Location: Nashville, TN
Listening to “Give It Away” from The Z-Man Experience gives you that sense of hope that life gives you in moments of hardship. The hope that you will eventually see the beauty in the struggle when you experience true self-growth. Zach Cleven’s music reflects the beaming positivity and energetic personality he has in such a genuine way. Zach says, “You’ve gotta stay true to yourself ya know? And what you stand for.”
Zach hit rock bottom in his early 20’s, but that challenge helped him find music and become a better version of himself. Like many other musicians, songwriting became his outlet to channel his negative energy into something positive.
A unique, new age hippie interpretation of groovy 90s alternative, feel-good music with catchy melodies. Zach describes his music as “a fusion of scat-acoustic-funk ”, which we think is very much on point. Some of Zach’s influences include Dave Mathews Band, Blind Melon, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Beatles, Cat Stevens, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, and T-Rex. He discusses, “I feel like I have a good mix and blend of those artists. I borrow certain things from each one and put my own twist on it.”
Zach shares, “It’s a song of the future for me personally. It was a song I wasn’t even ready for.” He wrote this song when he hit rock bottom back in his early 20’s. At the time, he was dealing with addiction recovery, rehab, court, and probation all at once. Needless to say, any of that would be difficult for anyone to handle, but especially altogether at the same time. Despite being in a dark place, he was looking to the future of where he wanted to be.
“The song ‘Give It Away’ is about giving back to my community and friends. It gives the feeling of hope and that everything will be alright,” Zach tells us. He discusses how life gets really hard sometimes and that you feel the deck is stacked against you on a cosmic level. However, there’s always a way out of that struggle, you just gotta find your path and get the help you need to overcome the challenge.
He goes on to say, “The bridge is about the darkness of light. It’s our job as a musician, as an artist, to bring some light into the darkness… having that power to give the audience happiness when they hear that song. It’s awesome. There’s no better feeling.”
When Zach was in the 6th grade, he used to regularly hang out at a park in Green Bay, WI. Every year the park would host a talent show, and his 12 year old self wanted to sing “Superman” by 3 Doors Down. When Zach got onto the stage, it was super quiet and his neighbor, Dennis, yelled, “Gooooooooooo Z-Man Goooooooooo!!!!!!” Later on in his 20’s, he started using “Z-Man” as his stage name and his first show was at Harmony Cafe, an old coffee shop staple of Green Bay, WI.
Originally from Green Bay, Wisconsin, Zach Cleven got into playing guitar at the age of 20 after buying an old $50 Black Schecter electric guitar from his friend Josh while working at Starbucks. His co-worker, who lived a block down the street from him, knew he had started to play music. She told him to play her husband’s acoustic guitar because he never played it. The first time he strummed that acoustic guitar he was like, “Oh, this feels like home. This feels like holding a loved one in my arms.” Zach immediately gravitated towards the natural sound and beauty acoustic guitars provide.
Zach got his start playing in the local dive bars. At the old hippie joint called “IQ’s” and a dive bar called “Keggers”, he learned to cut his chops and improve his live performance. After a couple of years of working the Green Bay scene, he felt the strong urge to get out of his hometown and to grow as a musician. His energetic, positive attitude, and music journey has taken him all over the country from Seattle to New York City and eventually landed him in Nashville where he started his band.
Zach reached out to his buddy Aaron, who is a booking agent, to see if he could do a single release show for “Give It Away”. Aaron said he had a full band slot open at Cabana Taps and asked Zach if he had a band. Zach was thinking to himself, “No… but I can figure it out.” He shared a quote he read somewhere where a music artist said, “Your bandmates are closer than you can think”.
The next day, Zach approached his coworker, Giovanni (Gio) Moreno, about playing drums at his show. Gio immediately was like, “yeah let’s do it!”. Now they just had to find a bass player and their friend, Sam (Sami Jo) Meyer, immediately came to mind. Sami Jo was super interested and they all started practicing.
After playing solo for years, Zach really appreciates the camaraderie of having other musicians backing him to make his music the best sound it can be. He states, “I feel like I have a good team behind me now, who believes in me and my music to take it to the next level.”
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