FEATURE: ZEDD
WORDS BY: KURTIS HOOPER
PHOTOS BY: KURTIS HOOPER
ONE OF THE MOST INTRIGUING TIMES IN THE YEAR FOR TOURING ARTISTS IS THE JUMP FROM THE
SUMMER FESTIVAL CIRCUIT, TO THE ARDUOUS FALL SOLO TOUR SEASON. AFTER 3 MONTHS OF
FESTIVAL HOPPING MANY OF THE WORLDS LEADING DJ’S SCHEDULE ROBUST SOLO TOURS.
TRAVELING BY BUS, BY PLANE, OR GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND, THIS CHUNK OF THE YEAR IS DEVOTED
TO SPENDING TIME WITH DEDICATED FANS, AND GIVING THEM FULL-LENGTH SETS WITHOUT THE
BOUNDARIES OF A LARGE-SCALE FESTIVAL SCHEDULE.
DJ Mag Canada spoke with Anton Zaslavski, better known
as Zedd, to chart the development and performance
integral to his ‘Moment of Clarity’ tour. Not only is this
tour a massive undertaking on the traditional level but
it’s also a world tour, covering multiple continents over
the course of six months. The opening legs of the tour
began in the eastern United States and Canada. Zedd the n
travelled the globe playing shows in Los Angeles and then
in Manchester UK in a matter of days. Zedd sat down to
describe his arduous journey ahead while overlooking the
Toronto skyline at the Sound Academy, a concert venue
nestled on the tip of one of the harbors piers. With the sun
setting behind him the Russian-born complextro producer
described the vision behind the massive undertaking, and
more speci?cally his involvement in each and every part of
the live show, all whilst preparing for his performance later
that evening.
What is the dynamic like going from a
demanding summer festival circuit tour,
moving into a solo tour?
One of the differences is that when playing a festival you
have to play with the production they give you. You have
to play the set length they want you to play, and you don’t
have too many options. You are one of many. But the
6
advantage is that you have 20 or 30 or 40,000 people that
would have not usually gone to your show because they
don’t know you. So you get a lot of new fans. On my own
tour it’s all just die hard fans. I love playing in front of my
fans that know my music, that I don’t need to please. I can
just play my own music and I know they will like it. My own
production, my own crew, everything has a spot! It’s like a
real show, and you get to go somewhere and perform your
own favorite songs.
With the production of this tour, how handson are you with the visual accompaniment?
I’m very hands-on. The visual aspect of it is just as
important as the music for me. Everything I would play I
will discuss with my guys. Even the songs that aren’t mine
I want to have a certain look for them and I want to have a
certain colour in that song and have a certain positioning.
We record every show I play and we watch them and analyze
them, trying to get better to be on-point. In fact there’s
one or two songs I play only because of the visuals, not
even because of the music. If I were at a festival without
my production I probably wouldn’t even play them. But
because I see this as an overall experience and not just a
DJ-set, you hear that song and see a certain visual and you
are like “WOAH! I have not seen that before!”.
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