Meet Zach & Maggie White | Music Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Zach & Maggie White and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Zach & Maggie, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Ever since we met at Belmont in Nashville, TN we have both worked in the same area of the music industry as backing “session” musicians. After we married we were consistently hired as a pair. Not only was the pragmatic convenience of a married couple in the band something attractive to band leaders, but we had very complementary musical skills that aided in our duo booking. Folks assumed that our home life shared as much time practicing together as we spent performing (which was not the case), but gradually the need arose to develop arrangements of songs for ourselves to fulfill the occasional request for a feature number. In 2017 we turned to social media as our accountability and created #zaggiewednesdays to focus on what we could arrange as a duo. After a few months of these weekly posts, we saw a natural next step form. We both had dreams of running our own bands, but it had not crossed our mind until this point (nearly 8 years after meeting) that we should combine these pursuits. We had always been writing original songs in the background, but rarely had outlets to let them be seen. So in 2019 we released our first EP and performed our first live shows.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
A fiddle and a guitar with two vocalist is not a unique site in the history of music, but we work desperately hard to make something unique out of those familiar tools. Our music has sometimes been described as having a Pixar-esque feel in that we blend playful humor, touching sentiment, and authentic musicality into a cohesive set of songs. It wanders in and out of folk genres like Americana, bluegrass, Irish, or singer songwriter and is said to be familiar but unidentifiably unique. On paper we’re a young band, but our decade of work as professional musicians for other artists has produced high standards and rich experience. We’ve tried to find the right term to describe our music, (“humorist folk” being the most recent attempt) but like anything new in a creative venture, it takes time for the description to catch up to the art. Our music is unabashedly our own personality which likes to swing quickly from retro-cartoon style humor to deeper questions of life and purpose. While one song personifies the Elephant in the Room, another reminisces the first space chimp who leaves history askew, but then the next will bring a tear for the deepest portions of life and struggling through the emotions it brings. Our years of practice and experience as working instrumentalist are highlighted in the instrumentals which also give the mind pause. We hope these songs will remind you of a savory ice cream that uses ingredients you love but wouldn’t have expected to work so well together. We get so much joy out of these songs and hope to pass that joy onto anyone willing to give our music a real listen.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Anyone who follows us on our socials knows we are big foodies, and Nashville is such a great spot for food! 4 of our top spots of varying styles would be: • Locust – For a real food adventure (if you can secure a table). An amazing fusion of cultures and flavors. We attended opening night and have been back multiple times with amazement at each return.
• Tutti da Gio – A new Italian neighborhood take away joint near our house that is really doing amazing work with pizza and pasta.
• Bills Sandwich Palace – Super creative stacks of sandwich flavor that share a similar blend of familiarity and surprise as our own show.
• House of Shwarma – A favorite hole in the wall located in the back of Newroz Market (a sweet little Kurdish grocery off of Nolensville). In fact, continue your food journey down Nolensville Road. Use your nose and you’ll find so many amazing eats with flavors from around the world.

For music we grew up playing a lot of bluegrass, and it still holds a special place in our hearts. The Station Inn is one of the best places to hear live music in Nashville, and it has a really interesting vibe that first timers might feel wary about due to the rustic aesthetic, but years of consistently amazing music has made this a place worth traveling for.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Much of our story as a duo has roots that begin with being hired by Keith & Kristyn Getty as members of their incredible band, Not only have they given us amazing opportunities as musicians to join them in performances on world renown stages like Carnegie Hall, and the Sydney Opera House, but they have been immensely generous with their desire to feature us as a duo and as individual musicians in countless ways. Working along side them has put us on an amazing path filled with so many friends that have led us to a beautiful community in both our personal and musical lives.

Website: ZachandMaggie.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zachandmaggiemusic/?hl=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zachandmaggie/

Youtube: www.youtube.com/c/ZachAndMaggie

Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3jWigBluITL6RPMoblR50T

Image Credits
Kyle Carpenter (photo with bananas) Ashleigh Houser (darker stage photo with blue light and Christmas trees)