We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Zachary Vaughn a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Zachary, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Since around 2019 I had the idea to write and release an album entitled “Welcome to My World”. And over these 5 years I’ve put it down and picked it up again for various reasons. Whether I felt too exposed with the nature of the subject of the. concept, or as a small independent artist that it would be a waste of time to even work on it. I never truly felt at peace when I would put it down and move on though. Fast forward to now, January 2024, regardless of whatever reasons have hindered me personally in the past, I completed the project I started 5 years ago and am looking toward the official release on February 16.

I believe that through the process of writing and releasing and preparing this music it’s been more of a personal exercise rather than a marketing opportunity. The various struggles I’ve had to overcome just within myself, have proven that this project is more spiritual in nature. Because of this, I don’t think that the album’s success will be measured in streams. At least, for me this time around.

Zachary, 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 grew up in church, from the hospital room straight to the altar is really how it went being the son of a pastor. At age 9 I started learning how to play the saxophone in my school’s concert band. Through this I was learning how to read music on a basic level. My older sister was also in band, but my parents were putting her through piano lessons as well and she played the piano as part of our church’s worship band. One day, out of boredom, I looked through her piano book and started at page 1. In a few months I had read and played through the whole book without an instructor and started taking the knowledge I had to music that I had liked as well as church music and eventually took over as the church’s keyboardist (which my sister had no objection).

In about 2008 my older brother, 16 at the time, started sharing Christian Hip Hop music with our church for the first time. So at 11 is when I was introduced to CHH (Christian Hip Hop), through Da T.R.U.T.H.’s “Moment of Truth”. As he shared music for the church I got more and more involved in what he was doing as he called himself “S.O.A.P.” or Son of a Preacha, and I eventually saying I was “B.O.S.” or Brother of SOAP.

In middle school I spent a lot of time searching my favorite CHH songs on YouTube as instrumentals and began writing my own lyrics as “remixes” and then I would share them as an act alongside my older brother. This all led up to my first performance outside of church when I was in 9th grade sharing a remix of “Dum Dum” by Tedashii featuring Lecrae in my middle school talent show. It was the joy that I had when sharing my original lyrics with my friends that had me hooked on the art of writing music. I never recorded music at this time, but I wrote a ton of “remixes” and eventually started writing to instrumentals that weren’t already taken. I went on to win the next 2 years of my High School’s talent show, and that solidified the desire to study the music industry in college.

Graduating High School in 2016 I majored in Music Recording Technology. In learning the technology I married the creative side of the industry with the technical side. Since I had already played keyboard for a decade, I began recording my ideas, and since I had already been writing my own lyrics, I began engineering my voice. This led to me releasing my first song to SoundCloud in 2017 which I produced, written, and engineered all by myself. Quickly, as a project for school, I released my first album “O.R.E.O.” (Overtly Redefining Ethnic Orientation) in the spring of 2018.

The final piece to the puzzle came when I graduated with my Associate’s Degree and moved to Nashville to pursue my Bachelor’s in Audio Engineering Technology and minor in Music Business in the fall of 2018. For the next three years, I learned how to market myself, and monetize the music that I was creating, as well as sharpen my skills as a songwriter, producer, and engineer. Also being in the city of Nashville and on a campus like Belmont, I also have been able to develop myself as an artist.

At this point in my career I’m my own brand as “ZiL”. I produce, write, record, engineer, distribute, market, and manage all of my music. I’ve been able to use these skills to work with other artists around me as well. As someone who understands the entire creative process, I am able to offer different skills to different musicians and artists, and even diversify these skills to podcasters, radio, and TV as well.

Even though I may not be the best in every facet of the industry, I do believe I’ve reached a point where I do all of it well. Through everything I give credit to God, who gave me the gift in the first place, and is responsible for putting me in each and every opportunity that I’ve received to this point.

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

There are a couple things in my view that I believe could help support creatives. The first thing that comes to mind is on social media. A like costs $0 but goes a long way in the various algorithms on different social media apps. It’s gotten to a point where, I don’t like spending a lot of time on social media, but I’ll go on and like a few videos and pictures that my friends have put up so I can show support without being stuck in the swiping. Now, if you want to take it to the next step, drop a comment on someone that you want to see grow. Even if it’s just a couple emojis this engagement helps a lot for these posts to organically show up to new users. The biggest and best thing you can do is share a post to your story or to a friend and then save it for later. All of these things cost no money, but help a lot to the growing creative.

Something else I would say is go see a show. If it’s a friend, or if it’s your favorite celebrity streams do so little for someone financially. I’m aware that going to a show is a financial commitment as well as a time commitment, but it’s SUPER helpful to anyone putting on these shows. I sometimes will search on Facebook Events to see music from people that I’ve never even heard of before, and I’ve discovered some of my new favorite artists that way. I also like to buy a piece of merchandise from artists that I really enjoy, because that, too, helps more than I think people realize.

The last thing I’ll mention here is that it’d be helpful if we could get the assumption of “starving artist” out of our perception of creatives. I think many have accepted that creatives make a comfortable living without fame. To those who don’t understand may be quick to assume that someone who is a creative is lazy, or of a lesser status for some reason. Those that I know that work in a creative industry are some of the hardest working people I know.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I wish I had known more about YouTube sooner. I “knew” about YouTube, but I didn’t understand it’s power right out the gate. I credit a lot of my technical knowledge and business knowledge to a search. I love that I’ve been able to learn through trial and error along the way, but sometimes I imagine if I had taken a different route of education earlier in my journey. I also wish that I understood the power of social media earlier and that I was able to make it work for me as different platforms were first being introduced to us. For example, as Tiktok first released, I stayed away for a really long time, but TikTok was pushing creatives as they were establishing themselves. I also am old enough to have experienced Instagram at conception as well as all of the the changes that it has made, like adding Reels, Stories, and Carousels.

Contact Info:

• Website: madebyzil.com
• Instagram: @call_me_zil
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/madebyzil
• Twitter: @call_me_zil
• Youtube: https://www.facebook.com/madebyzil
• Other: TikTok: @call_me_zil