Get to Know Rising Masked Artist ZIN

Rising artist ZIN swung by to chat about his new era, his love for all things Daft Punk, and his hopes to see complextro rise back up in the scene

There’s a lot of energy bubbling up from the depths of the scene as new artists continue to climb their way up with each passing year. Many of these fresh faces have been influenced by their own experiences, whether discovering artists they’ve loved or attending monumental shows that sparked a desire to pursue a career in this space. ZIN is one of those artists.

This masked figure in the scene has roots that date back to his earliest years listening to music when he discovered Daft Punk, and he hasn’t turned back since. ZIN’s immersion in the scene led to the development of his project and was fueled by his desire to bring music to the masses. While a small number of original pieces have surfaced, his remixes and flips of tracks like LUPA’s “werehouse,” Julian Gray and SOFI’s “REVOLVER,” and more recently, 1788-L and Deathpact’s “MALFUNKT,” have shown off his dynamic nature.

Looking to gain some added insight into the backstory of this mysterious artist, we reached out to ZIN, and luckily, he agreed to sit down for a chat. He dives into everything from the first time he listened to Daft Punk and his earliest influences in the scene to his recent releases and what’s to come from the project in the future. Listen to his exclusive guest mix that’s brimming with quality tunes and IDs, and read on for the full conversation.

Stream EDMID Guest Mix 399 || ZIN on SoundCloud:

Hi ZIN, thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us today. Let’s get the ball rolling on this one by diving into your electronic roots. Who were some of the artists you listened to early on, and what led you to find a home in the dance music scene?

It’s a pleasure. Thanks so much for having me on! I became a fan of electronic music at a really young age, maybe five or so years old. Daft Punk was the one who started it all for me. It’s impossible for me to hear Discovery and not visualize the Interstellar 5555 music videos in my head alongside the songs (shoutout to Toonami back in the day for playing the music videos on the Midnight Run; none of this would have happened if I hadn’t seen that).

From Daft Punk, I got extremely into the French House/French Touch scene: Justice, DJ Falcon, Modjo, Breakbot, and all that stuff. Outside of that, I followed the pretty standard late 2000s EDM fan pipeline: deadmau5 and Skrillex to Porter to Zedd and Madeon. My first electronic music show was Skrillex with Porter and Zedd, which definitely had a massive influence on the styles I produce.

Fast forward a few years, and I caught Zedd’s True Colors tour around 2015, which I’d say is when the desire to get further into this space really took off. At that point, I’d been making music (or at least attempting to make something vaguely resembling music) for about a year. The True Colors show was the first time I got the idea in my head to pursue production and DJing outside of the casual hobby it had been at the time, but I practiced for a few more years until finally going public with the project in 2020. And now we’re here, and I’m talking to you about music, which is pretty dope.

Daft Punk has been the catalyst for many to start producing their own music, including you. How has their work influenced you, and which tracks are some of your favorites?

Oh man, I could probably have an entire article-length response to just this question, but I’ll try my best to remain succinct. I’m not sure there’s an aspect of this project that isn’t inspired by Daft Punk in some capacity. Seeing Zedd’s show was what pushed me to pursue music more seriously, but even the idea of doing anything within music all started with hearing Alive 2007. That entire live album is just this perfect collage of their discography, I’d never heard anything like that before. The encore of Alive 2007 gave me the idea of DJing and blending songs, which led to making my own songs to try to include in the mix. Granted, it took many years before anything of substance was made to be mixed, but hey, I’ve got a mix for you today, which includes my music, so we made it there eventually!

The most obvious example of me wearing the Daft Punk influence on my sleeve is probably the whole anonymous/masked thing. Artistically, I love their choice to separate themselves from the brand and image of the project and just let the music have its own identity, so I wanted to do something like that with my project. Everything about the ZIN project is meant to be up to the interpretation of the listener; you’ll never see me saying, “This song is about such and such.” I want the audience to be able to have their own meaning to this project without it feeling like mine, as the artist is the “correct” one. Even the project name “ZIN” means whatever the listener feels it means, and I love hearing different people’s interpretations. All of that is sort of my way of expanding on the anonymous concept Daft Punk used.

As for favorite tracks, “Digital Love” is probably the top track in my heart, but narrowing down other favorites just gets out of hand for me. I’ll just end up listing every song. I do think there are some severely underrated gems, though, so I’ll do my best to pick a “most underrated” track per album that I recommend people check out if they haven’t yet.

Homework: Indo Silver Club
Discovery: Crescendolls
Human After All: To be honest, the whole album is egregiously underrated, but in the interest of picking out one track, Emotion for sure
Random Access Memories: Beyond

You recently donned a new mask to help mark the new era of ZIN. Can you give us a peek at what’s in store for you and your project in the near future?

Yes! The mask has been a long time coming, pretty much ever since I got the idea to do this whole music thing to begin with. The mask is absolutely a prelude to more from the ZIN project next year. I’ve got some more flips lined up and some official remixes that I’m excited to share. There will also finally be some original music featuring vocalists as well, which is a first for me.

