Throughout the late-2000’s, under the deafening raucousness of festivals like Stereosonic, the smoky clubs of Melbourne, and the sweaty, oft-nihilistic insides of the gym, a transformation of the male-aesthete in Australia began to unfold.
A once scrawny and subjugated teenager – in his own words “a sad cunt” – named Zyzz (real name Aziz Shavershian) floated into Australian culture sporting shredded abs, straightened hair and tanned skin. Alongside his dedication for bodybuilding came a love of hardstyle music and, importantly, muzzing.
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Using terms like “mirin” (admiring) and “jelly” (jealous), Zyzz grew a cult following that differed from the hyper-masculine bodybuilding frame-of-mind that had previously littered the fitness world. Instead, Zyzz turned the message of “being yourself” and enjoying life. To him, you could have fun while still shredding.
Subsequently, those that looked up to him saw a collision of both the muzzing world and the bodybuilding lifestyle. For many, the transformation from being a “sad cunt” to a “God” instigated positive change in their lives.
Though it’s been a decade since the unfortunate passing of the bodybuilder, model and revered muzzer, at present his legacy has grown in new and unexpected ways, kept alive by those dedicated to the mentality that he lived by.
To this day, bodybuilders around the globe – introduced through old Youtube videos, newer TikTok videos and sheer legacy – continue to push the movement forward. One of those is US hard-style artist and bodybuilder, Baby Zyzz, also known under the moniker of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and ecstasy.
For Baby Zyzz – especially during the pandemic, when the hyper-online dragged themselves through bouts of stress and depression – the community grew. Mostly thanks to TikTok but also the dooming isolation that pressed the idea that a Zyzz transformation would stop them from being “sad cunts”.
To look further into the still thriving scene, we had a chat to the 21-year-old on why Zyzz’s legacy lives on.
VICE: So I’ve read that hardstyle originated in Europe, but then it was popularised in Australia?
Baby Zyzz: Yeah, that’s true. It comes from the Dutch. Honestly, I think a big reason is because of Zyzz. It definitely was starting to be built when he first got in the “industry”. When he got into raving and shit, it was already a thing, but everybody was doing tectonics, not really muzzing for what it’s become. And I feel like there was this aura in Australia, where, when he came in, he was on all the forums. And he was getting known everywhere, so I feel like it was kind of popular there. But I think that’s why it is the way it is – and why it’s become what it has.
Though the hardstyle community seems pretty niche, it looks like it’s kicked up a gear in the last few years.
Yeah, I feel like Jump style and the Melbourne Shuffle, that was a big thing years ago – back in 2007 through to say 2011. It kind of slowed down around that 2012 time. But I feel like muzzing and tectonics, that was around, but it was never really popular. I feel like hacking is very niche as well. But definitely, over the last few years, it’s become a lot more popular. And I feel like it’s a lot bigger than it’s ever been, just because of the movement of Zyzz and shit.
But for me, the reason why I like it is because I feel like everybody kind of looked up to Zyzz and it’s becoming a bigger thing, where the fitness world and music crossover. So it’s grown a shit-tonne. But you have a lot of people in the fitness world that aren’t these stuck up pricks, they don’t want to be professional or anything, they don’t want to be just the average person that goes to the gym, eats chicken and rice, does nothing else with their life: basically, eat, sleep, gym, repeat. There are other things to life.
And I feel like all the people that looked up to Zyzz actually realised that they got into the gym for confidence, or they go into the gym because they want to look better. I feel like the reason why they looked up to him is because he was different. He didn’t want to be professional. He wanted to go out, he wanted to have a good time, he wanted to take in all the other aspects of life. And I feel like the gym was just that little add-on that made life better for him. So I feel like you have all these people that are now finding this new wave where you don’t have to be strict.
Everybody in the gym has always liked hardstyle because it’s always been like that. That niche. Zyzz created something completely different that’s been growing over the last two years. People are seeing these new ideas where they can just go out there and have fun.
Obviously Zyzz passed away 10 years ago. Why do you think that legacy has stayed alive?
I think it’s kept alive by a lot of the people in the fitness community. So you have people like Jon Skywalker, or David Laid, or Jeff Seid, or even Zyzz’s brother, Chestbrah. Chestbrah was the one to really push it out there. Because after Zyzz passed away, Chestbrah was releasing videos of him that they had together. And from that it inspired all these other people like David Laid, or Jeff Seid, or John Skywalker.
