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A Musical Life: Zack Roach

Courtesy photo

Zack Roach is a Wichita-based musician who has recorded acclaimed albums with both Spirit of the Stairs and Senses Fail. You can hear him on several Spirit of the Stairs recordings, including Lambo Doors and with Senses Fail on Renacer

“My name is Zack Roach. I play guitar in Divorce Corpse, Spirit of the Stairs, and Senses Fail.

The first song that I learned was by Counting Crows. It was that really giant hit.

I wanted to learn some Metallica but it was way above my skill set at that point.

Definitely in high school I got really into finger style playing, mainly acoustic guitars. Became a huge fan of a dude named Tim Reynolds.

I started listening to his music and messing around with finger style and sort of figured out that I could learn it on my own. Different time signatures. A lot of melody. Just stuff that I’ve always been into.

A friend of mine wanted to play ‘Revolution Is My Name’ by Pantera for the senior talent show.

I said, ‘I’m not really into playing heavy music. But let’s give it a try.’ So, that’s when I made the transition to—once I figured out how fun that was—got way back into electric guitar.”

Jedd Beaudoin is host/producer of the nationally syndicated program Strange Currency. He has also served as an arts reporter, a producer of A Musical Life and a founding member of the KMUW Movie Club. As a music journalist, his work has appeared in Pop Matters, Vox, No Depression and Keyboard Magazine.