LOS ANGELES — It has been almost a decade since Zedd, the Grammy - winning producer and DJ, released his sophomore album, ''True Colors.'' A lot can happen in that time. Mostly, the German dance-pop maverick needed to push himself to make an album that would move the needle — one that told a story beyond the success of his debut LP, ''Clarity,'' or ''True Colors,'' which he says was created to prove that he could not be placed into ''this EDM box of making 128 BPM club bangers, because I have more to say.''
Enter ''Telos,'' his long-awaited third full-length.
''It is an album that for many years I doubted I could create,'' he told The Associated Press. ''I wanted something timeless, something that I would be proud of forever, and something that is very detailed and where it's not just songs thrown together onto a record, but where every song leads into the next.''
The project is also highly collaborative, including features from Muse and John Mayer to newer pop voices like Remi Wolf and Bea Miller.
In the interview, ZEDD discusses ''Telos,'' being inspired by Jeff Buckley and the state of EDM. It has been edited for clarity and brevity.
AP: It has been nine years since your last album. Why is that?
ZEDD: I've enjoyed not putting pressure on myself, and just releasing singles. And of course, I always — in the back of my mind — I was like, I will make another album. But what am I trying to do, and what am I trying to say? And I came up with these concepts before ever starting (to) work on an album. I wanted it to be meaningful and have some sort of concept behind it, not just, ''Hey, I have a contract, I need to make an album.''
Then the pandemic came around and I thought, ''Well, this is a perfect time. Now everybody's off. I can finally sit down and make an album.'' And I was aimlessly trying to make this album that just didn't feel genuine to me, and I scrapped the entire thing besides one song, "Dream Brother," which kind of became a pillar of my album.