We were lucky to catch up with Zach Grace recently and have shared our conversation below.

Zach, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Learning how YOU best learn new things is a skill all to itself. It took me a long time to understand that. Somewhere along the way I saw my favorite people had a common thread- no matter how amazing, they all seemed to accept that there is no end to learning. There will always be something new to learn and ways to improve. It keeps you humble and grounded. That’s probably what is so enticing to me, and what has kept me creating new things for so long. When something is daunting and I’m staring up a mountain of unknowns like a new instrument, software or subject of interest, I put myself, my ego, and what I think I know aside and just dive in as a novice to begin working my way through.

If you’re making something and are sure you know exactly how to make it “the right way”, it’s likely you are up against a creative wall and will probably end up with something more “run of the mill”. We have all done this. The sooner you are able to identify that you’re making things just like everyone else, the faster you’ll be on your way to finding something unique.

Sometimes you might find yourself needing to unlearn, and that’s ok, that’s still learning. Probably the most valuable ability to have is knowing when you need to unlearn something. Knowing how to spot it is a developed skill. It’s all part of the ongoing self improvement process.

The whole “tortured” part of being an artist is that need to strive toward HOW to more accurately express that idea. Getting as close as you can between what you’ve made and what you WANT to make is where the real satisfaction is.

Zach, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m mostly known as the bassist for the long running Indie Rock group, Mock Orange. I run Self Help International, a recording studio in Nashville, Tennessee, where I produce and mix music of all genres.
I am the founder of Bedfire Label, an independent record label and social media outlet.

I started playing guitar and drums in the early ’90’s. I was writing songs when I was about 10. My close neighbors and I formed a band and began playing shows in 1994. We were 12 years old and sounded like a bad combination of Nirvana mixed with every early nineties Alternative band you can think of. Evansville, Indiana in the 1990’s wasn’t exactly a hot spot for the underground music market. But in retrospect we had a fairly active scene with a lot of good local bands.
It wasn’t until we could drive that we would travel 2 hours to Louisville, KY where there were two independent record stores. That’s really when the sky opened up.

“Independent” or “indie”, back then, meant a label or band didn’t have corporate backing, or use a major distributor. Labels like Merge, Doghouse, Polyvinyl, DisChord, and Desoto were really taking off. I was always mystified by these little record labels that were obviously only in it to get this music to kids like us who were waiting to fall in love with it. Through small but mighty physical distribution chains they were able to release records and CDs to small stores in select cities. Compared to the radio, there was so much versatility in bands and sounds that each person in a friend group could develop their own particular taste. I just remember everyone passing around dubbed blank tapes for years- each one resonating with different friends for different reasons. It was a real community. The openness to new sounds wound up broadening my fragile, small town mind. The growing popularity of these bands from independent labels eventually led to our little band of close neighbors (now called The Dustin Change) believing we could make our own record, . We released it on a local label, got out of town and toured for a couple of years.

In 2002, I joined Mock Orange, a band from my hometown, (and actually the older brothers of my former band mates) whom I had grown up around. After sending a 4-track cassette tape in the mail, they were signed to a West Coast label out of Santa Barbara, Lobster Records. Before I joined, they had seen some national praise from their 1998 record Nines & Sixes (which was listed in the top 60 CMJ college radio charts, which meant something at that time). And they had made a follow up record, The Record Play, with producer Marc Trombino (Blink182, Jimmy Eat World, Drive Like Jehu). Both of which records I had the honor of releasing the 20th Anniversary vinyl editions on the Bedfire label!
Over the last 25 years we’ve continued to make many more genre blurring albums and E.P.s. We’ve toured the U.S., Japan, and Europe. We’ve gotten to play with so many of our early heroes. We played live at MTV’s Times Square studios, We’ve had songs licensed to a LOT of TV series, movies, and video game companies; like 16 and Pregnant, Road Rules, CSI: Miami, Drew Barrymore’s Going The Distance, Fox Sportsnet, and EA Sports to name a few.
Mock Orange’s cult like fanbase continues to grow after all these years. It’s truly amazing. We’re kind of in awe at what it’s become.
Our frontman, guitarist/singer Ryan Grisham is the lead songwriter. Our drummer Heath Metzger basically has a fanbase all to his own these days.
We still make records when it makes sense. And we still tour when we can and are able to.
It’s got to be about the music. And it’s got to be a labor of love.

In 2011 I made the move to Nashville to play and tour with more bands. I have since been working out of my always growing studio, Self Help International. It’s the bottom level of our house. (My wife is cool like that.)
I produce, engineer, and mix music of all genres.

I initially started Bedfire in 2018 to release the 20th anniversary editions of Mock Orange vinyl records in cooperation with Lobster records. I soon thereafter began releasing other artists who wanted to be a part of a larger community. I like the thought that a family of bands and artists can lift more weight than just a band who is constantly trying to shamelessly promote themselves.

These days everyone has the ability to be an independent artist. If you want to put out your own stuff, by all means, do it. Bedfire is for artists that still want to belong to something and have someone with experience they can trust to give an extra push through the constantly changing distribution process. Plus we’re always on the lookout for new recordings we love.

In 2022 we released our first stand up comedy album, Pointy Boys by Cortney Warner. We would love to add more comedy albums to the Bedfire family.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

That’s easy. The most rewarding part of being an artist is being able to do what you love and what you are good at.

If you decide to go into any creative arts as a job, it should be a win-win situation.

Best case scenario: You master your craft, create things that you are satisfied with, perhaps become wildy successful (however you define that), and you die feeling like you contributed somehow.
Worst case scenario: You were lucky enough to spend your time doing something that you enjoyed and would’ve done anyway.

Either way it’s a win-win.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

The answer to this question USED to be simple- if you love an artist, buy their stuff. In many ways that’s still the case. At the end of the day, we all need to eat and pay the bills. But in today’s cluttered, algo-centric ecosystem, another important thing you can do to support an artist is engage with their content. This may go without saying, or it’s been said so frequently that people have become def to the request, but if you really like what ANYONE does- you can easily support them with a comment or a simple follow.

Whether it’s liking and subscribing a YouTube video or clicking the FOLLOW button for an artist on Spotify/AppleMusic…those comments, likes, subscribes, and follows are how these platforms are told to keep showing that content to more viewers.

Yeah it‘s lame and it sucks, but so did the episode of Happy Days when Fonzie jumped over that shark. We have to measure what people want somehow, right?

Contact Info:

• Website: linktr.ee/bedfire
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bedfire_label/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bedfirelabel
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zach-grace-655b3422b/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq4KcsiHPNe-TD0uHzX2Grw
• Other: BEDFIRE Bandcamp page: https://bedfire.bandcamp.com BEDFIRE Playlist: https://tr.ee/gKxRoFwzK1 [email protected]

Image Credits
Bedfire/MockOrange archives Kevin James Thornton Rui Hashimoto