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It's totally true: Ariel, Christopher Owens, me, and Courtney Love, all in Saint Laurent ads, all with the same haircut.
Zachary Cole Smith -
Generally, I think people are just going through the motions now. There's so much stuff that people are doing today that has already been done. I kind of like that new Savages record, but I don't know why they take themselves so seriously.
Zachary Cole Smith
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I feel like every great record is like a world in itself.
Zachary Cole Smith -
I guess I do feel the need to repent. I do feel like I owe the world a great album. I don't know why I feel that way. I just do.
Zachary Cole Smith -
It's so easy to hate something. It's harder to genuinely appreciate something.
Zachary Cole Smith -
For me, it's always been important to have the live band be one thing, and the recorded band be kind of another thing.
Zachary Cole Smith -
Three years between records is longer than average. Double albums are much more of a statement. I really wanted to put myself out there as much as I possibly could.
Zachary Cole Smith -
I was raised by all women. I had no men in my life; it was my mom, my sister, and my grandmother. I've never identified as a man. I've always either felt like a boy or something else. I feel really uncomfortable thinking that, technically, I'm supposed to be a man, because I don't feel like one.
Zachary Cole Smith
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A record is worth 10,000 live shows.
Zachary Cole Smith -
People are going to be way more patient listening to what I have to say now. I don't have five seconds to get their attention, I have five minutes. That's a huge window.
Zachary Cole Smith -
Recovery culture teaches you that you have to repent. I don't think that's necessary.
Zachary Cole Smith -
Somebody who knows all about how to make the record, or how to make records, they know how to work the EQ and they know how to work the stuff, but they don't know what I want it to sound like. So it's just easier for me to do it myself.
Zachary Cole Smith -
I'm like part of the Kurt Cobain school of writing lyrics, which is the syntax of the words is more important than... is where it all comes from.
Zachary Cole Smith -
Drugs are fine for you alone at home, but when it comes to being a family, which a band is, it just messes everything up.
Zachary Cole Smith
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What I wanted was just to make music, and so, originally I just wanted to hide behind the album cover of the last record, and I wanted it to be almost anonymous.
Zachary Cole Smith -
It's not like I had a breakdown, though it kind of felt like it at the time. I agreed to everything that happened. You can't really be at work and be like, "That's it. I've had too much. I'm going home."
Zachary Cole Smith -
I didn't want the lyrics to be about specific things in my life, I wanted them to be about generalised experiences I'd had. So when I'm writing about relationships or somebody leaving you or something, a lot of lyrics are partly about failed relationships I'd had, but they were also about my Dad, and being abandoned as a kid.
Zachary Cole Smith -
The touring band is DIIV, and the songs are always written with them in mind. But the new record is going to be more "me."
Zachary Cole Smith -
I grew up around fashion - my mom was an editor for Vogue. Compared to the music industry, though, I'd say [fashion] is a little bit more disorganized. But it's exciting for me because, when you're a performer, there is a fashion element.
Zachary Cole Smith -
I don't know if there's anything that would surprise people, because I don't think that anybody knows anything about me at all. There's not much out there. I think I'm going to come out with a pretty dark and troubled record, and it might upset some people.
Zachary Cole Smith
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There's positive attention and there's negative attention - negative attention is easy, positive attention requires actual hard work.
Zachary Cole Smith -
I wouldn't say music is my passion, or my calling, or anything like that. I mean, I don't really believe in that kind of stuff. Life is a series of chance happenings, so I just fell into it.
Zachary Cole Smith -
I spent my life working before I started band. I worked construction, landscaping. I worked in kitchens, cleaned dishes. I worked demolition.
Zachary Cole Smith -
It's pretty easy to lose money on tour - most bands do on their first couple of tours. We're more established, but I think it was just poorly booked. It was a mess from the get-go.
Zachary Cole Smith