Creative Chats With Zachariah Hickman (Building a Second Act)
To kick off season 3 of the live podcast Creative Chats event series, I sat down at the Mosesian Center for the Arts for a conversation with musician, producer, impresario, and good-natured mischief lover Zachariah Hickman to talk about how he's continuing to build his second act.
His first act? Touring as a bassist, musical director, and more with acts such as Josh Ritter and Ray LaMontagne (sprinkling in some gigs with The Who and Bob Weir), playing venues such as Carnegie Hall (which included the single scariest moment of his performing career), Red Rocks, and the Royal Albert Hall, performing on the David Letterman show six times. He was on the road 280+ days a year, filling in the gaps flying overnight to play shows back in Boston then fly back to the tour right after. In short, it was awesome...and exhausting.
The second act? Building things locally, for a community, sustainably. This included becoming the pandemic-era "Tuba Guy" to spread joy in the streets, building a recording studio in his Watertown home where musicians can stay for a few days and make a record in a supportive environment, running a music camp and mentoring budding musicians, and putting together unique showcases of local talent.
Listen to hear his journey, philosophy, and add a splash of mischief to your day.
Released September 10th, 2026
(Click here to listen on streaming apps) (Full transcript below)
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Keep up with Zachariah on Instagram or Facebook
Listen to other Creative Chats episodes and check the events page to see when the next Creative Chats event is.
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Thanks to podcast promotional partner the Watertown Business Coalition, a nonprofit organization focused on connecting local businesses and strengthening our community. Check them out at watertownbusinesscoalition.com.
Thanks to promotional partner Watertown News, a Watertown-focused online newspaper. Check them out at watertownmanews.com.
Thank you to Creative Chats series sponsor Arsenal Financial!
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Watertown Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
Transcript
Matt 0:02
Hi there, welcome to the Little Local Conversations Podcast. I'm your host, Matt Hanna. Every episode I sit down for a conversation to discover the people, places, stories, and ideas of Watertown. This episode is a Creative Chats episode, which are events I do once a month on the first Fridays over at the Mosesian Center for the Arts. And Creative Chats are a way to get creative people together in a room to hear a discussion from a special guest. And it's just a way to connect, reflect, get inspired for your day. They've been great. This is our third season. If you'd like to check one out, the next one is coming up on the first Friday of October, October 2nd. It's going to be with Ellen Wineberg, who's an artist and gallery owner here in Watertown. Topic is going to be on the subject of curation. That event is up on the website now, LittleLocalConversations.com.
Matt 0:48
We'll get into the conversation with Zachariah in a minute, but first, I just want to give a couple quick thank yous. First, to the Mosesian Center for hosting again for this third season of the Creative Chats. Really appreciate it. Go check out MosesianArts.org. Lots of great stuff going on there from art shows, classes, performances, in lots of different mediums, so great local resource. And secondly, I want to give a thank you to Arsenal Financial, who are sponsors of the Creative Chat series. Thank you. Alright, so without further ado, let's jump into the conversation with Zachariah.
Matt 1:17
Welcome to Creative Chats. So you guys are here today to hear me and Zachariah, Dr. Zach. What do you, how should I refer to you?
Zachariah 1:26
Zachariah or Zach is great.
Matt 1:27
Okay. Because I know you have some mustache wax as doctor.
Zachariah 1:31
I sure do. Doctor's more of an honorary term.
Matt 1:33
Yeah, yeah. So we're gonna be talking about the topic of building a second act, which was the theme for this, because you're going through an interesting time right now. So we're gonna talk about that a little bit, and then you guys can ask him some questions. I wanted to go through the three phases, like what your first act was, the interlude, what happened, and what you're looking forward to shifting into with your second act. But first of all, the two minute or less introduction. Who are you? Go ahead.
Zachariah 1:58
Sure thing. My name is Zachariah Hickman, and I am a touring double bassist and producer and impresario, which just means I put on events, and a very proud Watertown resident.
Matt 2:12
Might be known as Tuba Guy, locally.
Zachariah 2:14
Might be known as Tuba Guy, but mostly only in this town.
Matt 2:18
Yeah. Thank you. Talk about your first act then. What have you been doing for a number of years as musician and impresario and et cetera, et cetera?
