Zach Bagaason
Medium Zach (Zach Bagaason) is a Minneapolis-based producer, recording/mixing engineer, artist, and educator with twenty years of experience across songwriting, production, and multidisciplinary collaboration.
He began his career as part of Big Quarters, whose debut Cost of Living (2007) became a landmark Minnesota hip-hop release. During this time, Zach grew increasingly involved in youth and community arts, helping to shape early Twin Cities music-production programs through Minneapolis Public Schools, YMCA Beacons, and Hope Community. He helped curate Last of the Record Buyers, a producer-centered event series and creative hub that nurtured a generation of Twin Cities beatmakers. This community work laid the foundation for his move into higher education, where he taught at McNally Smith College of Music from 2009–2017.
Zach’s collaborative work includes long-running partnerships with artists such as I Self Devine, contributing arranging and engineering to the album Rituals of Resilience, which accompanied an exhibition of the same name at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. His credits also include
- Mankwe Ndosi – Science & Spirit (Star Tribune TC Critics Tally, 2012)
- Greg Grease – Down So Long (City Pages Best Album, 2018)
- Lady Midnight – Death Before Mourning (City Pages Best Album, 2020)
- Recording & Mixing for Astralblak (ZuluZuluu)
- Co-producing Projects with 26 BATS! and Javier Santiago
In 2021, with Lady Midnight, he co-arranged/produced and engineered the score for Kara Walker’s Prince McVeigh and the Turner Blasphemies, now part of the Walker Art Center collection.
Zach’s solo album Bad by Myself (2021) grew out of his multi-year #Beatstory series, a process-driven practice of documenting beat-making using samples, field recordings, and improvisation. He later expanded the project in an immersive live performance at Public Functionary with visual artist Nolan Regan Morice and continued this approach through two residencies—Ad-Hoc Sessions and En El Momento—focused on live sampling and spontaneous composition.
At MacPhail, Zach teaches songwriting and music production, helping students develop creative routines that build confidence, deepen self-expression, and cultivate a distinct artistic voice.