Zig is a Milwaukee, WI based singer-songwriter and producer.
Zig spent 15 years in the Seattle music scene in the Give It To Me Rusty project, in the band Weightless, as part of the underground DIY venue The Ballard Mine, as a member of the Bushwick Book Club, and performing under the moniker Aaron Zig.
2024 brought the new album, a return to performing as “Zig” and a new era in life. After 5 turbulent years, moving and starting a family through the pandemic, the return to his hometown of Milwaukee, WI represents a personal/artistic renaissance.
In 2019, leaving their longtime home base of Seattle, Zig and his family moved to Vermont - feeling squeezed out of a Seattle that became untenable for artists. Months later the pandemic hit. Under lockdown, knowing few, in the wild new housing market and with a young child, his family never planted roots.
Seeking multi-generational living, his family moved to Connecticut with his mother, a close companion, joining from Wisconsin. They hoped to create a viable new home. This again was not meant to be, as Zig’s mother passed away shortly after they moved in together.
Heartbroken, adrift, needing a place not connected with loss, Zig and his family decided it was time to return to his much-loved hometown of Milwaukee. In contrast to the previous years, this time, things fell into place. Amongst friends, family, and familiarity, his family found a fertile place to grow from.
During the tumult of 2023 music was a refuge for Zig. Working out of his home studio, he wrote, recorded and produced Big Brained Apes On A Rock In Space. Playing guitar, adding keyboard layers, singing lead and harmony, he brought in musicians from around the country and globe to contribute drums, piano/organ, stand up bass and backing vocals, filling out the vision for what the album would become.
Surprisingly, this is not an album centered on the weight of loss. The musical palette of BBAOARIS is wide open, making for an eclectic album full of unexpected turns. The final album track is an acoustic version of this same song, sandwiching the album. “Being big brained apes on a rock in space sounds pretty great to me, ” encapsulates the central theme of the album.
“Quiet My Soul” is a Sly influenced soul groove. “Been Played The Fool” is conga charged, with dark, twisting guitars. And “Why We Gonna Wait All Night?” is a Beck/Gainsbourg-like story about Davey, a dancer on a street in Paris, whose escapade lands him in a cast, but happy as ever.
“Going Over Jordan In A Cadillac” is fingerpicked blues with Elvis inflected harmonies. Living abroad in Ghana for a year, Zig was able to see first hand the custom coffin makers famed for their creations - a metaphor for going out in style.
“Can’t Push A River” is a middle-aged anthem, and “Grow With Me” is a raw, one take affair that has garnered the most affection among listeners.
Big Brained Apes On A Rock In Space is Zig’s culmination of lived experience, maturity as a producer, and the realization of his creative voice. Years of recording, experimenting, failing and growing have led to this album.
Influences: Leonard Cohen, Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, Paul Simon, Dylan, Devendra Banhart, Father John Misty, Nick Drake, John Fahey, Doc Watson, Gustavo Santaolalla, Hans Zimmer, Phillip Glass, Boards Of Canada.
Discography:
“Big Brained Apes On A Rock In Space” (2024)
“Walking In The Light (For Mary Lou)” (2023)
“Grow With Me” - Single - (2020)
“The Medicine’s Kicking In” (2014)
“Pioneer Square Recordings” (2013) w/ Noah Dassel as Give It To Me Rusty
"Heaven Never Left Us" (2012)
"Where All Things Go" (2010) in Seattle with band Weightless
"Cranium Miners Blues" (2007)