From 1999 to 2001 the four superheroes above brought a level of mediocrity in rock and roll to the san francisco bay area that will never be repeated. We were called Civil War Moustache.
From right to left: Steve Galbraith (drums), Dave Thompson (Lead vox / Harmonica), Rob Bradshaw (Bass / Hawaiian shirt) and Zach Cox (Guitar / vox ).
Zach is the reason for this post. He died suddenly on October 16th 2008 due to cardiac arrest. He was 32.
This came as a shock to everyone because Zach was very active. He surfed, snowboarded, played hockey, wakeboarded, skateboarded, rollerbladed, rock climbed, and was about to take up windsurfing. The condition causing his death was a rare hereditary case where his body didn’t break down lipids in the blood properly and an artery had become severely clogged.
Zach was an incredible artist. He was the art director for the video game company Santa Cruz Games. He had also just landed a job with Activision working on a new Guitar Hero game. Some of his art can be found here.
He was also a musical talent. He and I met in 1999 and we formed Civil War Moustache with Steve Galbraith and Rob Bradshaw. We played our first show New Years Eve Y2K. It ruled. We went on to play several other shows and always had so much fun performing- usually in costumes and fake moustaches. He was the heart of the band and wrote pretty much all of the music.
The winter of 2002, Zach moved into my room in Salt Lake City. He wanted to work up at the Canyons resort and snowboard for the winter. It was his “summer break” from school. So every morning, weather I had class that or not, Zach would wake me up and ask if I wanted to go boarding that day. The answer was “no” 90% of the time, but going 10% of the time he asked me still got me up to the mountain about 20 times that winter- way more than I would have gone without him living there. He made other people around them live more. Maybe that’s why his heart kicked out so soon; it gave more.
The best day of snowboarding was Valentine’s day, 2002. We decided we would learn to ride rails. We went on the same run for almost the entire day that let us try riding a rail and experimenting with different board-slides all day long. We got good. Well, he got good, and I became adequate. It was an amazingly beautiful day too. The sun was out and we finished the day boarding in our t-shirts because it had gotten really warm. Driving back down the canyon to Salt Lake in his maroon 80’s BMW we listened to Green Day and Rancid- 2 of Zach’s favorite bands. I was in a bit of a snobby music phaze so I teased him for liking them so much. He just turned it up and sang louder.
I wish I had been in closer contact with Zach for the last couple of years. I moved to Los Angeles and he and his wife lived in Santa Cruz. Losing someone before you have a chance to say goodbye is really frustrating. I want to go snowboarding one last time with him. I really want a Civil war Moustache reunion show. I want to go skateboarding in the parking lot across the street from our house in Salt Lake. I know people have nothing but good things to say about friends who’ve died too young, so it may sound cliche to those who didn’t know him, but Zach really was special. He may have lived the happiest and most care-free life that I know of. He did what he loved, he loved who he was with, and everyone loved being around him. I’m going to miss him.
We love you Zach.
