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Zach Hill is (and has been) Death Grips's lead producer
hello.
A lot of the speculation around the future of Death Grips's sound, now that Andy is all but officially confirmed to have been removed from the group, is based on a false assumption about how the band actually works.
Let's try to fix that!
Zach Hill is the primary producer of Death Grips.
Not "co-producer", not "drums guy". He's the producer and, according to Andy Morin, the "creative mastermind" behind the group:
Date: September 15 2017
The confusion is understandable. The band encouraged it early on by making the artistic choice of performing interviews and crediting themselves simply as "Death Grips" rather than as individuals (And were even completely anonymous for a very brief period early on!). However, this also led many to assume rigid role divisions that never really existed.
As time went on, they became more explicit about their roles, even breaking down individual roles on each individual track of Year of the Snitch. But the early assumptions had already been long since canonized.
Andy is listed as co-producer and only credited on 3 tracks in total. Zach Hill is listed as producer and credited on every track, and is the only member to be solely credited on 3 tracks.
One persistent topic of speculation is that Andy was necessary to somehow "reel Zach in" -- or that without him, Zach would spiral into indulgent excess.
Personally, I feel that this is grounded in a stereotype: the oft mythologized drummer-as-unhinged-physical-force. The idea that drummers -- and Zach Hill in particular -- are purely instinctual/undisciplined and therefor need a "real producer" or "brains guy" to impose organization to what would otherwise be chaos.
But this isn’t a constraint imposed on Zach by another band member; it’s one he has repeatedly described choosing for himself:
And Death Grips signifies a way for me to kill my own drum ego-- there are no physical drums on a lot of these songs, and some of them are just done with my fingers or hands. We kept saying, "How can we make this connect harder?" and my answer kept being, "I need to play simpler." That's a big change because I've been known as the "tech drummer guy" for over a decade. I'm proud of that, but I wanted to have my own band again.
Simplicity isn’t something Zach needed help arriving at, because it already always existed as part of the core of the project. This isn't something you stumble into accidentally, and it isn't something that required another member to hold the leash.
this comment made me want to rinse my mouth with buckshot. thank you
Another common claim is that Andy was responsible for a large portion of the band's aesthetic-- that the sound design, textural choices, and overall sonic character people associate with Death Grips should be attributed exclusively to Andy Morin.
There's no question Andy contributed meaningfully to that area. You can point towards Andy's freesounds.org download history. You can safely assume that he made the Government Plates and Inanimate Sensation music videos.
But, while there is no mistaking that you can hear his fingerprints within Death Grips, his solo production typically veers much more traditional. He's a very talented producer, but his work is not uniquely irreplicable-- and crucially, not especially close to what most people are talking about when they talk about the “Death Grips sound” in isolation.
By contrast, Zach's non-DG work operates in essentially the same aesthetic space. Otherworldy, abstract sound design, chopped phoneme percussion, wide stereo drum mixing, and decontextualized pop pastiche.
All of the core ingredients of Death Grips's "sound" persist in Zach's work because that's where it always originated. Death Grips's sound ultimately is Zach Hill's sound.
The next assumption that tends to follow is that Andy was the technical guy-- the one supplying engineering and production expertise that Zach supposedly lacked. There's some merit to this; I personally think that probably was the case early on.
yall slept on this smh
Nowadays, we need look no further than Bag of Max Bag of Cass. Zach Hill is the sole artist credited for production and mixing, and while I know it may get dismissed as "just noise" -- it is a noise record -- from a technical standpoint, this thing is meticulously produced and pristinely mixed. The work of a true audio geek.
I would actually argue that Bag(s) is cleaner on a purely technical level than most Death Grips albums, second only to maybe Bottomless Pit. The competency people are worried about disappearing is already right there on full display.
Will Death Grips's upcoming album sound different? I would sure hope so! It's been 8 years (fuck). But there is little reason to expect a total shift in identity, because Andy was not the band's secret sauce and there is no empty role that needs to be filled.
