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I had to have the record literally taken away from me. I am such a perfectionist.

Zachary Cole Smith

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Zachary Cole Smith
Age: 40
Born: 1984
Born: November 7
Composer
Guitarist
Model
Singer
Songwriter
New York City
New York
Perfectionist
Literally
Record
Records
Taken
Away

More quotes by Zachary Cole Smith

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I didn't want the lyrics to be about specific things in my life, I wanted them to be about generalised experiences I'd had. So when I'm writing about relationships or somebody leaving you or something, a lot of lyrics are partly about failed relationships I'd had, but they were also about my Dad, and being abandoned as a kid.
Zachary Cole Smith
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My mom worked at [American] Vogue before I was born. She has always been fashion-minded. I grew up with original Yves Saint Laurent sketches on the wall in our house. A lot of that rubbed off on me.
Zachary Cole Smith
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A record is worth 10,000 live shows.
Zachary Cole Smith
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It's this funny thing now: You sign up to be a musician because you want to write music, but you don't spend your time writing music. Instead, you go around the world selling the music you've already made.
Zachary Cole Smith
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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
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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
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Obviously there's so much about me on the Internet that you can turn against me, and you can make me into any person you want.
Zachary Cole Smith
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I was raised by all women. I had no men in my life it was my mom, my sister, and my grandmother. I've never identified as a man. I've always either felt like a boy or something else. I feel really uncomfortable thinking that, technically, I'm supposed to be a man, because I don't feel like one.
Zachary Cole Smith
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There's positive attention and there's negative attention - negative attention is easy, positive attention requires actual hard work.
Zachary Cole Smith
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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
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Drugs are fine for you alone at home, but when it comes to being a family, which a band is, it just messes everything up.
Zachary Cole Smith
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Recovery culture teaches you that you have to repent. I don't think that's necessary.
Zachary Cole Smith
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[YSL creative director] Hedi [Slimane] is a music-obsessed guy. I might've originally met him through Sky.
Zachary Cole Smith
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Music journalists are some of the lazy, most uninspired, dull people I've ever met...
Zachary Cole Smith
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I'm like part of the Kurt Cobain school of writing lyrics, which is the syntax of the words is more important than... is where it all comes from.
Zachary Cole Smith
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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
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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
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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
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It's totally true: Ariel, Christopher Owens, me, and Courtney Love, all in Saint Laurent ads, all with the same haircut.
Zachary Cole Smith
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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