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

Zach, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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 make a living as a musician through a combination of writing, recording and performing my own music and supporting other artists in a number of different musical roles. I tour regularly in an American rock band called ALO, as well as backing up singer song writer Jack Johnson on piano and other instruments. I’ve been pursuing a career in music since I was 12 years old, and I’ve been full time since I was about 23, I’m almost 50 now. For years my path seemed to involve saying yes to every opportunity that presented itself from playing cover songs at school dances to accompanying children’s musical theater productions, sometimes for money sometimes just for the experience. If there was a gig I took it and it usually led to another gig and in the process of that I got better and better as a musician, as a writer and as a performer. For me as a musician the early years before I was full time were essential for me to learn my craft, it was a gestation period. When I was a younger musician I always wondered if I would be good enough to “make it”. Now I’ve come to realize that both “making it” and good enough are on a spectrum. At the same time I think I had to cross a certain threshold of performance experience and practice time with my instruments in order to really compete as a professional musician.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Zach Gill, I’m a singer, song writer and multi-instrumentalist who tours nationally and internationally with Jack Johnson, psychedelic Jam-pop rock band ALO and also on my own as a solo performer. I’m known for my funky piano playing, soulful singing and power pop accordion medleys. I’ve wanted to be a musician since I was 12 years old, so I feel pretty lucky to be making a living doing what I love. When not on the road I live in Santa Barbara CA, with my amazing wife and daughters and our dogs. I love writing songs, reading and drawing. I’ve released 6 albums with ALO, 3 records under my own name and I’ve played on most of jacks albums since the early 2000’s.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me the most rewarding part of the process is the creative act itself. It feels like magic every time. Sometimes I start out with an idea of how I want the music to go, but sometimes it just goes the way it wants to., as though I’m a conduit for it. It’s a mysterious and personal process, that I seem to be addicted to.

Have you ever had to pivot?

When I first got started in the music business, I was very focused on getting a record deal and making and selling physical copies of our music. There were still brick and mortar shops that mainly sold CDs and digital file sharing was not really a thing. In my mind record stores would exist forever. Shortly after we released our third album for brush fire records the music business as we knew it collapsed over night. As the public switched to digital file sharing, we found ourselves with thousands of CDs and no CD stores to sell them in. Streaming services hadn’t quite taken off and we were really unsure how to proceed,

Our business model had been based on releasing an album every few years, touring in support of that album and then taking a break to start the process over. Suddenly there were no places to sell CDs, no tower records no local music stores and labels were reluctant to release new music. It took some time but eventually we adjusted to the new paradigms. Since our recording budgets had gotten so much smaller, we invested in home studio gear and got better at engineering and self producing our own music. We also started our own subscription/fan club and released music directly to our fans. Now we release music through streaming services as well as selling Vinly versions of our albums at live shows. We also have an extremely loyal fan base cultivated in many ways through our early fan club subscription service.

Contact Info:

• Website: Zachgill.com
• Instagram: Zachgillalo
• Facebook: Zach Gill
• Youtube: Zach Gills stuff

Image Credits
Ron Baker Michael Alan Blair Jessica Scheeter Larry Sabo Dave Vann