By Tal Smith and EJ Bowman
Electronic music artist, Anton Zaslavski, more commonly known by his stage name Zedd, sat down with the press on September 19th to talk about his new album, Telos, his first full-length project since 2015.
Zedd released his third studio LP, Telos on August 30, 2024. Big-name features such as John Mayer and the late Jeff Buckley appear across the ten-track record. Telos peaked at #8 on Billboard’s Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart.
For this record, the process was just as much of a factor as the actual product was. Zedd told the press that “a lot of the songs have been accumulating for almost a decade – Telos is the playground for all those to exist”. The journey wasn’t easy, though, as he also elaborated on the fact that burnout became a very prevalent issue during his time working on the record. When asked about the lead-up to the release of Telos, he said “I couldn’t sleep at night, I woke up in the middle night thinking about the songs I was working on – the last couple of months I probably pushed myself more than I should’ve.”
The Greek word Telos means “an ultimate object or aim”, a very worthy title for Zedd’s third studio album. After all the burnout, lack of inspiration during the pandemic, and many years of toying around with loose ends and demos, he told us “This is all I’ve wanted and I can’t believe I’ve finally done it – It’s a goal I reached that didn’t know if I would ever reach.”
Another massively important goal for Zedd with this record was to make a project that felt like a journey. “I love albums that feel like journeys.”
“More and more increasingly, albums have started to seem like playlists – it doesn’t even really make want to listen to the album.” Because of this observation, Zedd made it a priority of his creative process to make something that is not just fluid, but a journey. “Everything in music is about context – sometimes you need a larger canvas to tell a story.”
This larger canvas, Telos, shows what Zedd can do when given the opportunity to create out of the box. “The true form of artistry is not making what people expect you to make – it is to do what you as a human being want to do.” he said while explaining some of the creative choices on the record. Instead of conforming to the traditional DJ-suitable 4/4 time signature, Zedd played around with different time signatures and untraditional soundscapes. “What ever the music needs, it gets”, he said.
Zedd also got the opportunity to collaborate with artists such as Jeff Buckley (posthumously), Remi Wolf, and John Mayer, many of whom he told us are “people who inspired me.” “John Mayer has been a huge inspiration to me and I’ve listened to his music for years.”
We also found out a caveat regarding Zedd’s collaboration process. “The short answer is: I don’t like collaborating,” he said in a surprising response. However, when further elaborated upon, the artist made it clear he enjoys collaborating when it feels just right, such as these features on Telos from long time inspirations of his.
The journey for Telos is still far from over. Zedd embarked on a tour around the US on September 12th, and had a lot to say about the production of the shows. “This current tour is the most challenging in terms of ‘show’ – if you can hear it, I want you to see it. The programming for this tour has been excessive,” he said, insinuating that the Telos tour is much more than just a music performance. He further elaborated that each and every track on the setlist has its own visual feel.
Zedd is excited to welcome fans to the remaining shows in the tour, stating that his “favorite part of the [EDM] community is that it is based around love and acceptance.”
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