FEATURE: ZEDD
“I CONTROL EVERYTHING, I WOULD NEVER PLAY A SONG THAT
I DON’T WANT MY AUDIENCE TO SEE OR HEAR. BEFORE I PLAY
THEM OUT I’LL DISCUSS WITH MY GUYS DOING THE LASERS,
VISUALS AND LIGHTING AND I JUST MAKE SURE I LIKE IT THE WAY
IT IS.”
To get away from the tour perspective right now I’d like to
discuss your collaboration with Haley Williams, ‘Stay The
Night’. Could we talk about how that came about?
Well let’s take the track you produced with Lucky Date, ‘Fall
Into The Sky’, as an example. Can you describe the collaboration
process of that track?
I’ve been working on it for a little while. When the track was ?nished and I
needed the vocals, which is nearly always the last step and the most important
one because you can have the perfect top line but the wrong singer and
everyone will hate the song.
‘Fall Into The Sky’ is a track Lucky Date started, and we always send each
other new songs and ideas. He kept on changing the track until I said “why
can’t we just make the song together?”. He ?ew to the studio, worked on the
song together, ?nished it, and I said I would ?nd a vocalist. He trusted me with
that, because I’ve had a lot of work with vocalists. Then I reached out to Ellie
Goulding, and she loved the song. She literally emailed me back the next day
with all the vocal stems.
I made a list, and I write a list for nearly every song, which are usually pretty
extreme and start with names that I will probably never get, which Haley was
one of. I think she was probably the ?rst one we asked for this song and she
loved the song and said she would love to give it a try. Which is unbelievable
for me because it’s not like she’s doing any other collaborations and she hasn’t
done an electronic song ever. She loved the song and was open to giving it a try
and as you can see she nailed it.
You are charting next to JayZ, Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake...
It’s just weird to see my name there. It feels awesome, but at the same time it’s
just so surreal because the top 10 world is so far away and my name is in there
and I’m just someone making beats on a laptop.
From a dance-music perspective what does something like
this mean for electronic artists?
If it’s a good song, but dance, it doesn’t mean it will stay underground and only
sell 5,000 copies it’s ?rst year. If it’s a good song and electronic music, which is
what I believe ‘Stay The Night’ is, then it speaks to everybody. For some reason
what people want is for their music to stay underground or whatever. My dream
was for every person in this world to know my music. I don’t care if people know
me or my name but I want them to know my music and that’s why I make it.
When I saw Swedish House Ma?a in the top ten I thought it was awesome. It
was a great moment for electronic dance music to see that the thing we’ve been
working on for years is now reaching more people than ever. To me I’d rather
hear a great song on the radio that I love rather than hearing stuff on the radio
I don’t like and then complain about how bad radio is. That’s the attitude I get
from people sometimes, they love to hate radio, instead of being happy for the
people who have worked really hard to get their song heard.
So while on the topic of vocalists and electronic artists
collaborating, is the collaboration process much different
when you are working with another electronic musician?
I think we as DJ’s focus more on problems that singers don’t understand, just
because they are not from that world. But on the other hand they spend a lot of
time on things most dance producers don’t understand. I’ve been lucky enough
to work a lot on my own dance music as well as vocalists which has let me see a
lot on both sides.”
I think musicians and vocalists might be thinking about the whole thing, the
song, which is the one thing I wish dance artists paid more attention to. The
actual music, the actual notes, the core progression, and song structure, rather
than how to just get your kick drum louder.
8
See I’ve always wondered if there really is a strong
communication between artists.
I’m not a fan of having managers communicate for the artist because it just
gives you more problems and miscommunication. There’s no need for managers
to be involved if you can just send a personal message asking somebody if they
like the song or not.
I discovered you through your remix of ‘Weapon of Choice’ by
Fatboy Slim. Is there a chance you’d ever like to work with or
collaborate with some of the dance music heavyweights of
yesteryear?
I never really look back to history. I’m interested in musicians that are awesome
right now. I would like to make a song with Knife Party because they are
amazing right now. I want to work with people that I can learn from as well.
otherwise you use someone’s leverage because they have a big name and they
can sell records but you have to make the music. That’s not my style and I see
that happening so much in the scene, and to be honest with you I get sick of
small guys being ‘raped’ by bigger names just because they can.
Who currently in the business do you look at and say “They are
doing things right?”
I think it’s people that are honest and open and do it for the right reason. I
think the problem is that most DJ’s, or a lot of the kids that want to be DJ’s
don’t do it for the right reason. They do want to jet around and have the tour
bus, or see the girls and the party. That’s not the reason why you should want
to become a DJ. You should have a passion for it! And I see a lot of the same
thing with promoters. I see promoters who don’t do it for the right reason and
you can tell they do it for the money. You can obviously tell they are doing it for
their best interest and not others best interest.
A full length album, a ?ourishing solo tour, and a major hit on the itunes
charts, there’s not much else for Zedd to accomplish in the span of 12
astronomically successful months. More importantly these words serve as an
example of humbleness being an integral message for building a brand that
fans, collaborators, and peers can heed. Zedds ‘Moment of Clarity’ tour wraps
up on new years eve after two back to back performances at Chicago’s Aragon
Ballroom. After traveling across 5 continents, it’s no secret that Anton will have
many more lessons to give about an enlightening journey circling the world.
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