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

Director Wes Edwards ("Drunk on a Plane")

Director Wes Edwards ("Drunk on a Plane")Song Writing

Wes Edwards takes us behind the scenes of videos he shot for Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley and Chase Bryant. The train was real - the airplane was not.

Adam Young of Owl City

Adam Young of Owl CitySongwriter Interviews

Is Owl City on a quest for another hit like "Fireflies?" Adam answers that question and explains the influences behind many others.

Why Does Everybody Hate Nu-Metal? Your Metal Questions Answered

Why Does Everybody Hate Nu-Metal? Your Metal Questions AnsweredSong Writing

10 Questions for the author of Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces

Sugarland

SugarlandSongwriter Interviews

Meet the "sassy basket" with the biggest voice in country music.

Donald Fagen

Donald FagenSongwriter Interviews

Fagen talks about how the Steely Dan songwriting strategy has changed over the years, and explains why you don't hear many covers of their songs.

Booker T. Jones

Booker T. JonesSongwriter Interviews

The Stax legend on how he cooked up "Green Onions," the first time he and Otis Redding saw hippies, and if he'll ever play a digital organ.