ROCK INSIDER: Rapper rebounds from surgery with great new album

Musical innovator Brian Eno had some of his biggest sonic breakthroughs while recovering from surgeries or injuries. While local rapper Dave Zup is no Eno, he wisely used recovery time from a snapped fibula from a skateboarding accident to complete his stellar new album, “Oh, It’s Going.”

Zup recently discussed the new release and rebounding from reconstructive surgery after his injury in October 2016.

Rebuilding period: "I had my first surgery last Halloween and then another surgery to remove some of the hardware in January. Since then, I've had physical therapy and acupuncture which has really helped. The worst part of being unable to move around was gaining weight. I gained about 15 pounds so now I'm starting to focus on getting back to where I was and living a little bit healthier."

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Finding direction: "The first few weeks I was home, I didn't really feel like doing anything. I was already in a transitional period with my music and had pretty bad writer's block for about a year prior to getting hurt. I felt like I lost my direction so being forced to be at home in addition to not feeling very creative made me pretty depressed."

Recovery rap: "The first spark of inspiration I got was actually from the pain pills I was taking. I hated the medication so one day I was just fooling around with this beat I made and wrote a song about how awful the medicine made me feel. That song ended up being 'Every4Hrz' off this album. The hook line is literally just the directions from my bottle of pain medication. It's such a goofy song but it captures a lot of what I was feeling during recovery."

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Studio sweetner: "(Co-producer) Ben Rivet is a big brother to me and has a way of teaching music that doesn't feel like he's teaching. He's got a great ear and can highlight aspects of a song that the average person won't notice so that was really helpful on this record. Plus, he played guitar on 'The Takeback' and 'Composure.' "

The maestro: " 'Oh, It's Going' wouldn't exist without Ronnie Pinnell. Ronnie did so much amazing work on this project. He turned it from a collection of songs into an album."

Sonic surprises: "There are a lot of easter eggs in this project that Ben and Ronnie are responsible for that you might miss on the first listen. That's what makes it interesting. They both have new projects coming out in 2018 too."

Artist info: www.davezupmusic.com.

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