hi, i’m zach

this is my website.

come on in, I’ll put the kettle on.

to start you off, here is an overview of some of the things I do and love

Music

Growing up in a musical family, I decided as a very small child that I wanted to play the drums. My parents, lifelong musicians, decided that if I was going to get into music, I was going to do it “right” and signed me up for piano lessons when I was five.

I’ve been obsessed ever since, from playing in bands in High School, to attending Berklee College of Music. These days I play in an alt-punk band called combobox and do a bit of marketing/social media consulting for other bands.

Narrative and Story

I’m deeply addicted to storytelling in all of its forms, and spend a lot of time thinking, discussing, and reading about narrative itself.

You can hear some of my story thoughts on my (currently on hiatus) podcast Source Material, in which my dear friend Russel and I read a book and watch its film adaptation, then compare, contrast, and discuss the two.

I’m also told, by my fiction-writing friends, that I give excellent story notes, and that is something I would like to do more of.

Events and Community

“In this terrifying world, all we have are the connections that we make”

Community (and, specifically, people) are the through line for everything I do. I love hosting little dinner parties, often with a goofy gimmick. Lately I’ve been having people over for Stir Fry Movie Night, and telling everyone to bring 1-2 ingredients without coordinating. We’ve ended up with some good meals with some very strange ingredients (such as tofurkey beer brats), but it’s been lots of fun!

In 2016, I started a rec league soccer team called Bad Lads as a response to a bad experience joining another team full of guys who were (frankly) kind of jerks. The idea was to create a positive, fun space where we all just had a good time playing together and weren’t too worried about results. Almost eight years later, the club is still going strong and we have an incredible core of people who really believe in the culture of it.