Today we’d like to introduce you to Zo Blow.
Hi Zo, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I began my journey as a musician like many others, in church. The church organization I was raised in is very well known and recognized for its brass instrumentation.
It is a normal practice for young children to have smaller versions of the instruments, or even standard, normal size instruments, and emulate the band in church services. My parents bought me my first trombone for my 2nd birthday. My father often jokes that the horn was taller than I was when I got it, as it was. The first time I put the horn to my lips, I was able to make a sound. A lot of people assume I participated in marching band through school and I never did.
Once I got to middle school and high school, I was more of an athlete, but still remained very active in the church musically. The older I got, the more traveling that I did with the church band, and also participating in jazz band, and concert band in school. I graduated from high school and went to Georgia Southern University in 2010 on a football scholarship. In my junior year in college, I joined the jazz combo after I decided not to play football anymore. A professor in the music department overheard me practicing my trombone one evening on campus, and scheduled a meeting with me to inquire about my interest.
I played trombone in a jazz combo for the remaining semester, not enrolled in the class, and the next semester I enrolled and studied drums. I played drums in the jazz band all of my senior year. I graduated from Georgia Southern spring of 2014 and moved to Atlanta, GA. Once I graduated, I again reverted back to only being a church musician. In Atlanta, I found myself struggling to find a decent-paying job and had honestly reached my end at trying to make things work. I was struggling financially, at times being flat broke. Not having gas to put in my car, not having money to eat. A very close person to me at the time asked me “what are you good at? What can you do with your hands? What business can you start?” My immediate response was “I can play my horn”.
The next Wednesday, I went downtown Atlanta in front of Hooters and started busking. I remember the first day I went downtown to play, I made 87 cents. Discouraged as ever, I kept going every week and finally picked up a gig. I began playing at a few open mics, and other sporadic gigs around the city, but I was definitely very much so figuring things out, being a musician outside of the church. I moved back to Durham NC in 2018 and began my job search again. This time around I was a lot more diligent and persistent with my approach to finding success musically. I began using social media to market and advertise my talent.
Through the years I had acquired a very minimal amount of knowledge about recording, and producing music, but was able to take that small amount of knowledge and build upon it to start recording covers. I would try to post a cover a week on Instagram. They started out as simple videos of me playing solo, or maybe to a track in the background. Me not being able to find creative enough tracks, me wanting to be creative, and me learning more about producing, I started recreating my favorite tunes, learning piano, a little bass. Really dissecting records, and trying to recreate them as accurately as possible.
Along with creating a strong social media presence, I would attend every open mic that was in Durham. At least three to four times a week, I was at a bar, a lounge, restaurant, anywhere that I could sit in and play. I give a huge amount of credit to a dear friend of mine, Shelby Sykes. She is an amazing vocalist, and she heard me at an open mic one night in Durham, and really exposed me to a lot of great opportunities in the area. She also is featured on what I like to think was my most “viral” cover, a jazz rendition of Migos “Bad and Boujee.” Eventually, I would walk in an open mic or a live music setting, and people would know who I was from my cover videos, or videos of me playing live around town.
From there it was all about taking advantage of the opportunities that were presented to me. Gigs became very frequent, musical opportunities expanded. A few years later, with a little experience under my belt, here we are.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not at all. I tell people all the time, this small amount of success came from what feels like a lifetime of failure. Having a college degree, and not being able to find a job that is sufficient enough for you to survive and make it, is a lot to carry around and accept. Me becoming a musician was essentially me fighting to find success. Everything dealing with making music, performing music, is expensive. Really expensive. So that’s always a struggle.
Also learning the business side of things is a huge hurdle as well. Negotiating prices, reviewing contracts, writing your own contracts, acquiring an LLC and an IEN, opening a business account, filing business taxes, how to keep a record of your finances, scheduling, etc.
None of that has anything to do with music, but it is essential to being a successful musician. Learning how to create flyers, learning how to market yourself, who to market yourself to, are things that have been a struggle as well.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I like to think I am known for a number of things that I do, but I can definitely say I’m most known as a trombonist. Often times you hear “horn player” and most are going to think saxophone, or maybe trumpet. Being a trombone player primarily is a specialization in itself because there aren’t too many of us outside of the jazz setting. The expectation I have of myself is to make the trombone sound different than anyone has ever heard it sound.
When I practice, I’ll play country, rock, jazz, hip hop, because I think I can make a trombone sound good on anything. It will never happen but I aspire to make everyone love trombone as much as they love sax! Lol. Along with trombone, I can play anything that’s a brass instrument. Tuba, euphonium, french horn, trumpet, cornet, and flugabone. I also play keys in my band MOODSwing, and occasionally I will fill in for someone on drums.
I get a lot of recognition and attention from the covers I have produced and posted. I also have engineered and or produced a number of records for a number of independent artists locally, and abroad. It’s not as hidden of talent now as it once was, but I work frequently as a producer, and even more frequently as an engineer. As an artist myself, I think knowing how to record yourself is a very valuable skill to have. I also have some experience running live sound.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
The music industry is constantly changing. Being in a pandemic for the past two years has expedited that rate of change even more. I think that society, in general, has a different appreciation for live music now. Before the pandemic, any common, random person may have bought a ticket to attend a random concert or show.
Now, artist fan bases are more concentrated and focused because they have to come straight to source for the specific content they want. The virtual concerts and streamed shows eliminate the middle man that is the venue owners, promoters, everyone who gets paid from a consumer that isn’t the artist or producer. I think we will continue to see this trend of everyone being their own boss and having more control or total control over what they put out and how they put it out.
Artists are getting extremely creative with marketing and creating the illusion of necessity around that music and I believe that trend will continue.
Contact Info:
- Email: zoblowmusic@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zo_blow_/
- Youtube: YouTube.com/zoblow
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/zo-blow-brass-music
Image Credits
Michael W Jones, Joshua Lee, Brittany Mittchel, Keenan Mckenzie, and Stephanie Scearce
