Latest Zachary Cole Smith Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• There's a lot of stuff that I've been through in my life in the past couple of months that I don't really want to share with people who are close to me, but I have no option if it's my art.

  Zachary Cole Smith

  Art, Couple, Past

  Source: pitchfork.com

• In terms of being a kind of popular artist figure and knowing how isolating that is, and knowing what it feels like to be skeptical of people, and to be taken advantage of, especially by your friends. That's a hard to pill to swallow, and we've been through that together, or watched each other go through it. It helps to have somebody that close to you who can relate. I can say with some confidence that I feel like Sky saved my life.

  Zachary Cole Smith

  Taken, Artist, Knowing

  Source: pitchfork.com

• 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

  Thinking, People, Savages

  Source: pitchfork.com

• 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

  Dark, Thinking, People

  Source: pitchfork.com

• I had these glorified ideas about San Francisco and its drug culture - I thought inspiration would just hit me and I would get these San Francisco drugs in my system and all of a sudden an amazing record would come out. But that's not really what happened at all.

  Zachary Cole Smith

  Inspiration, Ideas, San Francisco

  Source: pitchfork.com

• I've already had a hard time dealing with some of the trappings of success and turned to some pretty stereotypical escape routes - ways of escaping my own reality and falling into some pretty clichéd situations.

  Zachary Cole Smith

  Fall, Hard Times, Reality

  Source: pitchfork.com

• 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

  People, Listening, Attention

  Source: pitchfork.com

• To be told that you're the voice of your generation is such an incredible amount of pressure, and I haven't faced that. Maybe by the time our third record rolls around, I will. My goals are to be a band like that in five years. At the moment, though, I can't really relate in any sense to the scale that Kurt Cobain fame has reached.

  Zachary Cole Smith

  Years, Voice, Goal

  Source: pitchfork.com

• You can't show somebody what it's like to experience loss, but you can soundtrack it and help them experience their own loss. I am so lucky to have this venue to be able to say and talk about all the stuff I've been through.

  Zachary Cole Smith

  Loss, Lucky, Able

  Source: pitchfork.com

• Music is an opportunity to say every single thing that you want to say. People will pore over whatever you say and however you say it and, for me, it represents complete freedom of speech.

  Zachary Cole Smith

  Opportunity, People, Freedom Of Speech

  Source: pitchfork.com

• 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

  Believe, Passion, Mean

  Source: pitchfork.com

• Music is much more of a multimedia sort of thing than I expected.

  Zachary Cole Smith

  Multimedia, Music Is, Expected

  Source: pitchfork.com

• 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

  Mom, Fashion, Editors

  Source: pitchfork.com

• [YSL creative director] Hedi [Slimane] is a music-obsessed guy. I might've originally met him through Sky.

  Zachary Cole Smith

  Ysl, Sky, Creative

  Source: pitchfork.com

• We were a commodity used by corporations to make their brand look fashionable, but then they used us to keep kids out of venues.

  Zachary Cole Smith

  Kids, Looks, Corporations

  Source: pitchfork.com

• It's totally true: Ariel, Christopher Owens, me, and Courtney Love, all in Saint Laurent ads, all with the same haircut.

  Zachary Cole Smith

  Saint, Ariel, Courtney

  Source: pitchfork.com

• I went with Beach Fossils and we played 40 shows because we wanted people to see us.

  Zachary Cole Smith

  Beach, People, Fossils

  Source: pitchfork.com

• If I play Coachella, it's sponsored by a company - that's corporate, too. But we're playing it because we're getting paid and we want to be a part of the festival.

  Zachary Cole Smith

  Play, Coachella, Want

  Source: pitchfork.com

• The idea is: You played to 100 people this week in Europe, and then next week you can play to 200. It's an investment in that territory. But it can lose money because it's very expensive to go to Europe. You can't really just say, like, "Oh, we're gonna take our van and drive to California tomorrow." It's more like, "Oh, we have to fly to London and rent three guitar amps, a bass amp, drums; buy all these flights for four people; hire a driver."

  Zachary Cole Smith

  Ideas, California, Guitar

  Source: pitchfork.com

• 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

  Couple, Thinking, Band

  Source: pitchfork.com

• 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

  Song, Mind, Band

  Source: pitchfork.com

• Nobody really wanted to do that one European tour. For one, it was budgeted to lose money. They would've made something, but I would've lost a lot of money.

  Zachary Cole Smith

  Lost, Made, Wanted

  Source: pitchfork.com

• A record is worth 10,000 live shows.

  Zachary Cole Smith

  Records, Shows

  Source: pitchfork.com

• Some kid can say, "Hey, I really want you to play my town in Switzerland, or Sweden, or Latvia," and they could have a fun night at the show. On the other hand, all those kids could have a record that means something to them in a more personal way a couple months down the road. The live band is a really important thing for us, but my focus is on the album now.

  Zachary Cole Smith

  Couple, Fun, Mean

  Source: pitchfork.com

• 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

  Home, Too Much, Kind

  Source: pitchfork.com