goal with music is to continue to learn everything I can to be able to play the style I want to play! With all the great musician that have now become my very good friends. And either make people dance, cry, happy, or whatever the occasion calls for. Because with all my time playing, dealing with my own insecurities, the achievements I have had. Music is a language that connects everyone, and to be able to connect with someone with my playing is feeling that can’t be replicated. And with wrapping I just want to give my customer/ employee the best quality of work I can provide. And progress my skills to continue making the customers vision come to life.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

There is a particular goal. And that goal when it comes to my music is to keep practicing and perfecting my skills to be able to give the listener/ audience an experience into my story through music. The styles I decide to use. The nuances I use. For them to understand and hear my story.

With wrapping car is to make my customers vision of how they want their car to look, and envision it to be come to life.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to learn that the patience is key when it come to being a creative. When I was studying music in college. I felt like I had to play catch up because I didn’t have a strong background in jazz. And I worked so hard to “catch up” to my colleagues. But in doing that it made it harder to retain the things I was learning and or working on. After I passed my college barrier my sophomore year. I realized that I can’t rush the way I learned and retained how to go about playing jazz and learning the ins and outs of that. And when I started doing that it became a lot easier for me to learn and figure out the best way for me to get where I wanted to go with my style of music. I couldn’t rush it I had to be patient and enjoy the process instead of trying to immediately become a great jazz saxophone quick. And me learning that lesson of being patient allowed me to apply that in other aspects of my life.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @zachary_d4 and @zasuke33
• Facebook: Zachary Defour
• Other: TikTok: @zasuke_33