DIIV Talks Revolution, ‘The Spirit of Rebuilding’ and the ‘Cowardice’ of Artists Who Refuse to Speak Out
Categoria: Musica
After losing his home in the Los Angeles fires, frontman Zachary Cole Smith teamed up with A.G. Cook for the band's kinetic album ZIRP!
Por Billboard | 30/10/2026
Sustaining a living as an indie rock band for 15 years, in this century, in this economy, is no small feat. But DIIV, who have seen their share of inner turmoil and ridden the waves of industry change, have not just survived. The band founded and fronted by Zachary Cole Smith is arguably in its most interesting era to date – restlessly creative and willing to challenge themselves (and us) while wisely keeping one eye on the bottom line. Consider their heavy, monolithic turn on Deceiver (2019); 2024’s hypnotic and deeply socio-political shoegaze of Frog In Boiling Water ; and now, a pivot of a different sort: candy-colored art, memorable hooks, bright melodies and wry (and occasionally hopeful) takes on the world abound on the new ZIRP! That comic-book styled acronym of a title stands for Zero Interest Rate Policies, the post-recession cheap money that led to a handful of obscenely rich tech entrepreneurs but left many others poorer, only widening the Western wealth gap. ZIRP! ’s cover art depicts a pink, red and white distorted American flag, the stripes as arrows pointing decidedly downward. DIIV have lost none of the anti-capitalist fervor that fueled Frog , but while that album marinated in soupy polemic, ZIRP! is immediate, kinetic and singalong sweet. When guitarist Colin Caulfield holds a mock Rolling Stone with the headline “DIIV Goes Pop!” in the video for the irresistible “Trillions,” they’re only half kidding. An August announcement of the new LP trumpeted DIIV as avatars of “The New Alternative” – wait for it – “a new genre for music’s optimized VC-funded super deluxe remixed AI-enhanced algorithmically perfected wild west 2020s, where a million streams is great, a billion even better and a trillion well within reach.” So while Smith, Caulfield, Andrew Bailey and Ben Newman are leaning into pop sounds, this is still a wickedly smart, reflexively ironic band who delivers the medicine with a spoonful of sugar. On “Trillions,” Smith, with Auto-Tuned breeze, rattles off a wish list of material dreams that any fan of rich-get-richer capitalism might desire: gold floors, a boat, “some kind of big ol fucking plane,” adding crucially the zero-sum rot of “and I win and you lose.” “The Crash,” a power pop rave-up, gleefully calls for billionaires to be thrown in an alligator pit. There’s hope, too, for a societal reset in “Dare Me” and in a redemptive closer, “Idiot In the Sky.” If there is anything underpinning ZIRP! , it’s the notion of rebirth and a rebuild – of the band and, in a very literal sense, for the singer. Cole Smith is no stranger to hurdles. I spoke to him at length for Billboard in 2017 about his struggles with addiction and the long road to sobriety. But nothing compares to January 2025, when Cole, his wife Dani and their young son Roy lost their home and most of their belongings in the devastating Eaton Fire that tore through Altadena, north of Los Angeles. That horror informs at least two of the songs o