The Pier: Zach Deputy’s Funky Improv

Coming Next Tuesday, May 19th, The Pier will premier Zach Deputy‘s Funky Improv via The Pier’s Live Acoustic Series. Directed by Tage Plantell, Zach Deputy joins a Live Acoustic Series line-up that includes Dirty Heads, Iration, John Butler Trio, The Green, Cas Haley, Tarrus Riley a long with Passafire & Ballyhoo!

We started The Pier’s Live Acoustic Series back in 2012 when The Pier’s Kit Chalberg introduced us to Director Tage Plantell. Based out of Denver, CO The Pier’s Live Acoustic Series blossoms at the opportunities provided by touring bands that always seem to find themselves in Colorado for a few days. Zach-Deputy---1-Funky-Improv.00_02_15_01.Still005

We tend to shoot bands on their days off or before their sound-check at whichever venue they’ll be performing that night. Time is always of the essence in capturing the highest quality production in what amounts to be a small window of time.

Such was the case when we shot Zach Deputy at the Oriental Theatre in Denver, CO. As Kit explains, “Deputy is the personification of a one-man show. He sits behind a custom rig that includes several microphones, mixers and pedals. Deputy then loops vocals, bass lines, rhythms and lead guitar to create complete compositions.”

Kit continues on by recalling the day of the shoot, explaining that “Zach’s approach, especially his strong tendencies towards improvisation, creates shooting challenges. In particular, Zach never—and I mean never—plays a tune the same way twice. This means that shooting the song a couple times and editing the footage wasn’t possible. We had to get all our shots in one take. Luckily, we had multiple cameras for this shoot. So, we hit record and watched Zach do his thing.”

Zach Deputy is based out of Bluffton, SC and describes his music as Island-Infused Drum N’ Bass Gospel Ninja Soul. He’s been performing his style of Jamband, Funk and Soul for the last 10 years, releasing his debut album in 2008 with Out of the Water. He’d follow that up with his 2009 release of Sunshine while his last studio album was released in 2011 with Another Day. He has another album, Into The Morning, also released in 2009, and you can only pick that up at his live shows.

Come back next Tues. May 19th for the Video Premiere of Zach Deputy performing his Funky Improv!

Related Links:
Zach Deputy Website
Zach Deputy Facebook


Article By: Mike Patti

Watch: John Butler Trio – “Gonna Be A Long Time” (The Pier’s Live Acoustic Series)