Kaiserslautern, Germany · edm · electro house

Zedd

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A classically trained producer whose precision-engineered pop-EDM defined mainstage sound for a decade — 'Clarity' still the gold standard.

Zedd is the producer and DJ Anton Zaslavski, born in Saratov in the Soviet Union and raised in Kaiserslautern, Germany, the son of two musicians. He began piano at four and drums at twelve, and by his teens was playing drums in Dioramic, a metalcore band co-founded by his older brother Arkadi and signed to Lifeforce Records.

His move into electronic music followed hearing the French duo Justice, and he started producing on his own in 2009, working in Cubase with synths like Sylenth1 and Omnisphere. He won two Beatport remix contests in 2010, and his first original track, "The Anthem," cracked the Beatport electro house top 20; a remix of Skrillex's "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" and a Lady Gaga "Born This Way" remix followed, alongside his first release for Owsla, "Shave It Up."

He left Dioramic in March 2012 to sign with Interscope, debuting there with "Spectrum," written and sung by Matthew Koma, which topped Billboard's Hot Dance Club Songs, and producing Eva Simons' "I Don't Like You." That same year came his debut album Clarity, whose title track with Foxes won the Grammy for Best Dance Recording; its deluxe edition added "Stay the Night" with Hayley Williams.

His second album, True Colors, followed in 2015 with "I Want You to Know" featuring Selena Gomez, and he was featured on Ariana Grande's "Break Free." Later singles "Stay" with Alessia Cara and "The Middle" with Maren Morris and Grey kept him on the charts, and a third album, Telos, arrived in 2024.

His DJ sets are built around that catalogue and the mainstage sound it helped define.

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