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Zach Deputy Returns to The Boulevard Tavern

In making his fourth album Wash It in the Water, Zach Deputy dreamed up a sunny and soulful new sound that fuses hip-hop, funk, and folky pop with the spirited rhythms of soca and calypso. With that sound embodied by the albums brightly melodic and richly textured title track, Wash It in the Water finds the Georgia-based singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist mining his Puerto Rican and Cruzan heritage for inspiration. Because of the music I was raised on, Ive always heard rhythm in a very tropical, Latin-esque wayits something that resonates in the deepest parts of me, says Deputy, who grew up in South Carolina. When I was a kid my grandma would play a lot of salsa and soca and make me get up and dance to it, so in a way this is me putting my own spin on all that and bringing those sounds into a whole new era.With Deputy playing every instrument on the album, Wash It in the Water was self-produced in spontaneous sessions that took place in studios and homes and sometimes in Deputys garage. Each time I recorded it was mostly just for fun,he says. I wasnt trying to make anything happen, I was just going with what felt good. As a result, Wash It in the Water bears a warm, natural feel that permeates everything from the intricate guitar work and tender vocals of Jump in the Water (a serenade to Deputys seven-year-old daughter) to the groove-heavy funk of Put It in the Boogie (a celebration of the joyfully chaotic life of a musician) to the piano-driven balladry of Loving You (a powerful meditation on unconditional love). Despite the spur-of-the-moment approach, Wash It in the Water emerges as a gracefully arranged effort that owes much to the musicianship and songcraft Deputys honed since getting his first guitar at age 13. By his mid-teens hed started up a series of garage bands, balancing his own projects with playing in local big bands and soul groups. I was this 16-year-old white kid crushing it in a Motown band, and because of that I got to learn a lot about respecting the composition, Deputy recalls. To me music is a bunch of small pieces fitting together to form this beautiful castle.In his early 20s, Deputy experienced a major turning point that would take his music in an entirely new direction. I was playing in a band but I wasnt inspiredmusic wasnt bringing me the joy that it used to, and I felt like I might be done with it altogether, he says. Along with quitting the band mid-tour, Deputy traded in his electric guitar and amp for a nylon-string acoustic and moved back home to work construction with his dad. At work all day Id have this music in my head, and as soon as I got home Id go straight to the guitar, he says. Serendipitously landing a solo gig by walking into a bar just after that nights featured artist had bailed, Deputy soon introduced the world to the sound hed eventually dub island-infused, drum n bass, gospel-ninja-soul. By 2008 hed released his debut album Out of the Water andthanks to his ingenuity in loopingmade his name as an unforgettable one-man-band live act.
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