“My Smallest Show Ever”: Inside Zedd's Secret, Sweat-Soaked NYC Bodega Rave

Zedd shrunk his stadium-sized spectacle into a synth-fueled sardine tin of euphoria over the weekend, turning a humble NYC bodega into a secret rave he called his “smallest show ever.”

Just 25 people shuffled into The Little Shop, a tiny corner store that lives up to its name in the South Seaport neighborhood of Manhattan. The bar was high thanks to MUNDO, whose renegade reggaeton and amapiano raves have been taking the Bronx by storm.

EDM met ATM at the shop, the location of which had been kept secret as part of an elaborate scavenger hunt initiative hosted in partnership with 5 gum. Fans had to decipher a series of hints and clues on social media, then show up to receive a Zedd-branded, glow-in-the-dark pack of 5 gum, which doubled as their ticket. One attendee even said he camped out overnight to ensure access to the rare rave.

The event’s development took place over a period of 10 months, according to Maria Urista, Vice President, Gum & Mints at Mars. Her team, she says, set out to “deliver an extremely stimulating sensorial experience fans could get nowhere else” while celebrating dance music culture.

“We kept coming back to the energy and excitement around secret raves, performances for a group of fans dedicated enough to seek them out,” Urista tells EDM.com. “It’s what led us to developing an underground event of our own, but adding the tension of hiding it in plain sight, with one of the genre’s most recognizable talents, in a location where 5 gum can already be found.”

“From there, the toughest part to navigate was the ingenuity of our and Zedd’s fans—they dug into each clue we dropped so deeply, sharing theories with each other, and using some incredibly novel ways of piecing everything together,” she continues. “We actually ended up changing our clues and the cadence of information we doled out in response to the fervent fan response.”

The scene was surreal for those who found themselves in Zedd’s pocket universe. And the irony was palpable—a man accustomed to commanding crowds at the world’s biggest festivals was now locked in a within-arm’s-reach interplay with barely two dozen fans.

Remember 5 gum’s wild commercials? The ones that showed the world “how it feels to chew 5 gum,” which apparently meant spontaneous levitation, the ability to taste colors and the uncontrollable urge to parkour? Crammed into a single narrow bodega aisle and dripping sweat as Zedd performed the most intimate show of his career, we finally understood what they meant.

“This is just such a fucking unique experience for me,” Zedd said at one point. “So I can’t say ‘thank you’ enough because I never get to do this.”

We experienced an exclusive nosedive into the stratospheric Telos, Zedd’s first album in nearly a decade, which releases on Friday. As never-before-heard music and generational dance anthems like “Clarity” and “I Want You to Know” reverberated off linoleum floors, The Little Shop transformed into a hypnogogic dream where the ordinary collided spectacularly with the extraordinary.

In this minuscule slice of raving heaven, Zedd proved that true musical magic isn’t measured by the size of the venue, but by the electricity shared between artists and their fans.

“It far exceeded my expectations and the energy and vibes were unmatched,” said attendee Flo Patino. “From Zedd thanking us for being there, to talking to us, the new songs that haven’t come out yet, everything was incredible—it felt like having a best friend in front of me playing. It was so beautiful that I got home, thought about everything that had happened and had teary eyes from the emotion because it felt like a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

The rave capitalized on 5 gum’s long-latent goal of harnessing the energy of electronic dance music to appeal to their consumers, according to Urista. The partnership, she says, was the latest in the brand’s mission “to be part of life’s most thrilling moments” through music events and activations with beloved artists.

“Music means so much to our consumers, and our product can be found at concerts, festivals and shows across the country—it’s only natural for our brand to look for ways to amp up that experience,” Urista explains.

After a number of compelling brand activations in the hip-hop world, like a unique jewelry collection featuring actual 5 gum chewed by Yungblud and a custom cassette track with J.I.D that only five fans could listen to just five times before the tape shredded, it was time. So they called on Zedd, one of the world’s most influential electronic music producers.

