TELOS, GRAMMY Nomination for Best Electronic Album, Muse, John Mayer, Coachella, F1
Zedd has spent most of his career making music that moves at the speed of culture: billion-stream singles, festival-closing sets, collaborations with some of the biggest names in pop. So when he spent nine years quietly building his most ambitious project, TELOS, it raised a question that doesn't get asked enough in electronic music: what does an artist who can do anything choose to spend that kind of time on? The answer earned him a GRAMMY nomination for Best Electronic Album and some of the most serious critical attention of his career.
In this 98-minute conversation, Elmo goes deep with Zedd on everything: the making of TELOS, collaborating with Muse, John Mayer, Jeff Buckley, and Remi Wolf, production secrets including how he conceptualizes drops and programs drums, what it was like touring with Skrillex in the early days, and the Coachella preparation process. They also go beyond the music: Zedd's passion for Formula 1 racing, his friendship with driver Lando Norris, and his obsession with watches.
This is one of the longest and most wide-ranging conversations the show has produced, and Zedd delivers throughout. His technical depth as a producer is matched only by his curiosity about everything outside of music, making this one of the most complete portraits of a major artist in the show's run.
"TELOS took nine years because I refused to finish it until every single moment felt exactly right. That's just who I am."
The full story of Zedd's most ambitious album: why it took nine years, what kept evolving, and what it felt like to finally release a project he had been living with for nearly a decade.
How the TELOS collaborations came together: working with Muse, John Mayer, Jeff Buckley, and Remi Wolf, and what each brought to a project that pushed the boundaries of electronic music.
Zedd goes deep on his production methodology: how he conceptualizes a drop, the way he approaches drum programming, and the technical decisions behind some of his most recognizable sonic moments.
What the Best Electronic Album nomination means at this stage of his career, the artists and records he was up against, and how he thinks about legacy versus what's happening right now.
Zedd on touring with Skrillex early in his career, the moment he realized he was operating at a different level, and how creating billion-stream records changed his relationship with his own work.
His Coachella preparation process, his friendship with F1 driver Lando Norris, and the passions outside of music (Formula 1 racing, watches) that feed back into his creativity in unexpected ways.
Zedd breaks down the nine-year TELOS journey in full: the versions that got scrapped, the collaborations that unlocked new directions, and the specific moment he knew the album was finally done. It's a rare, honest account of what long-form creative ambition actually costs.
His production masterclass on drops: how he builds tension, what makes a drop land versus what makes it fall flat, and the technical discipline behind what sounds like pure instinct when you hear it on a festival stage at two in the morning.
The story of working with Muse on TELOS: how that collaboration came together, what it was like to write with a rock band as an electronic producer, and how their approach to arrangement changed the way he thought about the record.
On touring with Skrillex in the early days: the energy of that era, what he absorbed from watching one of the most charismatic performers in electronic music work a crowd, and how that experience shaped his own approach to live performance.
Zedd on Formula 1 and Lando Norris: his genuine passion for the sport, what he and Lando talk about when they're not at a race, and why he thinks the mental demands of F1 and elite music production have more in common than people realize.
What Coachella means to him as a milestone and a creative challenge: the preparation that goes into a headline set, how he sequences the show, and why performing at Coachella still carries a specific weight even after years at the top of electronic music.