Zack Villere, a 21-year-old Los Angeles musician and producer, is a fresh new face in the music scene. Producing lo-fi beats under the moniker “froyo ma,” Zack took influence from other Los Angeles musicians such as Flying Lotus. It wasn’t until he ditched that name and started to sing over his instrumentals with a low, innocent croon that he may have developed yesterday for all we know. Going by his birth name at this point, Villere strikes a great balance between endearing songs and funky instruments, some sort of “geek-groove,” that seems to be the natural progression for a lot of modern lo-fi producers.
“Cool” is a fun track. Barely hitting the two-minute mark, Zack talks about how he has “always wanted to be cool.” He gets invited to a party by a girl, decides he doesn’t like how he looks, then changes his mind and decides he, in fact, is cool. Over the plunky rhythms and jazzy chords, it’s a lot of fun following him in his wholesome adventure to become cool. There’s little to dislike about this track. He sings in key, the beat is bouncy, the lyrics are goofy and the video even moreso.
Hopefully, Villere takes this approach to an EP or full-length project soon, because “Cool” has received lots of attention online since it dropped this past week. “Cool” is a refreshing and catchy take on being young and bored. Villere has tons of self-awareness for someone his age and it’s not hard to imagine him blowing up in a couple months or so if he keeps dropping tracks like this. And if Zack is reading this, we want you to know that you are, as a matter of fact, super cool.
