Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Zak Nevers. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Zak, appreciate you joining us today. 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?

Everything I’ve learned has come fairly self taught. To speed up the process I suppose I could’ve taken more music lessons to skip over learning poor habits or not having to figure out certain tricks that would’ve helped save time overall. The most essential skill was my drive and ambition. I’ve personally always been a “busy body” but nothing like music has ever grabbed my attention the same way. Whether it’s about an instrument, an artist, genre or the business aspect it’s always been a conversation I’ve loved to have. There’s not too many topics when it comes to music that I don’t enjoy discussing or hearing others perspectives on. My biggest obstacle was my ego. Plain and simple. As I matured I set it aside and started ask “better” musicians more questions and that’s what truly made me flourish. Most of early career I was self taught and in my head I was good enough to think, well I got this far by myself why do I need anyone to tell me what to do now? But I’ve come to realize music/art is a forever evolving lifestyle. Whether you’ve been doing it a week or 20 years, you’re going to keep growing. And if you don’t, that’s because you allowed yourself to stunt your growth. I learn things from new or experienced artist. There’s not a single artist I can’t take something away from in a conversation. Whether i use the info for my own personal career is dependable, however now that I do more “behind the scenes” business side work for other artist, that information could be applied to someone else’s career or growth.

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?

To be blunt, I’ve always struggled with anxiety and depression. Something I feel alot of people can relate to especially now a days. Music was the first thing that brought me out of my shell. After the first time I stepped foot onto the stage I knew it was something I wanted to do forever. Whether it be performing, creating music or helping others find their path. The thing that separates me from others in my industry is that I truly want to see others flourish in ways I haven’t or that took me alot of time to do. Music/art isn’t about the money for me even though I’ve had my fair share of success in the industry. Music truly saved my life on a personal level and I know my music has helped others. So if I can help another artist do the same, that’s all I want. If the current generation of musicians don’t inspire the next, the authenticity of music itself will fade away. That’s why I created my company, Zak Nevers Artistry, because I want to help artist find themselves in a over saturated business world. I’m not a manager or agent. I just simply try to help artist move in the direction they truly want. Help give artist tips on the “do’s and don’ts” and its up to them if they want to take the advice. Sometimes we as musicians and artist feel alone in the industry, as if we have no one to trust enough to even bounce an idea off of. That’s what I’m here for. Whether it’s to help start finding out of town shows, listen to a new song or build a new marketing tactic, I’m here for the artist. I’m not in this for the money. I’m in this for the love of music.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Simply buy or share their art. Something as small as clicking the “share” button on social media or leaving a comment can really boost an artists audience and is also completely free. Takes seconds. Buying merchandise is a cheap way to help artist afford their craft because this is far from a cheap “hobby” to have. We buy clothes constantly. Why not purchase from someone you personally know and support?

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

That this has to be a dog eat dog industry. Yes. I know it IS one currently. But it doesn’t need to be competitive. For as many people there are in the world, why do we have to compete for fans? Absolutely no reason. Working with other artists and collating is probably one of the most useful things I’ve ever done in my career. Whether they were considered bigger or smaller than me was irrelevant. There was always a gain to be made. Alot of my success in the industry was becoming friends and helping other artist. Most of my current friends are in fact artist themselves. They can relate to you. They are on similar paths. But we have to remember not everybody is on the same exact path so there’s no point in competing. Focus on your own business/art and keep grinding. One day you will flourish the way you’re meant to.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @ofdivine
• Facebook: Ofdivine419
• Youtube: @zaknevers

Image Credits
@photodaveoh