HuffPost Canada Music | By Jesse ShipPosted: 09/12/2013 11:31 am EDT | Updated: 09/12/2013 6:13 pm EDT
“99.9 per cent of the EDM scene sucks” was breakthrough DJ/producer Zedd’s opening line in his first message to Skrillex, via Myspace in 2011. And he agrees, it still does.
“It all sounds the same, it’s just switched a little bit. If you look at the Beatport Top 100 Electro-House tracks, 60 will all have the exact same snare sample on the four, and the same synths playing triplets over distorted kicks, because people that make that kind of music aren’t musicians, they’re people who bought a laptop and read on the Internet how to make sounds come out of your speakers.”
Strong words from what some consider still an upstart, although this young’un, former drummer of German metal band Dioramic, has been commissioned by Lady Gaga to produce a number of songs on her new album “ARTPOP,” has sold beats to Justin Bieber (“Beauty and a Beat”) and performed remixes for The Black Eyed Peas (“Dirty Bit”).
“Everything sounded the same and immature. It was all about sounds, not about music and emotion. When I heard Skrillex, I thought he was the opposite. He used the tools that electronic music artists use but he’s so much smarter than them because he was making actual music.”
The two had a lot to connect on, especially since Skrillex was also in a metal band himself. “I could tell that there was some thought in the song, he wasn’t just experimenting with sounds.”
But while Skrillex has had his fair share of remixes and opportunities it seems like the student may have surpassed the mentor with his chance to take a stab at a number of tracks on the Lady Gaga album.
“I’m honoured to work with her. I mentioned that to the label a year or so ago that it would be a dream of mine to one day produce a song for her [rather than just a remix], and they told me it was going to happen but I thought it might just be the kind of thing a label would say to an up-and-coming producer to motivate them.”
Zedd remained tight-lipped when asked to comment on any of the songs but he can confirm that “she’s a true artist that believes in her music, not something that a label created to sell. It’s more appealing to work with someone who wants to do something new rather than make a hit, but you can do both.”
Zedd’s “Clarity” album receives the Deluxe Edition facelift September 24, with a new song “Stay The Night” from Paramore’s Hayley Williams. In a time when most artists will release an EP with a few tunes and a couple remixes, Zedd claims he doesn’t like them.
“I never considered an EP, but I did consider writing a full-length album, but it would have taken another year. I didn’t want to let my fans wait that long, so Interscope and myself thought this was the smartest move. We feel a lot of songs on the album deserve more attention.”
Maybe it’s his traditional rock music roots that deny the quick fix of an EP release, but whether it’s extra attention or extra dollars, you’d be hard pressed to find any fans that tell you that it “sucks.”
Zedd’s tour kicks off in Toronto on Sept 12 and continues through to December. For full tour dates click here.
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