We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Zachary Bordas. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Zachary below.
Zachary, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
First, starting a YouTube channel was far more challenging than I originally thought. I figured plugging in a mic and camera was all it took, but I underestimated the process.
It has taken me years to convince myself to finally make a channel, which friends and family have urged me to do for a long time; thus, once I ratified the idea in my mind, I was not fully prepared to tackle the challenge.
After purchasing a nice set of podcast mics and filming a pilot episode of Tie Dyed in Christ, I quickly discovered that an iPhone camera only shoots at a variable framerate versus a constant framerate, which is required when syncing separate audio files. After about two weeks of trying to mesh my video and external audio, I learned that I needed to purchase a mixer and camera so that I could try again. I was not quite prepared to spend the money, but I decided it was worth it because I knew capturing my friends’ stories was of utmost importance to me. Foolishly, I again learned that hitting record on both the camera and microphones/mixer was not an instant solution. I ended up talking with a few friends from Church who record music and work for audio-visual companies. They were all very gracious in assisting me in learning various software and testing my visual podcast. Once I got my setup rolling, I filmed a thrid try at the pilot episode with my wife Amanda– God bless her for doing the same podcast three times. The thrid attempt is the one visible on Youtube!
After finally learning how to stretch audio clips to match the framerate of my videos, I encountered an issue with a buzzing sound in my mics– you can hear it throughout the first eleven episodes. I kept researching why the problem persisted. I soon learned that cell phones interfere with XLR microphones and that cheap/stock cables wear out. I now have friends turn their phones and smart watches off (note: when someone moves their watch in front of a mic, it sometimes sounds like a lightsaber). I also purchased professional-grade XLR cables (again, another expense). I still have other issues that occur, especially because I record on an older Macbook since the USB-C ports on my newer Mac do not work for some reason– the Apple repair shop said it would be close to a grand to replace them, which I cannot afford. So, I have to record the audio on one computer (sometimes it messes up because the computer is so old and slow– episode sixteen is a clear example of this), then after recording I must save it to my external hard drive, upload it from my LaCie into my newer computer’s music editing software, then after editing the audio I again export it as a single file in the external hard drive, I then re-import both the edited audio clip and the unedited videos into my computer for the first round of editing (mixing the sound with audio), and finally, I export the composite to the hard drive when I then again import it so that I can make holistic edits such as cuts, adding the title song and similar. Every episode of Tie Dyed in Christ takes about 10-12 hours to produce (i.e., mixing dyes, preparing materials, filming, post-production, and uploading the videos to YouTube and shirts to my website).
I cannot say whether I would have started the channel if I had known I would face all these hurdles. I am glad I did not know because this has provided me with so much joy that I am glad to have struggled through it. I am still learning more with each episode, and there are days when I still want to beat my head against a tree stump. I should also say that I was graduating with my Ph.D. from LSU and I was praying that we’d move from Baton Rouge to somewhere for an unknown job that I was praying God would provide, so, in four and a half months I filmed something like 48ish episodes (sometimes three a day!).
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Well, my journey to host the Tie Dyed in Christ YouTube channel is sort of crazy. In middle school and more in high school, I was inspired by the culture of the 1960s and ‘70s. I idolized public figures, bands, and musicals such as Timothy Leary, Pink Floyd, the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Led Zeppelin, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Hair, and Jesus Christ Superstar. From this, I became fascinated with the free drug and liberated sex culture of those decades. I studied as much literature on the subject matter as possible, so that “if” I decided to dive into / indulge in that world, I would be well-equipped to not have a bad trip or catch something. What began as drinking juice turned into smoking herb, snorting happiness, dropping vitamin A, and eventually loving the drip of numbness. As any hippie knows, though I really disliked being called one, but, for limpidity, I use it here, wearing tie-dye clothing was and is all the rage. So, I dyed my first shirt with a few friends over a bowl of “cereal”. From there, I was hooked. I began dying every white piece of fabric that I owned. The radiance of the rainbow became my signature image— I was a living kaleidoscope. I often paired my shirts with homemade pants and hemp jewelry, including my always popular fork necklace: spoons freaked me out. Though I was joyful on the outside, I was dead on the inside and my relationship with drugs and various lovers quickly turned sour. I no longer wanted to explore the workings of the universe or my own psyche; instead, I began chasing the fleeting pleasure of a dying kiss. I was hooked and sinking fast!