Zachariah 2:27
Yeah. I moved to Boston right after I finished college at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 2001. I started working pretty much immediately. I had been already working with a songwriter in college named Josh Ritter. We continued to work together still, which is 29 years this year, which is just insane.
Matt 2:49
That's crazy.
Zachariah 2:50
But I came to Boston in 2001 and instantly started working locally a lot and going on the road. Through the duration of my 20s and 30s, I started touring more than I was not. Originally, I was hustling for local gigs and then would go on the road for a few weeks at a time. And then by the time I was in my 30s, it was far the opposite. I was mostly on the road.
Matt 3:15
Was there one thing that changed it for you? Was there one gig that made that shift dramatically?
Zachariah 3:20
Well, it's the music business. So things grow. Now that I've got a little distance, the growth of the Josh Ritter machine was fast compared to a lot of people's journeys. You know, in two years, we went from playing Club Passim to playing The Paradise to playing the Orpheum, and it was a really fun time. And then those tours, that schedule got more intense, and we started to go to Europe more and spending a lot of time in Ireland and England and Canada. And before you know it, I'm really on the road. You start to realize you haven't been home in 13 weeks. I put my stuff in storage for a while, and just, you know, when I would come home, I'd get hotel rooms in Boston, which I don't recommend. That was kind of lonesome. And when I would come home, I would play with musicians locally and put on shows kind of in the cracks. But touring was the main gig.
Zachariah 4:11
Around 2012, I got the job playing bass for a singer named Ray LaMontagne. And we did a couple years of just the two of us touring, which is really fun. And then I took the job as his music director. So I was running the band and then running those really big tours. And then so yeah, so by 2014, 2015, I was out 285 days a year. And that's when I started to realize, okay, this is a lot. I was trying to have everything. So I would, if I had a day off on the Ray tour, everyone else would have a day off, but I'd get on a plane, I'd fly back to this coast, I'd do a Barnstar show, my bluegrass band, or a Josh Ritter show, take a night flight back to the other tour. And it felt, it was fun, you know? It was really fun. It's also really hard on the human body. I realized, I think it was maybe it was actually 2015, I came home from a long tour and the water in my toilet had evaporated. And I was like, oh boy. That's a lot of, that's a lot of traveling. Been away a long time. But it was really fun.
Matt 5:16
Is there like a highlight moment for you in that period where you're like, wow, I've made it as a tour and musician? Was there one moment where you're on stage and like, whoo, this is awesome?
Zachariah 5:24
I think about it more like tick marks. Like you have these little boxes that one day I'd love to blank. I have gotten to tick a lot of those boxes. Play Carnegie Hall, play Red Rocks, play the Royal Albert Hall. I played the bass clarinet in Carnegie Hall. It's the single scariest thing I ever had to do because I'm not very good at that instrument.
Matt 5:44
What was the story behind that?
Zachariah 5:46
We were doing this duo tour with Ray LaMontagne, so I was mostly playing the upright bass, which is my primary instrument, and singing, and I'd play a little bit of pump organ and bass clarinet for a song and euphonium for a song. We hadn't played the song that I played clarinet on for over a week. And then he called it on the fly on stage at Carnegie Hall, which I think he did to mess with me.
Matt 6:10
As all good friends do.
Zachariah 6:11
Yeah, I didn't say friends. So that was a stressful moment, but I tell you, I did not squeak. I did squeak at the Ryman, and I squeaked in Atlanta, and I squeaked in Indianapolis, but not at Carnegie Hall.
Matt 6:24
Good, good.
Zachariah 6:25
And I got to do a lot of, gosh, really crazy adventures and go to Neil Young's house. And I played with Bob Weir from The Grateful Dead at the Fillmore in San Francisco, and these fun adventures would kind of appear and played bass with The Who in London on the BBC and late-night TV shows and a lot of fun stuff, you know. I was on Letterman six times. It was really fun, frantic, and exciting.
Zachariah 6:49
And then I would come home and I would be excited to find a way to reconnect with my friends and my local music community. So I would book shows in advance, not really for income as much as just to like make an event and have a reason to see my friends and my people and because sort of my whole social group is other wandering musicians.
Matt 7:10
Does that lead us to right about pandemic times?
