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The Popcast is hosted by Jon Caramanica, a pop music critic for The New York Times. It covers the latest in popular music criticism, trends and news. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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Today's guest went from making songs on a floppy-disk keyboard, sampling off a Kellogg’s cereal box DAW, and sending blind MySpace messages… to producing the some of the biggest crossover dance anthems of the last decade. And The Writer Is... Zedd!
What makes this conversation special isn’t just the hits — it’s how brutally honest he is about the craft, the obsession, and the unexpected moments that built his career.
A special thank you to our sponsors...
Our lead sponsor, NMPA aka the National Music Publisher's Association.
Your support means the world to us!
And @splice -- the best sample library on the market, period.
Chapters:
0:00:00 – Teaser
0:01:06 – Welcome & Episode Intro
35:58 – Zedd on Never Thinking He’d Be Successful
25:41 – Growing Up Poor & Studying One Album a Month
18:01 – The Kellogg’s DAW That Started Everything
15:33 – Learning Music on a 16-Track Floppy-Disk Keyboard
30:44 – Why He Thought EDM Was a Joke at First
38:12 – The Skrillex MySpace Story That Changed His Life
31:25 – Finding His Sound Through Curiosity & Obsession
47:14 – The “Lightning Moment” Behind Clarity
59:34 – Being Wrong More Often Than Right
1:03:03 – Why Most Music Feels the Same Today
1:03:37 – Extraordinary vs. Average: What Listeners Actually Feel
1:00:08 – “All I’m Doing Is Chasing a Feeling”
56:26 – The Chaos Behind Making The Middle
1:00:47 – Realizing the Scale of His Own Success
28:23 – What It Takes to Stay Inspired
6:48 – The Creative Principles He Still Lives By
41:22 – The Fastest Way for Artists to Get Noticed
1:05:23 – Zedd’s Final Advice for Musicians
1:07:19 – Closing Thoughts
Hosted by Ross Golan
Produced by Joe London and Jad Saad
Watercolor by Michael White
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
267 episodes
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