June 10, 2024 • 12 mins
Celebrating his first #1 on the dance charts, and "Addicted" being #1 for TWO weeks in a row, Zerb joined us for the first time on America's Dance 30 and shared how the song was born w The Chainsmokers & INK, how long ago they started working on it, how many Vs there were of the song before its release, AND who came up w the iconic lyric "Drinking skinny margaritas but that a$$ still fat".
We also got to know Zerb better w #FinkysFirsts!
Find out about:
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
We also got to know Zerb better w #FinkysFirsts!
Find out about:
- the first thing he wanted to be growing up
- if 'Zerb' was the first artist name he decided on
- the first dance song that made him fall in love w EDM
- the first show he ever played
- the first point he realized his song "Mwaki" w Sofiya Nzau was going viral
- the first time he met The Chainsmokers
- his first addiction
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Oh, Zerb. By the way, I was going to bring some skinny
margaritas for us to enjoy today,but my ass is already too fast,
so I left them at home.Okay, dance counting down the biggest dance
(00:25):
songs in the country. This isAmerica's Dance thirty. Zerb. Welcome to
America's Dance thirty for the first time. Thank you, Thank you so much
for having me. Now. Iknow you're in the middle of an insane
world tour, the Memory Tour,so thank you so much for taking time
with us on AD thirty. Noproblem. Now this is the first time
(00:46):
we're chatting, so there is alot to congratulate you on, not only
on the world tour, but alsothe incredible viral smash Milwaukee with Sophia and
Zou. That was insane. Yeah, it's crazy, I mean Italy and
the song is huge here, soit's insane. That is so incredible.
Well we'll talk about that later,but of course, and congratulations on your
(01:11):
first number one addicted with the Chainsmokersin inc Let's go. Thank you so
much, so incredible. It wentnumber one last week when I was on
vacation, and it's number one forthe second week in a row on America's
Dance thirty. Yeah. That's crazy, that's crazy. I'm so happy,
I bet. Now. I can'twait to talk about this song and find
(01:34):
out how the smash was born withthe Chainsmokers in inc But first, let's
get to know Zerb a little betterwith Thinky's First Okay, okay, Now,
I love finding out the origin storyof artists. I read that you
actually learned multiple instruments as a kid, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
(01:59):
I've been learning. I was akid like every instrument that I could
learn. But when you were growingup, was music the first thing you
wanted to get into or was theresomething else you wanted to be when you
grew up. I've always been obsessedwith kind of like everything, I'm obsessed
with about how things work, soespecially for example, music, I've loved
(02:20):
music, so I was like,okay, how I can make music?
So that's why I started learning theinstruments. Learning how to produce was just
curiosity, and that happen was withme, like with everything, when I
like something, I go into likedeep. You know, I'm the same
way. It's annoying. Now Zerbis a take on your middle name,
(02:43):
right, yes, my middle nameis Zerbini. Now, when you were
trying to decide on an artist's name, was zerb the first name you decided
on, or were there other nameswho were possibly going to go with.
That's funny because actually zerb was mynickname on video game so like when I
had a YouTube channel with a gamingYouTube channel, and I used that name.
(03:07):
So when I was about to releasemy first song, I was like,
Okay, let's use the same name. It's a great name. Yeah,
it's a great name. It works. Now I read that you fell
in love with dance music because ofScrillicks and Dead Mouse. Is that true?
