From: CANVASREBEL.com
We recently connected with Zuri Appleby and have shared our conversation below.
Zuri, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?
This question is always hard for me to answer so I’ll just give a background of my journey.
I began my musical lifestyle pretty early on due to both of my parents being musicians and my mother being director of our church choir which she made sure my sister and I were involved in from as young and sang in all through high school.
I would say I knew I wanted to be involved in music even as a little girl. I actually wanted to be a singer (or astronaut lol) so started developing my musical skills outside of our choir on a few instruments starting at age 7/8 until I landed on bass guitar. I also graduated from the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts majoring in instrumental and vocal studies. By the time I was a Junior in high school- I was fully in love with music and I told myself I wanted music to be how I made my way in life. Throughout that time I started gigging in clubs, private events, and high school events. Once I graduated high school, USMC bootcamp and combat training, I spent 6 super intense months cramming basically 4 years of college into that time learning enough information that would equate to a degree in Music Performance. I then served in the USMC band for 4 years Active Duty. I spent 3 years of those years in New Orleans and was gigging when I was off duty and going to jams and sheds with local musicians there when I could.
I guess this is the part og my story where I really started “gigging” full time- once I got out of the Marine Corps and moved back home. My first gig was at Ephesus Ministries where a musical friend of the family, Walter Kemp, knew I was back home and knew of me to be a respectable bass player when I was in HS from word of mouth from other times I played out or was at church events or sheds. Essentially word of mouth spread little by little. I was asked to be in a band for a weekly gig that developed into an original band called The Forealists that had a nice buzz for while playing shows and parties performing mostly original music… word of mouth kept spreading….Eventually was a part of a Tuesday night gig that actually got kinda big for our city called “Neo-Soul Tuesdays” that was led by guitarist Michael Disanto. I would say this was a game changer for me from getting by doing music to truly being submerged in it gigging wise. All of us on that gig started to get more and more well known in the city as a group and as individual musicians. People who hadn’t heard wanted to and those who did wanted to hear again. I think being that both of my parents are pretty well known in our city’s musical scene- people wanted ti hear what I was about for themselves.. Word of mouth kept spreading, more and more people heard me and were asking me to play until I was pretty much gigging 5-7x a week sometimes more depending. It was a slow burn to a strong consistent boil and by year 7 of being in Buffalo I had got asked to tour with Nick Jonas after enough videos (mainly from my mom) were online that if you searched “female bass player” in Google my name would show up.
After that “big break” I felt like it was time to move from Buffalo (again) and explore what other possibilities and opportunities might be possible in a different and bigger city which I ended up choosing to be LA. I went hoping to continue building on the connections I made working with Nick Jonas. LA was definitely a different beast versus moving back home abd breaking into the music scene and I didn’t have “home” to go to, but it was a similar transition. Not much music work the 1st year- but did start at a church through an amazing and successful bassist I met named D’Mitry at his Sunday night jam that guitarist Arianna Powell, who I met on the Nick Jonas gig, brought me to. I also had a Buffalo musical homie who has been LA based for 15+ years- Dave Shulz, ask me on some gigs to keep me afloat and keep trying to spread my name in the scene out here. I pretty much went to all the music hangs that my few musical homies would suggest and played any jams I could. I would go alone a lot of times once I was introduced to the spots and just had fun learning the new scene and city and connecting much as I could with everyone I could.
All that to say, I think it starts with knowing what you want to do, believing in yourself, developing and broadening your skills, putting your practice to real life, continuing to put in the work and show up as best you can so your name keeps being spread. Then repeating the steps that work. Refine as needed but keep doing your best- as corny as that sounds. Aim to impress yourself and others will be probably be impressed because chances are- it’s impossible to impress yourself as an artist lol but I think if you strive for your best that the world around you feels it too. And if you keep going like that at some point you’ll start to notice- you’’re actually doing the thing you set out to do.
Zuri, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m a musician first- gone bassist, singer, musical coach/ teacher/ public speaker developing producer, composer, arranger. and model. Like I talked about before, both of my parents are musicians and teachers which definitely pruned me into a creative lifestyle and career path. They are a huge reason I was so surrounded and supported in music. I’m so grateful for them living their creative lives which in turn submerged me into music and creative endeavors.
