CRESTVIEW — Zack Lewis has poured his heart and soul into music. Now, he’s ready for the world to hear it.
Lewis plays drums for Paul Johnson and the About Last Nights, a band he said is finalizing a contract with a management company.
“In January of 2017, things should take off,” the 1996 Crestview High School alumnus said.
For Lewis, a successful music career has been more than 20 years in the making.
GETTING THE GIG
Lewis started playing in a band at Richbourg Middle School with director David Mayfield. He then moved to Crestview High School under David Cadle’s direction.
As a drummer with CHS’s Big Red Machine, Lewis earned the nationally recognized Louis Armstrong Jazz Award.
“David Cadle was a huge and positive influence on me,” he said of Crestview’s current mayor. “He pushed me to be great! I would not be where I am without him.”
Later, Lewis earned a full scholarship to the University of Southern Mississippi, where he majored in percussion performance, minored in music business and played percussion in The Pride, USM’s marching band.
He left Southern Mississippi one semester before graduation after winning an audition in Jackson with an up-and-coming band.
“There were famous, recognizable names auditioning for this gig …,” Lewis said. Still, “I felt really good about my audition and ended up getting the gig.”
After playing with that band for about six months, Lewis moved to Atlanta, where he played drums for various groups and did some recording. A few years later, he moved back to Crestview.
“Technology had caught up at this point and I was able to do my work here,” Lewis said.
‘WE COULD NOT BE HAPPIER’
Lewis met Paul Johnson, who is from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, through a mutual friend. The two began writing music together and, in 2009, formed Paul Johnson and the About Last Nights, which includes guitarist Daniel Williamson and bass player Austin Byrd.
“We could not be happier with our lineup,” Lewis said.
The band’s first record, “Gameshow Rockstar” — described on cdbaby.com as “Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers meets The Foo Fighters — includes uptempo “Ghost Radio,” “Money on the Mattress” and “Let Her Go.”
“Paul and I wanted an album of singles where each song could stand on its own merits,” said Lewis, who names Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, and Elvis Costello and the Replacements as influences.
ALWAYS WRITING MUSIC
Lewis stepped away from the band to focus on raising his 9-year-old daughter, and in 2015, Lewis and Johnson released “Property of Jones County,” which features root-based Americana music.
Songs include “Home Grown,” a hometown pride anthem with a Crestview shout-out: “Yeah, we’re stuck out in the sticks but this hallowed ground is home,” Johnson sings. “We’ll sing it from the Hub City to the Free State of Jones.”
Last November, Lewis and Johnson, along with a friend from Atlanta, worked on pre-production for the About Last Nights’ new record.
In January, the two returned to Atlanta and recorded, “Give Up the Ghost.” The first single is “Burn It Down.” While the management contract is finalized, the band is in a holding pattern, but that’s OK, Lewis said.
“Paul and I are always writing music,” he said. “We want our music to give people an escape from their everyday troubles.
“We have a lot to say in our music.”
Learn more about Paul Johnson and the About Last Nights at http://www.pauljohnsonmusic.com
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: ‘We have a lot to say’