On June 5, singer/songwriter/producer Matthew Koma absolutely lit into his longtime collaborator Zedd, 29, writing in an open social media letter that he was “someone so toxic and self serving” that he could no longer enjoy the music they created together. Now Zedd has responded with a truly thoughtful message that he shared to his Instagram account on June 9. The EDM turned pop hitmaker said that he’s always been supportive of Matthew — who is also Hilary Duff‘s fiance — and has always made sure to give credit for their work together, especially on their 2012 hits “Clarity” and “Spectrum.”
“I just wanted to let my fans know my side of the story,” Zedd — real name Anton Zaslavski — began. “Nothing will ever change how proud I am of the songs I made with Matt. They will forever be part of our history and even though it’s hard to sit through a personal attack like this, I still love the songs just as much and I still think Matt is one of the best songwriters I’ve ever gotten to work with.”
Zedd goes on to say that he’d “given Matt songwriting credit for every top line he has written,” and detailed how the songs they’d constructed together came about. He went on to write about how Matt wrote a song called “Suitcase” and when Zedd produced his own version of it and wanted to release it as his next single, Matt protested wanting artist credit instead. Zedd said he then removed himself from the song because “I didn’t ever hold him back from releasing his song and I would never do that.”
“What hurts the most is that Matt feels underappreciated and treated unfairly while I have countless times mentioned him (or) his name, while we’ve done promo together, performed our songs live together and I thought I was being supportive. Anywhere you look, you will see Matt credited for his work. I wish he would have just let me know in person what he was feeling. I never want anyone I work with to be unhappy. I treat everyone I work with with love and respect and it hurts me to see someone feeling differently after seven years,” Zedd continued.
Even in the very end, Zedd was gracious, writing “What I told Matt doesn’t change – I am incredibly proud of our work together and I continue to wish him nothing but the best. Hopefully one day we can sit down together again as friends.”