Yes? Exactly. Do you rememberthe first dance song that made you
fall in love with DM? Idon't remember the first one, but I
(03:30):
remember the moment. I remember listeningto Skrillix bangerng and I was I was
very curious about how he was makingall those sounds, and that's how I
got into music production. But whenI started producing, I learned that that
was actually very difficult. So Iwas like, okay, I know,
(03:52):
like how to make melodies and allthat stuff, and I loved that mouse
strobe and that that's how I gotMaud into progressive house, progressive music,
more melodics stuff. And that's why, like the path I went. I
can't imagine listening to scrillixys stuff andtrying to pick it apart and figure out
(04:15):
how it was made. I mean, the noises are just incredible. Yeah,
especially scary monsters. Oh my god. Now, like I mentioned,
you're on your world tour right now, but do you remember the first show
you ever played? Yeah? Rememberbecause it was a scary moment. Because
my friend used to make these hugeparties and I was already producing music and
(04:39):
releasing my songs, but I've neverplayed. I didn't have the DJ equipment,
so he invited me to play.It was like okay, but I
didn't get the equipment. I didn'thave any friends that got like cdj's or
anything. So I learned on YouTubeand went to the gig only based on
YouTube videos. How did it go? It went pretty good? Actually it
(05:02):
worked. It worked. That isincredible and what a testament for YouTube.
Yeah. Now, besides the incrediblesuccess of Addicted, you also had the
viral smash Milwaukee. Do you rememberthe first time you realized it was going
viral? Yes? I remember becauseit was a crazy week because it was
(05:25):
basically started as a reaction video thata DJ made called Pedo. He made
a video reaction video. We sawthat his video was getting a lot of
views, so we were like,okay, I need to start posting like
a lot. So I started makingthree videos a day. So I had
like all my friends helping, andit was like a crazy week wherever I
(05:47):
was like doing all those videos,everybody was helping. So we were like,
okay, what can we do.Let's travel to this place, do
this, do that, and everybodywas helping and was constantly releasing, like
posting three videos a day, soit was like a crazy moment. Three
videos a day, my god,And for someone like me that was not
(06:10):
used to making all those videos andlike kind of like exposing myself that much.
Nowadays, like I'm more used toit, but I remember I was
like, you know, I willsay though, this is a good time
for it though, because with thealgorithm, you could just post a video
of you sitting there and it couldgain traction exactly, and that's what happens.
(06:32):
Like we travel, we made likea lot of crazy videos, crazy
ideas, and the ones that gotlike most views were just me, like
you know yuber recording myself and Iwrote at tacks over it and you know,
it got like twenty million views.Oh my god, that's so frustrating.
It's not for suiting, Like theimportant thing is just posted, you
(06:54):
know, you never know. Speakingof which, you guys posted a lot
of videos for the lead up ofAddicted and afterwards. Do you remember the
first time you met the Chainsmokers?Yes, it was the day we made
(07:15):
the song. Actually, oh wow, how did it come together like that?
Basically with all the Moak's success,we were reaching out to all the
DJs that I like, and whenwe send them a message, they were
like, yeah, we love Moak, we love sir. Let's get into
the studio. So like two daysafter I was in the studio with them,
(07:38):
and I remember like we spent thefirst I don't know, two hours
to three hours just talking talking aboutcareer, personal life and just like getting
to know each other. And thenwe made Addicted in the in one session.
Wow, that's incredible. Well,we're going to talk about this song
(07:58):
a little more coming up. Finally, and Finkey's first in honor of Addicted
going number one for two weeks ina row. What is Zerb's number one
addiction. I think Doctor Pepper.I don't have Doctor Pepper in Brazil,
so when I'm outside Brazil, I'mlike, Peper making it rain on Zerve.
(08:22):
That's so awesome. Well, nowyou should have endorsements from YouTube and
doctor Pepper. Yeah, let's talkabout this smash. How long ago did
you start working on it with theChainsmokers. We worked on the song in
January, so it was pretty fast. As I said, like, we
did the whole song one day andthen I remember like I left the session
(08:43):
and Drew sent me a message thatwas awesome, and I was like,
yeah, that was awesome. Andthen he called me the next day and
it was like, Bro, thissong is actually really good. I think
we should just like get into thestudio again. I'll clear my schedule and
we can just re record the wholevocals. So we got like a very
(09:05):
clean vocal and I was like yeah. So this was like on a Tuesday.
On Friday, we did the nextsession to clean up the vocals and
the song was done, and Idon't know, one month later, one
and a half month later, wereleased the song Wow, really really fuss
that's incredible. Now was inc involvedfrom the beginning. Yeah, from the
(09:28):
beginning. She was in both ofthe sessions writing and recording the vocals.
