ZOOLOOK

Dread & Alive: Nine Night Soundtrack

Meet Nicholas Da Silva… the founder and creative director, producer and publisher of ZOOLOOK, an independent mixed-media agency based in San Francisco, CA. Through ZOOLOOK, Nicholas develops intellectual properties that promote a multicultural experience including IRIE Magazine!

As an avid reader of fiction novels, comic books, and graphic novels, while growing up in the U.S., he was disappointed in the lack of positive multicultural heroes and fictional characters in American literature. Coming from a diverse background, he made a promise to change that by meshing cultural fact with fiction. The result from that promise was the publication of two comic book series; Dread & Alive and HITLESS.

Dread & Alive, brainstormed during his teen years, is a Jamaican-inspired mixed-media series spanning comic books, novels and music created and written by Nicholas Da Silva aka ZOOLOOK.

HITLESS, published in 2007, was the first digital comic book/music series produced for the4th-generation iPod and SONY PSP. The series featured an original soundtrack produced as the background theme for the comic book series. The award-winning series got Nicholas featured in Web Designer Magazines HOT 100 for 2008 three times. It also garnered Nicholas his own Web Designer issue (#143) where he shared his creative vision to the masses. Nicholas was also selected as 1 of 100 designers in the world to be called the Chosen One by Adobe in 2008.

In 2011, Nicholas was nominated for the 2011 Glyph Awards in the Rising Star category for his work on Dread & Alive. He’s also been featured in Riddim Magazine (Germany) and is the only 4-time recipient of Web Designer Magazine’s HOT 100 honors (2008-2011). Nicholas has also appeared on NPR, CNN, ABC, and AfroPunk.

Nicholas is currently working on his next story arc for his Dread & Alive series, entitled Nine Night™. The project is a script for an episodic tv series based on the comic book series. The project also includes a 12-song soundtrack which will release on October 31, 2020 (Halloween).

The first song from the soundtrack, titled ‘Still Living Dub’ from artist/ producer Christos DC (aka Christopher Vrenios) featuring Tippy I, released on November 23, 2018.

Nicholas and Christos DC first met in Benacassim, Spain, while attending Rototom Sunsplash (2017). That original meeting was followed up by a road trip to Kaya Fest in 2018. Since then, they have been working together to breathe life into the music side of Dread & Alive.

Last month, Nicholas released the song, ‘TROD’, through his label and under his artists name, ZOOLOOK. He is now working on the remaining tracks for the ‘Nine Night’ soundtrack.

“The music side of Dread & Alive is a soundtrack series featuring an exclusive soundtrack for each story arc that I’ve written.”
As Nicholas continues to work on Dread & Alive, he is inviting reggae artists with a love & passion for comic books to submit their original music for consideration to the Dread & Alive soundtrack.

To do so, you can email IRIE at [email protected] and be sure to include ‘Nine Night’ in the subject area of your email. You can also message him through his Instagram accounts at either @iamzoolook or @dreadandalive.

To learn more about the Dread & Alive series, visit the official website at: DreadandAlive.com