Zachariah 7:13
Yeah. Right about pandemic times. 2019, I turned 40 and I bought my house in Watertown, which is right up the hill, right off School Street. That was a optimistic move. I bought a very large, very run-down, big old house on the hill, which required extensive renovations and continues to require.
Matt 7:33
Lots of opportunities.
Zachariah 7:34
Yes. Well, it really was lots of big holes that went all the way to the outside and raccoons and squirrels crawling around on the top floor, and it needed a lot of work. But super fun. And when the pandemic came, it was especially challenging because I was on my very first day of a hundred-day tour with Josh Ritter, that was just the two of us. And I got to play all my instruments and we were going to play all these exciting places. You know, the Beacon Theater in New York as a duo, like really pretty great stuff. And you put in so much work to get ready to put a tour like that on and lighting design and all this planning. We got as far as Saratoga Springs on day one. We set up the whole rig for the first time, sound checked, and then the governor of New York said everything shut down. So we just took it right back down. And I never got to play one show of that big huge tour. Pretty disappointing.
Matt 8:27
Yeah.
Zachariah 8:28
So we did. Packed it all up, got myself a speeding ticket on the way home, and just drove right home. It was the single worst tour I was on. It took one day. And, you know, it took a little while for everyone's brain to realize that this was not going to be a couple of weeks. This was going to be a bigger deal. So I started working on figuring out how to do some live streaming for my home. I figured out how to do that. So then I was working with some local music schools to teach them how to do that. Like the Winchester Community Music School, I helped run their streaming for a little bit. Not that I'm terribly technically astute that way, but I just figured it out first. So I would share.
Zachariah 9:03
It was around then that I started to do these little solo parades around Watertown where I was just playing my, I have a one-of-a-kind sousaphone that looks like the Loch Ness Monster. I call it Nessie, and it's got big flames in the front and fins all down the side. And I had bought it off eBay in 2007 and had it shipped on a Greyhound bus. It's the craziest instrument I've ever seen. So I started walking around my neighborhood just playing some songs. People really responded to it.
Matt 9:34
How did you have that idea to just do that? You wanted to bring joy, or you were just like, I'm gonna wander and play by myself?
Zachariah 9:38
I thought it was just mischief, you know. I like mischief. Good friendly mischief is sort of my favorite thing. And I thought my neighbors would think it was funny, and I'd only moved in a little while ago, and they didn't really understand who I was, and thought this would clear it up. But so many people were just so starved to smile about something. People came to their windows and people were crying, and it was just really encouraging. So I was like, all right, this is a thing I can do every day. So I’d do a couple of hours a day, and then I started putting the tuba in the car and driving further away and trying different streets.
Zachariah 10:15
It was about 10 days before this news truck came to a screeching halt off Belmont Street, and they're like, we've been looking for you. You know, for days there had been sightings of the tuba guy wandering around, and the news was trying to figure out who it was. That was a really crazy couple of days because there were two news trucks that were trying to find me first, which was, it was a fun situation.
Matt 10:36
Who won? Do you remember who it was?
Zachariah 10:37
Oh, I don't remember, sadly. But I just started doing these parades every day. I called them the parade of one, and would just go to different parts of Watertown and play wandering tuba for a couple of miles, just try to give people something to smile about. Just a nice out of left field, and everyone is stuck at home and you can't talk to anybody. So that became more of a phenomenon than I could have ever anticipated. And I was a feature on that show Chronicle, and then I was on Morning Edition, and then it was all over NPR. And I would have been okay if I had gotten such notoriety playing an instrument I was good at or something that would further my career in any capacity. But, you know, it was still, it was just kind of a fun, since there's no ego or motivation involved, it was a good time.
Zachariah 11:22
And I think that really helped me start to think about what's actually valuable and what I can contribute in a way that is lasting and tangible for my community. It's super, super fun to play at Red Rocks for 10,000 people. It really is fun, don't get me wrong. It's awesome. But you don't get that same sense of this has value, it's a different commodity. And live music's super important. It's incredibly important. On a big stage like that, there's an inherent distance. And the tuba guy stuff made things feel more local and personal.
Matt 12:03
And the surprise of it rather than the transactional, like I am going to see this. It's a whole different thing, too.
Zachariah 12:09
You know, and it's a reason to play music for really good reasons, which is to support your community and to make people smile.
