Audacy Check In: Zedd
Zedd is joining us for an #AudacyCheckIn to talk about his upcoming album 'Telos' + more
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MusicTranscript
00:00Were you playing any of anybody in the industry this album as the process was going along?
00:05Most of them are either collaborators or fellow musicians and producers,
00:10and I've gotten so much confidence about how people perceive the album from them,
00:14because they can appreciate the detail that went into it, and they made me feel so good about it.
00:23All right, this is your Odyssey check-in. We are live at the Hard Rock Hotel New York with Zedd.
00:29Hello.
00:30We got so much to talk about, man. Congratulations on everything. First,
00:33I mean, very important, did you get into the Olympics at all? Were you into it?
00:39I feel like this is like the most talked about Olympics ever.
00:44Yes.
00:44And I haven't seen a single minute, but I feel like I've seen everything.
00:50Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:51So yeah, I love the Olympics. I love the idea that humans can achieve such unachievable things,
00:58and that there's a platform for them, but I haven't been actively watching besides...
01:02You got the highlights.
01:03I got the highlights.
01:04Yeah, yeah, cool. So you've had the luxury of working with some of the greats in the business.
01:11I mean, Hayley Williams, Ariana, Maren, the list goes on and on. Were you able to get in studio
01:20with the majority of these people, or does that just not happen that much anymore?
01:25It depends. What I will very frequently do is I will ask singers to record a little demo for me,
01:32just so I can feel the tone on a record, and see if this is something that I think will fit.
01:37Now, when it matters, I will usually be in the studio and record them.
01:41I think that's one of my strengths, is to get the best out of a singer,
01:46and to make them feel comfortable and confident to sing their heart out. So when it matters,
01:50when I record the final vocal, I will, in 99% of cases, record the singers myself.
01:55Got you. So you're striking me as very demanding. Are you like,
02:00take number 62? Do they hate you at the end of the session?
02:03Yes. Every singer temporarily hates me at the end of a session,
02:09and I typically will stop just before the voice gives up. But the reason is because in the past,
02:14I recorded a song where I had to have a singer come back to sing one singular word,
02:18and I don't want to do that. And I want, honestly, I do it for the singer,
02:22because I want them to be super happy. And when I have a feeling that there's more potential than
02:27what I recorded, then I'm going to need to have them come back and get it right.
02:32And I never want to ask a singer to have to come back to record a little bit over. So yeah,
02:36I'm very demanding. I record an obscene amount of takes of everything in octaves and doubles
02:41and harmonies. But then in every case, when I then send them the final result,
02:46they're always so happy. It's worth the hate.
02:50Was there anybody in studio where you pushed them extra hard and they were just like,
02:55Zedd, what are you even doing? But they did end up thanking you?
02:59I think B. Miller was one of the artists that I've probably pushed the hardest because
03:05the song's not easy to sing, and it's in a really high range. And she already was
03:09kind of unsure if she could do it. I knew she could do it without a question. But I think
03:14just there's so many vocals, vocal parts and octaves and everything that we really went up
03:21until the voice gave up. And I think she still to this day has severe PTSD of recording with me.
03:28She's got a beautiful voice. So you knew what she was capable of. So you probably just...
03:32Yeah. And I knew that she's funny because she's so good. She's such an incredible singer,
03:40but she doesn't think of herself that way. She doesn't think of herself as this incredible
03:44singer. If I was her, I would be walking around like I'm the greatest singer ever.
03:48And she's been doing it for a long time.
03:49Yeah. I mean, she's very humble about her voice, but genuinely saved the song we did together
03:55because she brought an energy to the song that really was missing in the song. And I kind of
04:02had these open question marks of how I'm going to fill the emotional spectrum of the song.
04:06And when I heard her sing the very, very first take of Out of Time of the chorus,
04:12everything in my mind was like, yep, OK, perfect. We can do this. No problem. Before I was like,
04:16how are we going to make this happen? Yeah. Does anybody, maybe it's even you,
04:20does anybody you've worked with have like a weird routine in studio or something that
04:25surprised you, intrigued you?
04:30I mean, everybody kind of warms up differently. Everybody loves the same tea. So that's the same.
04:36What's the tea? Give me the tea.
04:37With honey. I feel like that's everybody's choice. So I got that on speed dial.
04:44But nothing out of the ordinary. Some people warm up right there and then. Some people
04:51warm up in the car on the way to my studio. Everybody's different. I've never encountered
04:55anything crazy that made me feel like, oh, that is a little weird.
04:58Right, right, right. OK. I remember when the middle came, or I think it was a little after
05:05the middle came out, and it was headlines all over the place that there were 5000 demos from
05:10everybody to Camila Cabello, Demi Lovato, Bebe Rexha, you know, is that you kind of mentioned
05:18it before, though, when you have people record these demos, is that a regular occurrence where
05:22you're shopping around a song and you just send it out to a billion people and you take, I don't
05:30know, the best of the best or whoever you think will, you know, compliment the song the best?
