Artist of the Issue: Zachary Westbrook

Photo+taken+by+Zachary+Westbrook+

Photo taken by Zachary Westbrook

Serena Erickson, Social Media Manager

Zachary Westbrook is a current senior at Hart High School who is also a young singer/songwriter who produces his own music. Currently, he has released his debut album, Wheire Orchestral Performance, and one EP, No Where Yet.

 “I would say I’m more of an indie rock kind of guy. Indie is pretty much everything that is without external capital,” said Westbrook.

According to Westbrook, his current inspiration is Sloan Struble, or popularly known as Dayglow, who Westbrook has had multiple instances and chances to speak with and get insight on music and how to improve and better accomplish his goals.

“I believe those interactions have really made a huge impact on me and how I create my art,” Westbrook said.

Westbrook’s first interest in pursuing the music he creates was when he went to an Ed Sheeran concert with his father during the Divide world tour era. He says it gave him a feeling of astonishment by the production and seeing how the audience interacted with the music and performance which made him feel inspired to be that person on the stage and have the audience act in a similar way to how the fans of Ed Sheeran acted.

Currently, the biggest accomplishment Westbrook has achieved is his music reaching more people and averaging around 50-270 new listeners and surpassing 3,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. In addition, his most current song, “I’ll Go Slow With You”, already has 3,000 streams after the first month of being released.

“Projects that can range from a couple of tracks and minimalist effects to thousands of tracks, with a multitude of plug-ins, effects, and bounced down sessions that can make the record even more complex.” Westbrook said. 

Other projects Westbrook has produced is organizing filming for his own music videos. Some songs by Zachary Westbrook with music videos are I’m Counting On You To Take Control Over My Mind, 8MM Film, Glass Coca-Cola Bottles and I’ll Go Slow With You.

To achieve these productions, the artist needs his own equipment to record and manipulate sounds. According to Westbrook, he uses two separate online programs as a digital audio workspace, those being Ableton and Logic X.

“Both programs are extremely powerful tools and can help create insane projects,” said Westbrook.