Zack Pass Photo credit: Courtney Schroeder
Today, The Big Takeover is excited to share an exclusive, pre-release stream of the new record from Eastern Washington’s Zack Pass (out everywhere tomorrow). It’s called Down By The River, and it’s a must-listen for anyone that loves strong melodies, wonderful playing, and a weathered voice that sounds purpose-build to cut through the bull.
Pass grew up carrying a war inside that no one around him could name. At thirteen, during a night at his uncle’s house, he heard Temple of the Dog’s “Hunger Strike” and something in him cracked open. What followed was a flood: from classic rock to grunge, from electro to metal, Pass found companionship in voices whose pain and power spoke straight to his soul.
He wrote his first song, “Down by the River,” after a suicide attempt at thirteen. When he played it for his family, they smiled politely but missed the message entirely. That was the moment he realized how many people listen only to respond, not to understand. “I named this album Down by the River because everyone told me I shouldn’t perform that song. Suicide is such a heavy topic, and the lyrics are not hiding that fact” explains Pass. “But this album is the story of my life; the highs, the lows, depression, loss, addiction, and faith.”
Pass spent years chasing the only thing that made the hurt make sense. But the demons didn’t disappear. Addiction nearly took everything. Survival forced him to stop trying to fix the moment and start learning how to heal the days ahead.
Pass found solace helping others heal through music. He worked in treatment centers, spoke in schools, supported displaced communities, and helped develop music-therapy programs now used across recovery spaces. Seeing people mend through music remains one of his proudest achievements.
Today, Pass stands fully in his truth. His music is raw, unfiltered, and rooted in the shadowed edges of folk and the unvarnished honesty of Americana. Based in Spokane, he crafts music that feels both ancient and immediate. Pass pairs fingerpicked guitars with moody, cinematic arrangements, creating a sound shaped by the Pacific Northwest’s grit and ghosts.
His songs are confessions, scars, and quiet prayers for anyone fighting their way back from the dark. Onstage, his performances are intimate and arresting, commanding attention not through volume, but through presence and truth. Whether at a dim bar or on a festival stage, Pass sings the words he cannot speak. “There’s a line in “Home” that says that very thing: “I can only sing the words I cannot speak.” That’s what this album is for me everything I couldn’t say out loud.”
To Pass, this isn’t about fame. It’s about reaching the broken, the unseen, the unheard. To tell them that they’re not alone. That survival is possible. That someone cares. And that he will listen. “I’ve dedicated my life to helping others, my hopes with my music is that someone can hear it and relate, embrace the thorn in the side and stand upon it as a badge of honor” says Pass. “I went through the darkness and kept moving into the light. So to you I say, life gets better and don’t give up someone somewhere needs to hear your story too.”
Music is the universal language, and Down By The River carries in its bones all the pain and heartbreak of a life lived on the edge, and all of the hope that comes with finding you’ve managed to make it through another day. It is a deeply human record and is sure to bring some sweet solace both to anyone pushing through life, whether one’s scars are fresh or well-worn.
New music on the way? Pitch Big Takeover Exclusives.
