Trust the process is Remi Wolf‘s guiding mantra on “Lucky,” her newly-released collaboration with Zedd. The record marks the second single from the DJ and producer’s forthcoming studio album Telos, out Aug. 30. “Lucky” began taking shape half a decade ago and has since blossomed into an upbeat ode to finding the silver lining in failed relationships.
“Lucky couldn’t have happened without Remi,” Zedd shared in a statement. “Five years ago she wrote the first verse and chorus, but had no intention of staying on it. Earlier this year, I invited Remi to the studio to play her the Telos Album which changed her mind and she decided to stay on the song. We got to work on the second verse and it completely brought the song to life — no one else could sing it as amazing as she does.”
Last weekend, Wolf joined Zedd onstage at Lollapalooza for the live debut of “Lucky.” Since then, the song has worked its way into a few more live sets from the producer. Last night, he mixed it into a hit-filled setlist during a performance in New York, marking the launch of a new DJ category on Twitch.
With “Lucky,” Wolf joins a hall-of-fame of collaborators who have lent their vocals to the DJ and producer’s discography. Zedd seems to do his best work with women vocalists — like Maren Morris on “Middle,” Foxes on “Clarity,” Alessia Cara on “Stay,” and Hayley Williams on “Stay the Night.” At times, he’ll have multiple artists cut the same song but hold out until he finds the perfect voice for the track.
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“Some people take it better than others,” Zedd told Rolling Stone in 2022 about breaking the news to the artists whose vocals don’t make it to the final version. “But I’m always pretty transparent about the process. Some tones fit the songs better than others. I’m friends with most of the people who were going to cut and I knew their tone wasn’t going to make sense and I said right away, ‘I love your voice but I’m pretty sure this isn’t the right tone.’”
Wolf has become a leading expert in the art of making eccentric, zany pop tunes. Earlier this year, she released her sophomore album, Big Ideas — a record full of soaring vocals and hyperreal lyricism. “I am truly trying to describe what I was experiencing,” she told Rolling Stone earlier this year. “We live in a world where we’re eating and kissing and touching and smelling.”
