Letting Go with Zilched
Zilched is the Detroit-based grunge project of Chloë Drallos. Writing and playing songs since she was eleven, Chloë began making music as Zilched during the summer of 2017. Her latest and first full length release, DOOMPOP, is a meditation on the albums that helped her navigate her teen years, like Nirvana’s Nevermind and The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Psychocandy. “It’s an honest reflection of my attempts to grow up and make sense of absurdity. With these songs I wanted to go as deep into my insecurities and confusion, however immature I felt,” Drallos says. DOOMPOP found Chloë working with collaborators Nick Russo (drums), Eliot Thomas (bass) and engineer Ben Collins, directing her own music videos, delving into new ventures working with an indie label, relinquishing some control, and letting go of teenage insecurities.
Chloë and I chatted about how she started her band, the creative process behind DOOMPOP, and navigating a male dominated music scene.
Image By Phoebe Dobson
Who inspired you to pick up the guitar and start writing your own songs?
I started playing just guitar at first and didn’t sing for a while. My first big inspiration was Bob Dylan. I was very obsessed with him from ages eleven to fourteen. I love PJ Harvey a lot and Cat Power, too.
What made you start singing?
I didn’t start singing until the end of junior year of high school when I got together to jam with some people. I had been writing for a while and had played with other people, but it never felt right, or I never had anyone in the same mindset to be singing what I was writing. Once I heard people with voices that sounded more like mine, or a voice I could relate to more, like Jim Reid of The Jesus and Mary Chain and Sky Ferreira, I started thinking that I wanted to try to sing. I had never heard pop songs sung by people whose voices weren’t soaring. I listened to a lot of punk music before that too, but didn’t have the same gusto. I didn’t want to scream. Okay I wanted to scream but I couldn’t.
I don’t want to scream either. I mean, I do but I don’t.
I appreciate screaming so much but I feel it doesn’t come out of me.
With Zilched, you’ve talked about Nirvana and Jesus and Mary Chain’s inspiration coming through the most. What rock bands influenced you to start your own?
Joy Division, New Order, a lot of post-punk stuff. I’m kind of half and half with grungier stuff and post punk, new wave and shoegaze. I never mention new bands but love DIIV and Vivian Girls.
DOOMPOP is your first full length release. What was the process like recording the album? Was putting the whole thing together a different process than previous singles and EPs?
I started recording the album the beginning of summer 2019. “Blue Doom” was put out as a single first because it was the first song that we finished. I was making the album with my friend Ben who is an engineer. He has a studio in his house. He’s in a band and he does sound for some bands and has other jobs . . . he’s a very busy person so whenever we both had time, I’d come over to record. We did all the bass and drums for songs in like two days and then I basically took six months of coming over occasionally to do vocals and guitar. It was a very laid-back way to do it and I’m really happy we did it that way.
It always feels better that way. I don’t know how people, like, record an album in two or three days, up all night recording in a studio . . . like how? Why?
Or like write something in the studio, too. I write something alone and I’ll take forever to just be like, okay, this is how I’ll finish it. Then I’ll sit with it before I can even bring it to band members to play on it. I could never do that . . . I mean maybe I could, but I don’t prefer it.
Was this your first time working with a label? What was that experience like?
It was really cool. I finished the album first and sent it to Young Heavy Souls because I had other friends that had put stuff out with them. It was weird to just be like, oh, there’s someone handling these things for me, and I can trust them. That was the weirdest part, because I’m so used to being in control. It was weird to trust that even though I’m not doing it, it’s gonna happen.
Image by Carrigan Drallos
So you did all your own promo and press stuff before?
Yeah, previously. The label handled a press cycle that was more focused on premiers and streaming for this.
“Sleeper” is one of my favorite tracks off the record. What’s the story behind the song?
I have to bite my tongue a little bit. Someone was asking me about it on a podcast I was on here in Detroit and I didn’t bite my tongue and got embarrassed. It’s very much about (and I’m sure it’s relatable for you as a female musician) being around boys all the time and how communication can be so difficult. It’s very much about cyclical pointless conversations where I feel like my input means nothing. You just feel like you can’t steer it anywhere else.
With that line, “Discourse creeper, put me into sleeper” . . . it’s the perfect image to describe that situation of a dude mansplaining and not letting you get a word in. It’s really so violent.
Another one of my favorite tracks is “Sixteen.” I think it really encapsulates the album’s theme of looking back on growing up.
Yeah, that ones the most retrospective one. I kind of realized certain things I was unnecessarily holding onto and tried to put things in a new perspective. I was thinking a lot about how defining certain times were. I think about how fifteen, sixteen can be a pretty dark time but it’s not often depicted that way because no one wants it to be dark when they’re living through it. That was also the age that I really got into heavier music too, so I kind of just wanted to musically make it a song I would’ve liked to hear at that age.
How are you coping with this COVID world after releasing an album? I know you’re doing a lot of live stream shows which is really cool.
I’m definitely not coping but planning the record release has been a form of anti-depressant and something to look forward to. I need to have plans so I can feel like life’s happening.
It sucks not being able to play, but even more so not being able to go see bands, so I’m always thankful when there’s a cool live stream to tune into.
I try to keep them interesting. But it feels so wrong to mostly play in front of a webcam. I did two at the beginning of the lockdown pretty close together and I was like, no more! I felt so weird after.
In line with socially-distanced music things, the “Sleeper” music video was a clever way to virtually film with friends. It features Nina from Push Pop in Philadelphia, who I love. I actually found out about Zilched through her!
That was cool because I got some people I usually wouldn’t be able to film with to be a part of it. I did it so long ago it’s kinda funny to think about. I don’t even know how it felt at that time. I like how webcam stuff looks, anyway. I had no idea I was gonna be putting the album out at that point. But it was cool to get Staz Lindes of The Paranoyds, who I’ve been seeing every time they’re in Detroit since before I had the band. It was a fun.
Any future plans we should keep our eyes peeled for?
I’m planning a music video for “The Knife.” I have no idea when it’s coming out, but soon! And I’ll be doing an Audiotree live session, soon. I’m excited about that.
Keep up with Zilched on Instagram. Snag a physical copy of DOOMPOP on CD or Magenta Vinyl from Bandcamp or Young Heavy Souls.