Dirty Beaches

Alex Zhang Hungtai (traditional Chinese: 張洪泰; simplified Chinese: 张洪泰; pinyin: Zhāng Hóngtài; Wade–Giles: Chang Hung-t'ai; born 4 September 1980) is a Taiwanese-born Canadian musician, composer, and actor. He has released music under the stage names Dirty Beaches and Last Lizard.

Zhang released several EPs and three albums as Dirty Beaches on cassette-only labels before releasing his fourth full-length album, Badlands, in March 2011. Unlike his earlier work, Badlands includes his vocals on most songs. The album was long-listed for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize. Drifters/Love Is The Devil followed in 2013, pushing further into no wave, electronic music, jazz and ambient territory.

In 2014, Zhang ended the Dirty Beaches project after releasing the instrumental album Stateless, on which he played the saxophone. As Last Lizard, he collaborated with jazz and improvisational musicians and released new solo pieces on SoundCloud, Vimeo and Vine. In 2016 he released the instrumental piano album Knave of Hearts under his own name.

Zhang has also recorded original film soundtracks for several films and documentaries, including Water Park (2012), Who Is Arthur Chu? (2017) and Godland (2022), in addition to directing music videos for himself and others.

Early life Alex Zhang Hungtai was born September 4, 1980 in Taipei to Chinese parents from Shanghai. His parents immigrated to Canada with Zhang, where they settled in the Etobicoke neighborhood of Toronto. His parents returned to Taiwan when Zhang was 14, forcing him to move to New York City to live with his cousin in Queens. Zhang's mother disapproved the idea of him living in Queens, as his cousin was a drug dealer. Zhang subsequently moved to Hawaii to live with his sister in Honolulu, where he went to college to study psychology. He joined a Sepultura influenced band, however was kicked out due to “not being masculine enough."

In 2003, Zhang dropped out of college to join a indie rock band that was the opening act for The Strokes's Honolulu show. As Dirty Beaches, Zhang released work on record labels worldwide after his first album, Old Blood, released on Montreal-based Fixture Records in 2007. He recorded and toured with musicians such as Dum Dum Girls, U.S. Girls, Tonya Harding, Ela Orleans, and Xiu Xiu.

In 2011, Zhang left a kitchen job to play music full-time. First touring solo, he then put together a live band with saxophone player Francesco De Gallo and drummer Jesse Locke. On tour, the band moved away from the sample-based rock of Badlands to embrace a more improvised sound. In 2012, guitarist Shub Roy and electronic musician Bernardino Femminielli joined the band live and in the studio.

After Badlands released in 2011, followed by several EPs and collaborations, the band recorded 75 minutes of new material in late 2012 and early 2013. One set of songs, Drifters, began at La Brique recording space in Montreal and features Zhang's vocals and songwriting, along with instrumental contributions by Roy, Femminielli, De Gallo, and Locke. Using live instruments such as the guitar, bass, keyboard, drum machines and saxophones arranged into original loops. None of the eight songs sampled previously existent recordings, a change from previous methods. While he was recording Drifters, Zhang moved to Berlin. On the invitation his friend Anton Newcombe of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, he finished the record in Newcombe's studio and also recorded Love is the Devil, an instrumental set of eight songs, in late hours when the studio was not in use.

Drifters/Love Is The Devil eventually released as a double LP, as well as on a single CD and in digital formats, on the Zoo Music label in May 2013. In November, Dirty Beaches played the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Camber Sands, United Kingdom.

In August 2014, Zhang announced a new album, Stateless, which later released in November 2014. In December 2014, filmmaker Loic Zimmermann released an extended music video for the track Time Washes Everything Away, focussing on Zhang recording in Lisbon.

In a series of tweets in October 2014, Zhang announced the retirement of Dirty Beaches.

Last Lizard and film scores In early 2015, Zhang began releasing music under the project name Last Lizard. He also started releasing music under his full name. According to Pitchfork, "since retiring the Dirty Beaches moniker in 2014, having completed the transition from songs to soundscaping, Zhang has fully indulged his newfound aesthetic freedom. Whether he's releasing meditative piano instrumentals, forming violent free-jazz trios, or constructing dark, dissonant sound collages with Love Theme, Zhang is never afraid to expose his work's jagged edges. He's long favoured a raw field-recording ambience that amplifies the overarching sense of improvised experiments being caught on tape in real time".

In July 2018, Zhang released the album Divine Weight. The recording process originated from Zhang's dissatisfaction with his saxophone recordings prompting him to feed them through a laptop, "manipulating the sounds into entirely new forms, like rusted copper piping stripped out of an abandoned building and melted down into shiny, interwoven wiring".

In 2017, Zhang appeared in the fifth, David Lynch-directed episode of the revived third season of Twin Peaks. Playing with Dean Hurley and Riley Lynch as part of the group Trouble. The song, Snake Eyes, was issued as a single by Sacred Bones Records.

In 2018, he appeared alongside Jessica Henwick and Kiko Mizuhara in the short film Yo! My Saint, directed by Ana Lily Amirpour, featuring music from Karen O and Michael Kiwanuka, promoting the fashion label Kenzo's spring line. Zhang also starred as Konrad in the Canadian independent film "A", directed by Mitchell Stafiej. The film was released in 2018 featured other notable musicians such as Bernardino Femminielli, Maica Armata, and Petra Glynt. He also contributed original music to the film, recorded entirely on set, in character, during production.