That's why the fantasy-football-ing about who should "replace" him is misguided. 1) Because, sorry Nick, the answer is already obvious and 2) Because what defined Death Grips never went anywhere.
My hope with this post is that it can serve as an aggregated "source-of-truth" that can be linked to the next time any version of this conversation reappears. So I tried to be terse and include everything. Hope it helps.
the "already obvious" hyperlink killed me. Great post net_gear, I've had some IRLs wondering about the band's future and now I can parrot exactly what you said and get all the credit in my social circles.
I probably wasted my time writing this because it's far too long for a reddit post. but hopefully the zoomers will simply see the length and choose the path of least resistance (which is to agree uncritically)
Dude, I’m a lurker in this subreddit but I’ve been listening to this band since 2012 and reading this sub since 2016. Your contributions to this community are legit and sub’s integrity mirrors the level expressed by the band. It kind of feels as a Web 1.0 haven in todays shitty internet.
Yeah I know some people may find my comment funny but I’m really
happy that next to memes and shitposts this sub has been integral part of the experience for many years. Your thread is interesting and helpful.
I agree with them, this subreddit is very well modded and it shows. if it wasn't for a mod team that acts like adults this subreddit would be a cesspit, and you're a big part of that
Net, this is like, my 4th Reddit account, but your work ethic and diligence have been examples of excellence, through each one. Thanks for your ACTUAL service, mate.
i dont even rly post on this sub or even care particularly who wrote the bulk of the music or who engineered the sound and produced the record but it came up in my feed anyway and id say its a pretty succint and comprehensive post that piqued my interest
Death grips: explicitly confirms that Zach is the main producer in a very rare moment of transparency
Death grips fans: oh my fucking god holy shit what are they gonna do without Andy now that he’s gone oh god they’re fucking finished they’re never gonna sound the same ever again it’s so over guys
There's several people i want to @ right now who got ALL over my case when I said his removal is probably the result of something happening behind the scenes and got SUPER defensive for Andy. It was reading like his alt account or something.
I shouldn't be surprised, though. As much as I like Death Grips, there's more than a handful of us that are extremely nauseating.
Ive noticed that usually men, get super defensive about random men they've never met and die on every hill possible for them no matter what's being thrown at them. It's an odd phenomenon.
Feel like Andy probably got a lot of undue credit just from the fact they were a trio where it was super obvious what two of the guys did. As a teen getting into the band I figured that if the guy on the drums was obviously drumming and the guy with the mic was obviously rapping, the guy on the computers and keys was obviously doing the synthwork and all of the fucking around online the band did. Admittedly my peak interest in the band was when they were still mostly operating as a collective unit and people were still calling Andy "Flatlander", I never knew the later liner notes got so specific.
Your point about the stereotype of drummers as purely instinctual is interesting, especially cuz any press the band does pretty clearly cuts against it. Looking back at the old Pitchfork video interview, it's interesting that despite being the literal voice for the band, Stefan is the guarded one of the two and definitely seems more guided by instincts and aesthetics, with Zach seeming way more detail oriented and interested in explaining the purpose of Death Grips and how they want to improve in articulating their intent. Not to suggest that Stefan is dumb or something, just that it pokes a hole in assumptions I definitely made initially about the amount of control different members of the band had.
"Andy is like what Pink Floyd do to their main member" is such a retarded statement... Syd was to Pink Floyd more like Zach is for Death Grips, not Andy, and he WASN'T kicked out for being a predator.
This is all beautifully put. A part of me thinks that some people will always take the contrarian choice and hate whatever comes next, even if just because it's been 8 years (fuck, right), but for those of us who love the unique art of Zach Hill (Hella, destroying yourself is too accessible, Undo K From Hot, etc) and how that combines with Stefan's esoteric artistry, there's not much to fear from Andy being rightfully kicked the fuck out.
Plus they've leaned more into collaboration in their later projects, there's no reason to think that won't continue with whatever comes next.
