Zac Brown Band ‘Thank Their Fans Every Chance We Get’ for Supporting Their Musical Experimentations
The Zac Brown Band are notorious for experimenting with a wide range of genres and diverse musical styles. While the musical variety the band embraces might confuse the untrained ear, it makes perfect sense to ZBB.
"A lot of us came from different musical backgrounds," fiddler and bandmate Jimmy De Martini tells The Boot. "We have jazz musicians, rock musicians; Zac was big into country and '70s songwriting; And I was digging the rock music."
Personally, De Martini honed his skills on his instrument from a relatively unusual perspective: "I actually learned to play the guitar first, before I started playing violin, and I never really had the bluegrass influence that a lot of country fiddle players do. I kind of approached the violin like an electric guitar," he explains. "Like, I grew up on '80s and '90s guitar music, so I approach it differently."
In fact, it was that atypical approach that first drew Brown to De Martini's performance style. "The first time I played with him, he noticed that it was a different setup than he had heard in the past with different fiddle players," De Martini remembers.
"The different genres that are in our music are just from our influences, that have been different, as band members coming up and listening to different kinds of music," he adds.
As a result, the Zac Brown Band's discography floats freely through a number of distinct styles. Of course, the band will always have a sturdy home in mainstream country, but they've also done quite a bit of dabbling in electronic, pop and rock music.
"[Our fans have] been very supportive of different musical explorations we want to do," De Martini emphasizes. "A lot of bands are nervous to change up things that they do or try new things, because you can lose some of the core members of your [fanbase]. But ours are really good about following us and being supportive of the musical chances we take."
That fact isn't lost on ZBB, who are always grateful for their fans' unconditional support. "We really appreciate them for that. We thank them any chance we get, for being so loyal," continues De Martini.
"And we just make a promise to them," he adds, "that we will work hard at making new music."
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