Zerb has teamed up with Khalid on 'Faded Eyes,' bringing Khalid's unmistakable vocal style into the producer's increasingly crossover-focused world. The two already knew each other's music before meeting, which gave the collaboration more familiarity than the usual artist introduction.
Part of that came from a strangely specific coincidence. Khalid broke through with a song called 'Location,' while Zerb later released a 'Location' of his own. Khalid had heard Zerb's version and already knew what the Brazilian producer was doing before they ended up in a room together.
The interest was already there on both sides
For Zerb, the connection went further back. He has said he listened to Khalid for years and related to the writing in his music, partly because the two artists are close in age. Working with him had been something Zerb wanted to do long before 'Faded Eyes' existed, and Khalid felt the same familiarity from the other direction. There was no period of figuring out who the other artist was, no forcing a collaboration between two names that just looked good on paper.
They threw out the prepared idea and started again
An idea had already been sent to Khalid before the session, but instead of adding a vocal to something mostly finished, he suggested they get into the studio and make their own record together. Zerb has pointed to that decision as one of the reasons the collaboration worked.
Khalid was already spending more time listening to dance and house music, so the direction made sense quickly. Once Zerb played the beat that would become 'Faded Eyes,' the writing moved without much resistance, the record taking shape with both artists actually in the room instead of passing files between teams.
Then came the friend test
They did not wait long to see how the track landed. Before leaving the studio, Khalid started calling friends and playing them what the pair had just made. Zerb remembered the two spending roughly an hour on FaceTime, running the song back through several calls.
Khalid described it as his 'friend test': that moment when finishing a record makes you want to find somebody who can hear it. The response gave them an early sign that the session had produced something worth keeping.
Zerb's collaborations are getting harder to predict
'Faded Eyes' continues a run that has seen Zerb work well outside one corner of dance music, following recent collaborations with Rita Ora, Swae Lee, Halle Abadi and 24kGoldn since the international breakthrough of 'Mwaki.'
Khalid is another very different voice to fit into that run, but how 'Faded Eyes' came together is probably more interesting than the size of the names involved: they had an idea ready, decided it was better to make something together instead, and ended the session calling friends because they wanted somebody else to hear it.
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