Matt 12:17
Yeah.
Zachariah 12:18
So I started to change some of my focus a little bit, and I tried some other mischievous things, and I joined the Waltham American Legion band as a tuba player and marched in the Toppsfield Fair with them. And I started putting on concerts in my backyard or on my front stoop during the pandemic for people that wouldn't have a chance to get out otherwise, and like a Christmas music concert on my front lawn, and people could all lay out their blankets. And then now we've sort of come into what I think of as my second act.
Matt 12:49
Yeah, because things were starting to kind of roll back to normal after the pandemic. Did you start going back to touring a bunch after that, or did you start to split it more evenly?
Zachariah 12:59
I started to split it more evenly, and not entirely by choice. You know, the music industry has not recovered from the pandemic and maybe won't, you know, with so many other factors. So what was already tenuous got even harder. Profit margins got lower, turnouts got lower, and less guarantees because with so many show cancellations. So the music business got a lot harder and it got harder to make a living. And if you were going to be gone for a few weeks at a time, but you didn't know that you were coming home with enough income to justify that time away, you know, it's challenging. It's a tough time.
Zachariah 13:41
I've certainly been on the road a lot since then. Since the pandemic, I took the job playing bass with Rodney Crowell out of Nashville, who's a great famous Country Music Hall of Fame songwriter, and got to have some great adventures with Rodney and got a Grammy nomination for this record we made with Jeff Tweedy. You know, it was super fun. But all those trips, I was never away from home more than two or two and a half weeks. It wasn't doing these big, big chunks anymore.
Matt 14:07
So what were you starting to fill your time with locally?
Zachariah 14:10
Well, I, my partner and I had this vision when we bought this big house on the top of the hill. I spent so much time traveling, oftentimes being the recipient of charity or hospitality. And I wanted to create a space where I could give some of that back. It's actually a pretty cool story of the house. When it came on the market, the kids that grew up in there were all artists. One's a famous visual artist, one is a jazz musician. I wrote them a letter with my offer that was like, look, this place is great, but it's in bad shape and everybody wants to tear it down. We're gonna keep it just like this. We're gonna fix the broken stuff. We're gonna have four guest bedrooms where we can put up touring bands, we're gonna build a recording studio on the top floor and people can make records affordably. And they gave us that house for certainly not the highest offer. I think there was one that was $300,000 higher. And I've honored that promise very seriously.
Matt 15:09
So who are the names of those artists, just in case anyone knows them?
Zachariah 15:12
They grew up in the house?
Matt 15:13
Yeah, yeah.
Zachariah 15:14
Oh, there's a visual artist named Wendy Klemperer. She mostly works in metal and recycled rebar, and she makes these huge animal sculptures. She has worked all over the place at the Pratt Institute. And in Portland, Maine, if you go to fly out of the Jetport, there's like ten of her sculptures there. There are two in my front yard. And the saxophonist is a fellow named Paul Klemperer who lives in Austin, Texas, and is a very solid musician.
Matt 15:39
Gotcha.
Zachariah 15:40
It was a good thing, you know. Once we got the raccoons and squirrels out of the house, we kind of had two major projects. We had the music studio to build on the top floor or the kitchen, because we didn't have a kitchen. The house just didn't really come with one. So we did the studio first.
Matt 15:56
Yeah, of course. Yes. Priorities.
Zachariah 15:57
Once the studio was up and going, then we did the kitchen.
Matt 16:01
Feed the soul before the body, right?
Zachariah 16:03
Yeah. My official justification was that in theory the studio will bring an income, whereas the kitchen pretty much won't.
Matt 16:10
Right.
Zachariah 16:10
So that's been really fun and kind of officially opened two years ago, but I have a 1,800 square foot studio here in Watertown called Greedy Beast. I make a lot of, ton of records there, mostly songwriter records and bluegrass records. One of the things I do is I do a lot of string arranging. I'll do string quartet arranging for songwriters’ albums. So I can arrange the music, get it approved, and then also record it myself in the studio. And it's fun for me and it's much more cost effective.
Zachariah 16:40
So yeah, so these days I've been working in my recording studio a lot more. And I've also been running a, I'm the music director of a summer camp called Miles of Music, which is at Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, but is run by a nucleus of people here in Boston and in Nashville. I work to support that community. You know, every year you get all these different musicians that come through, and then they're part of the big picture community.
