ZHU on Anonymity, Confidence, and Black Midas

Transcript

ZHU: Doing music, making music, making it into something sustainable is not something that has a pre-written path. You just have to figure it out, and you have to persevere and survive all the different levels. And when you succeed, that's when people really can buy in and say, "Oh, this route actually can make sense." It's not just a song, it's projects, it's a sound, it's a world, it's aesthetic, it's a culture. And that's when it really clicks for people. It's all about confidence. I wanted to give people confidence. I wanted to make them feel like they were riding a Batmobile at night on the way to a mission. And whether you know what that feels like or you don't, you put on the records and you can accomplish whatever you want to accomplish.

Landing in Miami

Bobby: So, what's going on, man? Welcome to Miami, by the way.

ZHU: Yeah, thanks for having me.

Bobby: Yeah, absolutely.

ZHU: Ultra, that's what's going on.

Bobby: So, you said you flew in Friday, right?

ZHU: I did, yeah.

Bobby: Did you do a pop-up?

ZHU: Yeah, I popped into Wynwood, did a little surprise thing at one of the Brownies & Lemonade things, and then just chilled, and here we are.

Bobby: That's what's up. What do you think about Miami as a city?

ZHU: I love Miami. I think it's just a great place for a lot of different cultures, and especially dance music.

Bobby: Yeah, it's huge here. It's crazy. Miami Music Week is like one of the biggest weeks, this and ADE, I feel like, for dance music fans, when the most artists are in one place playing. It's pretty crazy.

ZHU: Yeah, it's like the biggest convention ever, right?

Bobby: Straight up, dude. Straight up. And you're playing Ultra in a few hours. How many Ultras have you played?

ZHU: This is my second. The first time was before the pandemic, which I felt like was such a different generation of fans, you know? This will be my first time doing something like this post-pandemic.

Bobby: Yeah, yeah. So, we were kind of talking about this earlier, different waves of dance music fans and new generations coming in. How do you think dance music was pre-COVID compared to now, post-COVID? Do you notice a difference in culture and what's going on?

ZHU: Yeah, I think pre-pandemic there was a continuity from a lot of the festivals that were happening, and it definitely birthed a lot of music and songs. And I think right now it's a lot more about the subcultures of different DJs and artists and their units. Like, for instance, in Europe, I think the culture comes first, and then a song comes out of that culture. It just comes out when people are playing a bunch of IDs and stuff, and boom, one song just pops off and people are like, this is what feels good.

Bobby: Yeah, absolutely. Yo, so early on in your career, when you started ZHU, it was an anonymous project technically, right?

ZHU: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bobby: And how long were you anonymous for?

ZHU: I tried to go as long as I could, but eventually it just got so big that I couldn't really escape it, and I think by 2017, 2018, it was just kind of what I am, you know? What I became.

Bobby: What made you want to not be anonymous anymore, and did you notice a change after that?

ZHU: I just thought, if people already know who I am, there's just no need to hide it. So in the beginning, with Nightday and a lot of the records on there, it just felt good to be in a dark room at night with some neon lights and listen to that. That's the way I wanted people to hear it and experience it, and that's what they did. As the music evolved, there was no need to pretend to be anonymous after a bunch of people knew who I was. So it just naturally evolved.

Bobby: Especially, didn't ZHU get nominated for a Grammy, right?

ZHU: Yeah, it was fast.

Bobby: That is fast. So being anonymous and getting nominated for a Grammy is pretty crazy.

ZHU: Early days were crazy. I remember the first show after that. It was in Australia, because the record just blew up there, and the first show I ever played was in front of 12,000 people at a festival called Listen Up. We had a screen there, and I was behind it, and everybody knew the words to the song without even knowing who I was. That was just kind of wild.

Bobby: So you had a screen covering you while you played?

ZHU: Yeah, it was a transparent screen in the front, and we projected visuals from the front and the back. So it was just a shadow of my body for the first ten to fifteen shows.

Bobby: That's pretty dope. Do you still have videos from that?

ZHU: It's probably on YouTube somewhere.

