Life & Work with Zackary Stewart of Tempe

Today we’d like to introduce you to Zackary Stewart.

Hi Zackary, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
The band started in 2017 when I met my bass player, Jesse. I’d been messing around with making my music at the time but never really intended to be a songwriter or anything. I just wanted to be the guitar player, you know? Circa 2017-18, we started out playing emo, indie, and punk covers with a few other musicians from school; think Remo Drive, Blink-182, Two-Door Cinema Club, etc. We’d gone through half a dozen names (Station, The Beautiful Afternoon, Midnight Getaway, to name a few), but the first name we stuck to was The Drive Down, referencing the sheer amount of time and life we spent driving around in cars as adolescents.

While Jesse and I have maintained consistency, our lineup was constantly in flux during our high school years. Drummers and guitarists would be in and out every month or so. In late 2019, we went on hiatus upon the exit of our guitarist and drummer from the band, as well, due to creative stagnation. We were beginning to expand our production ability and creative goals a lot more, our interests were evolving, and our list of influences grew. The hiatus was meant to lift in late 2019/early 2020, but the pandemic extended that a long time. We used the time during the pandemic to improve ourselves as songwriters, producers, and artists.

In November of 2021, we played our first show back with my childhood friend and current drummer, Kasey, on board. We returned with a refined vision of what we wanted the band to be and got to work promptly. No longer an amateur emo indie group, we’d decided to attempt a more serious alternative rock/indie pop outfit.

By February of the following year, we released our first EP, Ultraviolet. Intended as a reworking of an earlier The Drive Down EP, it was the record I’d thought of making for a long time. Drawing on influences from Sigur Ròs to Turnover, it was a strong foundation for future work and our creative direction. We started playing shows regularly around Tempe/Phoenix the following summer, attempting to carve our position into the scene. After a whirlwind of shows with a few various lead guitar players and getting into the groove of the band, we wrote and recorded our 2nd EP, The About 2 AM Column.

The About 2 AM Column is an extension of Ultraviolet’s intent, building upon our foundation by digging deeper into our influences. For example, the EP opener “What’s The Matter With You?” is inspired by artists like Bleachers and Michael Jackson, while “I Never Liked Your Boyfriend Anyways” delves a little deeper into our influences, largely held up by our love of midwest emo bands like American Football, Mineral, and The Appleseed Cast. We try to fully embrace studio noise, recording imperfections, ambiance, and lush soundscapes together. I’d credit Brian Eno as one of the band’s biggest influences, sonically speaking.

With our 3rd EP, Contemplations For Future Reference (out 8/26/23), everything is taken to the extreme sonically; it will be our heaviest and most intimate record. Songs like “November (On My Mind)” and “Midsummer Lost” fully embrace our heavier indie rock heritage, while “Rose Tinted Glasses” and “Discomforting” take a step back to a slightly folksier and more delicate approach not yet seen often from us. Contemplations For Future Reference is the title of an album I wrote during the pandemic. While it never became anything, the new record is exactly what the title suggests. It’s mainly about reminiscing, growing up, messing up, and falling in love. It’s a love letter to our younger selves in many ways.

The other major project we’ve been developing is entitled A Preface For Everyday Narrative, our live show. I’m not talking about it too much here as it’s still in pre-production, but the show exists to give the music setting and context: half rock show, quarter art installation, quarter performance art. The debut for the show should be sometime in October, although I do foresee it getting pushed into November and speaking of. Our newest single, November (On My Mind), is out 6/30 on all streaming services! Check us out on Instagram for contact info, show dates, and more!

Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, has it been easy or smooth in retrospect?
We’ve struggled to overcome a couple of things in the past. We struggled a lot with creative differences at the band’s inception, and as a result, we were constantly adjusting our lineup. While the three of us are largely in sync today, we’re still struggling to hold a 4th member of the band, which has been an issue a few times. This goes without saying, but COVID knocked us out entirely. We had to disband from February 2020 until November 2021 and made music independently for a long while. Being away from the band was challenging, and I sometimes felt a bit lost without playing music being a part of my life. I’d moved to Seattle during the pandemic and had tried to play guitar in a few indie and emo projects but never really stuck. I’d come down a few times in late 2021, where we played our first shows and began writing music together again. I moved back permanently in the summer of 2022, and we haven’t stopped playing since. We have no intention of stopping, and we know it won’t be a breeze, but this is what we do.

Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m an artist, guitarist, and songwriter. I’ve been writing music since I was maybe 10 in various forms, but music has always had this grip on me that I could never escape. Songwriting and creating became catharsis to me, as someone with pretty severe ADHD and couldn’t be mentally present for more than 30 seconds in high school. I started creating with the guitar. I picked it up when I was 10 and haven’t put it down since. I could have been better at it for a long time, but after spending a lot of time studying and playing with jazz musicians in Austin and Berklee School Of Music professors for summer, it became my pride. I’m most proud of my guitar playing (despite still messing up a lot), but I need more in a vacuum to me. When I was 13, I started attempting to write songs and began using a digital audio workstation when I was 15. That’s when I knew this was what I wanted to do when I could use the countless hours I poured into playing guitar towards actually creating something new. That was game-changing to me then and evolved into what I do daily. The music we’ve released directly reflects ourselves and our influences at various times. I’m punctuating my life with these songs, making it genuine. We love pop music but also listen to a lot of stuff. I’m into everything, from Michael Jackson to Brian Eno, Sunny Day Real Estate, to Charlie XCX. If I had to, I’d describe my work as a hazy, slightly sad memory locked in a major key, but the feeling of aimlessly driving around at 3 in the morning, listening to the radio. It’s a niche but deeply relatable to many people like me.

What changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I am still determining our future, but we are still going. We’re hoping we can connect with people enough that we can continue to create and play music as our full existence. I’d love to start touring soon, and we likely will within the following year. We also plan on recording full-length albums for the time being once we’re signed, as we want to do that under a proper budget and plan to connect to as many people as we can with our music.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thedrivedownband.wixsite.com/thedrivedown
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/the_drive_down?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@the_drive_down