Maren Morris and Zedd found musical kismet in their pop-crossover collaboration with Grey, “The Middle,” and a new video by The New York Times retraces the journey that led them to the massive hit.
For the Times‘ new series, Diary of a Song, Zedd, Morris, Grey, songwriter Sarah Aarons and producers Monsters & Strangerz go back to the beginning of “The Middle,” which started with Monsters & Singerz working with Aarons’ verses and building it into a demo. That was handed off to Grey, who brought it to Zedd, who knew they had a winner on their hands, and they shared text messages while they working on the track to give us an all-around look at their recording process.
“They played it for me, and were like, ‘What do you think?'” Zedd tells the Times‘ Joe Coscarelli via FaceTime. “I felt, if done right, this could be a huge smash. So we start working on it together. Everybody started loving it. Let’s just find the vocalist, which was something that ended up taking, as you know, quite a long time.”
Tons of vocalists were up for the song — 14, actually — and it was important for Zedd that the one who wound up on “The Middle” really got where Aarons was coming from with her songwriting. “There were months where we almost gave up because nobody could sing it properly,” he says.
“I didn’t really know about all the drama finding a vocalist,” adds Morris. “The rhythm is so interesting — lookin’ at you I can’t lie — it’s like walking up stairs.”
Zedd flew to Nashville to meet her and cut her vocals, and the rest is history. “I’ve never had a song where everybody felt like it was perfect.”
Watch the Diary of a Song episode of “The Middle” below.