With his sleek synth melodies, billowing basslines, and undeniable hooks, the GRAMMY-nominated artist ZHU creates tracks that are as sexy as they are sinister and as indulgent as they are dark. Songs like his star-making hit “Faded,” with its 318 million streams, provide a noirish soundtrack for massive crowds of writhing bodies. Though many know ZHU as a producer and DJ, he’s much more than that: he’s also a singer, performer, instrumentalist, and, importantly, a songwriter and filmmaker, two facets he delves into on the ambitious and unique new album and film GRACE. “The most powerful thing we have is to be able to tell stories,” he says.

“Settle for Less,” ZHU’s collaboration with Sabrina Claudio and latest single for Astralwerks, is a shining example of how he stirs powerful emotions with his stories and sounds. Beginning with only pensive piano keys, he builds an ethereal atmosphere through Claudio’s reverbed vocals and subtle background harmonies. Finally, the track opens up further with a sensual yet urgent, percussion-led rhythm as ZHU fights for a love on the edge: “You know you touch me in the broken parts / So don’t you leave.”

ZHU worked to create a film (out this fall) that fully captures GRACE’s breathtaking audio-visual spectacle. The album—which will double as the film’s soundtrack—was recorded mostly at Grace Cathedral in ZHU’s hometown of San Francisco, among the stained-glass windows and marble columns where people preached, worshiped, and sought answers from a higher power. He channeled the grandness of the occasion into the LP with transcendent organs, string players, and even a choir. ZHU worked fast, recording with intensity and urgency, most of its tracks are single, live takes. Far from a standard dance record or a collection of singles, ZHU intends GRACE to be listened to from beginning to end, as he tells a story for which even he’s not completely sure of the ending.

“This album is a real-life manifestation of some of the decisions I need to make,” ZHU says. “I’m kind of at this crossroads between some trajectories in my career: one which goes niche, and the other which goes for mass appeal; one in which I focus on being a producer, one in which I’m an artist; one in which I’m in the shadows, one in which I’m in the light.” Inspired by the rawness of acts like Massive Attack and Portishead—“I think their records are really good at expressing pain”—GRACE navigates this junction via a winding path of sounds and emotions. From the roaring, bass-warped aggression of “The Gates” and self-idolizing “Praise” to the sparkling, love-flushed breaks of “Dragonfruit” and introspective, downtempo closer “Blessings,” the album chronicles a carefully written journey from darkness to light, tension to release, uncertainty to peace. A decade into his career, ZHU is sharing his world in a way he hasn’t done before. “I felt like I needed to go back to where I grew up,” he says, “to tell the story of where I’m going next.”

The artist born Steven Zhu has been making music since he was a kid growing up in the Bay Area. In his late teens, he started going to raves, where his idea of what music could be—and what it could do for people—changed. “That’s the first time I saw someone have so much control over an environment,” he remembers. “I was shocked that it was possible for one person playing records to command so much energy. It blew my mind. The lights, the music, the volume, the dancing. Electronic music is an experiential thing. You can’t tell the whole story just by listening to the record—it’s a unique part of this culture.”

ZHU knew he wanted to be a part of that culture, but it took time before he was ready. He was working in the industry, writing, and producing for others, when he realized he had amassed a collection of demos tailored to his unique sonic vision. He put out a few songs on his own, anonymously at first, and they took off instantly. By the time he had his first chance to perform them at a festival in 2014, “Faded” was already a hit. So when he took to the stage, he immediately got a taste of that feeling he craved as a teenage raver: He made people move.

Since then, ZHU has explored bringing rave music into new dimensions. On his 2016 debut, GENERATIONWHY, he worked in New Orleans with local jazz musicians to weave his love for that music’s unpredictability with the ecstasy of dance. His 2018 follow-up, RINGOS DESERT, was all the more genre-blurring—not to mention vocal-forward—folding artists as diverse as Tame Impala and Majid Jordan into the glowing neons of his club tracks. ZHU’s third album, DREAMLAND 2021, was made on the go during quarantine, amid sprawling road trips as he crafted a score for dancefloors that would one day spin back into motion. The set’s grimy techno and sweaty house soundtrack embodied the communal feeling of the dancefloor, with ZHU realizing his vision alongside a vast cast of guests including Yuna, Tinashe, and Channel Tres. His 2022 project, Musical Chairs Mixtape (Vol. 1), ventured deeper into the untamed depths of emotion and vice, unlocking primal instincts through hazy production and vocals aching with desire. At the end of 2023, ZHU released the Days Before Grace EP as something of a prologue to GRACE, wading fans into his slower, more industrial sounds.

Over the years ZHU has won broad acclaim for his boundary-pushing experiments, including a Best Dance Recording nomination at the 2014 Grammys for “Faded.” GENERATIONWHY topped Billboard’s Dance/Electronic albums chart and landed on the Billboard 200. He’s also had dozens of tracks hit on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, including “Faded” (#12), and “Working For It” with Skrillex and THEY (#11). These accolades have earned him partnerships with brands including Pokémon, Luminosity, and Mortal Kombat. Of late, ZHU’s tracks have been part of the moody soundtracks for film and television—“Desire” appeared in the Netflix series The Sandman, and he reimagined Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” for the Paramount+ film The Tiger’s Apprentice. A clothing designer since 2015, he previewed his high-end NIGHTDAY collection at EDC Las Vegas 2022 and recently opened his showroom for the first time.

Upon the release of GRACE, ZHU is reflecting on his career and appreciating how he has been embraced by the dance world. He’s also ready for new boundaries to push. “Making this album was so grand and tedious that I think I need to really just step back for a minute and just watch it unfold before I can make a decision on what’s next,” he says. Whatever that is will surely be worth watching.

ZHU

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