An interview with Zachary Cole Smith and Brooklyn band DIIV
I caught up with Brooklyn band DIIV right before their sell-out gig supporting The Raveonettes at the Brudenell Social Club, Leeds. Thankfully, I managed to corner the band in a quiet back room, interrupting their time on grand theft auto, to chat about their tour with The Vaccines, playing with Fucked Up, new label Captured Tracks, and somehow, Geordie Shore was mentioned.
If you’ve listened to DIIV before, you’d probably be a little surprised to see them touring the UK with The Vaccines; I mean, they couldn’t be further away in terms of style: DIIV are fresh, they’re cool, and they have a dreamy pop sound that simply compels you, but frontman Zachary Cole Smith explains: “We’ve heard of The Vaccines before, but you know, not heard them heard them, you know what I mean?”
Justin, The Vaccines frontman, on the other hand, is a big fan of the New Yorkers and set up the tour. It’s undeniably surprising that Cole Smith hadn’t heard of the Vaccines if you’ve ever read any interview he’s conducted recently. The man’s a music machine, with tracks, albums and genres hardwired into his brain for him to pick and quote on demand.
At first, the band seemed tentative to get into a discussion, perhaps bored numb from the eight hours they’d been waiting in the pub to play their set. When I asked Cole Smith what he thought of the Vaccines, musically, he shot the question straight back at me. Slightly flummoxed, I confessed to not being a tremendous fan, only for Cole Smith to jump back in with his own sensationalist reply: “I mean, I guess they’re one of the best live bands I’ve seen,” the frontman blurted out with what felt like a heavy dose of irony.
I didn’t feel the need to pursue this line of conversation further, but Cole Smith added: “I mean, it’s the kind of thing that happens when you tour with a band and you hear the same songs and you see the same show every night and you’re friends with them, and you chill with them every day. It’s like Stockholm syndrome or something. No matter what, no matter how good or shitty the band is, by the end, you just like the music ‘cos you just have to. You choose your favourite songs, and you sing along sometimes”.
It’s easy to forget that DIIV, as a band, has only been together for the best part of a year; their debut album, Oshin, has proven a huge success, touted as one of the best albums of 2012. Guitarist Andrew Bailey, who was the most forward and engaging of the four during our time together, explained that the popularity of the record had taken them by surprise a little and, when discussing the band moving forward, made it clear that every step to success had been chosen carefully and vociferously pursued: “Captured Tracks have been great, I think it was a pretty obvious aesthetic we wanted to take with the album, and they had the right kinda influence,” Cole intervened, “Yeah, I mean, we kinda pursued them, like, publicly,” he added in a spit of laughter.
Although DIIV supporting The Vaccines seemed unlikely, on September 17th, the punk band ‘Fucked Up’ joined the run of dates to play at Alexandra Palace, a subject that made the whole band prick their ears and move their music history memories into gear. “I thought that was rad; it was fucking awesome,” said Cole before Bailey jumped in: “It was fucking crazy seeing him jump into the crowd, like on all these little girl Vaccines fans, just like waving his sweaty body on them”.
With a small buzz of excitement in the room, Cole added: “Yeah, just this big fat, sweaty bald guy screaming in everyone’s faces, seriously dude, it was fucking awesome.”
With this being DIIV’s first tour in the UK (barring a couple of gigs in London), they’re getting stuck in, squeezing in as many shows as they can in order to stretch the country, taking a particular shining to the Geordie’s. Smith said: “Newcastle’s a nice city; I have friends up there; I know some guys in a band called Little Comet. They’re getting pretty big now; I think they had a page in NME or something. They’re cool,” only for Bailey to interject with: “Everyone tells us about this Geordie Shore, all the time, Geordie Shore,” followed by a rumble of derisive laughter.
With Cole Smith quick to turn the conversation back to music and continue to recall the gig at Alexandra Palace, he sat up in his seat and became a little impassioned: “Those kids have no idea. Even London doesn’t have a big hardcore scene – like probably half their crowd [The Vaccines] buys like one record a year; they don’t know what punk is, they don’t know what hardcore is, they don’t know what rock and roll is or whatever the fuck”.
Smith continued: “Somebody just says here’s The Vaccines, and they just like it, but like they have no context for taking in what they’re doing and Fucked Up as a band like, you know, he like knows a ton about music, they’re coming from like a really specific context, so its kinda funny”.
By the time our conversation came to an end, we’d breached an ice-cold pool room in the Brudenell, eaten food in a local spot, and compared Damian Abraham’s dripping belly to the sweaty faces of those that adorn reality TV screens in Newcastle. DIIV – and Zachary Cole Smith particularly – appear to have a grasp of art akin to that of Jean Dubuffet. They’re going places; it might not be pretty, but it will be full of sound.
