make it. I also want to change something with what I do, but I would never do it if the voice didn’t fit. On “Clarity,” I had several other singers sing it too, and some of them were pretty big, but I decided to go with the voice that really means something to me, which was Foxes. I think the song actually got much bigger with Foxes than it could’ve gotten with a bigger-name vocalist. What are your goals you’re attempting to achieve in your creative process? Well, I’ve always had the approach to push electronic music to be more musical. Coming from a musical background, you will find that a lot of [electronic music] isn’t [musical]. The more people that make music not-so musical, the more people accept that and think that’s how it should be. That’s going to make it really tough to turn it back. Looking back to Queen, the Beatles, King Crimson, Genesis, and all of those great bands, they were able to speak to huge masses of people with fairly complex music. The amount of depth you can put into music and still make people understand it is getting very low and you can overload people’s minds very quickly with very little. So, I’m trying to push that back and bring back musicians that can speak in wider terms. I think people can understand it without having to make some kind of crazy “math rock electro.” You have to speak the fans’ language, and there’s ways to push that musically. So many of your bigger hits are defined by piano-driven melodies. What has drawn you to the instrument? When you write the chords of a song in a computer, you can either let a synth play it or a piano play it. That’s how it’s typically done, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The way I use it, I use the piano as an actual instrument. I write on it, and then I turn it into a synth. I don’t do it the other way around. The result is that the chord
progressions are more unique and the music feels more musical. I hate hearing a drum fill that’s impossible to actually play. It feels wrong. It’s the same when I hear chords that a human being can’t play. I’ll hear something that’s 11-tonal and that’s something you can’t do with 10 fingers. By writing music on an instrument, you’ll make the music feel much more organic. True Colors album track “Transmission” features Logic and X Ambassadors. I believe this is the first time you’ve worked with a rapper on a track. What was that process like, and what drew you to Logic? I heard Kendrick Lamar the first time I heard rap and realized that rap could be really musical. He’s brilliant. That’s what made me want to work with a rapper, and then I found Logic, and I was like, “he’s so good, he’s so talented.” He’s also such a nice guy. I’d never worked with a rap artist before, so when we recorded, I asked him if I could ask him to re-record something or change the lyrics and Logic’s like, “Dude, I’ll do whatever it takes to make this awesome.” That was really refreshing for me. Working with X Ambassadors, who are alternative rockers, that was an amazing way to bring three cultures into one. There’s a lot of pieces, but I think “Transmission” proves that there doesn’t have to be a barrier between genres and something fresh can be made. I don’t know of any other song that sounds quite like it. Who are five artists, alive or dead, that you’d advise someone who’s never listened to your music before to listen to in order to get an idea of what to expect? Silverchair. You know, the band? Yeah, Daniel Johns is the lead singer, and he’s one of the most influential people in my life musically, and I would love for him to listen to True Colors. Jeff Buckley, Freddie Mercury, George Benson...
Zedd’s True Colors Tour will be at the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, on October 17th at 7:30 pm. This is an 18 and older show. Tickets range from $30.25 - $52.75 in advance or $32.75 - $57.75 Day of Show. Full Access Magazine
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