Zach Deputy Attempts to Charm the East Coast

This past Wednesday the Newmarket music scene was graced with the presence of Zach Deputy at the Stone Church Music Club. Despite being an unfamiliar name around New England, Deputy has been a part of the South East music scene for quite some time. Starting his

music career with local bands, Deputy grew weary, "[bands] that just didn't inspire him," according to his press release. Thus, Deputy did the logical thing to do when someone isn't inspired in a band; He went solo. As a solo artist Deputy managed to blend his own mix of blues and reggae, which acquired many local fans. With local success and a booming fan base of supposedly thousands, Deputy decided to embark on a larger scale tour up the East Coast to spread his sound to a new crowd; however, it's hard to say if that was the best idea.

In order to enjoy any musical show, there has to be a good atmosphere, generally consisting of a good crowd and stage presence from the performer. Unfortunately, Zach Deputy had neither of those things going for him. The Stone Church Music Club is by no

means a large venue, but somehow Deputy could only manage to attract a crowd of roughly 10 people at the beginning. Enthusiasm from the crowd was not at an all time high, but based on Deputy's appearance on stage, he didn't seem too excited to be there either. When Deputy walked on stage he looked as though he had just crawled out of bed. Sporting a very unkempt beard and adorning an obviously worn T-shirt and sweatpants, Deputy situated himself behind a barrier of microphones and looping equipment, where he remained the entire show. By sitting down and separating himself from the audience, Deputy made it extremely hard for the audience to connect with him and get into his music. He was obviously enjoying himself on account of his constant smile, but there was little interaction with the audience.

With a lack of atmosphere, all Deputy had left to save the show was his music, and in plainest terms, his music did not save the show. Each and every song that Deputy played had a progression to it. He would start by recording a guitar riff onto a loop, then some beat boxing, then another guitar riff, and so on. At first it seemed like a creative idea to show progression and a great deal of layering through loops, but when every song is composed in the same format it only shows that he's merely a one-dimensional song writer (to be fair his beat boxing produced some really good beats). In addition to the same compositional format, many of his songs rambled on with extremely long and seemingly endless solos. Many of these solos contained Deputy, accompanied by bongos, struggling to keep up with his guitar fingerings. A lot of his instrumentation was sloppy and lackluster, and gave him the appearance of an amateur, not of someone who was touring the East Coast.

Uncreative composition and sloppy instrumentation wasn't even the least of Deputy's musical issues. His lyrics and vocals could use a little work as well. All of his songs (with the exception of a country ballad written about his motor-home) were written about how badly he wants or needs love. Although it's fashionable to sing about love, sometimes it's refreshing to hear a song about another topic. Deputy's lyrics also proved to be very repetitive. He would often stumble upon a line that he loved and would sing it over and over again, such as "Baby, I've been thinking about your body." To make matters worse, these lyrics were delivered by a voice that was less than impressive and constantly changing. If he sang a song with a more blues feel to it, he would sing like a blues singer, but it he sang a song with a reggae island feel to it, he would suddenly sing like Bob Marley. These kinds of antics would be suitable if he was going to a karaoke night, but when he's trying to define himself as a unique artist, it's definitely not a good thing to be imitating other musicians; it only proves that he doesn't know who he is as a musician. If he were to spend some more time working on his instrumentation and sticking to one vocal range, he could have the potential to be a great musician.