Zachary Cole Smith

Zachary Cole Smith (born November 7, 1984) is the guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and frontman of the Brooklyn based post-punk/dream pop/shoegaze band, DIIV.
He is also a music video director and has also modeled on multiple occasions.

Zach was famously arrested in 2013, with his now ex-girlfriend Sky Ferreira in New York for “two counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance, one count of possession of stolen property and one count of aggravated unlicensed driving, all misdemeanors”.

DIIV’s second studio album Is the Is Are was made to reflect Zach’s struggles with overcoming his addictions with drugs and alcohol, but after its release he confessed to his fans about lying, saying he made the album sober. After his confession and a canceled Europe tour, Smith decided to check himself into inpatient treatment, spending thirty days in lockdown with no distractions in order to become completely clean.
Zachary talked about his new lifestyle in an interview, stating: “So basically, my program of recovery is super hard line. No drugs, no alcohol ever, for the rest of my life.”

Zach has stated on multiple occasions Kurt Cobain of Nirvana as his role model, but in a recent interview with the Denver Post, he stated that that is no longer the case. Saying “For so long, he was a role model. But what kind of role model is this person who’s read very few books and hasn’t really changed at all in any profound way from when he was 17 years old, except to get caught up in addiction?”