“We have wanted to play in EDM for years, and partnering with Zedd for this year’s campaign was a no-brainer,” she continues. “His fandom and our audience perfectly overlap, he’s been creating some of the most thrilling music moments for more than a decade and he’s on the verge of releasing his first new album in almost 10 years—the perfect moment for the brand to celebrate.”

Fans of Zedd can pre-save Telos here. The album is scheduled to release on August 30th, 2024.

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Flour Power: Inside the Creative Oven of Sofi Tukker's Steamy New Album, “BREAD”

Sofi Tukker and bread: an unlikely pair, yet strangely kindred spirits in the all-you-can-eat buffet of life.

Both rise to the occasion, one on stage and the other in the oven, fermented by time and heat. One feeds our souls, the other our bodies. Sofi Tukker’s new album BREAD, however, does both.

BREAD is an acronym for “Be Really Energetic And Dance.” We’re ironically breaking bread over brunch on a sweltering Brooklyn summer afternoon, the kind where the subway grates spew dragon’s breath and even the pigeons seem sluggish.

Much like a fresh baguette, the album is best devoured immediately, still hot from creation. But with spicy imagery of assless chaps, microphone vibrators and fingers tracing tempting paths through hair, what happens to your stomach afterward—or, ahem, other body parts—is none of Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern’s concern.

However, for them, embracing outlandishness isn’t artistic masturbation—it’s evolution in action. Despite their album’s not-so-subtle erotica, they are proof of the magic that happens when raw talent and vulnerability meet.

“I feel I’m always on the edge of confidence and doubt,” Hawley-Weld says. “I can sometimes feel really confident about things and have a lot of doubt about them at the same time. I just feel both of them, maybe to the extreme honestly.”

It’s difficult, however, to scent even a scintilla of doubt when looking at the gown Hawley-Weld wore for the cover of BREAD. A masterstroke of surrealist fashion, the dress was developed by CHRISHABANA, whose pieces have been worn by Rihanna, Lady Gaga and Madonna, among other music icons whose legacies are canonized by ornate, dreamlike outfits.

But even with a pedigree like that, the East Village-based creative studio was caught off-guard by Sofi Tukker’s request to materialize their perception of bread, which the duo believes “conveys decadence, sex and making yourself happy.” That’s according to its eponymous founder, Chris Habana, who worked alongside stylist Anastasia Walker to bring the look to life.

“In our six or so years of doing costuming, we have been thrown a lot of intriguing requests and I have to say this one initially threw us for sure,” Habana tells EDM.com. “But after the first talk, it became such a fun project to dive into.”

Habana says the dress needed to travel, so his team couldn’t use real bread. They wanted to create each adornment by scratch, but with limited time, they had to purchase artificial food displays and ultimately sourced a selection of fake croissants, baguettes and other bread varieties.

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Like dough leavening in real time, a particular challenge arose when Habana had to carve up the “bread” in order to engineer the gown’s intricate breastplate.

“Manipulating the bread to create the arched breastplate was a challenge that my team thankfully figured out how to achieve by slicing the foam bread and wiring it on the inside,” Habana explains. “The sliced bread used in the floor length skirt that came in were all also one-tone white bread. I figured it would be more interesting to give them a toasted look. I ended up mixing various brown tones of paint and rolling and layering them over lightly on the textured surfaces. It looked like realistic toast in the end.”

In the end, it inconceivably took only 10 days for Habana and his team to design, construct and ship the daring dress to Brazil for the shoot. Hawley-Weld didn’t even know at the time if it would fit, she tells me. Maybe it was her unapologetic soul or her icy blue eyes that pierced through the veil of its absurdity—but she somehow pulled it off.

The gown delivered their vision while beautifully reflecting the vibrant music of BREAD, a sultry song-cycle of radiant house music and funk carioca with Brazilian and Portuguese influences. It also served as a reminder that music, fashion, food and sex each lose their savor when bound by too many restrictions.