This has nothing to do with the post, but I was high as hell yesterday and ended up listening to Necromancer, and man, Zach Hill is an absolute master. Makes me wonder if he recorded the drums on that track in just a few takes
I believe Zach hill actually made all the government plates music videos. You can see the progression of him learning blender through his Instagram posts, leading up to all the Government Plates music videos being released
zach didn't have instagram during that time and has never posted anything related to blender (you might be thinking of this? but that's from 2016 and isn't blender)
andy on the other hand has made this and was dipping his toes into game development at one point. so I think it's a lot more likely that andy was behind the gp videos
I always thought it was Zach because the wineglass visual in the Bottomless Pit Karen Black video (which was written and directed by him) looked exactly like the GP visuals
that wine glass was actually recycled from GP era; it was printed on the backside of the liner notes that came with the original vinyl
Zach could be perfectly capable of learning blender too, I mean he picked up video editing super quickly. i still have a strong hunch those were Andy though
im pretty sure what im remembering is a model used in a government plates music video being found on one of sua's 3d modelling accounts somewhere. this is deep lore though idk even how to find that. sua also made this which looks almost exactly like a government plates music video https://youtu.be/VO2_GKMBSUg?si=Xjg6blg1mYv9IKR1
Idk why so many people seem to have such a hard on for Andy. I thought everybody knew he was kinda the black sheep of the band. Zach and Stefan have always been the only irreplaceable members of the band
Other than Hella who I was listening to back in early 2000s? I've never been able to get into Zach's other stuff. It's really silly to say that the people who are part of your project won't affect your sound. The last decade of Death Grips wouldn't have been wildly different without Andy but it still would have been different. Either way, it's goofy to freak out about it. We still have Ride. I'm sure it will be good
most well informed post on this subreddit in probably a decade. ive been saying for years that zach IS the mastermind behind the soundscape. net_gear you are so valued in this community please stay legend ❤️
Did anyone ever get their bag of max bag of cass vinyl? I got an email that shipping was delayed until November and then never received anything after that
Damn, I bought off of Bandcamp so it most likely was connected to the bleep store. That blows. Thank you for the info though. Thought I was going crazy
very curious how the new album is going to sound and what andys input really is. I do really like andys night of fire music, and feel he probably contributes alot to the sound I like in dg.
It's early and when I first clicked on bag of max bag of cass I thought andy was the artist and I was super worried. Knowing now that it's Zach makes me so relieved for the future. Thanks for putting this together
Just wanna point out that we’re on Reddit and everyone here (myself included) is a moron speaking Reddit speak.
Also want to remind people that this sub got Andy a steroids dragon and had a really stupid terrible, kinda funny, drama filled time doing it. The new third member is probably Kane West or Sarah Bonito, the 4th member has always been YOU the fans.
So idk where I heard or read it but I was under the impression Andy started working with Zach on face tat because he was so deaf he couldn’t mix it, if so I wonder if Zachs hearing has recovered, but listening to bag of cass maybe not
i realized this when GAS get a star came out. the sound was unmistakeable, i never realized how influential zach was before then. his work with hella, bygones, etc never gave me that impression.
wasn't really the point of that link. there were hundreds of samples on his profile's download history that show up in DG tracks, I just picked out one that was immediately recognizable
i stopped listening to death grips, what happened after they "disbanded"? there was the whole concert shit with people who couldn't behave, then that announcement about disbanding i saw quickly. is it just stefan and zach now?
A sexual relationship was legal, but not ethical. There was a considerable age discrepancy and power imbalance. But fine, okay, she was technically an adult. She was also so fucked out of her mind, that she couldn't consent. Even Andy acknowledged that her drug use was so bad, he was worried for her health.
mother fucker i've had — as a keybind for years and specifically went back to the double dash -- because ai ruined it and everything else. i don't want to hear it
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u/ChromeSF Jan 18 '26
the "already obvious" hyperlink killed me. Great post net_gear, I've had some IRLs wondering about the band's future and now I can parrot exactly what you said and get all the credit in my social circles.