These are now people who are big names in the fitness community that a lot of people look up to. They’ve been around for a minute, and they’re still the top dogs. So the reason why he stayed around is because you have all these people that look up to him and wanted to be like him, because they didn’t want to be the strict professional type in the gym. They wanted to be the person that wanted to have fun and see other things in life, rather than just the gym.
And then in the last two years I think it’s changed a lot, because that’s when Tevvez [French artist] became popular. He’s been around for quite a while. But his thing is he always made hardstyle that was what the the gym bros used to push the Zyzz shit.
The way that I got pushed into Zyzz’s message was that II was depressed for about three months, every single night. I felt worthless. I didn’t want to be on this earth. And then one night, I found a video of Zyzz. I commented, “Who the fuck is this guy?” And then people ended up sending his videos to me. After that I just went down this deep rabbit hole until six in the morning. I quickly just came out of this depression instantly and realised how much more there is to life. And from that, I ended up quitting my job when I was in debt, had no money and I started pursuing fitness full time when I had like 70 followers on Instagram, 300 on TikTok.
And then I started getting back into making music, because that was my passion as well. From that, I wanted to push out his message, because he’s what inspired me to get back to where I used to be plus a better version of myself. A more confident version of myself. So then I started pushing it out on TikTok and then a lot of my songs started blowing up. Every single one of those songs was Zyzz-oriented. A lot of people in the EDM industry call it Fuark Style. So it started off with Tevvez. And then it was me. And then my buddy Yosef, he ended up coming into the mix.
Then it just became this domino effect of all these people wanting to make Fuark style. Then it got big on TikTok. It’s all you fucking heard. So it was only a matter of a couple years where it just became this big thing. Now it was either Fuark or Hardstyle. The main hardstyle that you’d see on all the gym videos was the Fuark style. And what’s crazy about it is it has become such a big thing that now you have all these different kids that just start on their phones. But there was this big Zyzz movement, it was a big awakening – it was because of TikTok.
Yeah, I was gonna ask that, whether TikTok and social media helped to bring it back a bit, especially over the pandemic.
Fucking definitely. I feel like when the lockdown happened, you had a bunch of people just stuck in their house, depressed or sad. Everybody was like, “What the fuck do I do?” You had to find something productive. When quarantine was over, a bunch of people went back into the gym to make even more progress. And it kind of grew like rapid fire. All these people just came out of nowhere.
What would you say to people that say the scene is dominated by this unhealthily hyper-masculine crowd.
People have the wrong idea. A big thing is they may see this hyper masculine male or whatever, but a lot of us are super fucking nerdy and insecure on the inside. The reason why we go to the gym is because every day we look in the mirror and we don’t like what we see.
Most of us weren’t the fucking athlete in high school. Mostly we were those kids who were outcasts. We’d never had the respect. I was always the kid who was short. Called a stick. Shit like that. I was into video games and shit.
A lot of us are also kind of feminine, in our own way. However you describe femininity or masculinity, whatever. Because we’re kind of pretty boys, to be honest. We’ll take like 30 minutes to an hour out of our day just for skincare or 30 minutes to do our hair.
I’m not this big douche that everyone sees. But that’s another thing, we push out that “persona” not because we are douchebags – because we’re not – but because everybody thinks that we are. But once they really know who we are as people, we’re not that person at all.
A lot of people in the gym, they’re depressed or they’re insecure, or some people just go to the gym to have fun. But really, it’s the nicest guys out there, besides a couple. I’ve experienced some people that are fucking dickheads but anytime anybody like that comes around, we will call them out. We don’t accept that shit. It’s not like we’re trying to be better than anybody. We’re just trying to be better than ourselves.
I’m actually really glad that you asked that question.
Yeah, it must be frustrating.
A big portion of it, too, and what Zyzz preached, was to be yourself. Don’t listen to what anybody else has to fucking say. Obviously, he had some hot takes and shit. But a lot of it was an act. Most of it was about being yourself, having fun. Don’t give a fuck about what people say. And just live life to the fullest. We just want people to be our true selves. And if your true self is being in the gym and going to raves, then so be it. If it’s something else, that’s cool too. We’re actually really accepting of people. People just don’t really see that at first glance.
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