RACINE — It's not easy to do something every single day, let alone do it for an entire year straight. However, Zachary Scot Johnson takes the word "consistency" to a whole new level. He has recorded a song and posted it to YouTube for 2,514 days in a row.
"It's not as most difficult most days as somebody might think," Johnson said.
The Racine native started his "Song a day project" in 2012 and hasn't taken a day off.
"I have a very irrational fear that if I don’t do it in the morning and get it up, that something's going to happen that day, and I won’t get it up and then it will be over," he said.
His recordings are low budget. He only uses an iPhone, but having a studio-grade recording isn't the point. He did it as a way to generate content because so many people asked him if he was on different streaming and video platforms. However, it took him a while to get to record the first song.
"I actually I had the idea for the 'Song a day project' a year and a half before I started it, and the thing that prevented me from starting it was the comments," he said.
With 2,514 videos, one can imagine some of the comments that have been left on certain songs. The videos that get the most negative comments are his political songs.
"It's not even that well articulated. It's more like, 'This sucks.' "
Recording a song a day has gotten him some notoriety. He said it helps when playing in bigger cities. Once, he said someone forgot they arranged to record a song that day until he reminded the person he was the "song a day guy."
It has taken him all over the world. The first song he did was a cover of a song by the famous Scottish singer/songwriter Donovan. A few years later, Donovan saw it and flew him out to Ireland to do a song.
"I actually I had the idea for the 'Song a day project' a year and a half before I started it, and the thing that prevented me from starting it was the comments." — Racine native Zachary Scot Johnson
Johnson said the most common question he gets asked is when he will stop. For that question, he has a simple response.
"I don't know."
