zion comes from a large family of ten: their mothers, three sisters and four brothers, all adopted, with him being the second youngest. this environment definitely lended to his large personality. with so many kids, there was always constant competition for any and everything-- space, attention, the remote control. that said, their home couldn’t have been more loving. his mothers, who zion considers to be the most incredible people on earth, provided everything and more for their kids and for each other. 

he was diagnosed with adhd at a young age. his moms, by then, knew what sort of things were outside the norm for hyperactivity in kids and zion fit the bill. from as early as kindergarten, teachers would send him home with letters complaining about his inability to be still in class, outbursts during quiet time, and failure to take in simple concepts that his peers understood immediately. as he grew up, he became incredibly self conscious about this fact. for one thing, no matter how hard he tried (he tried, he tried, he tried), he was always just barely scraping by in his classes. it was a massive cause of stress and self doubt all throughout secondary school, to the point where he cried when told he’d passed and would be graduating. for another, their loud and fidgety presence wasn’t always welcome around their peers. being friendly with others was something that came naturally to zion. being friends was a whole other issue entirely. of course, he’s always had his siblings, as well as his three best friends who would later go on to be his bandmates, but for someone as extroverted as zion, they couldn’t act like it didn’t hurt to be seen as annoying (at best) by other kids his age.

zion isn’t quite sure he was really alive until the first time he played bass. with so many kids to keep track of, it helped his moms to have them engaged in activities in and out of school. for a while, zion’s thing was whatever one of his siblings was doing. football, art lessons, gymnastics (briefly), things that he did just because he’d never really given much thought as to what he liked. that much changed when one of his brothers started taking guitar lessons, so zion decided he would take guitar lessons. when asked what kind of guitar he wanted to play, not-quite-ten zion just sort of.. guessed. in this, they were incredibly lucky. from the first note he played, harsh and out of tune, he felt a joy unlike any he’d experienced before. it turned out, learning to play music traditionally wasn’t any easier for him than learning long division. he announced to his moms that he would be quitting lessons and teaching himself. and that’s what he did. in his off time, he played and played until his fingers hurt or someone told him to stop. he watched videos, listened to new music, practiced all he could until he could replicate bass lines to all of his favorite songs and then some. to this day, it remains one of his proudest accomplishments. 

when it comes to gender and sexuality, there’s a lot up in the air for zion. it wasn’t until late in his secondary school career that he even began to think about those things. they’d never been in a relationship, even now, and thought that theoretically, when they did it could very well be with anyone who was kind and made him laugh. “the gender thing”, as they called it when talking to their parents about it, didn’t come up until after graduating from university. they, of course, gave zion ample resources to help in figuring things out, but still he figured it was something he would come into in his own time. it’s not something they really acknowledge outside of their circle of family and close friends, aside from the cursory “he/they” in his social media bios.

zion’s family was more than a little well off - they had to be, to afford taking care of eight kids - which gave them a lot of freedom in life. even having moved out of the house, his parents still took care of him and his siblings. if it was what he wanted, cold stare could be his full time gig and he wouldn’t suffer for it financially. that wasn’t, of course, the case for all of his bandmates. so, zion went back to school, studied music and education. it wasn’t any easier for them than it had been in secondary school, but now they had a goal in mind, and the determination to push him the rest of the way. after graduating, they took a job as the music teacher at the local secondary school. ideally the job would have just been a way to make himself useful to society when away from the band, but the reality was so much better than he could have hoped. zion loved teaching. he loved his classroom and how he could make it a place for kids to feel safe, and welcomed, and understood, all while learning about music. it was a dream come true.

zion’s family has only continued to grow over the years as his siblings went off and had kids of their own. they’re an uncle several times over, and love their nieces and nephews to pieces. tight at their schedule might be most days, they never hesitate to break the flow of things to spend time with his family, as they’ve always been the most important thing, second not even to music

despite having enough money to shop elsewhere, zion buys most of their clothes from local thrift shops and flea markets. this is because his sense of fashion is, in a word, atrocious, and he finds the best gets there. he dresses the part of emo-kid-never-met-a-color-that-isnt-black on stage, because he figures the music should speak louder than his knee length muppet socks, but elsewhere he’s mostly a high waisted corduroy pants and bright yellow windbreakers kind of guy.