Just yesterday, Audien released his first original track since his 2015 #1 collaboration “Something Better” with Lady Antebellum.
His latest project, titled “Crazy Love”, is definitely a new sound driven by the heart-warming and melodic vocals from Deb’s Daughter, but also has the familiar Audien vibe that we all know and love.
We were lucky enough to sit down with Audien to chat about the inspiration for “Crazy Love”, the pressure and artist can feel after creating a hit, and more! 
Tell us a little bit about the track “Crazy Love” and the process that helped generate it.
“It’s a little different than some of the other stuff I’ve come out with to be honest. It’s a little more on the pop side but in a good way. Still very melodic and still very much me, but I just wanted to try new stuff this year and this is one of the first examples of that. The song came about when I was working on this instrumental and knew I wanted a sick vocal right off the bat. I hit up one of my really good writer friends who is also a really good lyricist. He wrote a great vocal and works with a few singers that are friends of his. So the singer, her artist name is Deb’s Daughter, initially sang the song. I was trying to get some other people on it after about ten different singers we kept going back to the original. She really killed it. So now it’s Audien ft. Deb’s Daughter on ‘Crazy Love.'”
This is your first original track to come out since “Something Better” with Lady Antebellum hit number one. As an artist, do you feel like you are particularly under a lot of pressure after such a success like that?
“So much. So so much. But here’s the real pressure; the whole landscape of music changed in the past year. For a long time, dance music in particular was completely different a year ago because all the subgenres were secluded. Now everything is sort of blending and a lot of fans that used to only like trance might like trap and dubstep now. Everyone is a lot more open-minded this year. I took that as an opportunity to do something different and work on something that I’ve never done. I made progressive house music for the last three or four years and this is probably my first time doing something that is definitely not progressive house.”
After all this time and all the success what would you say is your favorite part of working in the music industry?
“I think my favorite part is the fact that its the music business. I’m an avid listener as well as a music maker so just to be immersed in creating and being inspired by artists I listen to to make my own is an incredibly fun feeling. It doesn’t feel like a job at all. Technically I’m just jobless, haha.”
You’re playing Billboard Hot 100 this weekend. What are your feelings heading in to playing one of New York’s best concert venues?
“I’m really pumped. I love billboard and I love multi-genre events. I just did Lollapalooza about two or three weeks ago and that was probably one of my favorite shows to date. The crowds at multi genre events, whether it be Coachella, Lollapalooza, or whatever, they are so honestly open-minded. My DJ sets kind of need an open-minded crowd because I play everything. I’ll go from 170bpm down to 95. So I’m very much looking forward to this one. I think it will be a lot like Lollapalooza in that the crowd is going to be amazing. Its also a great location so that will be cool.”
Artist lineups of course vary from festival to festival, some all electronic and some multi-genre. Do you notice a change in vibe between the two?
“I kind of tailor my sets based on the festival. If it’s an all electronic festival I can dig a little deeper with some of my older trance records that I used to play back in the day and people will dig it. Specifically electronic festivals have a lot of people that are very knowledgeable when it comes to that sound. Ravers have been coming to shows for many years so you can drop a lot of oldies and they’ll appreciate it.
With multi-genre events I’ll lean a bit more towards the commercial stuff and things that are little bit more recognizable. They’re both great in their own right, but generally dance music as a whole is pretty open-minded too.”
What can we, as well as you fans, look forward to hearing from you in the future?
“I’m always working on new music so there is a ton of that. A lot of it is starting to come to the finish line as well. I have a collab with 3lau coming out. It’s pretty much done but we’re just getting a vocal for it. It’s a really interesting song. It’s really like nothing else I’ve done. I can firmly say that it’s uninspired and unique so I’m really pumped about that one. I will also probably get a tour going this year. Just a coast to coast run. I like to do that every year or so and brand my own tour with some really cool rock venues and such.”
Be sure to catch Audien’s set at this year’s Billboard Hot 100 at Jones Beach Theatre on Sunday, August 21st.
Otherwise, check out Audien’s latest single “Crazy Love” on SoundCloud below!
