The Making Of “The Middle” – A Tale Of Chasing The Demo

“Chasing The Demo” is something that every producer goes through. In other words, an artist or songwriter hands you a demo of a song that’s so good already, but you think you can do it better. Sometimes it happens, but usually something about it is just not as good, mostly because of a limitation on time to get it right. There was no such limitation on “The Middle” for producers DJ Zedd and Grey, who worked for a year to try to beat the track, then the vocal of songwriter Sarah Aarons.

The producers actually tried 14 high profile celeb vocalists until they found country star Maren Morris, who surprisingly fit the bill and more. Among the vocalists that gave it a shot were  Demi Lovato, Camila Cabello, Anne-Marie, Carly Rae Jepsen, Tove Lo, Bishop Briggs, Bebe Rexha, Lauren Jauregui, Daya and Elle King.

The process was so long that the team almost gave up, but perseverance paid off as they finally finished the song that would end up going top 10 around the world. Check out this video diary from the NY Times about how it happened.