DIIV
The project of singer/songwriter/guitarist Zachary Cole Smith, DIIV make music that combines shoegaze bliss with grunge catharsis. The influence of Nirvana and My Bloody Valentine was evident on their 2012 debut album, Oshin, but the band's sound deepened and broadened on 2016's Is the Is Are, which paired Malian-inspired guitar melodies with Smith's confessional songwriting, and on 2019's heavier-sounding exploration of trauma, Deceiver.
Born in New York and raised in Connecticut, Smith began playing guitar as a young boy and joined a few bands during his school years, including a group with future DIIV guitarist Andrew Bailey. After a few years playing guitar with the psych-rock band Soft Black and playing drums for Beach Fossils, Smith formed DIIV in 2011 as a forum for his own songs, incorporating aspects of Krautrock, C-86, and Malian guitarists along with more expected forebears like My Bloody Valentine and Nirvana. To round out his live band, he enlisted Bailey, bassist Devin Ruben Perez, and ex-Smith Westerns drummer Colby Hewitt. Originally called Dive, Smith changed the spelling of the band's name after learning of the early-'90s Belgian industrial act by that name. DIIV signed to Captured Tracks in October 2011 and released the singles Sometime and Human -- both of which were demos Smith recorded on his own -- and Geist in advance of their 2012 debut album, Oshin. The following year, multi-instrumentalist Colin Caulfield became a touring keyboardist and guitarist for the band.
In 2013, Smith's substance abuse issues came to a head. DIIV scrapped a recording session with former Girls bassist/producer Chet "JR" White, and that September, Smith was arrested on drug charges on the way to a DIIV show in Hudson, New York. After being charged with drug possession, he went to rehab in January 2014. While in recovery, he began writing material for the next DIIV album; by that July, he had amassed over 150 songs. The band began recording in Brooklyn's Strange Weather studio in March 2015, around the time that Hewitt left the group. He was replaced by touring drummer Ben Newman, who played the majority of the drums during the sessions. Arriving in February 2016, the ambitious double album Is the Is Are presented a more polished version of DIIV and entered Billboard's 200 Albums Chart at number 81.
Following Is the Is Are's release, DIIV underwent more changes. Early in 2017, Smith returned to rehab, this time for extended inpatient treatment. During this time, the band issued a single that collected their covers of Sparklehorse's "Cow" and (Sandy) Alex G's "Icehead." That December, Ruben Perez, whose racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic online posts caused controversy in 2014, left the group; Caulfield took over his duties as bassist. To make their third album, DIIV entered the studio with producer Sonny DiPerri in March 2019. Taking a more collaborative approach toward songwriting than before, the band looked to heavier influences like True Widow and Unwound while recording. Deceiver, a deeper exploration of the pain lying beneath addiction, was released in October 2019.
© Heather Phares /TiVo
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Discography
17 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Oshin
Rock - Released by Captured Tracks on Jun 25, 2012
Pitchfork: Best New Music16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Everyone Out
Alternative & Indie - Released by Fantasy on Mar 26, 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Is the Is Are
Alternative & Indie - Released by Captured Tracks on Feb 5, 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Deceiver
Alternative & Indie - Released by Captured Tracks on Oct 4, 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brown Paper Bag
Alternative & Indie - Released by Fantasy on Feb 15, 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Live at The Murmrr Theatre (Live at The Murmrr Theatre)
Alternative & Indie - Released by Captured Tracks on Nov 17, 2022
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Sometime / Human / Geist
Alternative & Indie - Released by Captured Tracks on Jun 24, 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Frog In Boiling Water
Alternative & Indie - Released by Fantasy on Apr 23, 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Taker
Alternative & Indie - Released by Captured Tracks on Aug 22, 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Blankenship
Alternative & Indie - Released by Captured Tracks on Sep 18, 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Under the Sun
Alternative & Indie - Released by Captured Tracks on Dec 14, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Is the Is Are
Alternative & Indie - Released by Captured Tracks on Jan 22, 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Skin Game
Alternative & Indie - Released by Captured Tracks on Jul 24, 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dopamine
Alternative & Indie - Released by Captured Tracks on Sep 16, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bent (Roi's Song)
Alternative & Indie - Released by Captured Tracks on Nov 4, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mire (Grant's Song)
Alternative & Indie - Released by Captured Tracks on Nov 23, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo