We at festivalZOO were able to catch up with Zedd at the 2012 installment of the Electric Zoo Festival held at Randall’s Island in New York City over Labor Day Weekend. Zedd is an amazing DJ that continues to rise in popularity due to his amazing talent.
FZOO: How did you get into the DJ and Producing scene?
Zedd: I just started producing electronic music for fun, and then people started liking it. I was never in that scene so I didn’t know what was good, and what was bad. At some point people started asking me to play a show and then I was told DJing is the only way to express yourself in the scene, so I started Djing.
FZOO: What inspired you to come up with the very unique sound that you had in your new single “Spectrum”?
Zedd: I don’t know. Laughs. I just played on a keyboard and I came up with that chord progression. I slept a night and the next morning I woke up and went to the studio and tried to find the right instrument. I never made something that I expected before and it just felt right; I don’t know why or how.
FZOO: Do you know where the siren came from in the second drop?
Zedd: I don’t know where it came from. I was looking for a siren sample and it’s probably not legal to use. Laughs. I knew I wanted the siren, I did it in “Shave it” and “Save the World”, it’s kind of like a signature.
FZOO: How do you like working with Matthew Koma?
Zedd: It’s the best. I love to work with him because he knows exactly what I like and what I hate plus I work with him a lot. Its so easy to work with him and we don’t talk about money or sh**, we make a song and then we are like that’s cool? Yea that’s cool. There’s not much discussion; we do it for the love of music and we are both on the same page, so I love working with Matt.
FZOO: Did you help with the vocals at all in the song?
Zedd: He came to the studio and we wrote the melody and then he wrote the lyrics. I had a line I wanted in the song which was ‘I will never let you go’ so I kept that and then he switched everything around and tried to make it fit. It took 2 weeks to finally find the right lyrics, and that was mostly done by him.
FZOO: Did you think the Spectrum EP would be as big as it was?
Zedd: I didn’t even think “Spectrum” would be big. I never thought about it, I never had the time to think about it because the moment I finished it I told my label that I wanted it to be a single, and I want it to be on right now. I didn’t even think if my fans would love it that much. It is far, far, beyond what I had in terms of success before.
FZOO: Your brand new “Spectrum” music video, how much fun was it to make that?
Zedd: It was hot in the first place. Laughs. But it was a lot of fun and it was the first time I had done something like that.
FZOO: So your new Poseidon Back to Back tour with Porter Robinson, what’s the significance of the ‘Back to Back’ part of the tour?
Zedd: Well we had a show we played at Camp Bisco where he was supposed to play after me and 30 min before the show we were like ,“Why don’t we just play back to back?” He said sure, so we asked the stage manager and he said “yea that’s super cool” so we had like 20 min to prepare and then we rocked it out and had so much fun. We just decided that it would probably be really interesting for our fans to see. We have a lot of similar fans along with a similar taste in music so we thought it would be cool because we are good friends.
FZOO: Your new album “Clarity” coming out Oct. 9th, what can you tell me about what it was like making a full length album?
Zedd: It was very hard. There were moments when I was desperate because this is the biggest thing I’ve done in my whole life and I wanted it to be perfect. After a couple of songs that were phenomenal in my opinion, I got to the point where I didn’t know what I could do that I didn’t do in the album yet that still fits in but is completely different. It’s so hard to make 10 completely unique chord progressions because that’s what I’m about in this album. It took a lot of time and a lot of effort but I’m extremely proud of it.
FZOO: Can we expect any previews anytime soon?
Zedd: I think I might upload one song in a couple of weeks maybe.
FZOO: Today, your tent was overflowing, insane crowd, the energy was crazy, did you expect any of that?
Zedd: No, definitely not. I mean I was competing with Porter, Knife Party, and Flux Pavilion; its like the worst spot. I was super glad people wanted to see me, and it was a pleasure playing.
FZOO: Do you prefer the pre made set or the live set?
Zedd: I guess a mix of both. I think if you really prepare a set you can make way more unique transitions and you actually think about what you’re doing. It’s like your making a movie; you don’t just go and press record and hope that something cool will come up. If you go make a movie, you will think about what you do and that’s how I see DJ sets; you can think about it and tell a story. I didn’t plan this set, I played a similar set last night and then when I was on stage the energy was crazy so I just switched it up and I played a lot of songs I never played before and it was fun and great.
FZOO: Do you like performing more in the USA or Europe?
Zedd: At the moment, the USA. It blew up like crazy and everybody knows the songs and sings along, but people in Europe don’t know the songs yet. It takes a little while for Europe to pick up; “Spectrum” is just starting to be played on radio stations in Europe.
FZOO: What is your drink of choice?
Zedd: Jack and Coke.
Make sure t0 check out Zedd’s artist page HERE.
Zedd Interview By Mark Beyer
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