Matt 17:07
Is there a specific type of musician that you're attracting with that or trying to bring in with those?
Zachariah 17:11
The camp itself is all ages, all genres, which is really fun. So you have to really be on your toes. But having the studio is nice so I can, you know, there's some very talented 17-year-olds that go to camp. If I have an off day, I can be like, hey, you guys want to come to the studio and we'll record a little bit and I'll teach you some studio stuff and how it works. And the stuff I wish that I had been able to know when I was 18. At 18 years old, I'd never been in a recording studio, much less been able to like turn the knobs myself and press the buttons. But a big part of that for me is being more available as like a mentor and working with younger artists or a lot of adult amateurs. You see all these kids with their guitars at the open mic, and then you're a grown adult, and you also are trying to write songs, but you're new at it. I work with those artists a lot and try to instill confidence and just a sense of fun.
Matt 18:08
Some of that mischief?
Zachariah 18:09
Exactly. You're probably not going to make a bunch of money on your record. So I want people to have a really good experience from pre-production to the album release. I only book people that are supportive, like the band's supportive, helpful, friendly. It's part of the deal. If you're gonna work with me, we're gonna make this pleasant and positive for everybody that's working.
Matt 18:34
Yeah. Is there a favorite album that you've made in your studio? Or one that tells a story of this kind of spirit?
Zachariah 18:39
Well, this is not an adult amateur. He's very much a professional. But I recorded and co-produced the newest Mark Erelli album in my studio. He's a songwriter that lives in Melrose, and I've worked with for over 20 years. That was the mission statement in practice. It was a live six-person band, and everyone is listening and playing selflessly. We did the whole album in three days in the middle of a snowstorm, and people just crashed at the house and go upstairs and make a record and go downstairs and I'll cook you some dinner.
Matt 19:15
In the now finished kitchen.
Zachariah 19:16
Yeah, in the now finished kitchen. And it was just a good proof of concept that if you have a space that's friendly and accommodating and that I try to keep affordable for people to use, maybe to my own detriment, but you want people to have a space where they can learn and practice and make great records and enjoy the whole thing.
Matt 19:37
Yeah. So you like a hotel slash record uh studio now?
Zachariah 19:42
Yeah, uh, let's not go with hotel as much as very friendly in-law apartment.
Matt 19:46
Okay, sure, sure. So is there any other main thing that we missed there before we get to the what I was thinking of as the interlude, this thing that's happened to you recently that you've had.
Zachariah 19:56
Oh sure. Another aspect of what I think of as my like second act here is I'd rather put on shows locally and thoughtfully than take that same show and try to tour it for more money, but less kind of visceral connection. I want to keep things around here and help the community see how much incredible talent we have in this town. And things like I run a series called Zachariah Hickman's Power Outage Party that I've been putting a lot of time and energy into the last nine years, and it grows and grows every year. And it's what I'm hoping to put out in the world, where it's ego-free performances where people can see music incredibly close and intimately and remember how special it is that we get to see this in real life.
Matt 20:47
Can you explain that a little bit for people? What is a power outage party?
Zachariah 20:51
Yeah, the power outage party is fully acoustic performance with a large band, between 12 and 14 people, full string quartet, full rhythm section. I arrange everything, and we set up very tightly in the round. There's no microphones at all, and there's no lights. It's all candles and lanterns. And the audience has to be very quiet, and the musicians have to be very sensitive to volume. People sing their original music in this very small, very intimate experience. It's really great.
Matt 21:22
So you're inviting different people on to sing their different songs.
Zachariah 21:25
Mmhmm.
Matt 21:26
So it's like a take on open mic, but in a very different way?
Zachariah 21:28
It’s more like a house band where everyone's good at things, and then I have special guests that will change night to night.
Matt 21:35
Gotcha. And where do you do this?
Zachariah 21:38
These days it's gotten popular enough I have to split it up. I'm doing four shows in November at Club Passim in Harvard Square. And I'm doing three shows in Exeter, New Hampshire in February. And in talks to put on some of these shows right here in Watertown. Hopefully in 2027.
