The Bilmuri Connection: How Zach Dubay rose from local drummer to world touring musician

You could say he’s just a boy doing boyish things. But Grand Rapids’ Zach Dubay has made a splash with pop/countrycore’s Bilmuri, which hits GLC Live at 20 Monroe Wednesday. The back story at Local Spins.

 

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Less than a year ago, Zach Dubay was a local drummer playing Grand Rapids venues such as The Stray with his original band Candid Antics and appearing at Turnstiles during Sunday Jazz Jams.

He was gigging with nearly a dozen bands to make rent payments and a name for himself.

In October 2025, Dubay moved to Nashville — a plan that had been in the works since his first visit in 2022 — to record with Rockford native Brad Sinclair, a longtime collaborator and friend. This began a string of trips to visit, network and meet the players of Nashville.

By the time he relocated, Dubay already had friends that were helping him book gigs and share his name. His current roommate, Madison George, has been one of his biggest supporters and best friends.

But it hasn’t all been gigs and glamor. By December, he was grieving the loss of a friend, balancing community service stemming from speeding tickets he received, and gigging to make ends meet and repair his car.

Then he received a notification on instagram: “@bilmuriband followed you.”

“There’s only one reason an established band would follow me,” he said. Immediately following that, Dubay and Bilmuri founder/vocalist Johnny Franck messaged back and forth for a while. Then, Franck told Dubay to expect a phone call from the manager of the post-hardcore/pop/country band the next day.

The phone call came on New Year’s Eve 2025, inviting Dubay on Bilmuri’s Kinda Hard Tour. When Dubay called his mom to tell her the news, “She bawled.” He’s now about to sign on as Bilmuri’s long-term drummer, booking all the way into 2028 — joining a fast-rising, genre-melding band whose latest album “Kinda Hard” has racked up more than 60 million listens on Spotify.

Behind the main stage during Grand Rapids’ recent Upheaval Festival at Belknap Park, Dubay was set to perform with Bilmuri in the slot just before the headliner later the same evening. At that time, Dubay had completed the first American leg of the tour, as well as a European leg, with a second American leg to come — including a stop in Grand Rapids at GLC Live at 20 Monroe on Wednesday (Sept. 16). Tickets, $64.49-$118, for the 7 p.m. show available online here.

Before this phone call and opportunity, Dubay had only known of Bilmuri through Sinclair and by watching videos of the band’s drummer Xavier Ware. Ware is one of Dubay’s biggest inspirations.

“I thought that group was going to go to the stars,” he says.

Just a short four months later, Dubay was on the road with Bilmuri for the first time. That was a month-long run, and the longest Dubay had ever been on the road. Once he got home, he found himself, for the first time, actively listening to the record he’d just come off the tour playing.

ADRENALINE-PUMPING TOURS, PLANS FOR EMBRACING JAZZ

After playing Bilmuri’s high-energy music nearly every night for a month, Dubay said he missed that constant adrenaline dump.

“[Touring] changes you a little bit,” Dubay said, explaining that it’s a drastically different lifestyle than home life: never sleeping in the same place, giving all your energy on the stage, constant adrenaline dumps and highs.

Then you come home to silence, he said. When you are used to constantly riding highs, coming home can produce some of the lowest lows, he continued. Without having a schedule created for you, you have time to sit and process. But that doesn’t come naturally to most, and is usually not easy, he said.

And because mental health challenges, especially in music, are so stigmatized, seeking help sometimes means turning to substances instead of therapy, he conceded.

Just about a month after returning home from the first American tour leg, Dubay was back on the road with Bilmuri, but this time in Europe.

Dubay said he’s been in the gym with the Bilmuri crew quite a bit and they’ve begun to bond. Bilmuri is one of the most jacked bands on stage. “We work out a lot on the road,” Dubay said.

During the tour abroad, Bilmuri was headlining shows in France to fewer than 1,000 fans while also opening for Bad Omens in arenas holding thousands.

Dubay shared that touring abroad came with perks and challenges. Some shows were a little more “do-it-yourself” than in the United States, while others were cushy. The band had four sets worked out, one for each type of show.

Dubay said he ate the best bolognese he’d ever had while backstage at NovaFest in Birmingham. He said the food was better and simpler in Europe.

As for “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Dubay responds: “I’m there.”

“When I zoom out and it’s like ‘What do you want next for your life?’ Honestly, I’m doing exactly what I wanted to do,” Dubay said. “When I dreamed of my life as a musician 10 years ago, I’m doing it. It’s insane. Now I can say I’m touring, literally, the world.

“Every step isn’t as big because you’re in the bigger pond. This gig was like a 1,000-percent boost that put me into some tier of the top.” Dubay said that he’s nowhere near “Morgan Wallen selling out stadiums” top, but he thinks he’s on track for such success.

Dubay’s goals include: Get better. Get hot. Play more jazz.

The drummer also wants to put together a band in Nashville to write and perform original music. He would like to play jazz fusion, jazz hop and neosoul. He also wants to stretch out on his straight-ahead jazz stuff, saying, “It’s time.”

PHOTO GALLERY: Bilmuri, Zach Dubay at Upheaval, Fillmore Detroit
Photos by Chelsea Whitaker

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VIDEOS: Bilmuri (Live)


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