The Mind Behind the Madness
ZwagZombie, aka Alexander Stewart, is your local cryptid in Canberra, Australia. Born on Halloween, his love for horror was inevitable.
THE ART
ZwagZombie began as a traditional artist and has been drawing almost his entire life. He has honed his styles and techniques in his studies and fascination of tattoos and the Baroque period. His favorite traditional artist, Caravaggio, has heavily influenced his artistic process. Exploring and experimenting various means from pencil to inks, acrylics and oils, he has found a gravitation towards charcoal despite developing himself through multiple mediums and disciplines.
ZwagZombie adopted and adapted Caravaggio's signature techniques of Tenebrism, (from Italian tenebroso meaning 'dark, gloomy, or mysterious'). Also called dramatic illumination, using violent contrasts of light and dark, where darkness becomes a dominating feature of the image to highlight details and expression. This mixed with the modern tattoo atheistic has created the style he shows today. Stepping into the world digital art using his traditional techniques, he finally started sharing his love for art and pop culture under the name ZwagZombie in 2020.
THE MUSIC
ZwagZombie started singing in 2015 with the Australian Hume Conservatorium of Music, where he became a distinguished Baritone Opera singer, performing across New South Wales and Canberra as well as taking part in many theatre productions such as 'Jekyll and Hyde' and 'Little Women'. Eventually he experimented with his love of opera, heavy metal, and electronic music.
While writing many original songs over the years, he wouldn't release anything until 2023 in his debut instrumental album, Apocalypse at the Arcade. Despite being a trained vocalist, some of his favorite music would stem from instrumental soundtracks in video games. Most notably the DOOM and Halo franchises and their Ost's. Using a range of digital methods such as MIDI and sampling to hone his sound, he would eventually share his singing as well in several singles.