NERO on Their New Album, 'Into the Unknown': “You Gotta Keep it Interesting for Yourself”

The year is 2808, and the world is stripped of human society.

Humanity once rejoiced in discovering a semi-sentient particle that would serve to further its goals as a species, but the particle was too erratic to control. It consumed every aspect of civilization, leaving behind a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

For the last three albums, Dan Stephens, Joe Ray, and Alana Watson have been traversing this futuristic dystopian landscape as the innovative electronic band, NERO. They’re searching for something that could save the human race, which it turns out is AI.

“This supercomputer brain realizes that humans were very important and that life is very fragile. It's attempting to kick-start life again,” Stephens says. “There's so many films where AI is the downfall of humankind. But we thought it was quite interesting to flip it on its head.”

NERO has been flipping electronic music on its head throughout their three full-length albums, Welcome Reality (2011), Between II Worlds (2015), and their latest, Into The Unknown, which dropped on September 6th via Create Music Group.

On Welcome Reality, they provided their own unique spin on staple electronic genres. They made classic dubstep tracks like “Innocence,” which Skream has been playing in his sets since he returned to the genre, and “Promises,” which balances the deep bass of the sound’s early iterations with a maximalist feel that made it prime for a Skrillex remix.

But with Watson as the trio’s permanent vocalist, she elevates the group past electronic and into the realm of arena rock, taking her place front and center on stage and contributing equally to the back-end production along with Stephens and Ray.

NERO is a band, and on Between II Worlds, the trio leaned into the band dynamic. Songs like “Two Minds” and “The Thrill” follow standard song form with well-defined verses and choruses alongside the massive electronics.

“We’re lucky. Because we have Alana we can experiment with different sounds. She brings it back to sounding like NERO because she’s got a very recognizable voice,” Stephens says. 20 years into the project they are still motivated to innovate, an idea they especially emphasize on their new album. “You gotta keep it interesting for yourself. That’s the first thing. Rather than just repeating ourselves. I think we wouldn't ever get an album done if we did that because we’d just feel like we're retreading old ground.”

On this album, the trio was primed to tread new ground for multiple reasons because so much changed in their lives in the nine years since their last body of work. On a personal level, Stephens and Watson had three children together. Artistically, all three members started new musical endeavors after Between II Worlds.

Stephens and Watson remained together on their pop/electronic project, The Night, while Ray traveled to Haiti to produce an album entitled Leave the Bones with the traditional Haitian Vodou band, Lakou Mizik. That album came between a handful of deep and progressive house releases from Ray on Above & Beyond’s refined imprint, Anjunadeep.

“To do other things and explore different areas gave us a bit of headspace and the ability to step away from [NERO] then come back in with fresh ears and a fresh appreciation for what it was,” Ray says. “We love all kinds of music. When we listen back to our very earliest NERO stuff there's some crazy samples from classical music or metal bands. There's all sorts of music in there.”

So, after two decades of channeling all of their wide-ranging musical interests into NERO, they innovated on Into The Unknown by looking back on their early days as young ravers in the UK.

Classic UK dance sounds like garage and drum & bass have a presence in the beginning of their catalog, but they’re decidedly absent from Welcome Reality and Between II Worlds. Now they’re revisiting these genres but with the sensibilities they’ve developed from years of making music as a hybrid electronic rock band.

“Too Many Questions” features a mellifluous hook from Watson over a razor-sharp UKG breakbeat as well as some tactile keyboard improvisation. “Blame You,” begins as a minimalist piano ballad before erupting into an epic d&b drop with sweeping synths that capture the energy of orchestral strings. This track in particular is an homage to their days on the dancefloor:

“We used to go raving ourselves, and the DJ would open with this really grandiose drum & bass song with a big over-the-top orchestral intro and it drops into an absolute banger,” Stephens says.

This grandiose quality makes NERO’s music prime for narrative like a film score and said quality is all over their three albums. In part because Ray and Stephens played classical guitar and cello, respectively, while they were growing up. Also in part because they make music while films like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner 2049 run in the background. This experience and inspiration leads to majestic string flourishes playing a large part in songs like the 140 BPM banger “Me And You” and the cruising downtempo house tune, “Truth.”

However, despite these cinematic elements, they never intended to create a concrete story around the releases.

“It is quite nice to let people find their own path through the story. We definitely found out with the first album—we didn't even set out to do it with that one. But people started making their own story for what unfolds during the album,” Stephens says.

Only a few things about the story are concrete. They ideated devices such as the semi-sentient particle, AI as the savior, and the dystopian landscape in the year 2808. One other aspect of the story that’s not open to interpretation is that the three albums form a trilogy around the dystopian landscape, and with this new LP, the story is coming to a close.

As far as what’s next for NERO, all they know is they’re currently ideating two live shows. One for the first leg of the tour without Watson who is staying back to care for her and Stephen’s youngest child. Then another next year when the band is back together in full force.

After that, as their latest album suggests, they are moving into the unknown, but that is where NERO thrives most of all.

NERO's new album, Into the Unknown, is out now via Create Music Group. Listen below or buy it on Beatport.