Zach Hill

Based out of Sacramento, California, drummer Zach Hill is best known as half of the adventurous indie rock group Hella, but he has also spent time in Twiggy Ramirez and Chris Goss' project Goon Moon, the experimental supergroup Nervous Cop, and the Ladies with Pinback's Rob Crow, and he often collaborates with guitarist Mick Barr. In 2004 he took steps toward a solo career, with Masculine Drugs being released as a Zach Hill and Holy Smokes album, but the 2006 follow-up, Talk to Your Kids About Gangs, was credited to just Holy Smokes. That same year the unhinged Shred Earthship appeared on the 5 Rue Christine label as a Zach Hill and Mick Barr release. In 2008 he moved to Mike Patton's Ipecac imprint for Astrological Straits, a solo album with guests ranging from Primus' Les Claypool to LCD Soundsystem's Tyler Pope. A vinyl version of the record appeared on the "avanthop" label Anticon. After more collaborations (with Marnie Stern, No Age, Prefuse 73, and Wavves, to name a few), Hill released his second solo album, 2010's Face Tat. In 2011, he started the experimental hip-hop group Death Grips with keyboardist Andy Morin and vocalist Stefan Burnett, and the act became Hill's top priority over the next few years. The project proved to be difficult, but enthralled audiences. In 2013, he continued to push boundaries when he collaborated with fellow drummers Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney) and Matt Cameron (Pearl Jam) for Drumgasm, an album that simply featured the three bashing their kits for 40 minutes. ~ David Jeffries, Rovi