Bobby: Yeah, absolutely, it is. So what would you say was the year you really broke out?

ZHU: ZHU probably became an identity in people's minds, I'd say, from 2016 to 2018. In the beginning it was the song "Faded," and then later on people were able to walk into my world and understand, okay, it's not just a song, it's projects, it's a sound, it's a world, it's aesthetic, it's a culture. I think that's when it really clicked for people. That's what an artist is supposed to do. They're supposed to push the boundaries, they're supposed to be a conduit for energies and what the world is unable to communicate, and they're able to take that and find a way to communicate it so people can understand and feel things they themselves aren't able to express.

Bobby: What's the feeling and the vision behind ZHU, the thing you're trying to portray to people when they listen to it?

ZHU: To me it's all about confidence. I wanted to give people confidence. I wanted to make them feel like they were riding in a Batmobile at night on the way to a mission. Whether you know what that feels like or you don't, you put on the records and you can accomplish whatever you want to accomplish.

Bobby: I love that. I love hearing you say that. It does feel like that, the Batmobile. That's what's up, man. That is what's up. So, you're a San Francisco native, right?

Bay Area Roots

ZHU: Yeah, I am.

Bobby: Have you had influences in your music from where you grew up over there?

ZHU: San Francisco is rich, man. The '70s had CCR. Then in the '80s you had Huey Lewis, Sly and the Family Stone, people in the area like Metallica, Fleetwood Mac. Then into the '90s and 2000s with hip hop and hyphy, Too Short, the Grateful Dead. So for me, music culture in the Bay Area is a melting pot, a cultural melting pot from the hippies in the psychedelic era all the way to the Haight-Ashbury punk stuff, to the "let's pull up a car and do donuts" hyphy era. All of that resonates with what I'm making and the energy of the moment.

Bobby: Yeah, and each of those, I feel like, in their decades or eras, was what the people were doing.

ZHU: Mhm.

Bobby: And that was always counterculture. You also played at the mayor's inauguration, right?

ZHU: Yeah.

Bobby: What was that like, man?

ZHU: It was just people all the way down the blocks. It's cool to see a city be able to throw some shows and let the people come out and experience music, and I think it's important. That's why Miami with Miami Music Week is good for the culture too.

Bobby: No, absolutely, it really is. The show looked insane, by the way. It looked absolutely insane. Did your family get behind you wanting to be an artist early on?

ZHU: I don't think they understood, but again, I don't think anyone understands. Doing music, making music, making it into something sustainable is not something that has a pre-written path. You just have to figure it out, and you have to persevere and survive all the different levels. And when you succeed, that's when people really can buy in and say, "Oh, this route can actually make sense." It wasn't really until then that they understood, but I think they were always supportive. They understood that I had a deep desire to take things I couldn't express and find a different way, if it wasn't verbal, to get it out somehow.

Bobby: Was music always the original goal, or did you have another job in mind if it didn't work out?

ZHU: No, it was just always going to be this. I think for some people, they need it. By that I mean, if you have things you need to express, things that are pent up, it's got to come out. For some people it's through writing, some people through music, some people through making a film, some people through designing stuff, whatever the format is. For me, early on, it was just the language I knew how to communicate in.

Collaborators and the Music-First Philosophy

Bobby: So, based on your music and your vision, with how you want to create a feeling, like we talked about, a Batmobile and giving confidence, who are some other dope artists you've collaborated with who you think share a similar vision?

ZHU: On the Ringos Desert record I did a record with Majid Jordan. I really love that kind of '90s R&B, smooth, driving feeling, and putting them on something a bit more electronic. I thought that was dope. I did something early on with Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and Krayzie Bone. He's a really smart guy, and he was telling me about the early Bone Thugs days too. These are just different people with different cultures and different backgrounds that I was able to communicate with through the production and also the sound, which is what it's about at the end of the day, right? Because music is a conversation.

Bobby: Yeah, absolutely. Music comes first, right? That's what David Guetta was saying yesterday. He was saying a lot of artists are focused on lifestyle and stuff, not as much about the music. He's like, it's 100% about the music first.