In 2018, the film August at Akiko's had its premiere at film festivals. Directed by Christopher Makoto Yogi and set in Zhang's childhood home in Honolulu. The film features Zhang in a leading role, alongside Zhang's sax based original score, which was released as a soundtrack album.

Personal life Zhang lives in Los Angeles with his wife.

Discography

Studio albums As Dirty Beaches Old Blood (2007, Fixture Records) Horror (2008, Fixture Records) Night City (2010, Night People) Badlands (2011, Zoo Music) Drifters/Love Is the Devil (2013, Zoo Music) Stateless (2014, Zoo Music)

As Alex Zhang Knave Of Hearts (2016, Ascetic House) Divine Weight (2018, NON Worldwide) Young Gods Run Free (2020) Swimming Bird (2022) Dras (2026, Shelter Press) Orion/Mother (2026, American Dreams) Wild Gander (2026, Industrial Coast)

Collaborative albums Split (2009, Campaign for Infinity) split album with Omon Ra II, as Dirty Beaches Mae Mae (2011, free download) collaborative album with Apollo Ghosts, as Masterchef Decadent (2010, Campaign for Infinity) split album with Generic Shit, Hobo Cubes & Street Gnar, as Dirty Beaches Double Feature (2011, Night People/ La Station Radar/ Atelier Ciseaux) split album with Ela Orleans, as Dirty Beaches Statement (2012, Clan Destine Records) split album with Ela Orleans, Slim Twig & U.S. Girls, as Dirty Beaches Love Theme (2017, Alter) collaborative project with Austin Milne and Simon Frank Longone (2020) collaborative album with Tseng Kuo-Hung STYX (2020, PSY X) collaborative album with Pavel Milyakov KETU (2022, Futuro Familiar) collaborative album with Pedro Alves Sousa, David Maranha and Gabriel Ferrandini RAHU (2022, Futuro Familiar) collaborative album with Pedro Alves Sousa, David Maranha, Gabriel Ferrandini & Júlia Reis

Live albums The Spirit of Crazy Horse (Live at Landmark: Bergen, Norway) (2012, digital release) as Dirty Beaches Âncora (2016, Grain Of Sound) collaboration with David Maranha and Gabriel Ferrandini trio, as Alex Zhang

Singles and EPs As Dirty Beaches Chess Music EP (2007) Seaside EP (2008, Fixture Records) Bird EP (2009, Fixture Records) Dirty Beaches cassette (2009, Night People) Golden Desert Sun single (2010, Italian Beach Babes) B Side cassette (2010, La Station Radar) True Blue single (2010, Zoo Music) Solid State Gold cassette (2010, Rose Mansion Analog) No Fun single (2011, Italian Beach Babes) Lone Runner single (2011, Suicide Squeeze Records) Tarlabaşı single (2012, BRONSON Produzioni) Dune Walker single (2012, Slowboy Records) Elizabeth's Theme single (2012, Kingfisher Bluez) Hotel EP (2014, BIG LOVE Records) Neon Gods of Lost Youth EP (2014)

Collaborative singles and EPs U.S. Girls/Dirty Beaches (2010, Sibling Sex) split EP The Singer (2011, Soft Power Records) split single with Conor Prendergast Xiu Xiu/Dirty Beaches (2012, Bella Union) split single for Record Store Day Dirty Beaches/Tonstartssbandht (2013, Spacebridge Records) split cassette EP Snake Eyes (2017, Sacred Bones Records) single by Trouble, a group comprising Dean Hurley, Riley Lynch and Zhang

Compilations Expressway (2012, Bathetic Records) compilation co-curated by Alex Zhang

Soundtracks Practical ESP (2011) directed by Zoe Kirk-Gushowaty The Hippo (2012) directed by J. Asher Lynch Waterpark (2013) directed by Evan Prosofsky Who Is Arthur Chu? (2017) directed by Yu Gu and Scott Drucker August at Akiko's (2018) directed by Christopher Makoto Yogi I Was a Simple Man (2021) directed by Christopher Makoto Yogi (soundtrack by Zhang and Pierre Guerineau) Godland (2022) directed by Hlynur Pálmason (soundtrack by Zhang)

Music videos As Dirty Beaches "West Coast Bird" (2009) directed by Alex Zhang "Shangri-La" (2010) directed by Alex Zhang "True Blue" (2010) directed by Alex Calder "Lord Knows Best" (2011) directed by Zoe Kirk-Gushowaty "Speedway King" (2011) directed by Alex Zhang "Lone Runner" (2011) directed by Kevin Luna "White Sand" (2011) directed by Tsien-Tsien Zhang, cinematography by Christopher Doyle "Neon Gods & Funeral Strippers" (2012) directed by Alex Zhang "Casino Lisboa" (2013) directed by Gary Boyle "I Dream in Neon" (2013) directed by Michael Lawrence "Stateless" (2014) directed by Alex Zhang "Time Washes Everything Away" (2014) directed by Loic Zimmermann

As Last Lizard "Alex Zhang: Last Lizard" (2015) directed by Emily Kai Bock

Videos directed for other artists "Between" by Night Musik (2015)