Wanee and Hilton Head

Spirit of Suwanee Music Park, the home of Wanee Music Festival and Bear Creek Music Festival, is pure magic. Zach will be performing twice at Bear Creek in November and hopefully many of you will join us. I will be back at school then, but you can bet that I’ll be clearing that weekend so I can get funky in Florida. As I said in the previous blog, we drove through the night and arrived at Wanee around 5:00 AM Sunday morning. We parked the truck and were greeted by friends before unloading what we needed for the night. After a quick unload, we all dispersed into the early morning to find any dance party or form of fun, but to no avail. The grounds were quiet, but absolutely mind blowing. I ventured off by myself to find some of the park features that I’ve heard so much about.

In every sense of the word, I’m the biggest music nerd there is. I want to know everything; every single detail that has to do with music production and the business itself. I was running around the woods at Wanee all by my lonesome, happy as shit that I get to do this as a job. Wondering how many stages there are and where are they located. Are there direct paths connecting the stages? Why is the front of house so massive and blocking views? Where are the cables running? Are they buried or exposed? What kind of lights do they have? LEDs? Where is the hospitality tent in relation to the artist entrance? Are the garbage bins overflowing and why haven’t they been emptied? These are just some examples of the millions of questions that run through my head every time I get to a show/festival.

The morning we got to Wanee was exactly what I needed, even though there were no dance parties to be found. I met some great people as soon as I got to the grounds and just started thinking back to last summer when I took the summer off to festie hop at all the festivals I promoted for. Solid friendships and new adventures came out of that summer and I only hoped this summer would stack up to last. Walking around the music park was so peaceful with the vegetation drooping over my head as I explored the mushroom stage. The mushroom stage, besides the awkward FOH positioning, is one of the coolest stages I’ve seen. It’s a natural amphitheater with trees sprinkled throughout the arena. Hammocks were tied between every tree, quite a few acting as homes for the night.

After the mushroom stage, I headed over to the main stage to see what that was all about. The stage was being torn down as all the music was done for the weekend. I decided to kick off the birks and dance in the mud for a little before venturing off to find the river. It’s easy to dance in the mud with no music when there is constant music running through your head. My brain is a library of what I’ve heard, seen and created in my 25 years – it’s amazing how easily you can remember things when you eat, sleep and breathe it. The rest of the morning was just me walking around, unable to find the river. I got back to my tent around 7:30 AM and chilled by the hammock with Jeremy and Sarah before passing out.

The early afternoon was a success as I finally found the river. It was a looooong walk, and now I understand why so many people have said they won’t come to Spirit of Suwanee Music Park without a golf cart. The walk was worth it though, as I got to chill down on the beach for a half hour or so before going back to camp for that afternoon’s load in. Zach’s gig started around 5:00 PM and was a very different set. The venue had hired an experienced light engineer, making Zach’s show all the better. The first set was very relaxing and saw almost all new material. The second set got going around 8:15 PM and was a blast from the get go.

Every since I’ve gotten on tour I’ve been in Zach’s ear about the wide world of electronica. As you all know, Zach is all about soul. I bleed funk, I love it…but I also love to trance my brains out. If it makes you dance, I like it. On our way to the gig, we busted out some Michael Jackson house music, which was a lot of fun. Picking up on some drag hi-hat as well as some drum and bass lines, I urged Zach to explore. The show saw Zach throw down some really interesting layers, pulling from some of our talks. Zach has such a unique sound and is lucky that he appeals to EVERYONE. There is no question that Zach Deputy is dance music for the soul – and there’s also no question that electronica ragers will love him. The show as a whole was a lot of fun, with a ridiculous version of Tubesteak and one of my new favorites Don’t Let It Get You Down. Games followed by Fresh Street was a great sneak peak at what’s to come on Zach’s new disc as well. The highlight of the night for me and many others was the set closer Jump In The Water. This song has grown leaps and bounds since its debut and really has turned into a crowd favorite. With a little bit of calypso, celtic, dance hall beats and country flair, this song is a boggiefest. The Music Hall at Wanee is the perfect venue – it’s huge with tons of dancing space. Everyone at the show dug deep to muster up all the energy that had left and wiggle til the music stopped. This show was everything the three of us expected it to be with a good turn out and tons of friends.

After the show we all headed back to camp to unwind and enjoy some laughs. The festival was over so very few people were left, but those left gathered at our campsite and had a great time. Festie season is in full swing and I’m so ridiculously excited to be meeting so many new people as well as bumping into so many old ones. We’ll be at Bonnaroo on Wednesday where Zach will be performing multiple sets everyday of the festival. Hopefully you will all brave the heat and make it out to the show. We have recently just bought another CD duplicator so we’re ready to bust out lots of Live ZD discs. We’ll be recording every set, so come pre-order the show with Jeremy and pick up all your discs after the show. There’s nothing like the live experience, now you can relive it with a soundboard recording!

As for the Hilton Head gig, Zach played a nice long set to an enthusiastic crowd at Big Bamboo. The venue was packed out making it one of the hottest evenings of my life. Load in was a real treat, having to huff Zach’s huge PA up a flight of stairs, but once we got inside it was all worth it. Zach played a really fun version of Tubesteak the other night in Florida and we enjoyed the hell out of the recording so much on our drive to Hilton Head that he decided he would go with another version similar to that one. Tubesteak is a fun song with its original structure, but these last two versions have been absolutely incredible; I’ll say once again, the shows is worth the purchase for this version of Tubesteak alone. We are archiving all these show so if you didn’t pick up the discs at the show, fire me off an e-mail and we will take care of you. All my contact information is on the Zach Deputy website.

With all these shows behind us, and a day off to collect our thoughts, we are focusing on Bonnaroo and the craziness that comes with it. Zach will be performing multiple sets everyday throughout the festival on the solar stage on shakedown street as well as performing in the camping areas. We are currently looking at the Bonnaroo schedule, figuring out set times and bands that we either don’t want to miss (NIN late night!!!!!) or don’t want to compete against. We’re looking forward to all the exposure that awaits us at Bonnaroo, as well as the opportunity to unveil Zach’s new album Sunshine. We are picking up 900 copies on our way to the festival, so be the first to get your copy! To end I’d like to add one more note, completely unrelated to ZD. If you are looking to see a talented performer, please check out Jeff Bujak playing VERY late night every night of Bonnaroo. Buj plays progressive piano and some of the best electronica I’ve heard. He is one the most talented performers I’ve seen and I’m so very excited that such a good friend (and fellow disc golfer) will be performing at Bonnaroo with us. Buj is tentatively playing every night from 4 to 6 AM. Check him out, I’ll be there!