Well, she did such an amazingjob. Now who wrote that famous line?
Did she write that or was ita group effort? What happened was
that was the craziest part of thatsession. We made the basically like we
I was in the studio with theChangemokers building the whole instrumental. When Ink
(09:54):
got into the studio, she basicallywas like, okay, loop the whole
song. I'm gonna free style andthen she did like a twenty minute freestyle
non stop, and We're like,what you know? And there was like
a lot of very good parts.So basically we start like cutting the parts
(10:15):
and we made a song with allthose parts. You know, when she
did the skinny Margarita sport, We'relike, this is so iconic, Like
we got to put this into thesong. That truly is one of the
best lines ever in a song.So funny. Now, something I love
to find out about songs is howmany different v's there are from when you
(10:37):
start working on it, all thetweaking that goes on when you finally put
it out. Do you know whatthe final V was of Addicted V zero
what There wasn't a lot of tweakingthat went on with it. We got
a lot of like mixing versions,mixing mastering versions because we were sending over
(10:58):
from my signed to their side andchanging and change until we were all happy
about the mixing. But like theprediction, and the song was in two
sessions, so maybe view one VIzero to V one, I don't know,
you know, as easy as itwent, it's all downhill from here
for you because normally songs are sotough to get together and get them out.
(11:22):
Yeah, but this is something thatI'm learning. I'm trying. I'm
starting to get more how can Isay, like more easy about all that?
Sef not put it so much pressureinto something, because that's something that
I learned over the time. Sometimeswe spend a lot of time doing small
(11:43):
changes that we start to go backto the first version and I'm really comfortable
about my prediction nowadays. That's it'seasier, you know, to produce music.
That's awesome. Well, I'm gladyou came up with that, And
congratulations on the number one for twoweeks in a row. That is so
incredible. What's next Forserb. Wegot a new song coming up in the
(12:07):
next month. I'm really excited aboutthis song. It's called Memory. It's
the song that it's the name ofthe tourist is the name of the song,
and I'm really excited. It's sucha good song. That's awesome.
Can't wait to hear it. Congratulationson the world tour that's going on right
now, Zerb. Thank you somuch for your time with us on America's
(12:28):
Dance thirty. It's great finally meetingyou. Thank you so much, Thank
you for having me Americas dancerty countingdown the biggest dance songs in the country
am America's Dance thirty
Oh, Zerb. By the way, I was going to bring some skinny
margaritas for us to enjoy today,but my ass is already too fast,
so I left them at home.Okay, dance counting down the biggest dance
(00:25):
songs in the country. This isAmerica's Dance thirty. Zerb. Welcome to
America's Dance thirty for the first time. Thank you, Thank you so much
for having me. Now. Iknow you're in the middle of an insane
world tour, the Memory Tour,so thank you so much for taking time
with us on AD thirty. Noproblem. Now this is the first time
(00:46):
we're chatting, so there is alot to congratulate you on, not only
on the world tour, but alsothe incredible viral smash Milwaukee with Sophia and
Zou. That was insane. Yeah, it's crazy, I mean Italy and
the song is huge here, soit's insane. That is so incredible.
Well we'll talk about that later,but of course, and congratulations on your
(01:11):
first number one addicted with the Chainsmokersin inc Let's go. Thank you so
much, so incredible. It wentnumber one last week when I was on
vacation, and it's number one forthe second week in a row on America's
Dance thirty. Yeah. That's crazy, that's crazy. I'm so happy,
I bet. Now. I can'twait to talk about this song and find
(01:34):
out how the smash was born withthe Chainsmokers in inc But first, let's
get to know Zerb a little betterwith Thinky's First Okay, okay, Now,
I love finding out the origin storyof artists. I read that you
actually learned multiple instruments as a kid, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
(01:59):
I've been learning. I was akid like every instrument that I could
learn. But when you were growingup, was music the first thing you
wanted to get into or was theresomething else you wanted to be when you
grew up. I've always been obsessedwith kind of like everything, I'm obsessed
with about how things work, soespecially for example, music, I've loved
(02:20):
music, so I was like,okay, how I can make music?
