The mysterious LA-based producer & vocalist Zhu now has his first UK Top 10 – new in a Nº3 this week – with ‘Faded’. The black-and-white, arty music video is a racy romp through the Paris club scene, filmed in the Montemarte districts’ subterranean Social Club.
This is Zhu’s first music video and the world still doesn’t seem to know who he really is. He doesn’t appear in the video (although we’re not sure of this either) but the video does take the viewer on a rather dreamy journey. It seems that being a mystery producer is very ‘de moda’ these days. Everyone’s doing it. Look at Daft Punk or Deadmau5 with his huge mouse head hiding his identity or Jai Paul and Burial who won’t even play live.
Last year Zhu had a twitter, Facebook and last.fm page and then they all mysteriously disappeared, being replaced by new accounts that are empty. I guess ‘Watch this Space’ is the only advice!
Zhu released an EP ‘Nightway’ in April this year, he is now zooming up the charts and we still have no portraits, no live performances, just his distinctive logo and a music video for Faded. The website zhumusic.com doesn’t give anything away either – there is just a soundcloud player and an email sign up.
Apparently his name is Steven Zhu and in his one sole interview with Triple J he mentioned he might be visiting Australia for a live show. «We’ll be over there, I can’t say when, but we will be over there this year at some point,» he said. «I’m very excited; it’s kind of another home (away) from home because you guys were the first to embrace it.”
He also said in the interview that this might be his last interview as he does prefer to keep a low profile, both on and off the stage. When asked whether he would reveal himself during the show, he had this to say: «Whether it’s anonymous or not anonymous, we’re going to definitely bring a great experience,» he said. «Whatever complements the music, you know people definitely see fog in this music and see smoke. We’ll definitely be aware to make sure every sense is getting touched during the show.»
