NERO talks production, plugins and modern dubstep: “There’s always a Depeche Mode influence in what we do”.When MusicTech catches up with GRAMMY-winning, Ivor Novello-nominated electronic trio NERO, the group is buzzing about their recent album launch party at Corsica Studios. Their packed London return after an almost six-year hiatus saw DJ decks set up in the middle of the room, Boiler Room style. “It felt unusual (as we are normally up on a stage) but very cool to be amongst it, in a 360-degree crowd,” says producer Dan Stephens.
Despite Stephens, his partner and vocalist Alana Watson, and producer Joe Ray being away for a considerable time writing their third record, the audience boasted a “surprising” number of younger fans. “When our first album came out, they were probably seven years old,” Stephens laughs. NERO’s genre-fusing dance anthems, including dubstep-rock behemoths Me & You and Crush, first hit in the early 2010s; in 2015, the band headlined Coachella’s Outdoor Stage and premiered their second studio album Between II Worlds.

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Almost a decade later, the group is back to conclude their album trilogy with Into The Unknown – not that a hiatus was ever planned. “Dan and I went our separate ways for a while,” recalls producer Ray. “Dan started a family with Alana, I was in America, and we both had solo projects”; in 2018, Stephens and Watson also started their own duo called The Night.
Nero. Image: Press
It wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic that Stephens and Ray started sending ideas back and forth, via Zoom sessions. “You can share the screen and really good quality audio, which we hadn’t done before,” Ray reflects. “Nothing can quite make up for being in the room together,” Stephens adds, “but it is a very good alternative”.
With the bones of many tracks formed, regrouping in the studio in London, post-lockdown, enabled them to flesh out ideas together. “Having instant feedback and knowing you’re hearing the same thing out of the same speakers or out of headphones, that felt important,” Stephens says.
When it came to crafting the album, there wasn’t one particular genre in mind. Instead, they went with whatever tempo and sound was feeling interesting and fun. “When we started [NERO], we were definitely writing for a genre for DJs to play at a certain tempo,” Ray reflects. This time around, and since becoming more of an artist act, he says it’s been “liberating to not really think about that”.
Image: Nero
This particularly helped Stephens, who admits he’s “not very good at listening to current stuff”, especially electronic music. He and Ray — who had been enjoying ambient techno — do however share an interest in the late 80s: “We’re both big fans of synthesizers, the New Romantic and New Wave scene, and I feel there’s always a Depeche Mode influence in the stuff we do”.
Though the genre wasn’t present on NERO’s second album Between II Worlds, a more current influence on album three was drum’n’bass – particularly its eponymous opening track. “Writing that big orchestral intro then layering in some more sci-fi, glitchy sounds, the idea was to give it the feel of being broadcast via satellite,” Ray explains. “We wanted this long stretched out sound and then to suddenly switch it.”
Making d’n’b also brought back fond memories of his and Stephens’ teen raving days. “We used to love those d’n’b sets that start melodramatically, so it was fun to go back to that.” Owing to the d’n’b resurgence, Stephens credits it as “the most hardy genre of dance music – it never goes away, but it also never gets too big. It doesn’t do a garage or dubstep thing of blowing up too fast and almost becoming a parody of itself”. The pair also feel that d’n’b artists are tapping into social media in a way they weren’t previously.
Naturally, the conversation turns towards being online and NERO’s avoidance of the internet. “We’ve never been particularly present on social media, but partly because I don’t think it suits the vibe of NERO,” Stephens suggests. “When you set a whole story in a world, you don’t want to break the fourth wall too much. We’re not being arrogant, it just doesn’t seem natural, and we’re also quite private people. We don’t like oversharing.”
Image: Nero
Nonetheless, they are under no illusion that socials are catapulting many new artists. “Your social media game has become almost as important as your music, but you don’t want it to seem like you’re posting because you have to.”
While he admits “we’re very much not in a TikTok realm yet, Instagram works well for us. You can say something with a photo rather than having to write anything”. It’s easy to see why: the apocalyptic ethos of NERO’s world-building music and visual output has always felt decidedly cinematic. “There’s always a mix of melancholy and energy with what we do,” Stephens says, adding that “lockdown felt very dystopian and NERO-esque”.
