Make You Say
by Zedd (featuring Maren Morris)

Album: Single release only (2022)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Here, Zedd joins forces with Maren Morris and the American DJ duo Beauz (the brothers Bernie and Johan Yang). Over Zedd and Beauz' bouncy, effervescent synth-pop beats, Morris tells her ex he'll regret breaking up with her. His new girl won't love him like she did and he'll miss how she kept making him say "Oh my god."
  • The jaunty electro-pop tune is the second collaboration between Zedd and Morris following their 2018 hit "The Middle." Zedd previously worked with Beauz on the remix for another of his 2018 songs, "Happy Now."
  • Zedd started working on "Make You Say" with Beauz around the time of the "Happy Now" remix. They went back and forth slowly, refining the production. "We never finished it - we got through two drops, there was no vocal yet, and we didn't have an immediate plan to release anything, so we were in no hurry," Zedd told EW. "I played the track here and there live to get some real, live feedback, and then one day, I went into the studio with Charlie Puth, and I was just playing him records I was working on. We were actually going to work on something completely different but he really loved that song so we wrote a topline for it."

    Zedd played Morris the demo after they'd performed "The Middle" at the May 2022 Hangout Music Festival. She asked Zedd if she could take a stab at it if Puth wasn't recording it. Morris laid down a vocal demo that Zedd loved, and the next day he met the country star in Nashville, where they recorded the final vocal.
  • Zedd and Morris laid down "Make You Say" in the same Nashville studio where they recorded "The Middle." Morris admitted it was "a little spooky" recording in the exact spot and with the same people four years later.
  • The Colin Read-directed video illustrates the roller coaster of emotions typically experienced during a breakup. The visual takes place entirely in Morris' home with animations overlaid on live-action footage. Read shot the clip entirely on iPad using the video-animation app FlipaClip. "It's such a vibey melody and making the music video was definitely a first for me as far as choreography and animation go," said Morris. "The fans are gonna flip."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Chad Channing (Nirvana, Before Cars)

Chad Channing (Nirvana, Before Cars)Songwriter Interviews

Chad tells tales from his time as drummer for Nirvana, and talks about his group Before Cars.

George Harrison

George HarrisonFact or Fiction

Did Eric Clapton really steal George's wife? What's the George Harrison-Monty Python connection? Set the record straight with our Fact or Fiction quiz.

Charlie Daniels

Charlie DanielsSongwriter Interviews

Charlie discusses the songs that made him a Southern Rock icon, and settles the Devil vs. Johnny argument once and for all.

Billy Joe Shaver

Billy Joe ShaverSongwriter Interviews

The outlaw country icon talks about the spiritual element of his songwriting and his Bob Dylan mention.

Ian Gillan of Deep Purple

Ian Gillan of Deep PurpleSongwriter Interviews

Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan explains the "few red lights" in "Smoke On The Water" and talks about songs from their 2020 album Whoosh!

Emilio Castillo from Tower of Power

Emilio Castillo from Tower of PowerSongwriter Interviews

Emilio talks about what it's like to write and perform with the Tower of Power horns, and why every struggling band should have a friend like Huey Lewis.