Fundraiser launched for DIIV’s Zachary Cole Smith after losing home in LA wildfires

A crowd-backed fundraiser has been launched in support of DIIV frontman Zachary Cole Smith, whose house has been destroyed in the ongoing Los Angeles wildfires – find out more below.

• READ MORE: DIIV tackle their existential crisis: “This album just feels so hard fought”

Earlier this week (January 7), a series of raging wildfires swept Los Angeles, California, and are still burning strong. The wildfires have forced over 150,000 residents and counting out of their homes, with thousands of houses, vehicles and more being destroyed.

One such victim of the wildfires is DIIV frontman Zachary Cole Smith, his pregnant wife Dani and their two-year-old child Roy. According to a GoFundMe campaign launched by their friend Lindsey Hartman, Smith and his family are safe but have unfortunately had their house burnt and destroyed in the fires.

Hartman wrote: “Dani is also 6 months pregnant, making this already horrifying event even more impossible to bear. This home included all of their possessions (clothing, heirlooms, prized possessions) as well as all of Cole’s musical gear, the family car, and all of their baby supplies for Roy and the newborn on the way.”

As such, a fundraiser has been launched to get the family back on their feet, though Hartman notes that the US$30,000 target sum “will hardly make a dent to the losses they encountered”. At the time of writing, $26,624 of the $30,000 target has been raised.

Zachary Cole Smith and Dani Smith have since written in a statement on the GoFundMe page: “The depth of kindness we have experienced today from our friends, our family, our neighbors, fellow parents, fellow Altadena residents, and complete strangers has been truly unbelievable.

“We are just one of many, many families who have lost their homes today. some of the most profound kindness we’ve experienced today has been from other families who lost their homes as well. We are not alone, which has brought us a lot of sadness but also a strange sense of comfort and community.

They continued: “We are floored by the kindness that’s been extended to us and we gratefully accept each contribution to help us bring roy a new sense of normalcy: his favorite toys, his favorite books, a crib, clothes, the comforts of the home we all loved. And to help us recreate the atmosphere we had hoped to welcome our new baby into…. Anyway, I don’t know what more to say. Thank you for making us feel so deserving of your generosity. We love you.”

To make a contribution to their cause, you can visit the GoFundMe page here.

Meanwhile, other musicians and figures from the entertainment world have reacted to the Los Angeles wildfires. Actors including Mark Hamill, James Woods and Mandy Moore have been forced to evacuate from the homes, while the likes of Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande and more have taken to social media to share helpful links to resources to help those in need.

Speaking to NME last year about their latest album ‘Frog In Boiling Water’, DIIV shared that the making of the record nearly tore them apart. Cole explained: “We had no label so we were paying out of our own pocket more or less to make the record. So it felt like our investment was pretty big. And because the record took so long to make, we weren’t touring for a year. It created a more fraught environment because the band is very much our livelihood, and we’re all investing so much into this thing.”

He added: “And then it’s our friendships and our creativity and they all become intertwined so it becomes really difficult to make decisions, because there’s so much wrapped up in every single one. Maybe this one decision you make could be the one that makes the record a flop and we all go broke and that’s it. It really feels like that in the moment.”

In a three-star review of the album, Tom Morgan wrote for NME: “A quiet, undemanding and opaque album, ‘Frog In Boiling Water’ will appeal to a section of shoegaze fans that are keen to surrender to its impressionistic, seemingly-timeless charms. Others may ask themselves: why does it feel a bit like we’re living the same day over and over again?”

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