I used to think that the number of musicians in the world was infinite- and although there’s a lot of musicians out in the world, there’s really only so many that seem to stand out or have things that set them apart from the thousands of others out there making it possible or even feasible to be a full time musician. I think as a bass player it’s easy to get “ good enough” but hard to get great because somethings don’t seem as important for a bassist to know or as least not as pressing or obvious. As cringe as it is to talk about myself, if I must answer lol- I think what sets me apart from other bassist (aside from the obvious- I’m not a dude) is I have a natural soulful feel and also can adapt pretty easily to a variety of musical styles. I’m also very open to a lot of different styles visually. It’s fun for me to use clothes as a way to invoke different moods and add to the vibe or theme of the music, moment, and artist. I love rocking different looks and different color hair and styles which I think makes me stand out too. Even when I think I’m being low key, I still stick out. Blending in with the crowd has never been easy to me even when I try lol. Maybe it’s served to my benefit tho. From a sonic standpoint, I see the bass as a medium for expression and yes it’s a rhythm section instrument, but to me it’s just as much a melodic instrument. I’m from Buffalo NY so I have a heavy “1”, a deep pocket and can play with intensity, but I’m still feminine in my playing and I like to make the bass sing almost like the bass in another singer in the choir of the bands orchestration. I’ve also always been a detail oriented kinda person and although music did come natural to me it didn’t/doesn’t necessarily come easy. I definitely am a musician who has to put in the time and who puts in the work to learn all the nuances and feel aspects that I can pick up on when prepping for what I have to play. A lot of really good musicians can get away with doing less because of their skills, but I do my best to treat every time I play with the same level of care and I think that’s something people notice and appreciate. But I probably have to say the biggest thing that sets me apart from other bassists is people don’t expect it. People don’t expect someone who looks like me to play or sound like I play. And honestly- it’s kinda fun to break people expectations and catch people pleasantly off guard. Like hi! Yes not dudes play and sometimes pretty good! Sometimes better than other dudes lol Surprise Surprise!
I think I’m most proud of being from Buffalo New York and making it this far in my passions and career. I’m from a city where we usually get looked down on, not respected, or think all we have to offer is Buffalo wings and snow. And I won’t lie- we definitely do have the best wings, but we’re way more than that and I’m proud to be a reason people can know that and I can make our city proud and show people some of what we’re capable of.
Some career highlights I’m most proud of to date would be The Special Tour with Lizzo who had an all black girl performance team where we did two world tours, The Grammys, The BET Awards, The BBC Awards and so many more bucket list experiences. Also working with Black Women Rock where this was my first time ever working with an all black woman team and musicians in honor of the iconic and under sung Betty Davis alongside Kat Dyson and Jessica Caremoore. The latest experience of Passing The Crown which was an all woman symphony, Dj, rhythm section, dancers, and even harpist where we performed at the Lincoln Center honoring the Queens of Hip-Hop imagined by another Buffalo native- Juliette Jones. I admittedly didn’t come to be a musician because I thought there weren’t enough girls in the game, and don’t consider myself a feminist, but as I keep growing in this career I’m more and more proud of being, connecting with, breaking stereotypes with, and breaking the mold with so many other amazing girls, women, and powerful feminine energies in a male dominated and domineered industry and world to be honest and to be a part of the reason we are seen, appreciated, and valued in new spaces and in new ways.
Speaking of ladies, I’m am 1 of a 5 member all melanated woman band called LA’DY. We currently have our single “ Love Me Down” out available everywhere you stream music (shameless plug lol) and are in the process of releasing another single as well as an EP hopefully this year!
I’m also working on releasing some original music this year! So definitely keep your ears to the ground for my first single as a solo bassist within the coming months.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
If there’s a main goal in me playing music and that drives my creative journey, it’s to feel, expand, and share love, authenticity, and connection. Corny as it sounds. I think now more than ever people find it hard to connect and express to others and sometimes even ourselves. And I think authentic connection and expression are some of the basic requirements of living life. Music connects us if we’re not speaking, if we’re alone and even when someone has passed away. It connects us when we don’t speak the same language or even if we do when we don’t know each other at all. Somehow music brings the us in us out and that authenticity helps us recognize and feel loved, alive, and connected. If I can in anyway support that then I’m in.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
As a creative, especially in my field,
I think most people don’t fully conceptualize what life is like outside of “the outcome”. There’s usually a ton of hours that goes into what you see on the other end. A lot of self doubt, imposter syndrome, and self confidence stuff we have to work through. A lot of redoing stuff over and over and over again. Another thing for most creatives is that life comes in waves. Waves of work, waves of not so much work, waves of different kinds of work, waves of a high surges of emotional and mental energy, waves where we feel super overwhelmed/ depleted and we need rest and other times we can just go and go. And that’s just a small piece of the creative part.
Relationship and lifestyle wise it can feel often near impossible to take vacations or even make plans to be available for friends and family because you never know when you might get a call for something. Plus a lot of times, your off time you really need to recharge, so finding any consist flow in your life can be extremely challenging and maintaining close relationships can be tough. We also do a lot of work with different people which is always changing and those people are often times strangers then you do another job with other strangers. It goes like that a lot of the time. And playing music together is a super intimate experience in my opinion. Many creatives are extroverted introverts if not fully introverted so that’s kinda wild to be having so many “musical one night stands” with people you don’t really know doing something very intimate to you. It can have an affect on how fully you show up or don’t show up as a player. If you’ stick around long enough, you eventually start working with familiar faces, but even then chances are you’ve only gotten to surface level connecting with people because it is still “work” after all. Some of the best bands are bands which have played together, practiced together, and been friends together for a long time and in this industry these days that’s often not the case. It can look like we have so many people in our lives and we’re always “in our bag” but in reality, it’s a life that can have you alone a lot and not be able to commit to much else. It’s definitely not a lifestyle for everybody or for the faint at heart.