Matt 21:52
Awesome. So a big life thing has happened to you recently that put a lot of this stuff into perspective for you. Do you want to talk about what that is and how that's shifted a lot of your thinking recently on this?
Zachariah 22:03
Sure. Maybe as long as three years ago I started having pain after performances, mostly in my feet and my legs. I thought, okay, well, I'm, you know, I'm wearing these dumb cowboy boots. That's the problem. So I'll start to wear shoes that aren't cool. And then it's like, no, maybe I have a problem with my legs. I'm performing so much that I just tough it out, you know, and take ibuprofen. And eventually it gets harder and harder. And then it gets harder to stand for the entirety of a performance. And when you play the upright bass for a living, standing is kind of part of the deal. So I go to the doctor, start going to physical therapy. It's not getting better. Eventually get some x-rays. And I just recently had major spine surgery. So part of my spine had been collapsing over time and the collapsed vertebrate is resting on the nerve bundle that goes to your legs and feet. So there was good reason that I'd been in terrible pain.
Zachariah 23:05
And most people probably couldn't tell. I'd pretty much get on stage, do the job, but there was nothing left at the end. So you've never seen a person get out of a gig faster just so I could get home. And lying down didn't really help, but going to sleep was just what I had to look forward to. So finally I took some time off, and in July of this year I had a spinal fusion surgery. So today's eight weeks. I'm cane free and doing a lot better. I still have a lot of work to do in physical therapy and daily exercise. But the initial pain that necessitated the surgery was completely gone.
Matt 23:46
Great.
Zachariah 23:47
So I'm very optimistic for how things are gonna go. But yeah, it's been over two months since I played the upright bass, and I definitely haven't said that since I started at 15, you know. So it's been a long time and I'm a little out of shape, but by October I'll be back up to speed, I think.
Matt 24:04
Yeah. And then what being knocked out on your back for so long, how have you thought about, again, leaning more into the second act rather than the first act and that type of stuff, you know?
Zachariah 24:16
The idea of being not invulnerable is challenging. You know, I've just assumed that I was the exception to the rule that I was just a completely invincible human being. And I'm 47, I am vincible. But this time was good because I'm thinking less about faraway travels or longer tours and just figure like it's a challenging time out there. People need things to go to locally to remind themselves that they're part of a group and that that group can be supportive. So I'm trying to focus all my energy in town pretty much these days, and I got a lot of mischief brewing.
Matt 24:56
Yeah. Any hints of what this mischief might be? What do you have on the horizon?
Zachariah 25:00
I've got a series of shows like November, December, and I'm trying to book some stuff here in the spring. And I'm also today, in fact, working on my first record as a songwriter and singer, which is fun and nerve-wracking in its own way. I'm hoping that I'll get that out maybe by spring of next year. And I like the idea of just putting on these complicated shows when you don't exactly know what's going to happen, but hopefully everyone can do a little bit of everything.
Matt 25:30
Is there anything that I didn't hit on anywhere in this journey or where you are now that you feel like would be good to talk about as context for what we've already talked about here?
Zachariah 25:38
I guess the only thing to like re-emphasize is that playing these big shows, doing these big tours is really fun and feels important conceptually. And doing the work that I've been doing with more of a local focus feels important viscerally. Like you can talk to people that see you play music and they come out and they start to know that if they see your name, then that's worth coming to, regardless of what else is happening. So they get introduced to new people. And I like seeing it happen in real time.
Zachariah 26:17
The tuba guy stuff is such a funny thing. Like basically it's one guy playing intermediate level tuba on the street for six weeks. But I still get stopped. And like the exterminators didn't charge me money last year because they figured out I was tuba guy and they were like, you know, you made my mom so happy. And stuff like, man, that's the stuff that matters, you know? It really is. And I'm working on embracing that every day.
Matt 26:43
Yeah. Well, thanks for sharing all of that. And I like to now open it up to questions from people here. Any questions beyond anything we talk about or any mischief that you want to ask about with Zachariah? Anyone have a question? I'll come around to you.
