Even his most devoted fans might not recognize electronic musician Zhu if they ran into him on the street. And that’s by his own design. Under a veil of anonymity, Zhu emerged as a force in electronic music with his 2014 single, “Faded.” Letting his music speak for itself, he signed with Columbia Records and garnered a GRAMMY nomination, all while remaining a mystery.
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Fast forward two years, and Zhu just dropped his debut album, Generationwhy. GRAMMY.com caught up with the Los Angeles-based producer backstage at Lollapalooza 2016 to talk about his approach to live performances, what audiences can expect from a Zhu show, and the allure of mystery.
What was your first introduction to electronic music?
I think the first couple of acts that really brought me into electronic music was Justice, Daft Punk, Deadmau5, back in 2007 and 2008. I think we were able to improvise more with the technology that we had. We didn’t have to go rent out major studios and spend a bunch of money. We could do certain things, you know, D.I.Y. Of course there’s challenges to that as well. But it was the first time I think anyone could, if they tried, make music. And that was a very revolutionary thing for our generation.
Take me through the evolution of your DJ set up. What gear do you use on stage, what software are you running?
There’s one thing about DJing which is being in an environment playing a long set. And then there’s another thing about performing with live instrumentation and vocals and things like that. So, the way that I have it setup is everything is MIDI-synced between my musicians and I and all our external kind of outboard gear. Ideally in the future, I can pretty much resample things out of play and put them in as we go live.
The sonic landscape of a live performance is three to four sounds. You can’t hear that much detail. You have your mids, highs, lows, vocals, so you have to minimize a lot of stuff. For me, it’s just rearranging a lot of music and also taking out a lot of the things that don’t need to be there live. Unlike in the records where you have infinite detail to play with on your headphones or in your monitors, live — you’re only going to hear a few sounds and those sounds got to really count and be impactful.
What’s your approach to song arrangement and how, sonically, do you approach weaving in electronic sound with live instruments?
For me I start with the low end. I think the electronic low end is something that usually you can’t achieve on an acoustic or even sometimes analog kind of techniques. So, that’s what sets it apart and that’s always going to stay fundamentally electronic. Now, the mids and highs — those are the places that you get to play around with. For me, the live instrumentation that sit in that space live — whether it be guitar, sax, keys, vocals, percussive — those can come through. It’s actually more powerful that it’s played live. Sonically, it just sounds better. It’s more full, it’s more dynamic.
Let’s talk about Generationwhy — what went in to making this record?
This album spanned quite a long time. And, usually it’s a luxury I have time, but at the same time I very much admire the situation 10 or 20 years ago, where they had two to three months or four months in a place and they had to finish – they had a deadline.
Sonically, I wanted to find a way to blend kind of psychedelic music into what club culture had. And I was touring and stuff so rather than playing these records in a club, they were more played in shows, concerts, theaters, festivals. Sonically, it’s very different than a club, right?
What can someone expect at a Zhu show?
Well, it’s got to be the whole experience. I think visuals are part of it, it’s all balance. When you have great live music, I think you can rely less on visuals, you can rely more on, you know, the engagement and the presence of the artist. And I think that at a Zhu show really it’s just a journey. You’re going to get your visual base journey as well your musical base journey, as well as the people that you came to see. I think it’s all got to be a balance of all those things. Watching what Pink Floyd did on The Wall tour 30 years ago. Those guys are there and they’re playing great music but there was definitely an overall encompassing experience that they’re trying to create.
You’ve navigated the music industry in such an innovative way — how have you used anonymity to your advantage to get people listen to your art?
We’re in a time where everything is so saturated and everybody is putting out records; everybody can put out records. There’s millions and billions of records out there and most of them aren’t heard. The curiosity and mystery is lacking in today’s world. And this doesn’t even really apply to [just] music, either. I think you can find out all the information you want. But to really delineate what’s true and what’s not, the filtration system isn’t there. So, I just wanted to bring back the feeling of mystery. And I think that’s something that’s valuable because I don’t have that same feeling, 10 or 15 years ago, when I discovered something and it was completely new. And I was just crazy over something.
And when you think about before we were born, with bands like Pink Floyd, all you had was the album and the sleeve. It kind of goes back to that, when you’re really focused on the meat, on the art.
It’s powerful, right?
What did it mean to you to be nominated for a GRAMMY? Can you tell me a little bit about the track, “Faded?”
It’s definitely an honor. To make music, I think you need to have both the credibility of the fans and the general public as well as your peers, right? In doing anything, you have to do both well. And that means a lot because that was probably one of the simplest songs ever to be nominated for a GRAMMY. But maybe that spoke to the power of simplicity and, something that Miles Davis always talked about too, is that the space is more important than the notes. And that’s really true in my music too, the space is very important.
What’s next for you? Specifically, what do you want to accomplish and explore in the next few years as an artist?
Well, all artists have to progress and evolve. And if they don’t, they’re not doing it right. I’m thinking about the next record and thinking about how to integrate whatever sounds there is on to the show in a way that will be perceived from the audience in the right way. There’s a lot of interesting and very exciting things in the future. There’s many records to be made, so that’s exciting.
