Zedd's music is a hotspot for unimaginable creativity, songs that will blow your mind time and time again, and make you feel like you've left your body. His new album Telos is a masterpiece featuring well known names such as Remi Wolf, Muse, Bea Miller, John Mayer, Dora Jar, and more. I'm grateful to not only have been able to hear about the album, but his perspective on all sorts of things from video games to what makes someone a good interviewer.
What was the timeline of creating this album?
It's difficult to answer when I started the album because the pandemic was the moment when I realized I had enough time to work on a project. I was kind of convinced that I would be ready by 2020, but the truth is that I felt very uninspired through the pandemic. While the timeline was perfect, the inspiration wasn't there. I scrapped everything but "Dream Brother", and from there decided I was going to make an album for myself.
It's been almost ten years since you released your last album, how has your music making process changed since then?
The first difference is that ten years ago I felt very insecure about working on the vocal parts of my songs, in particular the lyrics. My English probably wasn't as good as it is today, for the ones who don't know, I was born in Russia and grew up in Germany, so English is my third language. I felt insecure and I like leaving the vocals to somebody else. I want the singers to feel like it's part of them, I don't want them to feel like it's all me. The vocalists should have their own room to breath. But on Telos, I was very particular about the vocals and was way more involved lyrically and melodically.
Telos is a very cinematic sounding album, what films or TV shows do you see specific tracks on if you had to say?
Certain songs have certain cinematic connections. For example, my song with Muse, before they were on it, it was instrumental. It always felt kind of like a space movie to me. Something inevitable about to happen, you only have this many minutes to live like a countdown. They all have very different cinematic tones to them but they all have that overarching experience to me. What kind of shows though, that's such a good question. I'm known to my friends as the guy that watches two movies a year so I'm really not the best expert to answer which movie or show it would be. Hopefully something grand and spacey!
How was writing Telos different from writing your other two records True Colors and Clarity?
I think when I was writing Clarity, I didn't know that I was writing Clarity. I was sort of in the studio to help Lady Gaga write her album, and I reached a point where I had made ten songs for her before we'd actually met. I had done more than enough and needed to wait. I just ended up making music for myself at that point. Clarity started by just making music and realizing halfway through that I had an album, and from there filling the gaps. The process of actually making an album started way sooner with Telos.
You have done concerts, festivals, and residencies like the one at Zouk Nightclub in Vegas, which has been the most challenging for you and which has been the most fun?
This current tour is probably the most challenging in terms of show, not just because there is a moment where I play drums in the show, which I haven't done in forever, but also because the more I learn about the aspects of making a good show, the higher my standards rise. The general rule of thumb for me is that if you can hear it, I want you to be able to see it. So if there's a snap, I need to be able to show where that snap is visualized. The most fun is always hard to say, there's something really special about Omnia, where I'm crrently playing in Vegas. It's one of, if not the best, club in the world. Everyone who's been there is blown away by the chandlelier, it's like being surrounded by this spaceship!
This album takes the EDM sound and turns it on its head, who or what gave you the confidence to defy expectations and just let creativity guide you?
This was a multiple stage process. My inspirations lie far beyond EDM, I spent a good chunk of my time in classical music and a good chunk of my time in a rock/metal/hardcore band. Most of my inspiration isn't electronic music, though I love those things deeply. When you listen through my discopgraphy you will find that the drum fills throughout all of my songs are typically playable on a drum kit. They're just a little bit more playable than an electronic fill that's just meant to be imaginary. There wasn't a plan for me to make an album that does this, but at some point, I started all these ideas. The true form of artistry is to do what you as a human being, who is the art and artist yourself, whatever it is that you want to do is what you do.
About the Valorant and the Spectrum collaboration, I wanted to know how that process differs from your own stuff and when, if at all, can we expect something else like this?
I love this question and I apologize if it gets really nerdy. The main difference was that I was the vehicle that was supposed to drive to the end goal. I wasn't able to choose the destination as much because the goal was to create a unique skin that maintains all competitive integrity. They were very clear that there be no advantage in my skin over another. Everything has to feel fair. I couldn't believe how much work it was, you would never believe that it took nine or ten months. I also learned a lot about game development in the process which was fun. If someone came to me and said they want me to score the next 'xyz' and it would take seven years, I would love to do it. I would love to really go deep and create something special for a video game.
You were recently interviewed by Zane Lowe which was a great conversation to check out, what was it like being interviewed by Zane and do you have any tips to share with young journalists about interviewing artists?
Zane is incredible. He's unbelievably knowledgeable, he's very experienced, and he's a very strong conversationlist as much as he is an interviewer. A tip I can give to people who are trying to get into the world of interviewing, from my perspective, is that as an artist, I really appreciate when interviews don't feel like interviews. Sometimes, somebody would ask me a question, and I would give a very deep and almost emotional answer, but then they would just go right into the next question. That never feels good. A good conversation is the back and forth. The best thing you can do as an interviewer is have your bullet points, have the things you want to cover, but really, just talk and have a conversation.
Again, it was such an honor to hear from such an experienced musician who has roots in genres from all across the board. Zedd is currently playing some shows across the U.S. so be sure to catch him in a city near you!
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