Speaker 26:57
Thanks, Zach. That was really fascinating. You know, having seen you so many times, but not in this kind of venue. I'm really interested in the creative process. I was a scientist in my earlier life, and I understand creativity in science, and I consider that I actually was pretty creative as a scientist. But we have a friend who's a musician, songwriter, and I asked him, where does it come from? And his answer was, well, sometimes you get a hook, then you just go from there. But I don't get where someone comes up with lyrics, maybe a different person comes up with a melody. Where does all that other stuff come from? And besides that, like how do you know when the riff comes in? How do you know when, where does that creativity come from? How does it work? Whatever you can tell me about it.
Matt 27:33
Music theory 101 in five minutes, ready?
Zachariah 27:36
I appreciate the question. What you're talking about is literally my part of the job. My parents are both scientists, they're physicians, and my approach to music and how I got into music fundamentally is fairly mathematical. I understood music theory before I could play an instrument at the level where it would benefit me in any way. It's how I got into things, and it's still how I process information. And I can talk to you about the three-dimensional grid after the podcast if you want, but you know, every tone has a relationship to the key that it's in and the chord that it's in, and they're not necessarily the same. And then there's rhythm, and it's, so I just spent a lot of time thinking about how it's all put together.
Zachariah 28:19
Most of what I do is working with a songwriter that shows up and they have their guitar or their piano and they play me the song that they wrote. That's a very personal experience for people. Some folks, they just wait for the muse to appear and they write down the song. I don't actually subscribe to that too much as a theory because the best songwriters I've worked with, they all work at it. Novelists, like you don't wait for the muse. You decide I'm gonna write eight pages a day, and then I can go to the gym or whatever. You do the work and then the work comes easier. And so, regardless of how you get there, people show up with a song and they have the lyrics that they've written and the melody. In my job, like with Ray LaMontagne, my official title was music director, an MD.
Matt 29:08
There you go. There's a doctor.
Zachariah 29:10
So I've MD'd a lot of projects. A music director is kind of the, a big job is translating from songwriter talk to side person language. Almost none of the songwriters I work with can read music. I can. So I'll write down what they're doing or the necessary parts, and then I arrange who does what when. Or in a more perfect world, when you have a relationship with musicians, you choose people according to their particular skill sets, you put them in a room, you let them do what comes naturally, and then you shape that. That's kind of the best and easiest way to do it. I rarely need someone to tell me what the bass line is. I make up the bass line, and then they tell me if it should be different.
Zachariah 29:58
So in that way, all the records you hear, there's some aspect that it's all been created as a group. You know, you don't write out the drum beat for the drummer. You write swing feel and they start. And then you're like, oh, that's not quite right. We actually wanted like a 12-8 swing feel with an accent on the two and the four. You're like, okay, cool. So you craft people's intuition into what you want the whole to be. And it's a lot easier to do that crafting when you're already hiring musicians that you respect and you like their artistic choices. But it is, it's a kind of a fascinating thing how an artist like a Ray LaMontagne wouldn't, he'll put the capo on his guitar and he doesn't know what key he's in. And that seems crazy, but he doesn't have to. His job is to sing and write this song. My job is to know what key it's in and spread that information to all the other musicians to create a whole that we're all happy with.
Matt 30:53
So sometimes you're almost crafting the people rather than crafting the music.
Zachariah 30:56
That's a big part of it. And the psychology of making records and leading bands is very important because you've got to, you want to set everyone up for success. That means different things for different people.
Speaker 31:08
Thank you so much. It's really cool to hear your whole journey and also very moving. I really love the whole mischief theme. And I'm wondering if you've given thought to like how we all in Watertown can channel more mischief publicly. I mean, I'm not saying that we should all be walking around with tubas because many of us would be bad at that. But what can we do or what's like a mentality shift that maybe you did to feel empowered to make mischief out in public that the rest of us can adopt?
Zachariah 31:43
That's really interesting. It's a good question. Yeah, it's one thing to create mischief and then have people come and see it, which is really the thing I have the most control over. So I'm really hoping 2027 I can start to put on more public accessible shows that are local. And one thing I did for a while with a band of mine was I set up like a bingo card system. And different bingo balls would relate to different songs on a grid, but also tucked in there were terrible things like the opposite of a good prize and physical challenges and just mischief. And it's still ultimately music and it's music forward, but you can be reminded that it's all fun.
