The Georgia-based, one-man-band Zach Deputy will share the High Dive stage with rising gypsy rockers Come Back Alice and local favorites Whale Feral and Losa Folk Thursday night.
The downtown venue will welcome guests starting at 8 p.m., and the show will start at 9 p.m. This show, which kicks off Deputy’s nationwide “Out of Hibernation” tour, will be open to those children with a guardian and those 18 years or older. Tickets for the concert can be found at High Dive, Hear Again Records and through Ticketfly.com for $15 in advance and $17 on the day of the show.
Deputy is renowned for his live shows, creating the illusion of a full band though his own musical abilities and his artistry with a looping recorder. Instruments, beatboxing and soulful vocals merge seamlessly as audiences watch Deputy build a song piece by piece. Deputy’s performance is complex and precise — just the type of puzzle he loves to solve.
“There’s something peaceful about doing something so intently that you can’t think or focus on anything else,” Deputy said.
This intense focus is what keeps Deputy living in the moment. That’s a big part of what Deputy hopes to share with his audience. Being present in the present, he said, is the old way to accomplish anything.
“You can’t change anything in the past, and you can’t change the future because you don’t even know it yet, but you can affect the present.”
Deputy’s music carries a type of positivity that is rare among soulful artists, but he said this is no mistake. While music is traditionally inspired by the culture surrounding it, Deputy said, music can also influence how culture evolves. For this reason, Deputy, a Christian, stays true to his own narrative and positive message.
“I speak in symbolism when I write my songs,” Deputy said. “I speak my truth.”
Deputy has released six albums during his solo career, and he is preparing to release his seventh. The new album, “Wellspring,” will be available later in 2018.
As for the supporting act, Come Back Alice, band members Tony Tyler and Dani Jaye met in 2010, started the band in 2012 and got married in 2016. The band’s key mix of blues, funk, classical and southern influences combine to create rock ’n’ roll with that special Come Back Alice spice, Tyler said.
Tyler grew up in Macon, Georgia, with a drummer for a father to guide him musically and teach him the ins and outs of the music business. Jaye, a native of Bradenton, Florida, had to learn on her feet. Her family was not musical, and her first real exposure to instruments came through a middle school music class where a violin was put in her hands for the first time.
“The violin was my Excalibur,” Jaye said.
From then on, music became her voice, her little rebellion, Jaye said. She began playing in a band with a few older men when she was about 15, learning to combine her classical skills with an improvisational style. It was with this group that she met Tyler.
The first night they met, Tyler joined Jaye’s band on the stage. Since their first time performing together, the now-married couple said it just felt right. Though Tyler said that working with your spouse brings its challenges, he cannot imagine himself anywhere else.
“We don’t really argue much about dishes and laundry,” Tyler said. “It’s more about chord changes and lyric structure.”
While the band continues to perform, Come Back Alice is preparing to release their sophomore album in late February or early March. Fans can expect the same gypsy rock sound that is Come Back Alice, Tyler said, but with even more rock ‘n’ roll.
“I feel like people always go back to that original brash attitude of rock and roll,” Tyler said.
Zach Deputy
