Zedd discusses his new album and 5-Gum collaboration
Zedd has been successfully growing in his career since his breakout song "Clarity" in 2012. Since then, Zedd has participated in amazing music collaborations, including working with Selena Gomez, Jon Bellion, Hayley Williams, and Ariana Grande. However, as Zedd's latest album, "Telos," has just been released, Zedd had another collaboration that allowed him to have a slightly more intimate concert experience with some of his biggest fans in New York City. Zedd's collaboration with 5-Gum offered Zedd an opportunity to hold a secret rave, and he has spoken about what it means to him to perform live and the difference between his show with 5-Gum, and other forms of performances.
Culturess: How did your partnership with 5-Gum come about?
Zedd: I always look for opportunities to create a memorable experience for my fans and myself. To be honest, I love being able to do something more unique than just a regular thing. When this idea came about to be able to essentially perform amongst the smallest shows of my life, it kind of excited me because that intimacy of being so close to your fans is something that can get lost when shows get to a certain size. So to be able to really, I mean, I would probably be able to virtually touch every single person physically that's gonna be there is gonna be incredible, and I haven't been able to do this in a very long time, so I'm really excited for this opportunity, and 5-Gum made it possible.
Culturess: How does it make you feel to perform live?
Zedd: In general, I'm filled with quite a lot of gratitude when I get to perform live. I think, growing up my dream has always been to do nothing else but make music. When I'm on stage performing live, and especially when I see people sing along or smile or cry in a good way, it's really rewarding, and it's very emotional, and it's sort of reminding you that I get to do what I've always wanted to do for a living.
Culturess: What inspired your latest songs on your new album?
Zedd: I think my entire album, "Telos," was a self-expression and a reminder of who I am as a person, as a musician, as a producer. This album is sort of an autobiography musically speaking. I got to work with artists that I've always dreamed of working with, artists that have inspired me, artists that I wouldn't be having this conversation with you without, and to be able to work with the people that made you who you are is incredibly meaningful, and it's the most honest me that people will be able to hear. It's all of my influences, starting all the way back to classical music. There's a song on my album that is based on a classical piece that is probably the most inspiring and the most influential piece to my entire life. There's a collaboration with a band that was the first cover I've ever played on stage. There's people who I love listening to, working with, it's just really a genuine project of me wanting to create a feeling for people to feel like I used to feel when I was a kid and listened to albums and got really excited and maybe I'll get to inspire somebody to make music with this album.
Culturess: How do your musical collaborations come about?
Zedd: There's a few different ways that my collaborations can come about. One way is where I will make a song and I will have a demo vocal, and I will need somebody to do it better than the demo, and I will go on a hunt and reach out to a bunch of vocalists and sort of ask for little demos, little quick recordings so I can see how a singer's tone feels on a song, because, it's not just about collaborating with a person, but it's about collaborating with the right person on the right song, and that's a big difference. So, that can be the case. Or, it can be the case of, like, my collaboration with John Mayer, where I had a song, I had no idea how to finish it, I was kind of about to throw it off the album, and then John heard it and literally said, 'I know exactly what this song needs,' and then we would meet up and sort of re-work the song together, and it would then turn out amazing, like in this case. But there are many different ways. Sometimes, I reach out to an artist, and I just really want to work with the artist, or I specifically and deliberately seek the correct voice that will deliver the emotion that I think a song needs.
Culturess: This show that you're putting on in collaboration with 5-Gum, how is that unique from other performances that you've put on?
Zedd: I think what makes this show unique is that I don't have a show to hide behind. Usually, when I'm on stage, I have a large production, we have all these special effects, and it's really more about the whole show than it is about the music I play. In this case, I have no production whatsoever. It's literally just me and the music and the fans. I think the focus is just gonna be significantly more on the actual music and less on the spectacle that lights can create, and being so intimate and close to my fans, and being able to really see their emotions when I play the songs, it's gonna be really awesome.
Culturess: What is your favorite song from your new album?
Zedd: That's a really unfair question to ask me because it's like choosing my favorite baby. But, it really genuinely is incredibly hard, and I think every time I listen back to the album, I have a new favorite song, and that's something I discovered with the few people I've shared this album with is that everybody has a different favorite song. There's no clear everybody likes this one the most. I think I'm biased towards "Out of Time" because it's a song that I started working on nine years ago, and it always felt like my "Bohemian Rhapsody," musically speaking. It's like everything that I love in music, chord progressions, and song structure is put together in one song. It feels really free. It feels like I wasn't held back by the genres that I was putting myself in. It is electronic music, undoubtedly so, but it also is classical music, and it is also very theatrical, and it has time changes, and it just feels very free. I think working in a genre that is sort of boxy and very on-grid, it feels really liberating to create something that is completely free-flowing and just goes the way you want it to go.
Culturess: If you could collaborate musically with anyone, who would you love to do a song with?
Zedd: Well, this is probably a really good moment to mention that if you had asked me this question a year ago, I've actually gotten to work with a lot of the people that I would've named on my album. I'm really grateful for the collaborations on this album. Beyond that, in my list for every dream collaboration that I fulfill, there are three new ones popping up. So, I would never finish my list of artists that I would dream of working with. Some of the artists that I continuously have mentioned that I have not yet worked with were artists like Radiohead, Silverchair, and Daniel Johns. Artists like Adele, people who probably don't really like the genre of music I make, I'm always intrigued by working with artists that don't really like electronic music and sort of changing their minds. I could probably make a long list but there's no shortage of incredible artists out there that I would love to work with.
Zedd's new album, "Telos," is available for purchase now.
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