So that's why I started learning theinstruments. Learning how to produce was just
curiosity, and that happen was withme, like with everything, when I
like something, I go into likedeep. You know, I'm the same
way. It's annoying. Now Zerbis a take on your middle name,
(02:43):
right, yes, my middle nameis Zerbini. Now, when you were
trying to decide on an artist's name, was zerb the first name you decided
on, or were there other nameswho were possibly going to go with.
That's funny because actually zerb was mynickname on video game so like when I
had a YouTube channel with a gamingYouTube channel, and I used that name.
(03:07):
So when I was about to releasemy first song, I was like,
Okay, let's use the same name. It's a great name. Yeah,
it's a great name. It works. Now I read that you fell
in love with dance music because ofScrillicks and Dead Mouse. Is that true?
Yes? Exactly. Do you rememberthe first dance song that made you
fall in love with DM? Idon't remember the first one, but I
(03:30):
remember the moment. I remember listeningto Skrillix bangerng and I was I was
very curious about how he was makingall those sounds, and that's how I
got into music production. But whenI started producing, I learned that that
was actually very difficult. So Iwas like, okay, I know,
(03:52):
like how to make melodies and allthat stuff, and I loved that mouse
strobe and that that's how I gotMaud into progressive house, progressive music,
more melodics stuff. And that's why, like the path I went. I
can't imagine listening to scrillixys stuff andtrying to pick it apart and figure out
(04:15):
how it was made. I mean, the noises are just incredible. Yeah,
especially scary monsters. Oh my god. Now, like I mentioned,
you're on your world tour right now, but do you remember the first show
you ever played? Yeah? Rememberbecause it was a scary moment. Because
my friend used to make these hugeparties and I was already producing music and
(04:39):
releasing my songs, but I've neverplayed. I didn't have the DJ equipment,
so he invited me to play.It was like okay, but I
didn't get the equipment. I didn'thave any friends that got like cdj's or
anything. So I learned on YouTubeand went to the gig only based on
YouTube videos. How did it go? It went pretty good? Actually it
(05:02):
worked. It worked. That isincredible and what a testament for YouTube.
Yeah. Now, besides the incrediblesuccess of Addicted, you also had the
viral smash Milwaukee. Do you rememberthe first time you realized it was going
viral? Yes? I remember becauseit was a crazy week because it was
(05:25):
basically started as a reaction video thata DJ made called Pedo. He made
a video reaction video. We sawthat his video was getting a lot of
views, so we were like,okay, I need to start posting like
a lot. So I started makingthree videos a day. So I had
like all my friends helping, andit was like a crazy week wherever I
(05:47):
was like doing all those videos,everybody was helping. So we were like,
okay, what can we do.Let's travel to this place, do
this, do that, and everybodywas helping and was constantly releasing, like
posting three videos a day, soit was like a crazy moment. Three
videos a day, my god,And for someone like me that was not
(06:10):
used to making all those videos andlike kind of like exposing myself that much.
Nowadays, like I'm more used toit, but I remember I was
like, you know, I willsay though, this is a good time
for it though, because with thealgorithm, you could just post a video
of you sitting there and it couldgain traction exactly, and that's what happens.
(06:32):
Like we travel, we made likea lot of crazy videos, crazy
ideas, and the ones that gotlike most views were just me, like
you know yuber recording myself and Iwrote at tacks over it and you know,
it got like twenty million views.Oh my god, that's so frustrating.
It's not for suiting, Like theimportant thing is just posted, you
(06:54):
know, you never know. Speakingof which, you guys posted a lot
of videos for the lead up ofAddicted and afterwards. Do you remember the
first time you met the Chainsmokers?Yes, it was the day we made
(07:15):
the song. Actually, oh wow, how did it come together like that?
