Zedd may be one of the younger artists gracing the charts today, but his knowledge and understanding of music theory shows a maturity in his work that far exceeds his years.
Born Anton Zaslavski in Kaiserslautern, Germany, the Ultimate Music Experience talent was lucky enough to be surrounded by music from the day he was born, “Both of my parents are musicians, which meant that I was encouraged to play the piano when I was four years old. I then started recording my first songs at the age of six. I started playing drums at the age of 12 and have since played in a post-hardcore/rock/metal band – I have had a pretty much classical education.” But if you ask him, it’s that education that has been quite beneficial in the studio, “I have only really been producing electronic music for about two years, so I am still a relative newcomer to this type of music. I suppose I have been able to progress my development to a satisfactory level quite quickly because of my musical background. However, I still feel I am just at the beginning and look forward to each new track I produce and to learn more about the processes.”
The year 2009 proved to be an influential one as it was the first time Zedd had heard electronic music, “I was in a rock band back when † came out, and I was so inspired by it that I started making electronic music for fun. I made some songs and people really liked them, so I kept going with it, and here we are today.” Armed with an impressive musicality and background in instrumentation, composition and production, the jump to electronic music was an easy one.
Just a few months after he started working on his production, Zedd won two Beatport remix contests with Armand Van Helden / Strictly Rhythm’s Remix Contest and Fatboy Slim / Skint Remix Contest. The wins caught the eye of Skrillex who signed Zedd to his new OWSLA label. He also grabbed the attention of executives at Interscope who helped release several official remixes for artists like Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, P. Diddy, Swedish House Mafia and Skrillex.
His first original release “The Anthem,” cracked into the Beatport’s electro house Top 20 chart.The following releases “Shave It” and “Slam The Door” dominated Beatport’s overall charts for weeks at a time. In 2011, his remix of Lady Gaga’s “Marry the Night” landed on the deluxe edition of the pop star’s album Born This Way and his remix of “Born This Way” appeared on Born This Way: The Remix, which boosted his number of fans – especially after he was the only opening act for the Asian leg of Lady Gaga’s world stadium tour “The Born This Was Ball.”
In 2012, Zedd signed with Interscope records and released his debut LP Clarity in October. The first single, “Spectrum,” featuring singer/songwriter Matthew Koma, was a hit climbing into the the Top 10 on the iTunes dance chart and holding on to the #1 spot on Beatport overall chart for almost three weeks. The track then soared to #1 on the Billboard Dance Club Song chart and was ultimately named their Dance Club Song of the year as well as iTunes Breakthrough Album of the Year (Dance) for 2012. The stats from the title track are even more impressive. “Clarity” debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at 86, peaked at 8, and is Zedd’s most successful song in the US and worldwide. It has sold over 1,200,000 copies and just recently won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording.
Often pegged as an “Artist to Watch,” Zedd’s latest single “Stay the Night” is already #3 on the UK music charts. We will definitely be staying the night when Zedd performs at Ultimate Music Experience on South Padre Island, Texas on March 13-15th. Tickets are now available online, buy your tickets today!
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/47218984″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/25545600″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/78161243″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