To that end, the new album is what happens when artists embrace and submit to the most creatively unhinged versions of themselves. If “BATSHIT” was Sofi Tukker’s postcard from the edge of sanity, BREAD is their leap off the cliff.

With the ability to brazenly explore taboo concepts through a cerebral lens, they’ve become masters at transforming fun, irreverent subject matter into transcendental experiences for fans. Look no further than the wild music video for the album’s lead single, “Throw Some Ass,” where Halpern and Hawley-Weld bleed confidence and morph into piquant provocateurs before our eyes.

As hips gyrate and bare butts bounce in the video, the profane somehow becomes the profound.

“We’ve typically taken risks in videos,” Hawley-Weld says. “When I decided to have an orgasm on the side of a mountain with just my guitar for a video or when we decided to do a ‘Center For Asses That Don’t Move Good’ with our asses out, we’re putting a lot of our own resources into these absolutely crazy ideas.”

“And then I always get really, really nervous and I feel like, ‘Oh my God, what have we just done?'”

Filmed at the stunning Palácio das Laranjeiras in Rio de Janeiro, the audacious video is a reminder of why rules are meant to be broken. The same goes for the racy music video for the BREAD single “Spiral,” in which Heidi Klum co-stars.

Boldness is, after all, the yeast that makes timeless music rise. Consider David Bowie’s chameleon-like transformations or Björk’s alien soundscapes—weirdness is a weapon if you wield it with intention and purpose. That axiom rings especially true in 2024, a time when algorithm-approved playlists and focus-grouped releases make music irretrievably stale.

No one knows this more than Halpern, a former basketball star who says he often felt out of place in the locker room as he struggled to balance his love for the game with his desire for self-expression. He became his high school’s all-time scoring leader and a McDonald’s All-American nominee before playing college ball at Brown, where he captained his team.

“I was in a jock world,” he recalls. “I always had tendencies of being a little flamboyant with my style and out there and different from the other athletes, but I was still in that world and I had a lot of self-consciousness. I think about those sides of me and I’d get a lot of shit about it.”

“Seeing myself as an artist… it was a hard transition,” Halpern continues. “When I first told people, ‘I want to make music, I want to be a producer, I want to be a DJ, I want to be an artist,’ they kinda laughed. They’re like, ‘No, you’re in this box. You’re an athlete, you can’t do that.’ And it wasn’t until there was enough people believing in it that accepted me as an artist or accepted that I wasn’t just an athlete pretending to be an artist. Then I started feeling the freedom to dress how I wanted, to do my hair as I wanted, to just take risks and not give a fuck.”

It paid off. When Halpern and Hawley-Weld each hacked out their own convictions like deranged surgeons, they set Sofi Tukker up to scale heights reached by few in the dance music scene. They prophesied this captivating delirium through the first lyric of “Benadryl,” a haunting track they released back in 2018: “I lost my sanity with my socks.”

Just how far they intend to go from here remains to be seen and heard, but one thing is for sure: they are living proof that the most satisfying things in life often come from daring to deviate from the recipe.

BREAD is out now. You can listen to the album below and find it on streaming platforms here.

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What So Not's Haunting “Motions” EP Decodes the Unseen Static Between Our Souls

For someone whose music so often makes people dance, it’s ironic that What So Not is more fascinated by the hidden choreography of our daily lives.

That’s the inspiration behind his new EP, Motions, which he says is his attempt to breathe audible life into the feelings, textures and other somatic phenomena that dictate our shared reality. As you listen, you might feel the weight of a stranger’s gaze or the electric charge of an unspoken connection.

For What So Not, whose real name is Chris Emerson, the EP is essentially a dive into the quantum soup of existence, where he crafts sonic blueprints of reality’s raw data. It reminds us that we’re all transmitters in this vast cosmic network we call life.

