Zach Hill

All Music Guide:

Based out of Sacramento, CA, drummer Zach Hill is best known as half of the adventurous indie rock group Hella, but he has also spent time in Twiggy Ramirez and Chris Goss' project Goon Moon, the experimental supergroup Nervous Cop, and the Ladies with Pinback's Rob Crow, and he often collaborates with guitarist Mick Barr. In 2004 he took steps toward a solo career, with Masculine Drugs being released as a Zach Hill and Holy Smokes album, but the 2006 follow-up, Talk to Your Kids About Gangs, was credited to just Holy Smokes. That same year the unhinged Shred Earthship appeared on the 5 Rue Christine label as a Zach Hill and Mick Barr release. In 2008 he moved to Mike Patton's Ipecac imprint for Astrological Straits, a solo album with guests ranging from Primus' Les Claypool to LCD Soundsystem's Tyler Pope. A vinyl version of the record appeared on the "avanthop" label Anticon. After more collaborations (with Marnie Stern, No Age, Prefuse 73, and Wavves, to name a few), Hill released his second solo album, Face Tat, in 2010.

Wikipedia:

Zach Hill (born December 28, 1979) is a musician/drummer and visual artist from Sacramento, California. Primarily known for his drumming style, he performs/has performed in numerous groups, including Death Grips, Hella, as well as Boredoms, and a diverse range of others including, Marnie Stern, Wavves, Mick Barr, Nervous Cop (a collaboration with Greg Saunier of Deerhoof and Joanna Newsom ), El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez, Mike Patton, Flössin (a collaboration with Christopher Willits and rotating members Kid606, Matmos, Nate Boyce and Carson McWhirter) and many others. Zach is self-taught, having started drumming around 1995, and has been touring internationally with various groups since 2001.

Drumming style [edit]

One of Zach Hill's most defining characteristics as a drummer is his footwork, especially right foot double strokes on the bass drum. Additionally, his drum kit thus far has had generally very low-tuned tom-toms and floor-toms. His snare drum sound is often a contrasting highly tuned "crack" sound.

A unique aspect of Zach's style is his liberal use of unconventional sounding cymbals, often referred to as "trash" cymbals. His most commonly and characteristically used trash cymbal consists of broken cymbals (usually between 3 and 4) stacked on top of each other, mounted just to his right of his high tom. This setup produces a harsh sound similar to that of a China cymbal, but with much less sustain. This can be heard on almost every single Hella release. Part of the reason for his use of trashed and old equipment may be that he could not afford good gear in the first place and got used to it; "Ever since initially starting to play, I've always just played on beat-down shit, so in a way I'm most comfortable on stuff that's rickety or has personality."

Zach also utilizes complex time signatures and polyrhythms in his drumming. Zach has developed his approach to time signatures through playing, and goes by feeling a beat rather than writing it out or counting. As well as playing odd time signatures and polyrhythms, he played in a recognizable, yet more contemporary style with Team Sleep. When he was with Wavves and on Bygones "Spiritual Bankruptcy E.P." he displayed an intense hard core punk rock style that's a bit more straight forward than most of the other projects he's involved in.

Another notable aspect of Hill's playing is that he is an extremely hard hitter. His equipment tends to wear down very fast due to the combination of the speed and power of his playing, which has been known to break lug casings and bend the top hoops of his drums from the sheer force of his playing. A testament to his relentless hard hitting rhythmic assaults is that he recently fractured his left hand during a band practice with Wavves. As a result of said mishap, he has taken a hiatus from the project.

Art [edit]

In addition to music, Zach is also a visual artist. One of the most notable examples is his fully illustrated book Destroying Yourself is Too Accessible which included the Zach Hill and Holy Smokes album "Masculine Drugs" Released in 2004 on TNI books and Suicide Squeeze Records.

The Sacramento, California art space Fools Foundation ran an exhibition of Zach's art, titled "Poltergeist", from April 1 to April 29 in 2006. Parts of the exhibit are visible in the photos accompanying Zach's article in the August 2006 issue of Modern Drummer and on the Fools Foundation website.

Film [edit]

Hill is currently writing and directing an original feature film. Death Grips will be involved with the soundtrack of the film.