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

Hi Zach, thanks for joining us today. Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?

I’d say so, I’ve just gotta do a better job of showing it, ha! They have always pushed me to strive for good things for myself. Every person let alone child needs that kind of support in their life. They always wanted to make sure that say, back in school, I was hanging around with good kids and that I was doing something productive. I got involved in band and theatre, but I still hung around with some delinquents. Later on it became them imploring me to make smart financial decisions, or treat myself right, think about my future, that sort of thing. They are very much pulling from their own experiences in making mistakes and watching people they knew do the same. I try and tell them often that I’m grateful for them, plenty of people out there have really shit parents. I drive them up a wall but I love them and they have always shown they love me.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a musician, a singer and guitarist for reference. I sort of got into music through Daughtry’s debut album when it came out, my mom was going through a divorce and we played it a lot because it helped her out. There was my stepdad’s music too, but the bug really bit me when I got a copy of Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” DVD and CD when I was seven, right after he died. I played it to death, I tried to dance like him, I was so in love with his music. That graduated into me picking up alternative stuff after playing a ton of football and motocross games on the PS2 growing up. Those games got me into so much punk, metal, emo stuff, and so on, which really helped when I hit puberty and got all angsty. My childhood best friend gave me his old Squier Stratocaster when I was twelve, and my mom got me lessons because it was something to do instead of sitting around and staring at a screen. Then I started my first band at sixteen, just garage and basement jams and making really amateur songs and recordings of said songs. After I graduated community college, I got real involved in the Nashville DIY music scene, which connected me with all sorts of both cool and lame people to get involved with. After trying on a few bands for size, I thought “let me try forming my own thing again”, and The Skrewups was born.
Our moniker of sorts is “Music City Murder Punk”, or “MCMP”, and we sing about death and violence with a Misfits-Motörhead-Ramones-rockabilly soundtrack, I don’t know any other band exactly like us and I really just wanted to make something that would be fun to listen to and make you go “what did he just say?” Punk is supposed to be outrageous, right?

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Not really a lesson, but I’m trying to unlearn hating myself. It’s a carryover from my adolescence and it’s done me a lot more harm than good, I get really inactive when I’m not doing well, and don’t appreciate what I have very much because I tend to feel like I don’t deserve it. Not to mention, I’ve hit the bottle way too much in the past, to a point of concern for the people around me. I’m out of the water and “drying off” now if you will, but the feeling behind it is a monster really, because eventually what you give to yourself you give to others. I’m trying to be better now, I’m trying to lean on my support system more and be responsible with my emotions, but I still wrestle with it. It’s like an addiction, a reliable presence in a place of darkness that fools you into thinking it’s all you have. I’ve found staying active and social, even when you feel you don’t deserve it, is one of the best ways to fight that demon. At the end of the day, we all deserve a light at the end of the tunnel.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Oh Lord, where to start?
Henry Rollins and everything he has spoken about in his talking shows and the books he has written, not to mention Black Flag and Rollins Band. Glenn Danzig with the Misfits, Samhain, etc., and his desire to be outrageous to try and get people thinking or just to wince, I mean he has made a whole career out of that between his music, movies, and comics. Then there’s the punk ethos of “who else is gonna do it for me?”, and Lemmy Kilmister with his “you’ve got one life, carpe diem, and fuck anyone who tries to tear you down” kind of lifestyle, only I don’t take speed and I drink water.
Plus there was a fair amount of feeling like a black sheep as a kid with a side of “I’ve got to get the fuck out of this place”, and to a certain extent I still feel that, you can’t get complacent. You stay bogged down too long in anything, you’re gonna sink I say.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @theskrewups
• Youtube: @theskrewupstn

Image Credits

Lexi Elliot

Elijah Cooley

Julie Hatter

Lori Witter