“The ideology behind this whole EP is the motions that are at play around us at all times,” Emerson tells EDM.com. “The cover art is actually a bee crashing into some water and watching the ripple effect of its wings pan out across the whole pond. And it represents how so many things are at play that we can’t see unless they enter another medium that we don’t even realize is impacting us. We don’t even realize how we are radiating to others, and it’s really a sonic exploration of those ideas—of the impacts we have and we receive at all times in our existence.”

By producing electronic music through the perspective that we’re constantly radiating, Emerson invites us into a world where every action and thought ripples outward and comes with their own degree of impact. Motions is the spellbinding soundtrack to this silent ballet.

“I think this is all just an evolution of my understanding of life, where I am with myself and where I am with my craft. I almost feel like this is 2.0,” he muses. “This is everything I’ve understood from times before and I think almost getting back to that core of creating with no judgment, creating what is just truly authentic, and then just letting it be.”

“So often in our careers as producers, we start to overwork things, we judge it too much and don’t just let it be what it wants to be,” Emerson continues. “And I think these are really records at the purest. I’m thinking, ‘What does this song want to be? What is this trying to pull out from inside of me?’ Letting it be that, and just leaving it be.”

Look no further than “Tower In The Woods,” a stunning track where What So Not’s languid production entwines with haunting vocals by MNDR that seep into your bones like winter frost. With thick kickdrums that crunch through the mix like boots in untrodden snow, the duo explores the depths of isolation and paints a portrait of solitude so vivid you can almost see your breath hanging in the frigid air.

Another highlight comes with “Realise,” a collaboration with French electronic music virtuoso Habstrakt. Their frenetic drum & bass rhythm provides a stark backdrop for noir-pop songstress Maiah Manser, whose elegant vocals evoke a sense of both intimacy and vastness. “I can see the sun right in your eyes / Glitter like a million fireflies” is a striking image, beautifully contrasting warmth and distance.

That contrast is by design, according to Emerson, who says his goal was to essentially produce beats that hit hard but also nest into a more emotive and dynamic place. It’s a body of work that demands attention—not as a passive listener, but as an active participant.

“I’m trying to find this sweet spot where my music has that knock and that power, but also that beautiful, lush bed underneath,” he explains. “Maybe it’s just very strong, elastic-type transients hitting on all the drums, but then it nests into this beautiful, characterized world.”

Next up for Emerson is a rare performance on on August 22nd at Cologne’s Gamescom, the world’s largest gaming convention, where he’ll be DJing at a “secret dungeon rave” in conjunction with his favorite game, Diablo.

He’s then heading to Australia to perform at the viral Bunnings Warehouse Party, which stems from a wild social media campaign that called for a DIY rave after legions of music producers created hilarious remixes of the household hardware and garden company’s jingle. The event will take place on Saturday, August 31st in the carpark of Bunnings Warehouse Preston.

Aiming to provide support in the midst of the Australian live music crisis, all proceeds from ticket sales of the Bunnings Warehouse Party and the community sausage sizzle will benefit Support Act, a nonprofit providing relief and mental health services to people in the music industry. Passes are available now.

You can find What So Not’s Motions EP on streaming platforms here.

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A Mother's Intuition: How Lily McKenzie's Pregnancy Shaped Her Best Music Yet

Armed with turntables and a baby bump, Lily McKenzie is redefining the sounds of resilience.

The South London-based DJ, producer and singer-songwriter recently released Pressure, her debut EP, via Warner’s Major Recordings label. Influenced by impending motherhood, the project palpitates with the raw energy of creation—both musical and maternal.

In Pressure, McKenzie crafts haunting yet energetic dance music that echoes the complexities of her dual roles. With a growing life internally and a burgeoning career externally, she’s turning pressure into power and vulnerability into art.

The surging triple-threat, who recently performed twice at Glastonbury while pregnant, spins tales of self-worth and perseverance in her new record. Through the sensual slink of “Satellite” and the aching twinge of the UK garage-inspired “Middle,” among other tracks, the EP serves as a reminder that we are much more than the sum of our struggles.

