Interview Time: Zero 7

Zero 7

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The men behind U.K. soul outfit Zero 7 - producers Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker - launched their careers in the music industry as tea boys at a London recording studio.

Soon after, however, both were in the thick of action, working alongside a string of well-known British musicians such as the Pet Shop Boys and Robert Plant. They spent the best part of the 1990s honing their production skills behind the scenes. Then, after taking on the name of a nightclub in Honduras, the duo gradually began unleashing their own ideas onto an unsuspecting public. First came a couple of remixes; Radiohead's "Climbing up the Walls" and Terry Callier's "Love Theme From Spartacus." In 1999, Zero 7 released their first EP, the suitably titled EP1. Only a handful of copies were made and they sold out in a matter of days. A similar fate awaited their second release EP2. Their first album, Simple Things, came out amidst much salivating from the media in mid-2001. A collection of laid-back soul, acid jazz, and funk tracks, the album carried collaborations with respected vocalists Mozez, Sia Furler, and Sophie Barker. Their sophomore effort, When It Falls, appeared in March 2004.

Three years after the extraordinary success of their debut album Simple Things, Zero 7 released their lush, powerful second album, When It Falls, in March 2004.
It is a warm and absorbing work, which takes the orchestral elegance of their debut and rockets it into emotive new territory. The album is also influenced by the band's extensive touring, which provided new experiences and an opportunity to try out new songs that would become the backbone of When It Falls. Album track and second single 'Somersault' has recently become the 100 millionth download sold by Apple's iTunes Music Store since its launch in the US in May last year. When It Falls also includes the first single 'Home' and recent download single 'In Time'.

The Radiohead remix of “Climbing the walls” helped to get you out there,are you trying to do the same for other artists offering people to do a remix of your track “Warm Sound” taken from the current album “When it falls”?

Yeah I think it’s potentially a good way for artists to get out there, It’s another wacky idea the record company has come up with to try and market our un-radio friendly record, which is a good one at least it gives people a chance to do something creative.

You have been touring allot of the past few years, any thing that stands out for you?
I find it all pretty exciting, just generally the idea that we get to travel around, and have such a laugh every night. Going to Japan was enjoyable, didn’t really have a concept of how things all go down there, getting to go to places I’ve never been before is always really interesting.

Apart from the obvious differences between the instrumental tracks and the songs you do, is this something you like to experiment with?

It is something we like doing, but we went into this record feeling a bit nervous about were we’d got to, just the position we found ourselves in as I remember our priority was lets work on writing some songs, that’s the hard bit, we fully intended to get some more instrumentals on but just ran out of time. It just ended it up being a lot more song based probably in hind sight there’s too many songs, but I think it had to be cause there’s a quiet a few singers on the album, I think it might be to many songs in one go, not sure how well it hangs together, its still a good body of work It wasn’t a conscious think to cut down on instrumentals, just happened that way; you do what you can at the time.

Zero 7 are currently on tour which began in Bristol on November 14 and will be ending at London's Hammersmith Apollo on November 25. The tour follows a summer of memorable performances from the band at Glastonbury, Edinburgh's T On The Fringe, the Jazz Café Picnic at Marble Hill House and the Bestival Festival.

Live dates - November:

Sun 14 Bristol Colston Hall £16

Mon 15 Exeter Great Hall £16

Tue 16 Reading Hexagon £16

Thu 18 Leeds University £16

Fri 19 Manchester Apollo £16

Sat 20 Glasgow Academy £16

Mon 22 Cambridge Corn Exchange £16

Tue 23 Wolverhampton Civic £16

Wed 24 Brighton Centre £16

Thu 25 London Hammersmith Apollo £18.50