Basically with all the Moak's success,we were reaching out to all the
DJs that I like, and whenwe send them a message, they were
like, yeah, we love Moak, we love sir. Let's get into
the studio. So like two daysafter I was in the studio with them,
(07:38):
and I remember like we spent thefirst I don't know, two hours
to three hours just talking talking aboutcareer, personal life and just like getting
to know each other. And thenwe made Addicted in the in one session.
Wow, that's incredible. Well,we're going to talk about this song
(07:58):
a little more coming up. Finally, and Finkey's first in honor of Addicted
going number one for two weeks ina row. What is Zerb's number one
addiction. I think Doctor Pepper.I don't have Doctor Pepper in Brazil,
so when I'm outside Brazil, I'mlike, Peper making it rain on Zerve.
(08:22):
That's so awesome. Well, nowyou should have endorsements from YouTube and
doctor Pepper. Yeah, let's talkabout this smash. How long ago did
you start working on it with theChainsmokers. We worked on the song in
January, so it was pretty fast. As I said, like, we
did the whole song one day andthen I remember like I left the session
(08:43):
and Drew sent me a message thatwas awesome, and I was like,
yeah, that was awesome. Andthen he called me the next day and
it was like, Bro, thissong is actually really good. I think
we should just like get into thestudio again. I'll clear my schedule and
we can just re record the wholevocals. So we got like a very
(09:05):
clean vocal and I was like yeah. So this was like on a Tuesday.
On Friday, we did the nextsession to clean up the vocals and
the song was done, and Idon't know, one month later, one
and a half month later, wereleased the song Wow, really really fuss
that's incredible. Now was inc involvedfrom the beginning. Yeah, from the
(09:28):
beginning. She was in both ofthe sessions writing and recording the vocals.
Well, she did such an amazingjob. Now who wrote that famous line?
Did she write that or was ita group effort? What happened was
that was the craziest part of thatsession. We made the basically like we
I was in the studio with theChangemokers building the whole instrumental. When Ink
(09:54):
got into the studio, she basicallywas like, okay, loop the whole
song. I'm gonna free style andthen she did like a twenty minute freestyle
non stop, and We're like,what you know? And there was like
a lot of very good parts.So basically we start like cutting the parts
(10:15):
and we made a song with allthose parts. You know, when she
did the skinny Margarita sport, We'relike, this is so iconic, Like
we got to put this into thesong. That truly is one of the
best lines ever in a song.So funny. Now, something I love
to find out about songs is howmany different v's there are from when you
(10:37):
start working on it, all thetweaking that goes on when you finally put
it out. Do you know whatthe final V was of Addicted V zero
what There wasn't a lot of tweakingthat went on with it. We got
a lot of like mixing versions,mixing mastering versions because we were sending over
(10:58):
from my signed to their side andchanging and change until we were all happy
about the mixing. But like theprediction, and the song was in two
sessions, so maybe view one VIzero to V one, I don't know,
you know, as easy as itwent, it's all downhill from here
for you because normally songs are sotough to get together and get them out.
(11:22):
Yeah, but this is something thatI'm learning. I'm trying. I'm
starting to get more how can Isay, like more easy about all that?
Sef not put it so much pressureinto something, because that's something that
I learned over the time. Sometimeswe spend a lot of time doing small
(11:43):
changes that we start to go backto the first version and I'm really comfortable
about my prediction nowadays. That's it'seasier, you know, to produce music.
That's awesome. Well, I'm gladyou came up with that, And
congratulations on the number one for twoweeks in a row. That is so
incredible. What's next Forserb. Wegot a new song coming up in the
(12:07):
next month. I'm really excited aboutthis song. It's called Memory. It's
the song that it's the name ofthe tourist is the name of the song,
and I'm really excited. It's sucha good song. That's awesome.
Can't wait to hear it. Congratulationson the world tour that's going on right
now, Zerb. Thank you somuch for your time with us on America's
(12:28):
Dance thirty. It's great finally meetingyou. Thank you so much, Thank
you for having me Americas dancerty countingdown the biggest dance songs in the country
am America's Dance thirty
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