McKenzie is currently riding the wave of a breakout after nabbing support from Capital Dance as well as BBC Radio 1’s “Future Sounds” and “Future Dance with Sarah Story.” She’s also landed on major playlists such as Spotify’s “New Dance Revolution” and “The Loft.”

We caught up with McKenzie to discuss her new EP and the adversity that comes with navigating the music industry as a pregnant woman.

EDM.com: Before we get into the new EP, let’s talk Glasto. What was your experience like performing not once, but twice this year?

Lily McKenzie: Glastonbury was amazing. It’s always such a privilege to perform there and I always find that anyone I speak to—at whatever level they are in their career—there’s a sense honor but also pressure to put on a great show.

I played at the Stonebridge bar, which was packed and such good energy—I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get to the stage as it was so crowded! I also played The Temple, which is one of my favorite venues, so that was definitely one to remember.

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EDM.com: With this EP, it’s all in the name. How does the concept of pressure relate to your personal and professional life, especially in the context of your current journey as a pregnant woman?

Lily McKenzie: Pressure is about navigating your way through the strains of life, in particular within the music industry. I definitely feel those pressures, and being pregnant your emotions and hormones are heightened so that adds another layer!

The EP discusses these concepts, but it’s about knowing you are enough, seeing through what doesn’t serve, and coming out stronger. When you are true to yourself, everything levels out and you are able to thrive under pressure.

EDM.com: The track “Satellite” explores detachment and our pleas—even desperate at times—for human connection. From where did you pull inspiration to write those profound lyrics?

Lily McKenzie: I think we all feel a little lost at times—the world can be so noisy and it can be hard to feel connected. I wrote this song with two amazing producers, Andy Sheldrake and Ross Quinn, and after chatting we found we had all experienced these feelings at some point in our lives. We thought back to times we’d felt that way and from there the lyrics just flowed.

EDM.com: There’s been a growing conversation around the stigmas that pregnant artists face in the music industry. What have been some of the biggest obstacles you’ve encountered, and how have you navigated them to stay true to your vision?

Lily McKenzie: I did feel at first that I had to hide being pregnant for as long as possible as I was worried people would think I couldn’t be booked for shows, or wouldn’t be able to release music. But to be honest, the response has been really positive and I think there has been a shift.

As soon as you show you can do it (literally perform pregnant) then it’s normalized and the opportunities will hopefully keep coming. Women are proving we can do it all and I think it’s such a powerful and inspiring thing—I for one feel so lifted when I see other women doing the same.

EDM.com: How have you been managing the physical and emotional challenges of pregnancy alongside the demands of your burgeoning career?

Lily McKenzie: Pregnancy for me has definitely been physically and emotionally challenging and I’ve just had to go at my own pace. I’ve made sure to be kind to myself and rest when I’ve needed to. Staying busy with my career has helped though as it’s been a distraction when I haven’t been feeling great. It’s important to stay positive and music has always been my happy place too.

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EDM.com: What advice would you give to other expecting musicians navigating this territory?

Lily McKenzie: I would say that there’s no rules. People have different experiences and the priority is making sure you and your baby stay healthy—9 months is a really short time if you look at the bigger picture. You can only do as much as you feel strong enough to do.

I’ve been really lucky to have had great people around me at my shows, or in my studio sessions, so if I’ve been tired or unwell they’ve totally understood. I would say that’s so important, make sure the people you work with on this journey have that same understating and compassion.

EDM.com: Looking ahead, what kind of impact do you think motherhood may have on your artistry? Do you see yourself approaching lyricism, production or other processes through a different lens?

Lily McKenzie: I write from a very honest and sensitive place and I think if anything motherhood will enhance that. I don’t expect my sound or process to change too much as that’s already a strong part of me, but this is my first time having this experience so I’m sure I will notice any changes as I go along!