Zachariah 32:23
And I agree. I think if we had 12 tuba guys and ladies wandering the streets playing intermediate sousaphone, that might get a little tiresome. But I'm trying to do a better job personally of attending local events and being a participant, saying yes to things like this when I'm asked to. And part of being a musician, especially when you're on these big stages, is you have this real sense of otherness. And some of that's for safety and efficiency. But I'm just chipping away at that a little bit. For the last handful of years, I've been playing sousaphone for the Christmas tree lighting ceremony and things like that. And it's fun. Is it essential that I'm there? It is not, you know, but they asked me to lead a parade that's about 18 feet long and it's a pretty short parade, but we'll do it.
Zachariah 33:13
I don't know. I guess I would just encourage people to take advantage of the opportunities that we have here in Watertown, especially in this beautiful building. And it can be challenging to get out of your house once you're in it. And it takes all of us a little reminder that maybe going to Faire on the Square is more important than finishing your season on Netflix that you could do later that night, you know.
Matt 33:34
You know, your mischief is not the same as everyone else's. It's finding your own unique mischief, which doesn't have to be necessarily like.
Zachariah 33:40
Mischief.
Matt 33:41
Right. Clear as mischief. You know, I think about like I was part of a group that started Porchfest in Watertown. And it's not maybe not mischief, but it provided opportunities for lots of people to do mischief on their porches,
Zachariah 33:50
Absolutely.
Matt 33:52
You know, which it feels a little mischievous to play music on your porch.
Zachariah 33:55
100%.
Matt 33:56
So there are different ways you can do it. Well, if people want to find out more about you, contact you, reach out to you. Where should people find out about you?
Zachariah 34:05
Yeah, great. That's not something I'm very good at. But the easiest thing to do is look at my Facebook or Instagram pages that are both public. You can go to my website as well, but I believe I'm only selling mustache wax for a mustache I no longer have on that website, because I don't really like, contrary to popular belief at this podcast, I don't really like talking about myself. So I'm not great at it. But you can find me under my name, Zachariah Hickman, on Instagram or Facebook, and that's a good place where I'll at least post a little bit about the mischief I have coming up.
Matt 34:40
Gotcha. Well, thanks again for being here and for sharing your thoughts with everybody, and thank you all for being here too.
Zachariah 34:45
I sure appreciate it, Matt .Thanks very much for having me.
Matt 34:47
So that's it for my conversation with Zachariah. I'll put some links in the show notes to the couple places he mentioned that you can find information about what he's got going on for mischief. If you want to listen to any of the old Creative Chats episodes, head on over to LittleLocalConversations.com. There is a listen by category button in the menu. You can click right on Creative Chats, you can find all the conversations I've had with a variety of different artistic people in our community. On the website, LittleLocalConversations.com, you can also sign up for my weekly newsletter if you want to keep up to date with Creative Chats, but also different series I do. And if you want to help support the podcast, keep these local conversations going, there's a button in the menu that says Support Local Conversation. There you can support at any amount that's comfortable for you, become a Little Local Friend, and help support conversation in your local community. Again, all of that is over at LittleLocalConversations.com.
Matt 35:40
Alright, enough about that. Now I want to give a thank you to the Creative Chats sponsor, Arsenal Financial. It's a financial planning business here in Watertown that's run by Doug Orifice, very committed local community member. He's the co-president of the Watertown Business Coalition, involved with the Watertown Cultural District, been involved with youth sports, just very involved in the community. Great guy. So happy to have him and his business as a sponsor. So if you need help with financial planning, reach out to Doug and his team at ArsenalFinancial.com. Thank you again, Arsenal Financial, Doug and everyone else there for supporting the Creative Chats series and arts in your community.
Matt 36:20
All right, and I want to give a few more shout outs here. I want to give a thank you to the Watertown Cultural Council who have given me a grant this year to help support the podcast. So I want to give them the appropriate credit, which is, this program is supported in part by a grant from the Watertown Cultural Council, a local agency, which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency. You can find out more about them at WatertownCulturalCouncil.org and MassCulturalCouncil.org. And a couple more shout outs to promotional partners. First, the Watertown Business Coalition. Their motto is Community is Our Business. Find out more about them and their events at WatertownBusinessCoalition.com. And lastly, Watertown News, which is a Watertown focused online newspaper. It's a great place to keep up to date with everything going on in the city. Check that out at WatertownMANews.com. So that's it. Until next time, take care.