Ray continues, describing Into The Unknown as a bridge that perfectly connects the other two albums. For Stephens, the release carries more weight: “it feels like planting our flag in the sand again, because we’ve been away for so long. We have to think of it as a comeback.” They feel similarly about their upcoming live shows — “there’s so much gear and possibility of what you can do with a live show now, because of the advancement of technology” — but are still deciding how best to bring the record to life. “The tempo of the new album changes so frequently, which makes things tricky, but fun, because you can do interesting transitions,” Ray explains.
Another major difference is that Watson won’t be joining them on this year’s US dates as she has opted to stay at home and care for her and Stephens’ newborn. However, the announcement that she won’t be singing on this tour was met with skepticism online.
“Some people were like ‘oh, great, it’s just you two pressing buttons then’. But I guess that’s probably how people feel about all electronic music, unless you are there very obviously…. It’s always difficult calling an electronic act a live show, because how live is it really?” Stephens ponders. “Unless you’ve got instrumentalists on stage really playing a part, it feels more like a hyped-up DJ set”.
Image: Nero
He trails off, citing Fred Again..’s headline performance at Reading Festival as an exception. “That’s how you’ve got to do it if you’re going to bill something as really live. It’s about thinking if you want it to sound tight like the recorded version, or do you mind if there are a few missed beats? If people hear a slight mistake, it doesn’t matter because they know you’re there doing it.”
While NERO rarely collaborate these days, Stephens suggests the key is to “every now and then get in a room with someone else to see what they’re using”. Sharing knowledge is helpful, too, “because there are so many plugins and software that come out and you can get lost in the ether”.
Working with Skrillex in the early days helped them realise this, especially how they could speed up their creative process. “He was in that first wave of kids using Ableton, whereas we were still using Cubase,” Ray recalls of their time working together.
“The process of writing tracks was sluggish, then we saw how he did things in Ableton, all in one session. Watching him moving things around and playing with arrangement and automation so quickly made us use that from them on.”
Image: Nero
Having also produced Muse’s 2012 track Follow Me, they are keen to work with more “classic acts”, says Stephens, who recalls working with Daryl Hall (of Hall & Oates) on Reaching Out from NERO’s debut album. “We’ve always liked the idea of doing stuff with Phil Collins. It’s probably not what management or industry would recommend but…” he digresses, before highlighting one newer artist they are both excited by. “Hamdi has got a very UK, original dubstep sound and reminds me of the 2009/2010 era,” he says, adding that the Counting producer dropped one of NERO’s first tracks (2007’s This Way) in his DJ set. “It was fun to see these kids hearing it for the first time.”
Talking of dubstep and its recent revival, Ray says “it always felt like it was going to come round at some point”, pinpointing Skream & Benga’s fabric set as the catalyst. Recalling making the aforementioned track, Ray remembers Watson singing the vocal on a “terrible” karaoke mic. “Things are so different now compared to when we started out,” Stephens adds – “there were no YouTube videos of how to look up a sound or a track and learn how it was put together, so it’s a useful tool for aspiring producers.” In fact, he sometimes still refers to tutorials: “there’s always going to be someone out there who has worked out how to do that one crazy little thing.” Help for aspiring artists is “very accessible”, he considers.
Nonetheless, Stephens is keen to stress the importance of music knowledge. “You can learn technical things, but it’s also important to know some music theory,” he says. Ray, meanwhile, would like to see artists become more original when it comes to sampling. “Building a track around one, and then doing something new with it… that’s something I feel kids aren’t doing as much now,” he suggests. “It seems like it’s either the whole thing or nothing.”
Stephens expands to suggest the art of sampling has been lost. “It often used to be about finding a really rare, unusual sample on vinyl, crate-digging, or going through blogs, but now it’s mostly really recognisable, famous songs from the 80s that everyone knows. It’s a different take on it… but it’s quite at odds with the old school style of sampling”, he concludes.
Now their third album is out, Stephens and Ray are keen to work with newer producers on the scene. “We don’t want to go away for ages this time; we want to kind of keep our finger on the pulse a bit more and stay visible,” says Stephens. Whatever happens, the wait for Into The Unknown has certainly been worth it. Here’s hoping they don’t keep us in anticipation for so long next time.
Nero’s Into The Unknown is out now. 
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