EDM.com: What’s next for you? Without getting into too much trouble, are there any exciting things in the Lily McKenzie pipeline you can reveal to our readers?

Lily McKenzie: It’s definitely been go, go, go leading up to the EP which has been great, but I’ll be taking the next few months to enjoy being a first time mum for sure. It’ll also be nice to spend that time listening to music and crate-digging at a slower pace.

I have been writing lots of new music that I’m excited about and I’m planning to drop some new records towards the end of the year. I’ve also started booking in some shows for then too—so it’ll be nice after a little break to come back with a fresh perspective!

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6 Charli XCX Remixes to Keep Your “Brat Summer” in Full Swing

It may be the middle of August, but Charli XCX‘s “brat summer” has kept the season red-hot—under the guise of a lurid green shade.

Its likely you’ve heard the phrase by now, what with the phrase and its signature green palette taking over social media platforms and signage worldwide. But what exactly is “brat summer”?

Deriving from her sixth studio album BRAT, the term was characterized by Charli as someone who rocks “a pack of cigs, a Bic lighter and a strappy white top with no bra” on the BBC’s Sidetracked podcast. Along with the album’s brazen messages and intersection of hyperpop and house music, “brat summer” essentially encourages all to live a colorful and wildly unapologetic life, partying as much as they so please.

But fans are not the only ones taking to BRAT. Electronic music producers are taking “brat summer” to another level by producing their own remixes of the album’s tracks en masse. Read on to discover five of the best.

Charli XCX – Von dutch (Skream and Benga Remix)

Dubstep icons Skream and Benga reimagined “Von dutch” with a vintage banger, heavy in its bass and vocal distortion.

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Charli XCX – Spring Breakers (hallow UKG Edit)

Not long after releasing BRAT, Charli XCX came out with the album’s deluxe edition, brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not, which includes “Spring Breakers.” Hallow then revamped the track with a frenetic UK garage edit.

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Charli XCX – Talk Talk (Dreeks Remix)

Dialing up the tempo, Brighton-based producer Dreeks put an ethereal spin on “Talk talk” in his remix. After starting with gentle, airy production in the first verse, he unloads a rousing and euphoric four-on-the-floor drop with a hyperpop twist.

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Charli XCX – 360 (Gabone ZX Remix)

If you like a slower beat, Brazilian artist Gabone ZX has you covered with a strategically languid, angsty remix of the BRAT album’s opening song.

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Charli XCX – 360 (HEYZ Flip)

HEYZ recently decided to produce his own rendition of “360,” making bass the main ingredient in his recipe for a “brat summer.” He then made a hilarious TikTok video to promote the dubstep edit, which has proved itself popular in his live performances.

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Charli XCX – The Von dutch Remix with Addison Rae and A.C. Cook

Named after the fashion brand with a cult following in the early aughts, “Von dutch” experienced a revitalization for the TikTok age with the addition of influencer Addison Rae. Suffice to say the remix (and Rae’s perfectly-pitched scream) has taken TikTok by storm.

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If those don’t quite scratch the itch and fuel your “brat summer,” check out a user-generated SoundCloud playlist of over 300 BRAT remixes below.

Charli XCX – BRAT Remixes

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An Introvert's Breakout: How Don Diablo Built His Boldest Show Yet on a Foundation of Silence

Don Diablo: a name that echoes through the world’s most epic arenas and music festivals, yet belongs to a man who finds the most comfort in the hushed spaces between.

Silence breeds thunder in the hyper-creative world of Diablo, a buccaneering DJ with the soul of a poet. Fans know him as the headlining, pioneering progenitor of the future house genre, but underneath the veil lies a fascinating dichotomy between the larger-than-life persona and introverted recluse.

We caught up with the Dutch electronic music superstar ahead of a can’t-miss performance on August 9th at the Brooklyn Mirage, where he’s debuting an ambitious and deeply personal live show concept. Like a hermit in a hurricane, he’s laying bare his humanity more than ever at the monumental concert.

