One listen to Paramore‘s new album should tell you that Hayley Williams and the guys are very interested in expanding their musical boundaries … which is just part of the reason why Zedd recruited Williams for his new single,
Seems he’s got a lot more in common with the fiery frontwoman than most folks realize.
“Although my music is electronic, it has a lot of influences from my past, which is all sorts of genres; I’ve been in a rock-metal band for a longtime, and I still feel like, personally, I have a lot of influence from that,” Zedd told MTV News. “My classical influence, you can find spots here and there. I think we have a similar background, musically, and maybe that’s why it fits so well … I feel like a lot of other genres are in my music even though they’re not in the spotlight.”
And those similar sensibilities are what make “Stay the Night” — which is available digitally Tuesday — such a natural fit. Williams’ soulful vocals blend seamlessly with Zedd’s keening, electronic production, creating a song that’s certainly ready for the clubs, but also contains nods to the rush of rock and the compositions of classical music. Though, when Zedd spoke to MTV News, he wasn’t all that interested in figuring out where the track fit … rather, he was focused on nailing his portion of the music video.
“I don’t have to think about anything, I just have to play the song, but I have to play it in double speed, which they will slow down for the final video,” he explained. “It lets me test out my skills a little bit … and when it comes to moving, you have to make everything more extreme, and that feels so strange. I’m not really a person who moves a lot when I play the piano, so that was pretty weird.”
And while he can control his performance in the video, Zedd has no sway over “Stay the Night’s” success. Can it match the global popularity of his smash single He’s not sure … and, really, he’s not worried about it.
“When I was working on ‘Stay the Night,’ I don’t think ‘Clarity’ was even platinum yet, so I didn’t have that pressure. But it’s a good kind of pressure,” he said. “I never feel like I need to make a song that sells 5 million copies; that’s not the point of why I make music. It’s great if that happens, like it did with ‘Clarity,’ but my goal is to always make a better track than the last one.”
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