Clubbing Magazine


Zero 7 is the London-based producer duo of Sam Hardaker and Henry Binns. Working from their own studio, Zero 7 first became known for their remixes of Radiohead, Lenny Kravitz, Terry Callier, Sneaker Pimps, Lambchop, and others. In 1999, Zero7 released their first EP, titled “EP1”. Only 1000 copies were made and they sold out in a matter of days. The same happened a little later to “EP2”. “Simple Things”, their first full-length album was released in 2001 and featured contributions by a variety of string, horn, and percussion players and vocals of Sia Furler, Mozez, and Sophie Barker. In 2004 they released their second album “When It Falls” and it picks up the atmosphere perfect from “Simple Things”. Once more they worked with vocalist Mozez, Sophie Barker, Sia Fuller. The first single to be released from the album was “Home” and it was co-written by Tina Dickow. We talked to Henry Binns at the Roskilde Festival just before he went on stage with the rest of the Zero7 gang at the Metropol stage.
What is your opinion of your new album “When It Falls”? - We are still in the middle of promoting it. We have been going good, and have been on tour since March and come together as a band, the gigs seem to go a lot better, and it is somehow taking it away from the perception of zero7, which is quite electronic.
How is it different when you have all the different singers? - We got them all here which is great, there are four of them, and they are all doing background vocals and all that, really working as a big unit. It is good.
What is your relationship with the Danish singer Tina Dickow? - She came over to London where we were going to write some songs for her album. She said lets try this, and I really like it, it sounded much more like Zero7, so we came up with the project. I still intent to do some stuff on her album, it has worked very well.
Have you produced some of the songs she performs now? - No I mean I would love to do some work with her in the future, you know she has an album out now, but maybe for the next one. She is actually playing now; I wish I was there to hear her.
	Why did it take you 3 years from making the first album until the new one? - Because we are slow. Hehe. - We actually went on touring for a long time. We were able to do this and travelling around like we are now for a lot longer. It only took a little under a year to write the album, which is not that bad, but it seemed like a lot longer, just because the campaign on “Simple Things” just grew and grew. It started up very small and it went like that. So we did not really start getting into it until a lot later, so I think that is why.
	“When It Falls” got huge acclaims from the Danish audience. Do you think some of your success could be from the similarities with Air? - I suppose, I think “Simple Things” did really well for us and I think properly a lot of it came of the back of that as well. I don’t know, I think the Air comparisons are starting to dwindle slowly, they are obviously doing other things and we are very different. Electronic is a kind of small record of music. So yeah I guess it’s properly some of the reasons for it. But actually I think it’s people like your guys that make up these labels that we all fall into.
Where are you getting the inspiration, do you have a musical background? - I’ve had a piano in my home, and I have always played it. I am not particularly an amazing player but I can do a few songs. So I got a very small kind of musical background, I used to play the cello as well. But that’s it, nothing major, just really me and Sam in the studio starting up with a few cords. We write the songs with the singers, so they are a very crucial part of it. I wrote the songs with Tina, and we nearly killed each other, but we got there in the end.
Where did you pickup the name Zero7? - I do not know. It is one of those things that came out of the sky, we had to come up with a name for our first remix we did for Radiohead, and we called it Zero7 remix, because we were in Honduras and there is this little bar called Zero Si - and we thought it would be a good idea to call it that. And we stuck with is.
When is the next album coming? - I don’t know; I got a few ideas.
Another 3 years? - I don’t know, there have been some talk about we should do some stuff for movies and so, maybe we will do that. I am not really sure; but I would like to do a new album very quickly.
What can we expect from the show today? - Well hopefully you are going to see a lot of people on stage, because all the singers are here, and simple a more entertaining and dynamic version of the record. I will let you find out later.
Interview: Alexander Descroix & Mikael Palner