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Name: Zac Waters
Occupation: Producer
Nationality: Australian
Current release: Adult Art Club's new single "Shaded Blu" is out via Rose Avenue.
Fashion Recommendations: Raf Simons AW04 Oversized Jeans. A nod from Raf to the 90s and early 2000s rave scene and a bridge between music and high fashion.
Hyein Seo Panelled Tech. Hyein just doesn’t miss, she is probably my favourite designer right now. All of her garments are just so intriguing and delicate. This one for me is a hallmark of Korean techwear and not quite as avant-garde, making it a daily wear.

If you enjoyed this interview with Zac Waters of Adult Art Club and would like to know more about the duo, visit the project's Instagram.



Fashion and music are often closely related to one's identity. Can you please tell us a bit about your own sense of identity – and how it motivated you to take an artistic path?

Identity (which I imagine is the same for many others) didn’t exactly come as a “eureka moment” of discovery. It was more of a slow trudge through a swamp, collecting bits and pieces along the way. I never even acknowledged that I was inherently creative until I was 18 or 19, about a year or two after I started playing around with music production on my laptop.

Like others, my identity was forged by what I was surrounded by, my parents being a big part of that. Dad never failed to wear something off the cuff, lots of jewellery, boots, long super-wide-legged pants; things that you wouldn't really picture a serious, composed, 6,3 hulk of a man wearing. Picture Rick Owens' long lost brother. My Step-Mum is a women's fashion designer, and throughout my childhood I would help her out in the office, which was complete with sewing machines, cuts, rolls of fabric and a cutting table.

I think these experiences bled into my mind subconsciously, and looking back, it’s no far cry as to how my identity and creativity was influenced by these things growing up, and consequently the embodiment of Adult Art Club.

In which way do you feel your identity concretely influences your creativity?

I think that just by believing, understanding and allowing myself to be creative. Self-belief is a big part of my identity.

Describe your personal style, please, and how your choice of fashion allows you to express it. Which fashion brands or style icons do you personally find inspiring - and why?

Adult Art Club has built up quite an extensive collection over a long period of time, and while the outfits have changed, a few pieces remain a staple to this day.

Something I wear at every performance is a Legionnaires hat from A Cold Wall.

Not only did this act as an interesting head turner but also gave AAC some unique identity. Wearing this both live and in press has really helped glue our pieces together and bring it all back to AAC, letting AAC have more wardrobe flexibility and staying identifiable.

What was the relationship between music and fashion for you like personally? When was the first time that you became aware of the connection between fashion and music?

Around the age of 7 or 8, younger me was lucky enough to have exposure to acts like The Prodigy. This opened a door to a whole underground music scene, and within that seeing how others express themselves not only musically but visually too.

What do fashion and design add to your perception of music?

In a few ways; it provides visual context to sound and vice versa, it can highlight different themes and points of interest.

Personally I am most captivated by its curator and the choices that they made to arrive at this point.

What can fashion express what music can not?

Simply put, tangibility.

It seems obvious that fashion and music are closely linked, but just how that influence works hasn't always been clear. Would you say that music leads fashion? Is it the other way round? Or are they inseparable in some ways?  

I think that they are both fundamentally different senses, sight and sound. In that context both can exist without each other but I think it’s much more interesting when they are curated together.

Does what you wear change your personality – and thus the music you create or the way you perform?

I don’t think so, what I wear is just a conduit of self expression

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though designing a fashion item or even putting together a great outfit for yourself is inherently different from something like composing a piece of music?

I think that selecting items to wear shares many similarities with making music; layering, adding your own flavour, tone etc. Will this kickdrum fit with these hats or will this chord work in this context? Does my mix have enough energy or is it trying to fly under the radar?

Fashion extends to the artwork of releases and promotional photography as well. Could you talk about your approach in this regard and what some considerations were for some of your most recent cover designs and images?

One of the main themes we indulge in with AAC is our collaboration with other artists in different mediums, most notably House Arrest, a mixed media artist from our hometown of Melbourne who’s artistic vision bleeds into our content.

His designs pair really well with our palette and are incorporated into a larger cohesive body of work.