‘Time To Go For a Swim’ with Zaac Pick

Written by:  Daniel W Young     Photo by:  Rachel Pick

Zaac Pick – Tour and New Album: Constellations

Who:  Zaac Pick

When and Where:  April 22 in Calgary at Broken City, April 28 in Vancouver at Fox Cabaret, and several other locations in between.

Sound/Genre:  Josh Ritter gets caught in a fight with Joshua Radin and somehow Zaac Pick comes out the winner.

Where They Got Their Name:  Ha ha, it is his real name.  “It is my real name in fact.  People are always curious if it is a stage name because of guitar and guitar pick, but it is true.  I probably wouldn’t have chose it that way” laughs Zaac.

Reason You Should Go:  The sad reality is that I don’t want you to go because I want that totally intimate show feeling before he gets too big.  If you get to know Zaac, and hear his music, then you will understand why you should go.

Favourite Part of the Interview:  When I asked Zaac about his most memorable show and he explained Longevity John and his circus dogs to me.

It Is Not Always As Simple As Being Written In The Stars

Zaac Pick is an enigmatic singer-songwriter extraordinaire who has released a pair of EPs since 2009.  Although his name may not currently be a familiar household name, there is a decent chance that some of his fruits of labour have made their way into your living room; a few of his songs have appeared on various television shows over the years including One Tree Hill, The Ghost Whisperer, and Saving Grace.

With the release of his first full length album, Constellations, set to take place tomorrow (April 14, 2015), I imagine that his name will become more familiar, so we were fortunate to catch up with him and ask him a few questions beforehand.

Zaac, WTF?  You are releasing the new album on April 14th and you are set to be somewhere between Lethbridge and Thunderbay, what gives?  Your celebration will be…

“At a truck stop on the side of the road probably” Zaac

“You will have to find a good bar or something at least” Daniel

“Yeah, yeah.  We will have to stop somewhere and go for a swim or something” Zaac

I love it!  Although scared that there is some wickedly intelligent meaning behind “go for a swim” that I don’t understand, I will take it at face value and assume it’s just part of the smooth coolness that emanates from the warm spoken gentlemen on the other end of the line.  Talking with Zaac, I had the impression that there was a bit more to everything than is first seen on the surface; it was sort of like when Shrek talked about being an onion with all these different layers.  My instinct about there being much more was confirmed when Zaac explained the name of his album, Constellations.

“It is interesting when you choose a title for a record.  You want it to be really representative of what the music is and what the songs are, or at least I did.  I love reading, and I am always reading a lot of different books, for some reason I ended up gravitating towards a lot books on physics and science.  I was reading Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, and Chris Hadfield – I didn’t realize it at the time, but no wonder I decided to call it Constellations.”

Of course, that was only part of the explanation behind the album name.  Zaac continued on about how there are many words that have double or triple meanings.  He explained that he was a fan of space and that kind of stuff, but the album also came with a lot of distance and time in between the recording sessions.  In fact, the album was recorded over two years and in four provinces.  Zaac further stated that a lot of the songs deal with relationships and the forces that are working to pull people together and push them apart.

“The more I think about the title, the more it seemed to sum up a lot of what this process was, and what this chapter in life was – what I was thinking about.  It really feels good to have a title you can believe in and stand behind it.”

The nine song album is why I chose to define Zaac as ‘enigmatic’; enigmatic: difficult to interpret or understand.  Of course, I mean this in the best possible way.

The album kicks-off with the upbeat, Impossible Blue, which definitely has a ‘Ritteresque’ sound resonating with the beating drum and happy little guitar riffs.  Whereas, Fury On My Mind, floats in the air in a subtle semi-sad way with the haunting lyrics “our faces, cracked and dry.  You ate the bread, I drank the wine…” still swirling around in my head.  Check out this trailer for the album.

We have gotten into the habit of asking everyone what their first concert was.  I suppose my first concert is not that bad, but it surely doesn’t define my current music state of mind, which I would have to say is likewise of Zaac and his first concert.

“Big Sugar!  Gordie Johnson’s parents lived in Medicine Hat.  Of course, I was too young to drive, it was an all ages show and my parents had dropped me off.  He (Gordie) is notorious for being really loud, and after the show my ears were ringing so badly, I called my parents to pick me up and I couldn’t hear anything on the phone, I said ‘I can’t hear anything so just come pick me up.”

Most Memorable Show You Have Played:  “Duncan, The Garage Showroom, Longevity John is an interesting hippy-type character who runs it.  We played a show there a few years ago, and after the show he insisted that we had to see something out the back of the place.  We were a little concerned of what that might be.  Anyways, we went out to the back and he opened a shipping container in the parking lot behind his place, and no joke a parade of circus dogs, they had little bows on, ran out in formation and he had a whistle and they would do tricks depending on how he would blow the whistle.”

Longevity John’s Duncan Showroom

After talking to Zaac I was compelled to quickly look up Longevity John and the Duncan Showroom.  I had to see if there were any pictures online of him and his dogs.  Although I did find some, I was unable to find anything that I am able to share.  What I can share is that the Showroom is going strong and I found this video.  Enjoy.