How a Brooklyn indie band transformed from a bedroom project into a heavy force
In short: Formed in 2011 as a solo outlet for Zachary Cole Smith, DIIV evolved from dreamy, krautrock-influenced indie pop into a heavier, arena-ready outfit. Despite internal turbulence and lineup shifts, the band has consistently redefined its sound, culminating in critical acclaim for its exploration of modern societal collapse.
DIIV began in Brooklyn as a solitary recording project for Zachary Cole Smith, who initially named it Dive after a Nirvana song. To avoid confusion with a 1990s Belgian industrial group, Smith changed the spelling to DIIV in 2012. The project quickly expanded into a full band, enlisting Andrew Bailey, Devin Ruben Perez, and Colby Hewitt to bring Smith’s bedroom demos to life. Their debut album, Oshin, released in 2012, drew from diverse influences including Malian guitar music, krautrock, and C86 bands, earning a place on several year-end critical lists.
The band’s trajectory was marked by significant instability. During the creation of their second album, Is the Is Are, released in 2016, the group faced personnel changes and Smith’s personal struggles, which led to the cancellation of a European tour. Following the departure of bassist Devin Ruben Perez in 2017 amid controversy, the band solidified its current lineup. This period of reflection and internal restructuring preceded a stylistic pivot toward a darker, heavier sound on their 2019 album, Deceiver, which critics noted for its grunge-inflected riffs and artistic maturity.
By 2023, DIIV’s evolution reached a new scale when they opened for Depeche Mode on the Memento Mori World Tour, performing in major arenas across the United States. Their 2024 release, Frog in Boiling Water, further signaled their thematic shift, using Daniel Quinn’s metaphor from The Story of B to critique the slow, banal collapse of society under capitalism. Through constant experimentation and a refusal to remain static, DIIV has transitioned from a niche indie act into a band capable of capturing the anxieties of the modern condition.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: DIIV
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