Zedd‘s new album, Telos — his first in nine years — is out now. He’s released plenty of singles between then and now, including “Stay” and “The Middle,” so why the wait? Lack of inspiration and lack of energy, he tells ABC Audio.

“Jumping back into an album and really thinking conceptually about how every song that you put on affects the other songs, it’s just something that I wasn’t sure if I still had the energy to do,” he says. “But I found that fire again, and it felt like I’m making my first album again.”

“I think, sadly it just had to take a really long time for me to get inspired again.”

Telos features multiple guests, including one of Zedd’s biggest influences, the band Muse. There’s also Remi Wolf, Bea Miller, John Mayer and even Jeff Buckley. Zedd got permission from the late singer’s estate to rework Buckley’s song “Dream Brother.” Many of the songs have been in the works for years, but he says they all meant too much to him to simply drop them as singles, out of context.

But finally, he notes, “I realized I was creating this platform where they all could finally live and have a happy place. And that became Telos. … I feel like I formed a super band of my friends and musicians that inspired me.”

Zedd says his “only dream” is that fans will listen to Telos from start to finish, which may be unusual for an EDM album.

“I have crafted an album that I genuinely believe will be better than any playlist out there, and listening out of order is just not going to be nearly as impactful,” he says. “So please, turn off shuffle and take 38 minutes of your life … and I can promise that with every listen, you’re going to discover something new.”

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