Zack Keim

BIO

Zack Keim can find inspiration nearly anywhere. The Pittsburgh singer-songwriter hatched the hook for his recent single “Canyon” while driving around Washington, D.C. making food deliveries. “I was delivering Uber Eats, and I wrote that on my phone—just a voice memo,” Keim recalls. An insistent vocal refrain (“Can-yonnn!”) was all it took; Keim started strumming the melody on his guitar, and pretty soon the song blossomed into a buoyant folk-pop gem of a tune. Keim’s first solo single since his 2017 debut First Step, “Canyon” was released in July, serving as both a monumental leap forward and the first taste of Keim’s forthcoming sophomore effort, Battery Lane. 

Now Keim returns with the B-side, “Alice” a clanging, psychedelic folk singalong that draws catharsis from childhood heartbreak. The track finds Keim singing in harmony with Laurel Wain of the acclaimed Pittsburgh-based group String Machine, while a tapestry of distorted la-la-la vocals brings a reckless exuberance to the chorus. 

“I wanted to do a Sonny & Cher sort of thing,” says Keim. “I asked Laurel to come on the track and she was willing. I think she did a great job. It’s a song of heartbreak, but it’s also kind of a happy rendition of the song.”

At 25, Keim—whose musical background bridges the gap between garage-rock scuzz and kaleidoscopic folk reveries—has done enough performing for several lifetimes. Born and raised in the factory town of Blawnox, Pennsylvania, just outside Pittsburgh, Keim first picked up a guitar at age 13, when he enjoyed pretending to play along with his dad’s Beatles Anthology CD. He formed his earliest bands in middle school, performing Strokes and Arctic Monkeys covers to pubescent classmates. His life changed when he started sneaking out of the house to catch indie-rock concerts, particularly the acclaimed Pittsburgh group 1,2,3. “Seeing 1,2,3 definitely had an impact on me as a musician,” Keim says.

Keim’s father started taking him to local open mics around Pittsburgh. It was at one open stage that Keim met Bob Powers, a veteran slide guitarist 40 years Keim’s senior who introduced him to garage-rock staples from the Stooges to Black Lips. Keim and Powers hit it off and, after working together on blues standards, formed the garage-punk outfit Nox Boys. Keim was just 16 when the band was signed to Get Hip Records, and his life became a whirlwind. Nox Boys rose through the local underground scene, released two gloriously scuzzy albums with Get Hip, and toured nationwide and—more recently—Europe. 

By 20, Keim yearned to create something of his own. His debut solo album, First Step, arrived that spring on Get Hip’s Folk Series sublabel. An aching and sparse work of sixties folk classicism, First Step wore its vintage influences on its sleeve: Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Nick Drake. “A lot of artists, when they start out, their first record takes a lot of inspiration from people they listen to,” Keim reflects. By comparison, “Canyon” and “Alice” find Keim expanding his musical parameters and locating a voice all his own.

Keim found new inspiration at a low point in the spring of 2020. His band’s West Coast tour had been canceled as the coronavirus swept across the country, forcing him to drive from San Diego straight back to Pittsburgh. Soon their first European tour was canceled, too. “That was a turning point, an epiphany for me,” Keim says. During that eventful spring, Keim became entranced by Hamilton Leithauser and Rostam Batmanglij’s I Had a Dream That You Were Mine and Tobias Jesso Jr.’s Goon LP. He also broke up with his longtime girlfriend, who wanted him to become a postman. “I didn’t want to give up on my childhood dream,” Keim says. 

While living in Washington, D.C. and saddled with credit card debt from his canceled tours, Keim began delivering for Uber Eats to pay the bills, playing the occasional gig on the side (even at an abandoned subway station). Inspired by the lush textures of the Hamilton/Rostam album, he began pushing himself musically—taking piano lessons, experimenting with a sixties organ, playing synths and keys. He built a home studio in his room, and began buying new gear to stimulate his creativity. One night, while down and out in D.C., Keim performed some new songs on Instagram Live, which caught the attention of musician Josh Sickels, formerly of 1,2,3. Keim began sharing his demos with Sickels and his ex-1,2,3 bandmate Chad Monticue. In a surreal culmination of Keim’s teenage obsession with 1,2,3, the two musicians (who now comprise the duo Animal Scream) enthusiastically agreed to produce Keim’s new material.

On “Alice,” you can hear this creativity entering full blossom as Keim’s new songwriting revels in a new sonic complexity. “Alice” is both a marvel of Keim’s chemistry with Animal Scream and a throwback to his earliest years. The song was inspired by a first experience of romantic rejection: In middle school, Keim played in a She & Him-esque duo with a girl in his school. Keim had a crush on the girl, who ultimately rejected him because she was dating Keim’s best friend. “Alice” recounts the formative heartbreak that one never forgets (and no, Alice is not her real name).

Originally written a decade ago, “Alice” has morphed through several permutations as Keim’s artistry has evolved. At 16, Keim recorded an early demo of the song on GarageBand, which was released as a 45 by Get Hip Records. At 20, Keim rerecorded the track as a spare, Dylan-esque folksong for his debut album. Yet he was never quite satisfied with it. “I think I always wanted to do it with a full band,” Keim says. 

With help from Animal Scream, “Alice” finally gets the raucous, exuberant rendition it deserves, replete with dense layers of slide guitar and a pounding percussive stomp. Speaking of unconventional percussion, the track opens with the sound of Josh Sickels smacking a cement brick in the studio. (“It sounds like a railroad,” Keim raves.)

Now based back in Pittsburgh, Keim is currently at work on his second solo album, titled Battery Lane after the street he lived on in the D.C. area. Produced by Jake Hanner (Donora) and Animal Scream, the album will be out in 2023. In the meantime, “Alice” will be out digitally on October 4, while the “Canyon”/“Alice” 45 will be released on Action Weekend Records out of Europe on October 14. 

Keim describes the new singles as a way of reintroducing himself as an artist. “I grew up listening to lots of indie rock and 1,2,3, but then I shifted into the hardcore garage direction,” Keim says. “Now I’m finding my voice as an artist.”  – Zach Schonfeld

PRESS QUOTES

“Opening with a pounding percussive stomp followed by joyous layers of jangling guitar and buoyant melodies, “Alice” feels both heartfelt and endlessly charming, crafting jangly folk pop with lush complexity.” – Under The Radar Magazine

“Zack Keim takes its cues from Buddy Holly, the Kinks, the Stooges, and Dylan.” – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Keim’s voice is unique and pitched up in this jaunty track that seems like it should be laid over a road trip montage. It’s got a vintage rock feel and is full of blazing instrumentation… “Canyon” is an impressive show for Keim as someone in the midst of a redefining moment.” – Pittsburgh City Paper

---

MUSIC

OUT NOW: Zack Keim’s new single, “Alice” (a duet with String Machine’s Laurel Wain): https://zackkeim.fanlink.to/alice

TOUR DATES

Zack Keim tour dates

---

PHOTOS