Zedd Talks New Album, The Music Industry And The Pressures Of Success

He is the innovative electronic music producer behind some of the biggest club and dance hits of the 21st century, previously collaborating with the likes of Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, Maren Morris, Liam Payne and Hayley Williams – just to name a few.

Now, Anton Zaslavski – better known as Zedd – has just debuted his latest album Telos from Interscope Records, with new collaborations and new sounds for the world to hear. I sat down with the in-demand artist to uncover the creative process with his latest songs, his mindset towards the music industry today and what he would like to do next within his career.

Jeff Conway: Zedd, following your 2012 Clarity and 2015 True Colors albums, this will be your third studio album, yes? What’s the significance behind the title Telos?

Zedd: Telos has a few meanings. One is accomplishment, goal. I should probably mention that I decided on the title the day that I had to deliver the album. It has been on the stratosphere of favorites, but I wanted to wait until the very last second and make sure the title is what I feel when I’m completely done with the project.

The goal and accomplishment meaning, I can really resonate with because I have been able to create an album that I genuinely didn’t know that I could create – or I should say that I was doubting myself that I could. I think when you make your first album, things are so exciting. Everything you do is new – everything is fresh. Then with the second album, you’re sort of solidifying yourself as an artist and it kind of chose the trajectory you’re going to go. So, True Colors was my way of saying, Hey, I’m not always going to want to make club music. I’m an artist who has done rock, metal, hardcore, classical music, jazz and electronic music. I just want to make sure everybody is aware that I have lots of true colors.

Another meaning of Telos is the end. Especially throughout the last weeks of making Telos, I was so burnt out and so stressed that, for a minute, I was thinking that might be the last thing I will ever make because I cannot do anything better than this and this is all I have, and I poured all my energy into this. So, when I was at my lowest, in terms of how I mentally felt through the stress of wanting to perfect this album, I thought that this may be the end. So, I really resonated with every meaning of Telos.

Conway: Can you tell me about what it was about the artists you work with on this new album, including John Mayer, Remi Wolf and Bea Miller, that made their artistry in-line with your artistry?

Zedd: I think the artists that I’ve worked with, and I’m incredibly grateful and fortunate that I’m even in this position to be able to do this, are artists that I’ve always wanted to work with and artists that I really admire. I’ve wanted to make a song with Bea for so long and we actually have tried quite a few years ago. Same with Muse – I’ve worked with Muse, I don’t even know how many years ago, but I did not want to just make a song to make a song. I wanted it to be the perfect first time of us working together. What we had tried in the past was awesome, but it wasn’t perfect. Same with Bea – I love her voice, I love her energy – I love her as an artist. It had to be the right opportunity and the right song that really brings our worlds together. Same with John – we met in 2015 to work on a song together and it just didn’t feel right, so a lot of these collaborations – a lot of these songs were things that were in my universe for quite some time, but I didn’t have the right project to really put them on.

Conway: Zedd, how have you most noticed your sound and your interests in music changing or evolving from your years since putting out songs like “Break Free,” “Clarity,” “The Middle” and “Stay”?

Zedd: It has evolved quite a bit because throughout the pandemic, I got into types of music that I don’t think I knew I would ever get into. For example, the olllam, which is an Irish whistle, flute, pipe band with funky time signatures. I hated pipes my entire life and I listened to the olllam throughout the [Covid-19] pandemic and it was one of my most listened artists. I fell in love with it and I really wanted to make a song with them. So now, I have a song with the olllam, which is something I didn’t think I ever would get into.

Same with deeper, more minimal house music, which to me, is what inspired me to make “No Gravity.” I just don’t think I would’ve made that song if I didn’t live through the pandemic and got exposed to types of music that I just generally never listened to before. So, has my process changed? Yeah, I think it has. I don’t think I have the same taste as I did before. Also, as much as I try to forget about success, the truth is you can’t forget about success. Once you have success, it lives inside of you and it will never leave. Any decision you make throughout the process of making a song, it is engraved and you always lead towards making something that you know everybody will love because you want the gratitude of people. You want people to be happy with what you do, but this album was a conscious effort to forget about everything that people expect me to do and people want me to do and just focus on, What is it that I really want to do?

Conway: So Zedd, people know your music, they know your name, but what do you feel that music lovers and our society as a whole still do not completely get or understand about you?

