Zach Hill is a Sacramento-based drummer, composer, and producer known for an unrelenting, fluid percussive style and an enormous catalog of collaborations, anchoring the local bands Hella and Death Grips.[1][2][3] Submerge repeatedly identifies him as a "Sacramento drummer" and "Sacramento-based drummer," placing his origin and home base squarely in the local scene.[3][1] He was born on December 28, 1979, in Sacramento, California.[4]
At a glance
- Drummer of the Sacramento "spaz-rock"/math-rock band Hella, alongside guitarist Spencer Seim.[5][3]
- Drummer and co-creator of the Sacramento experimental hip-hop group Death Grips, with Andy Morin (Flatlander) and Stefan Burnett (MC Ride).[6][2]
- Self-described as having "released over 100 records"; in 2010 alone his drumming appeared on five studio releases.[1]
- Repeatedly described by Submerge as a "Sacramento drummer" / "Sacramento-based drummer."[3][1]
- Self-taught and financially independent as a musician.[1]
Local status
Zach Hill is treated throughout the corpus as a local Sacramento artist. Submerge calls him a "Sacramento drummer" in coverage of Hella,[3] a "Sacramento-based drummer" in a Marnie Stern feature,[1] and lists him as the subject of an interview tagged "Sacramento muscian" / "Sacramento music scene."[1] His band Hella is described as "Sacramento's spaz-rockers," and Death Grips is repeatedly called Sacramento's / Sacramento-based.[5][6][7] Confidence: high.
Early life and pre-Hella
According to Wikipedia, Hill dropped out of high school at age 15 and relocated to Nevada City, California, where he co-founded the band Legs on Earth with Julian Imsdahl, Spencer Seim, and his cousin Josh Hill — a project that preceded Hella.[8] He subsequently moved to San Francisco, where he played drums in the band Crime in Choir before establishing Hella in 2001.[9]
Hella
Hella is the Sacramento band Hill drums in alongside guitarist Spencer Seim.[5][3] Submerge characterizes the group as instrumental "spaz-rock" known internationally for "breakneck time-signature gymnastics," technical guitar-and-drum patterns, and explosive live shows.[3][7] The band had operated as a two-piece until 2005, then expanded; in 2009 Hill and Seim announced via Myspace that they were writing a new record as a duo again, intending to record and finish it that year.[5]
In April 2011 Hill announced on Facebook that the new Hella album was finished, generating strong fan response.[3] He described it as recorded in Oak Park with Andy Morin, mixed by the band, "pretty raw," instrumental and loud, and primarily drums and guitar (with Seim also playing bass on every track); it was slated for a July 26 or Aug. 2 release via Sargent House.[3] That album, Tripper, was released in 2011, after which Hella went on "a hiatus of sorts," partly because of Hill's many other projects such as Death Grips.[7] Earlier, Hella's fourth full-length, There's No 666 in Outer Space (circa 2007), notably featured Nevada City freak-folk vocalist Aaron Ross.[7]
Hella's complete studio discography spans the band's active years of 2001–2011: Hold Your Horse Is (2002, 5 Rue Christine), The Devil Isn't Red (2004, 5 Rue Christine), Church Gone Wild/Chirpin' Hard (2005, Suicide Squeeze), There's No 666 in Outer Space (2007, Ipecac Recordings), and Tripper (2011, Sargent House).[10]
Death Grips
Death Grips is the Sacramento experimental hip-hop / "rap-punk" group built around Hill.[6][11] Submerge frames Hill and producer Andy Morin (aka Flatlander) as the group's creative engine—"the Reanimators of the group"—who found their "vessel" in vocalist Stefan Burnett (MC Ride), a "dude from Oak Park."[2][6] Submerge suggests the Death Grips sound may have originated on Hill's solo album Face Tat, citing the track "Jackers" as sounding "like the birthplace of Death Grips."[2]
Death Grips officially formed on December 21, 2010, in Sacramento; Burnett, who was Hill's next-door neighbor at the time, was recruited by Hill for the project, and Andy Morin was brought in to produce.[12]
