Appreciating Punk Culture, Cats and Sia With Los Angeles Artist Zoë Zag
To see more of Zoë Zag’s concert posters, check out @zcrytuff on Instagram. For more music stories, head to @music.
Growing up in L.A., Zoë Zag (@zcrytuff) loved art but never thought of it as a career option. “I didn’t go to art school. I’ve taken classes but I don’t really understand why it’s like, ‘Oh, now I have a piece of paper that says I’m an artist.’ That doesn’t really work for me.”
That all changed thanks to a chance encounter with a pop star and a longtime friendship with a quartet of skate punks who realized their potential as musicians. After meeting Sia in Echo Park and bonding over some ice cream, Zoë ended up doing the production design for her “Chandelier” video. “That was the first time I got paid for art and it blew my mind. Like, ‘Are you kidding me?’” she says.
At that point, Zoë was in the first year of her relationship with FIDLAR drummer Max Kuehn, who she knew, along with his bandmates, since they were high schoolers. The graffiti cover for their second album, Too, is actually a wall in her living room, and she designed much of their recent merch and music videos. Most notably, the visuals for lead single “40 oz. on Repeat” hilariously spoofed everything from Soundgarden and Oasis to Jamiroquai and Missy Elliott. “It’s such an awesome family of people that welcomed me into the group,” she says. “It’s really fun and natural.”
On top of that, Zoë and Max have their own lo-fi band the Squirmers, which she fronts while he plays the instruments. Last year, they released their four-song debut EP Tampico, named after the juice they’d mix with cheap vodka. “You can’t get worse than that,” says Zoë, laughing while revealing that it’s also a reminder of a “f—ed up” period in her life. So far, the Squirmers have played one show, which also happened to be her birthday party. “It’s not my main thing. It’s not like, ‘I’m a musician now. I’m going to start playing shows and tour.’”
As fall turns to winter, Zoë’s current focus is screen printing jackets and shirts, drawing inspiration from old punk gig flyers and vintage advertisements. “It’s easy to pick up a pen and draw a lady, a body, but we see that all the time so I stay away from that,” she says. “When I see ink on a piece of paper it’s not very exciting to me. What’s cool about screen printing is I can draw something very small and then blow it up. I’ll even carve out wood, stamp it and make a shirt.”
With Max on the road, Zoë’s at home with their cat Brian Eno. “He’s like a dog. When we’re recording he just hangs out. He’ll crawl into Max’s bass drum and sleep.”
Happily for both pet and owner, Max will soon be home for a couple months, during which they’ll finally finish a bunch more Squirmers songs. There are no set plans for an album, though Zoë already has ideas for videos and maybe a few gigs at bowling alleys or warehouses.
“Who knows what we’ll do,” she says, “but I know it’s going to be fun.”
—Dan Reilly for Instagram @music
