Levels by Swedish House Mafia was his favourite song since he was 3. His music has changed over the years but he has an ever-growing fan base that has only magnified after the announcement of his recent relationship with Selena Gomez. The artist of the month for May is Anton Zaslavski, better known as Zedd.
One particularly impressive thing about Zedd is how his musical style has changed over the years, and how he can comfortably create a monster like ‘Shotgun’ along with the feels of ‘Clarity’. His remixes are no less impressive, as his fans would tell you about ‘Breakin A Sweat’ and ‘Alive’. And having got the chance to see him live at his one and only performance in Mumbai (June 2013), we can swear that he knows how to get a crowd to absolutely lose it.
Music was always going to be his calling, as Anton, born to two musicians, started playing the piano at 4 and the drums at age 12.However, his early musical career wasn’t about electronic music, but rather about a German band called Dioramic, and association that lasted for a decade and ended only as recently as three years ago.
He began producing electronic music only in 2009, and after winning two remix contests early on, Zedd’s first single ‘The Anthem’ was released in 2010.
His remix for ‘Scary Monsters and Nice Spirites’ peaked on the Beatport Electro House charts and soared to No.2, giving Zedd instant popularity. His reputation was enhanced further as Lady Gaga featured his ‘Born This Way’ remix on an edition of her album. That year he also dropped ‘Shave It’ on Skrillex’s OWSLA records.
After signing with Interscope in 2012, he released Spectrum, which was a massive hit and was remixed by heavyweights like Deniz Koyu and Armin van Buuren. The song was a single from his debut studio album ‘Clarity’ released that year. The title track of the album, Spectrum and Fall Into The Sky were the biggest hits of the album.
He then took up producing duties for Lady Gaga on her album Artpop in 2013, producing three tracks on the album, and also producing for artists like Justin Bieber and The Black Eyed Peas later.
His early 2014 release ‘Find You’ was selected for the ‘Divergent’ Movie OST. He also released ‘Break Free’ with Ariana Grande later last year, which is his most successful Billboard track.
Earlier this year, he released ‘I Want You To Know’ featuring the vocals of rumoured girlfriend Selena Gomez. It was also announced that Zedd would release his second studio album ‘True Colours’ in May this year.
Apart from producing music, Zedd is often found hanging out with photographer Rules, Deadmau5 and Skrillex among others.
The tech geek always buys the latest iPhones as soon as they’re out, and is also a fan of Elon Musk’s Tesla electric car range, and owns one himself.