Zedd: I think what people don’t know is my background in music, probably. I come from classical music – piano was my first instrument since I was a baby and I was a metal drummer for almost just as along as I was Zedd. So, I think people who know me through “The Middle” or “Stay” – even “Clarity” – they may not know that I actually come from a very different world. So, this album will probably be a shock for a lot of people because it is quite theatrical and very cinematic and really touches on a lot of my inspirations that I felt like I never had the courage to really focus on.

Conway: Beyond your own music, which artists right now are you most enjoying and appreciating on the scene?

Zedd: In the electronic space, I really enjoy Eleganto. He’s a super, super creative electronic producer that – I mean, I play so much of his music and every time he releases a song, I get excited because it’s so creative – so different. Highly recommend to people who love electronic music.

In terms of just overall music, music – Willow is an artist I really got into. I think her album is amazing. I mentioned the olllam – I’m really into the olllam for the music hits out here. Those are some of the ones that I’ve been listening to quite a lot recently.

Conway: Are there certain artists that you still really itch to work with?

Zedd: Oh lord! The list is so long. I will say that I’m incredibly lucky to have been able to work with the artists on Telos because a lot of them were on my dream wish list that I never thought I would get to work. So, that’s awesome! I would love to make a song with Willow. I also love Lizzy McAlpine – we tried to work together but was also not the right song for us.

I love Radiohead a lot. Radiohead has been a really big inspiration. I would love to explore what it would sound like if we made a song together. I would also be really curious to make a song with Hans Zimmer. I generally like to depart where people see me. I like to work with a country artist or something that people don’t expect me to do.

Conway: What are your overall thoughts or feelings towards the music industry today, Zedd? What are you happy to be seeing and what perhaps do you think needs to change or improve?

Zedd: The short answer is there are more things I don’t like about where things are sitting than I like, in terms of the music business industry. I feel like music has shifted from the art – the thing that people look forward to hearing or seeing – and turned frequently into the background for something else, whether it is the background for when you work or the background for your videos. Music turned into this like “fast food” a lot and I really don’t love that. Personally, I come from a time where I would buy an album and I would sit down and my activity was listening to the work of art. I miss that!

There’s room for everything – music is all about context. There’s amazing music that – like I love Disclosure and anytime I would hang out by the pool in my life, I would just put on Disclosure because that’s kind of the perfect vibe for it. I also feel like algorithms and social media platforms have turned artists into like these robots who are following algorithms and they do whatever is trending and follow that path, instead of just really genuinely expressing themselves.

I’m well aware that Telos as an album is definitely not made for the algorithm. The algorithm isn’t going to love it, but as musicians, we owe people who listen to music to really be artists and not factories producing things that the algorithm wants. If you give people the choice, they might actually lean towards something else and that’s kind of where I see my responsibility as a musician, is to expand people’s horizon. Offer something that isn’t the same thing that they can get on every playlist in the world and hoping to inspire people to think differently.

Conway: So, come August 30th, when people can finally get access to Telos, what is your greatest objective or hope, Zedd, that people take away from going from the first track to the last track on your album?

Zedd: My hope is that people will listen to the album from the beginning to the very end – the way I designed it to be listened to. My dream would be that people who don’t like electronic music, all of sudden realize, Wait, I can like electronic music. It’s just that the majority of electronic music I listened to wasn’t my taste. Similarly for EDM fans, some of the songs are little bit out there and some of them are very classically-influenced – some of them are very organic. I’m hoping that people who are just into EDM will kind of open up to other types of music that are influenced by electronic music – just kind of bridging the gap between genres a little bit more. Maybe that enables me to play more different music live, as well, as a side product – that would be nice. But really, all I’m hoping for is that people will listen to the album, front-to-back at least once, to give the album the experience it deserves.

Conway: Lastly, what do you want to say to Zedd fans out there that have followed your career since you started? What do want to say to these people that have continued to love the evolution of your sound and will continue to do so with Telos?

Zedd: I think that people who have followed me since the very early days will be quite pleased with Telos because it does channel the naive love and joy for music that I had in my Clarity days, when I just didn’t really have success. There was nobody to please – it was just coming from inside of me, but it feels more mature and it feels more experienced, and it kind of embodies everything that I went through in my career. Telos is an autobiography of my entire life, in the form of an album.