Today we’d like to introduce you to Zachary Manno.
Hi Zachary, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Since graduating from the Audio Engineering program at Belmont University in 2018, I’ve been working full time as a producer and musician in Nashville, Tennessee. I tour as guitarist and band leader with my beautiful and incredibly talented wife, Haley Mae Campbell. I’ve been blessed to produce countless records for up-and-coming artists in country and other genres, some who you may have heard of and some who you WILL be hearing about soon. More recently, I signed a publishing deal as a songwriter with Reservoir Media and BRELAND, a good friend of mine with whom I share a hometown of Burlington, NJ. Now each day I write and produce music with incredible artists that I hope will someday climb the charts.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As a self-employed and independent musician, I’m always encountering new challenges and navigating through new territory in a creative field that seems to look different each day. I’d say one of my most recent challenges is to learn to manage my own growth and weigh that against maintaining balance in life outside of working. Music is not only my work but my hobby, passion, and entire life from morning to night – so it’s important but sometimes difficult to draw lines and find time to unplug, especially when a work ethic like mine would find you held up in the studio like a caveman! It’s important to recharge your creativity so you can perform at your best.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As a producer, musician, and songwriter, most of my days involve sessions where I host a group of writers or an artist at my studio. When songwriting, my role is what is referred to in Nashville slang as a “track guy.” This means that in addition to writing music and lyrics with the other writers, I will dial up an instrumental backing track to support the writing process and record a “demo” of the song. We’ll use the demo to deliver the song to my publisher so that the incredible team at Reservoir Media can pitch it to artists and try to land it a home – OR if there is an artist in the writing room with us (and there often is), we can use the demo for them to get an idea of how the song would sound if they performed it on a record. What sets me apart and makes me potentially stand out from many other “track writers” is that I was and still am a producer FIRST. My demos are often not different from a fully produced and polished record! Artists often work with me to easily convert the demos I record into something ready to release. I tend to sum this up by explaining that, “I just can’t do anything halfway.”
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Like many other business, COVID created a need to pivot. My work went from probably 50% studio work and 50% touring work as a guitarist – to then 100% studio work. Luckily for me, I was blessed that studio work was still safe and my business started to grow at a fast rate with that being all that was left for us to do. I did (and still sometimes do) remote session work on freelance websites like Fiverr and SoundBetter, and met with clients 1-on-1 to record and produce their music. This time was when I really started to connect with a wider network of artists and clients.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.zacharymanno.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zacharymanno?igsh=OGIxanhqeGtyeDNt&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/qavobqZtMwe41VqB/?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Twitter: https://x.com/zachmannomusic?s=21&t=cPT7OsVXKuMK91NspfdGww
Image Credits
Brandon Allan Creative, Dallas Jack, Kasey Carlton
