Detroit’s grunge-pop singer-songwriter Zilched (Chloë Drallos) shares her newest single + video, “A Valentine.” It’s the first half of a special two song release, serving as the A-side to her fuzzed out take on the Stevie Nicks classic “Stand Back.” The track finds Zilched comfortably operating in her thundering pop-saturated, loud-quiet-loud dynamic that earned last year’s debut album DOOMPOP support from several outlets. Zilched is also currently on tour with Heaven Honey, with dates available below.

Lyrically, Drallos says “A Valentine” is “about realizing you don’t need to conform to anyone’s expectations of you, romantically or otherwise,” while the video, shot amongst friends one night in an abandoned church, and co-directed by Drallos, brings to mind a Bauhaus or Love and Rockets-helmed Madonna video fit for 80’s-era Top of The Pops or 90s-era MTV. Paired with “Stand Back,” the two song outing is linked by a shared sense of resilience. “I think both songs share the same, secure, conviction; choosing to stick your own guns against adversity,” Drallos says. 

Drallos has been making music as Zilched since the summer of 2017. Her debut EP Pulling Teeth was released in 2018 and provided the first glimpse of Zilched’s dizzying, wildly unpredictable noise-pop. Following this, Zilched released “Sleeper” following “The Morning” and “Blue Doom” in 2019, before her sound was amplified and solidified on 2020’s debut. Alongside Drallos, collaborator Nick Russo provides a droning percussive force—and when the correct pieces are in place, the explosive meets the ethereal. Drallos’ music is at its best; like a Lynchian dream sequence, embodying the notorious ethos of its hometown, Detroit: anxious poetics and a dark, underlying force that leads us into the unknown.

Photo Courtesy:  Julia Koza