“I’m a guy who’s always hiding behind three layers of clothing, always wearing sunglasses, and there’s barely a photo out there of me wearing a t-shirt,” Diablo tells EDM.com. “I generally don’t like to show any skin or anything of the real Don. I’m always living in the future, sort of hiding behind a wall of technology. So I think for [the Brooklyn Mirage show] it was important to show a little bit more Don.”

“There’s a custom DJ booth that’s see-through so you can actually see me,” he continues. “Usually when you see a DJ, you just see half a body… It’s really more about making it a little bit more personal as well as finding a way to push the technology and come up with clever things.”

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The ghost in the machine will take form at the Mirage with help from Ethan Tobman, the renowned Creative Director of Taylor Swift’s historic “Eras Tour,” which in late-2023 became the highest-grossing tour of all-time after surpassing $1 billion in revenue.

The two were introduced by Diablo’s agency, WME, and he was surprised to learn that Tobman was a fan. Tobman, he said, read his sci-fi adventure comic series, HEXAGON, three times back-to-back.

“I actually never ever met anyone who did that,” Diablo recalls. “He was that well-versed into my world and into my psyche and into my brain. There really wasn’t another option then but to work with him. He has a very different approach and style than I have, which is what I need because I need somebody that goes against me—someone who has a different vision.”

The acclaimed production designer’s influence has been paramount not only to Diablo’s creative breakthroughs, but also his own self-esteem. He points to the Tobman-directed video for “SexyBack,” his remake of Justin Timberlake’s generational hit of the same name, wherein he appeared shirtless for the first time after years of grappling with body confidence issues.

“I’ve always felt very not confident about my body,” Diablo says. “I used to weigh roughly about 50 pounds more than I do now, when I was a teen. I never go to the beach. I never go to the swimming pool. I generally just don’t feel confident when I’m not wearing a shitload of clothes.”

Now, however, Diablo says he feels younger and healthier than he ever has, which also helps him mentally and creatively.

“I lost around 17 pounds to do the ‘SexyBack’ video, which was a really scary thing for me to do,” he continues. “You have to be comfortable with yourself, so I really worked my ass off.”

To that end, it’s clear that someone like Diablo, 44, can’t truly succeed and find inner peace unless he’s constantly pushing the limits of his own barriers. A laissez-faire attitude has never been an option. But that pursuit of growth comes with the risk of alienating diehard fans, with whom he wishes to evolve in lockstep.

“Sometimes it feels like you can’t make everyone happy… It feels like there’s so much pressure,” he laments. “It’s hard sometimes. I like to focus as hard and as best possible to create as many beautiful things for the world out there before I pass away. And that’s all I got.”

Diablo’s genius lies in his uncanny ability to bottle the euphoria of youth, as well as the longing of adolescence and the complexity of adulthood. At the intersection of nostalgia and futurism, his music has long-functioned more as a time capsule, imprinting on fans during specific life chapters and growing with them along the way.

Opening up about his approach to songwriting, Diablo paints a picture of his goal to soundtrack the highlight reels of his fans’ lives, from first kisses to devastating losses. He’s not interested in fleeting chart-toppers—he wants to create a sound with tendrils that tether to your most profound moments.

Diablo points to a song coming out soon called “Young Again,” which he says is an ode to lost youth, a precious gift easily overshadowed by life’s demands. After all, our most vibrant years won’t ever return, and regret is a bitter companion.

“I think right now we have to live our best life. Because we will never be young again,” he explains. “We are stuck in so many things that pull us down that we forget to enjoy. That’s really something I want to learn and something I want to try to do in New York as well: enjoy all the music I’ve made, look at the faces of these people and remember that I will never be doing this again. I always think this might be my last show—that’s the way I go into it. Every Don Diablo might be the last show I’ll ever do.”

Tickets to Don Diablo’s show at the Brooklyn Mirage on August 9th are available here.

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