I’ve been really lucky that my first step into original tracks with vocals includes some of my favorite vocalists working in the scene right now. I love making remixes and flips, but getting original music out there is really important to me moving forward. I’m also really looking to push DJing as well and start playing some more shows, so if you enjoy the guest mix today, please consider telling your local promoters!

There are so many fantastic remixes you’ve crafted over the past few years, from Julian Gray & SOFI’s “Revolver” to LUPA’s “werehouse,” and more. What draws you to remixing tunes? Did you find something specifically in these tracks that made you want to twist them in your own way?

Thanks so much! I think I’m prone to remixes and flips because they come together so much more quickly for me. The hardest part of making a track is always just starting an idea I find inspiring, but with remixing, I already have something to bounce off.

As for “Revolver” and “werehouse,” those remixes started out as attempts at remix competitions, which I was fortunate enough to win, landing official releases. Lupa’s remix competition was the first one I entered back in early 2020, and winning it really gave me the confidence to keep pursuing the project. In the case of “Revolver,” it was already such a love letter to early electro, so I wanted to see if it could be taken in a complextro direction from the same era.

If anyone is early on in their production career and wants to get out there a bit more, I can’t recommend remix competitions like those enough. I’ve since befriended the artists who hosted those remix competitions I managed to win, and those wins led to other official remix nods. Those competitions are responsible for so many of the artist friends I’ve made, so I encourage new producers to take a swing at them.

Your flip of 1788-L and Deathpact’s “MALFUNKT” is your newest, and it’s an absolute gem. Can you share what your approach was to this one specifically?

Thank you for the kind words! I’m a pretty slow producer by default, and this flip, in particular, was an especially meticulous process. I think it went through about three full versions before I landed on the one that’s out now. I hold the work from 1788-L and Deathpact in high regard, so I wanted to ensure that my take on their work really landed.

The chord structure and melodic components are things I knew I wanted to preserve as the core of the song, but the drop sections I wanted to make my own. That mostly involved kicking the track up from a midtempo tune to 128 for electro shenanigans. I took a great length of time really studying elements of 1788-L and Deathpacts productions and employing them in my own way, such as their sound design or their types of glitch fills. Above all I wanted to uphold and expand on the grandiosity of the original, which is what culminated in that halftime drop that ends the track.

You’ve been a strong advocate for the return of Complextro, a genre that has fallen out of favor in recent years. What do you love most about that style, and how can we help bring it back from the dead?

I LOVE this question. I’ve always had an affinity for over-the-top, progressive, and maximalist music. I’m just as happy to listen to some solo piano music, but complextro just scratches a very particular musical itch. I love that you can hear a complextro track on repeat and still hear new details or layers each time. People like Feed Me and Madeon pioneered the style of complextro that I have the greatest fondness for (“Icarus” by Madeon is, to me, the complextro song), and I still find new things to love in their songs that I’ve listened to for over ten years at this point. I hope to achieve something similar with my attempts at complextro.

I think complextro didn’t have enough time in the spotlight in the overall history of EDM. It’s also been so long that I think new interpretations and new takes of complextro would be amazing to hear. I think about contemporary artists like Knock2 or a prodigy like WINK making complextro, and I can’t even imagine how forward-thinking and insane the result would be. Music trends go in cycles, and I hope a complextro return is imminent. Legends like Wolfgang Gartner and Mord Fustang, who pushed complextro to begin with, are releasing tracks today in the same style but with a modern twist, so I’m hoping other big names from the early complextro era come back to push the next iteration of the sound.

I think there’s a whole generation of producers now who got into the scene after complextro’s popularity had passed its zenith, so I think if there’s more awareness of the genre, more and more people will start to get on board. It’s impossible to predict with total certainty where this whole scene is going, but I’m happy to help nudge it toward a complextro resurgence in some capacity. Other producers like Kindrid and Bad Computer are great examples of people nailing the modern complextro sound. Really, I just want more awesome modern complextro to listen to, so I hope more people start making it.

As an artist who is rising through the ranks of the scene, what’s been the biggest struggle you’ve faced so far in your career? Have you been able to overcome it?

It sounds basic, but just putting music out there. I’m not alone in being a perfectionist, but my perfectionism certainly slows down my output more than I’d like. While I think I’ll always have that to some extent, I’ve finally got a rhythm going creatively and am so excited to go into next year with more music planned. I’m amazed that some artists can drop music every month or so, so I’m certainly further behind with only one release this year, but I can promise more releases next year. I’m extremely thankful for the support and patience of anyone who’s listened to the music I have released thus far, and I hope they all enjoy what I’ve got coming up.

Finally, with 2024 quickly approaching, what are some goals that you hope to achieve in the coming year?

Similar to the last question, the big goal for 2024 is just releasing music: originals, flips, remixes, the whole lot. I’ve also been having a ton of fun practicing mixes and playing the occasional local show. It’s nice to have that full circle moment with Daft Punk’s sets being the inspiration for me to kick this whole thing off and do sets myself. I’ve been pretty reserved with pushing the project and releasing to this point, but in 2024, the gloves are coming off.