Russia-born DJ and super-producer Zedd says President Donald Trump’s scandals and “insane” tweets have the potential to turn the United States into a country similar to the failed despotic state of North Korea.
“No matter how big the scandal is, no matter how insane a [Trump] tweet is, it just keeps going. You feel powerless, and that’s terrible to me. Take that to a bigger scale and you end up in North Korea, where people are slaves of their own country,” the 27-year-old “Clarity” singer says in a Billboard interview published this week.
Zedd, whose real name is Anton Zaslavski, is living in the United States on a temporary O-1 nonimmigrant visa. The California-based musician got political earlier this year and helped organize a fundraising concert for the American Civil Liberties Union, in response to President Trump’s temporary travel ban. The spring concert lineup included singers Macklemore, Imagine Dragons, Miguel, and Skrillex.
DJ Zedd performs onstage during day 2 of the 2016 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival Weekend 2 at the Empire Polo Club on April 23, 2016 in Indio, California. (Mike Windle/Getty Images for Coachella)
Musicians Zedd (back) and Selena Gomez perform onstage during Z100’s Jingle Ball 2015 at Madison Square Garden on December 11, 2015 in New York City. (Mike Coppola/Getty Images for iHeartMedia)
Over the course of just a few short years, though, Zedd has worked with pop super stars from Ariana Grande to Selena Gomez. And the Grammy-winner says his chart-topping peers should not fear losing fans if they can use their platforms to push a certain political message.
“They don’t want to lose fans,” Zedd says, adding, “I understand where they are coming from, but I disagree with that being a good reason not to speak up.”
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