Zachary Cole Smith (born November 7, 1984) is an American musician, model and music video director, best known for being the founder, frontman, and principal songwriter of the indie rock band DIIV. He first began playing in bands like Soft Black and Beach Fossils after moving to New York City in the late 2000s. Initially called Dive, the band started as Smith's solo recording project. Smith released his debut studio album with DIIV, Oshin, in 2012, which combined elements of krautrock, post-punk and shoegaze. He has directed music videos for DIIV and Sky Ferreira. Outside of his work in the music industry, Smith has modeled for Saint Laurent on multiple occasions. DIIV's second studio album, Is the Is Are, was released on February 5, 2016. On October 4, 2019, DIIV's third album, Deceiver, was released on Captured Tracks. Early life Smith was born in New York City on November 7, 1984. His father, also named Zachary, is a musician and songwriter. His mother, Deborah E. MacIntyre, was a fashion editor for Vogue magazine. Smith had disciplinary problems as a teenager and was often suspended during middle school. When Smith was a freshman in high school, he and a friend went out looking for cigarettes and eventually smashed truck windows with rocks in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart. Both boys were arrested, and Smith was expelled from school. He also began playing the guitar during that time. After that, he attended six different schools in five years, including St. Luke's School (New Canaan, Connecticut) and The Beekman School (Manhattan, New York), and finally graduated from Wooster School in Danbury, Connecticut. Career After moving to New York City, Smith was introduced to a community of musicians and began playing guitar in Soft Black around 2009. During that time, he met Dustin Payseur and played drums in Beach Fossils for a short time. In 2010, he rejoined them as a guitar player and began recording solo material. Prior to 2011, Smith had also toured and played guitar with the indie band Darwin Deez. Smith began writing songs himself in 2010. In the summer of 2011, he booked a show for his project Dive and asked Andrew Bailey, Devin Ruben Perez and Colby Hewitt to join him. They eventually renamed themselves DIIV, were signed by Captured Tracks and released several singles. Their debut album, Oshin, was released in 2012. Smith co-directed the music