ZHU: About the music, yeah. And again, lifestyle could be distracting, because at some point everybody's selling something and everybody's guilty of it. At some point I want to sell some things too, because I want people to be able to feel it through other avenues. But when it comes full circle, the thing they're going to feel at a max, 100%, is the music.

Bobby: Yeah, absolutely. And speaking of the music, what are your plans for 2026?

ZHU: I'm about to drop an album called Black Midas on April 24th. This is kind of ZHU going back to classic ZHU, the dance floor.

Bobby: Let's go. And are you going to be playing that at Ultra today?

ZHU: Yeah, I'm going to play some songs off it, and I'm going to play some hits, some different bangers. My Ultra set will just be a combination of the new and the old, the classics.

Bobby: Nice. I always like asking this, because someone like you, who's been relevant and had hits, who are some dope rising artists in the dance scene that you like?

ZHU: Right now, sonic-wise, I really dig Max Styler. I think production-wise he has a great balance between heavy and groovy. There are people who understand simplicity and grooves, and I feel like his stuff is dope. I really dig some of the newer R&B house producers too, because R&B house has a certain texture to it.

Bobby: Dude, absolutely, fire. Those are two great choices. They're killing it right now. Max Styler was just named the number one producer in the world for 1001 Tracklists. His music is so good. We were watching his set the other day, an open-to-close five-hour set, and there was nobody in the crowd, which is a crazy concept.

ZHU: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bobby: Straight up wild. Yo, so what would you say are your top five ZHU songs you've ever released?

ZHU: I've ever released?

Bobby: Yeah.

ZHU: Are we crate digging, or are we going with hits?

Bobby: We're going with whatever you want. I'm talking about you, dude.

ZHU: Okay, me.

Bobby: Yeah, your favorites.

ZHU: Okay, let's see. I'd say "Dreams" with Nero, "In the Morning," "Palm of My Hand." Yeah, no one said it was going to be easy.

Bobby: Interesting. I'd say the one with Skrillex and THEY., "Working for It."

ZHU: Yep. I mean, I have to put either "Faded" or "Cocaine Model" on there, so one of the two.

Bobby: We'll put both of them. Hell yeah, we'll put both of them, man. We'll put both of them.

What's Next

Bobby: So, this is probably going to get released after Ultra, well, obviously Ultra's happening today. Where can people see ZHU for the rest of the year?

ZHU: The rest of this year we're going to be doing a lot of the BLACKLIZT parties, which is kind of...

Bobby: Yeah, can you talk about what BLACKLIZT is?

ZHU: BLACKLIZT is a concept that started in 2017, kind of the opposite of a lot of the big stage festivals and big shows that were happening at that time. I decided, hey, look, I just wanted to go somewhere with no production, no million dollar laser rig, no pyro, none of that, just bodies dancing, a dark room, music. It started in New York, at a venue downtown, and we just did an eight-hour party.

Bobby: Yeah, hell yeah.

ZHU: And the one thing was, come wearing black, because you're going to feel like you know everybody. That's kind of the concept behind it. My thought was, look, you don't have to really think about what you're going to wear, it's simple. You know where it is. If we release the address last minute, you just go to your closet, grab something you already have, boom, you're out. Everything was very much a surprise for people, and to me that was a reminder that no matter how big the stages get, at the end of the day it's really about the music, that people want to gather together and dance. That's why I got into it. The initial records that blew up were inspired by me going to raves, not necessarily me sitting in a bedroom making a beat. I don't want my music to just be played in a vacuum.

Bobby: Yeah.

ZHU: You know.

Bobby: Yeah, I mean, your music was actually part of the reason why I got into dance music, by the way, back in 2016 to 2018. It's actually part of the influence for why I started working in this, dude, so...

ZHU: Wow.

Bobby: I appreciate you.

ZHU: Damn. Yeah.

Bobby: Really appreciate you, man. Making some dope stuff, dude. But yo, we appreciate you coming in today. Much love, brother. ZHU. Peace out.

ZHU: All right. Peace.