Hello

I’m Zach Barocas. I’m a stationery shop owner, a drummer (I play Ludwig Drums), a publisher, and an amateur photographer in Brooklyn, New York.

If I’m known at all, it’s usually for my drumming in Jawbox, BELLS≥, and The Up On In. I currently record and compose with/as New Freedom Sound, a gathering and reassembly of improvised performances.

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Many years ago the writer Lucy Sante wrote that living in New York City was like living off the coast of America. She was referring to Manhattan, of course, which for many people was the entirety of the city back then in the late-1970s and early-1980s. I have taken this remark to heart, and noting a shift of cultural emphasis to Brooklyn and eventually Queens these last 25 or 30 years, I have adopted her view and think of us here in Manhattan and Brooklyn and Queens, and even Staten Island (though differently), as living off the coast, still a bit out of step, both ahead of and behind the trends on the mainland. The Bronx fits into this scheme as a kind of safe-zone, a first or last refuge on the edge of America, depending on which way you’re going.

Questions? Comments? Drop me a line at [email protected].