The first time Zeros popped up on our radar was when Feed Me shouted him in an interview at the start of the summer.
No one had really heard of the Chicago native before that point. Up until last week he hadn’t released anything. Well, not under the name Zeros anyway. Prior to this he was known as D&B producer Falinox with a small-but-impressive history on Lifted. Then loads of mad / cool / strange stuff happened…
“I’d kinda set up the Zeros project as something that might be worth exploring, but making the jump and going back to square one was a little daunting…” explains Zeros. Real name Marcus, he and Feed Me go way back… They met on an online art community Deviantart over 10 years ago.
“Feed Me happened to be in town, I told him about the project and he said I should do it for Sotto Voce. It’s one of those things that made me realise that you shouldn’t waste time thinking about what you want to do; just do it. It was a beautiful alignment that helped justify the jump. Going back to the starting point is definitely the hardest thing. But I’m so glad I did it.”
Check his debut album Space Noir and you might be glad you did, too. A super-cohesive cosmic adventure that manages to nod at some of the most influential forefathers – from Carl Craig on the salubrious Detroit-bound Peace Of to Justice on the synth-sprinkled, piano-slapping funk attack Red Panda – without ever sounding too scattershot, as far as entry releases go, it’s huge.
Daring, too… Propelling yourself into the scene with an entire album? It’s the riskiest manoeuvre since Walter White’s move into the meth scene. And just as addictive, too.
Here’s how came about and what it’s all about…
It didn’t start off as an album…
“I actually started the whole idea off with a single. I spoke to Jon (Feed Me) and he suggested doing something a bit more substantial to give people more to go on than one single. So I made eight tracks. I spoke to Jon and the label and they said I’d gone so far I might as well do a whole album. It kept ramping up and up and up; the pressure was on to make something bigger and bigger!
It’s the story of a man who invested a year into his art without knowing whether it will pay off…
Okay so all productions are a gamble – no artist ever knows if they’ll get a return off the time they’ve invested in their work. But to spend an entire year making an album as a completely unknown artist? This is dedication!
“I worked on it – in pretty much isolation – for a whole year. Having Feed Me’s backing gave me a certain amount of confidence – he wouldn’t be investing in this project if he didn’t know I could stand up to it. But at other points it was an extremely nerve-racking experience. To put so much work into something and not know if you’ll get any validation is a strange – and penniless – experience. Luckily I live at home and I have very few overheads and I’d saved up as much money as I could for this very occasion: to give music a push…”
There’s a pretty cool concept behind the album, too…
“The theme relates to me as a fan of movies. The two words came to me long before all this happened but I knew they were cool and I held on to them. This album project came along so I thought ‘okay I’ve got this concept in the chamber, let’s roll with it…’
I imagined a world that exists in its own unique self-contained universe that seems relatable but not really like the world we live in. Somewhere that might be off in space. Like a parallel world with its own parameters situated off somewhere by itself. That way I can play with the juxtaposition of themes and sounds and imagery. I had to be something you could really listen to as an album. It couldn’t be over the top and too big and too dancefloor. I wanted to blur that line a little. I’m not the first person to do that, though – I think Nero’s Welcome Reality is great example of that.
All my album artwork is also done by me. I love photography and photo manipulation. I was very hands on at the photo shoot. Right now we’re ground floor on the project; we didn’t have much budget but we are talking about videos in the future. I know a lot of film students and I vicariously live through them and ask them about techniques and technologies. The whole project is going to continue evolving and broadening.”
He kills it live, too…
Check out his incredible inspirations mix below to get a grasp of what he’s like as a performer. 35 tracks spanning 15 years of electronic music history stitched with seamlessness, surprises and dramatic dynamics, it’s a taster of what he can do on stage…
“I did replicate some of those mixes on stage recently on tour with Feed Me. I was lucky to be able bring some kit along with me. My 61 key keyboard and a few controllers and do things via Ableton. The tour was a great tester for seeing what I could do and how I could develop it…”
The Zeros story is only just beginning. Keep him on your radar and watch it unfold…
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