The group emerged in 2011 as a "mysterious Zach Hill project," with early secret/surprise shows at the Press Club and at Townhouse Lounge (the "Grimey" set on June 7, 2011), and an anticipated Davis house show.[6] Their Ex-Military mixtape kept the project's identity "in the confines of Oak Park."[2][6] Death Grips' rise was rapid: a signing to Epic, two 2012 albums (The Money Store and No Love Deep Web), Coachella and All Tomorrow's Parties appearances, and a European tour.[2] They played Harlow's on May 5, 2012 as part of the Sacramento Electronic Music Festival.[2] In October 2012, the group leaked No Love Deep Web for free—reportedly after Epic would not confirm a release date—accompanied by deliberately provocative cover art, in a widely covered controversy.[11]
The group announced their disbandment in July 2014, then reunited in early 2015. In April 2025, they posted "Despite rumor and hearsay we remain active," and as of November 2025 had announced a new album in development.[13]
Solo work and "Tao of Drumming"
Hill is described as extraordinarily prolific. By 2010 he claimed to have "released over 100 records," and that year his drum credit appeared on five studio releases: Cryptomnesia (El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez-Lopez), Ice Capped at Both Ends (Diamond Watch Wrists), by- (the duo Bygones), Aggressively Humble (CHLL PLL), and his own solo album Face Tat, set for release Oct. 19, 2010.[1] At the time he was one of the artists drumming on Sargent House Records.[1]
Hill recorded Face Tat over roughly a year, in breaks between touring, with Andy Morin at "home studios all over town" (in Sacramento).[1] He described his composition method as a "sound collage style"—recording with friends, then cutting up, deconstructing, or reworking their contributions into something new.[1] An exception was the title track "Face Tat," a duet with guitarist Carson McWhirter.[1] His drumming is characterized by constant movement, unorthodox time signatures, and rapid double-bass-drum work, an approach he likened to a stream-of-consciousness "hyperfluidness" and "infinite" practice without pauses.[1][2][7] Submerge notes his touring around this period included South Korea and Japan with Carson McWhirter and an Australian leg with the Boredoms.[1]
His solo studio discography includes Astrological Straits (2008, co-released on Ipecac Recordings and Anticon) and Face Tat (2010), plus Lil Scuzzy released under the alias Xach Hill (2011).[14]
The I.L.Y's
In 2015, Hill and Andy Morin co-founded The I.L.Y's in Sacramento — an experimental rock side project separate from Death Grips, with Hill handling vocals, drums, guitar, and keyboard and Morin on guitar and bass.[15]
Collaborations and scene relationships
Hill's collaborative footprint runs throughout the Sacramento scene and beyond:
- Marnie Stern: When her label asked her dream drummer, Stern named Hill, who agreed to play and produce her project and toured with her.[1]
- Raleigh Moncrief: The Sacramento producer collaborated with Hill and toured in Marnie Stern's band; Moncrief had played in a project with Hill alongside his post-rock work.[16]
- CHLLNGR (Steven Borth): Borth recounted noisy Bay Area recording sessions where he invited Hill over to lay down drums, requiring advance warnings to his landlord and neighbors; the loudness reportedly "shook the whole house."[17][18]
- Wavves (Nathan Williams): Williams recorded then-unreleased music with Hill ("Hella's Zach Hill"), pending the end of a contract window.[19]
- Team Sleep / Deftones (DJ Crook): DJ Crook worked with Hill on Team Sleep, intertwining work with Chino Moreno and Zach Hill; by 2015, Hill was "super busy with Death Grips" and not involved that round (Gil Sharone drumming instead).[20]
- Andy Morin: A recurring engineer/collaborator—on Face Tat, the 2011 Hella album, the G. Green debut Crap Culture, and as Death Grips' Flatlander.[1][3][2][21]
- G. Green: Within the local scene, founding bassist Julian Elorduy left G. Green after bandmate Liz Liles broke up with him for "Hella drummer Zach Hill."[21]
- Pinback (Rob Crow): Crow referenced Hill in the context of his project The Ladies ("hint, hint Zach Hill"), with whom Hill had collaborated.[22]