Fast forward two years, (skipping chaining myself to a tree with the members of my psychedelic rock band CSLS, running away to the streets of California [being the only one with flowers in his hair: sadness], and trying to end it all) I was encountered by the love of Christ who pulled the scales off my eyes to see my hopeless state of Being, and being without Him. He injected himself into my life and instantly, a real miracle, my addiction disappeared! I knew something had changed because I began seeing the world in a new light, which was colored not by my dyes, no, as Himself being the Light of the World, I saw what I now call Christ-color for the first time and it broke my very soul. Never had I witnessed the beauty of nature in such vibrancy. Here, for space, I will skip through being on fire for Christ, going to Bible College to become a pastor, coming out of school an atheist, working as a forklift operator, becoming a full-on alcoholic, to then again in 2020 having Christ radically pull me out of my bitterness towards Christian, the Church, and quite literally my vomit.
My wife and I decided to check out a church in Baton Rouge and we found one that we loved. They preached the Bible as truth, Christ as forgiving, and they lived the gospel in practical terms (i.e., they practiced what they preached). As a church, they loved their neighbors in tangible ways such as hurricane relief, feeding the homeless, meeting the needs of single moms and widows, loving those in prison, and so much more. My wife and I plugged into the church and grew so much as a couple. At church, I always wear tie dye because at my job I am expected to dress professionally: people look at the outside; however, God looks at how we are clothed on the inside, as for me, I am clothed in Christ. Since God gave me the love of tie-dye, I worship him with my shirts!
The people I met at church all have incredible stories, so I knew I wanted to capture them before I would eventually move. I began filming Tie Dyed in Christ as a way to share their stories of redemption with the world. On my YouTube channel, you’ll hear from people who struggled with addiction (drugs, sex, and other), from persons struggling with thoughts of ending their lives, from people involved in all sorts of ministries around the world, and from people who grew up in the church and who God saved from falling into the traps of this world. I say all of this so that I may conclude with this thought: the tie-dye community is often shrouded in a culture of drugs and emptiness. I know because I lived in that state for years, so Tie Dyed in Christ is designed to bring some light and love into this community. My channel brings this same idea of Christ-color, or of the radiant light that I discovered all those years ago, and the show places it online for others to experience. For me personally, if Christ is the Light of the World, and if we see color because of light, then I want to worship Him with the colorful art of Tie Dye!
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
The mission of Tie Dyed in Christ is simple, I want to provide people with an answer to the hope that lives within me and inside of those on my show (1 Peter 3:15, ἀπολογίαν). I want to give God, in Christ Jesus, all the glory that is due to Him for the wonderful works he has done, so undeserved, in my life (1 Corinthians 10:31). I want to acknowledge Him in all my ways so that he will guide my steps in righteousness (Proverbs 3:6). I want to use my art as a way to inspire people and as a way to support missionaries around the world who have a like mindset (Exodus 31:1-6). Thus, I donate all the proceeds of my shirt to my missionary friends from my undergrad.
Colossians 3:1-4 serves as the channel’s mission statement. The verse reads, “if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (ESV). The theme song, at the start of every episode (written and performed by my friend Kris Neel), emphasizes these verses. Tie Dyed in Christ provides people with a moment of solace to forget about the ills of this world and instead set their minds on things above. Since Christ died as the perfect lamb of God, so we dye shirts in his memory. Just as Christ lay in the grave for three days, so we let our shirts sit in a bag overnight. And, just as Christ rose from the grave, hallelujah, so we take the shirts out of the bag and wash them in water (a symbol of baptism). Out of this process, we see a new shirt created in Christ’s color! You see, the whole mission is to spread the gospel in an artistic fashion (quite literally tie-dye fashion).
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
For me, I love helping other people find their creativity. So many of my guests have never dyed a shirt before, so in many episodes, you can see the joy in their faces as they discover the simple pleasure of making art– especially making art together. I love it when my friends wear their shirts in public and on their social media profiles. It is very rewarding knowing that God has allowed me to introduce them to the world of tie-dye: I hope they continue making shirts even when I am not there with them.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tiedyedinchrist.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tiedyedinchrist/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561359207471
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TDIChrist