05:36It can be. Sometimes I bring a song to 80 percent and the only missing link is the final vocal and
05:42I just have a demo. And then it can get tricky and either nobody wants to sing it or everybody
05:48wants to sing it, like in the case of the middle, where everybody wanted to be a part of it, but
05:52I didn't feel like anybody had everything that I wanted. And the other way this new album
05:59tells us has much more been a case of me getting in the room with the singers and just working
06:06through it and figuring things out and doing it together. But both ways exist. Everybody's
06:12different, like some people really prefer to work alone and they don't really want to be in the
06:16studio. Most don't want to be around when I start comping the vocals, like selecting the takes,
06:23but yeah, it depends. Sometimes I do shop for singers and the only way to do it properly is
06:28for everybody to record a little bit of a demo and sometimes that turns into like a full-blown
06:32production. Sure. And sometimes it turns into people being disappointed because they don't end
06:38up on the song and they spend time recording it. That happens, unfortunately, and I try to be as...
06:44I feel like at this point people know. Yeah. It's kind of a known thing that I do like to
06:50try different vocal textures before I make a decision and do what's best for the song and
06:55the real ones, I still work with them. The ones that know that it might not be the one,
06:59but another song will happen. Exactly. I was going to say, that doesn't mean
07:02you won't find something along the way that complements the voice, a different voice.
07:07Exactly. I mean, Bea Miller is a great example. Bea recorded a song for me,
07:12it must be like seven years ago, six years ago, that she spent a lot of time recording and I love
07:18her voice so much, but it just wasn't right. Multiple collaborators on my album, I've tried
07:23to work with since 2015 and it just wasn't the right song. It didn't feel genuine until this
07:30album when it felt like everything fell into place and I actually got to work with the people
07:34that I for so long wanted to work with. So, who's the one that got away from you then? Like,
07:39somebody you really did want on a song, maybe they even cut the demo, but it fell through for
07:45whatever the reason? Because now you got to circle back. That honestly has happened quite a bit.
07:50It goes both ways. I also sometimes will record a vocal that I really, really love
07:56and the singer last second is like, I'm out of it, I don't want to do it anymore.
08:00And sometimes it's more, and it's happened to me on this album, there's a story where on one of the
08:05songs I recorded an artist and we spent so many sessions like finalizing, tweaking and the last
08:15second, she jumped off the song. And we were all like, okay, well, this is a strange timing to do
08:21so. But the irony in it is that the girl who I had on the song before, I had never met her in person.
08:30And then we met to write another song. And after I met her, I told my manager,
08:36I know this sounds crazy, but I wish we never recorded the other singer. I wish we kept the
08:41demo singer on it. I didn't know how dope she was. She's a classically trained singer. She really
08:46understood my music. And when I met her and I saw that she and I played her some of the music and I
08:50saw in her eyes like the excitement in the right parts. Afterwards, I was like, I wish I never
08:56looked for another singer just kind of zoned in on her because I had never met her and I didn't
09:00realize how genuinely awesome she was. And when that singer jumped off last second, it was kind
09:05of a full circle moments like, okay, well, that means I get to actually do the song with the one
09:10that I actually really wanted to do. But it happens. People jump off songs for reasons that
09:16usually don't make any sense at all. Yeah, yeah. Transparently. Give me a producer that
09:21inspires you, somebody you're envious of where you're just, you know, you hear stuff they do
09:26and you're like, how the heck did this person do that? I mean, I think Skrillex will always be my
09:32answer for a producer that is just an alien. I mean, I wouldn't be here without him. You know,
09:38he really was the one that gave me a chance when nobody else thought I deserve one. And he's a
09:43producer that just will continuously think outside the box and on the highest level of production
09:48skill and mixing skill and yet still free and inspiring and inspired. And other producers,
09:57Eleganto is a producer that I think is phenomenal. Mesto, Alice, some of the most talented
10:03groundbreaking producers in electronic music that I look up to and that I have worked with
10:09and will continue to work with because they're beyond amazing producers, just incredible human
10:14beings. Were you playing any of anybody in the industry, this album as the process was going
10:20along? I was. I mean, when people would visit me, I would show them the album and everybody was
10:26pretty mind blown, which gave me the confidence to just continue the path I'm going and not worry
10:30about, well, like, what will people think about this? I think me being so free was inspiring.
10:35And then after I was done with TELUS, I played it for very few people. Most of them are either
10:41collaborators or fellow musicians and producers. And I've gotten so much confidence about how
10:47people perceive the album from them because they can appreciate the detail that went into it. And
10:52they made me feel so good about it. I mean, I, you know, I would send it out to very few people and
10:57their feedback was like heartwarming. Yeah. I love it. So before we wrap, we're at the
11:02legendary Hard Rock Hotel. They are known for their collection of memorabilia, over 88,000
11:10pieces in the world. If you were going to donate something, an item of yours that you think fans
11:17would really freak out over seeing IRL, what would it be?
11:29My underwear?
11:32They would probably love that. Sure. Why not?
11:34Extra small? Is that? I don't know. I mean, it's a good question. I have underwear with a little
11:42pouch to put my fitness tracker in. I wasn't going where you were going in your mind,
11:48you dirty one. I have a pouch for my fitness tracker in my underwear.
11:51Okay. So if I don't want it to be visible.
11:55Yeah. Okay. All right.
11:57What direction were you thinking? My jeans?
12:00Just thinking like a turntable, bro. But that's cool. That's cool. I mean,
12:05this is sad. Thank you so much, brother.