Diiv's Smith preaches 'New Alternative' on new album Zirp
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Diiv released new album Zirp! (meaning "zero interest-rate policy"), produced by AG Cook — known for his work with Charli xcx — with Smith saying Cook's involvement made it "so much more fun to take risks."
- Zachary Cole Smith coined the tongue-in-cheek genre "New Alternative," explicitly reclaiming the word from Thatcherite "TINA" rhetoric and declaring: "There is an alternative to capitalism."
- Smith called for Spotify to "be dismantled" and described music as "fodder" in tech ecosystems including Apple's, advocating instead for a publicly owned streaming library.
- The Eaton Canyon wildfire in January 2025 destroyed Smith's Altadena home while his wife was seven months pregnant; the family has lived in temporary housing in La Cañada for six months awaiting the slow rebuild.
- Smith's community raised $100,000 in crowdfunded wildfire aid for his family, which Smith called "the most meaningful thing that's ever happened to me, on an interpersonal level."
- New songs Evangelizer and The Crash feature anti-capitalist imagery including "BlackRock master keys," "Palantir-Pfizer collab pills," and a narrator who vows to "throw the billionaires screaming in an alligator pit."
- Smith credited a 2023 arena tour supporting Depeche Mode with inspiring his pivot to "surrender perfectionism, work quickly and not be precious," after years of controlling the band during his addiction.
Why it matters: The $100,000 crowdfunded for Smith and his explicit call to dismantle Spotify give a rare public face to artists criticizing music-as-tech-resource. Smith's reinvention from a controlling frontman to a collaborative one ties personal recovery to a wholesale aesthetic and political reset.
Ask SkimNews
