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Interview by Aidin Vaziri
Zero 7 are no strangers to making the kind of music you want to wake up to on Sunday mornings: laidback, soothing, with just a light froth of soul on top. But after Henry Binns and partner Sam Hardaker — whose music has served as a career launching pad for such KCRW-approved solo stars such as Sia, Jose Gonzalez and Tina Dico — hit a creative rough spot following the release of its third album, 2006’s Grammy-nominated The Garden, the duo decided it was time for a massive rethink. “We wanted to do something different,” Binns says. “In doing that, you're pissing in the wind quite a lot of the time.”
Rather than call it quits, Zero 7 ditched their now-famous vocalists, rounded up some lesser-known talent (including soul/jazz artist Eska Mtungwazi, folksinger/songwriter Martha Tilston, and electronic hip-hop performer Rowdy Superstar) and moved operations from Binns’ home in England’s quiet Somerset countryside to bustling London, electrifying their sound in the process. The results can be heard on the new Yeah Ghost, an album that will doubtless shake up peoples’ perceptions of a band most frequently associated with chilling out in high-end hair salons and hotel lobbies — not that Binns, as he tells ShockHound, is overly concerned with such things.
SHOCKHOUND: You have this image of hanging out in wine bars all day. How much of your music is a reaction to that?
HENRY BINNS: It's funny, because for the first time in a long time I did some DJing and it was on a Sunday, so the nerve endings were quite raw. I did play for many hours and this popular British DJ, Ross Allen, came up to me and said, “All right, enough of your ambient music.” I was deeply insulted, of course. But I do like that music. I don't like waspy things that go on for hours like when you go in some pyramid tent. But I do have that side to me. I do like music like that, I have to admit.
SHOCKHOUND: So you’re not actually going out of your way to break that image?
BINNS: Oh God. We've got it all to come, I'm sure. We're not making records for journalists. It was just important for us to be doing different things all the time. I don't know what reaction what this album will bring. We did our first gig for it on Saturday, and people really seem to enjoy it and love the fact that it's different. The thing about this album is, by the end of it there’s so many different styles we wondered how is this ever going to play through.
SHOCKHOUND: What about the people that actually liked the way you sounded before?
BINNS: You know, exactly. I hope I can drag them into this new place with me. I don't know what they'll think. They might have to be happy with the records we made if they hate it. There are still things on there that are prototypical Zero 7.
SHOCKHOUND: What was the original idea behind the band?
BINNS: There's just never been this big concept. We just have gone in there and done what we felt was good to us. At the beginning, Sam and I had been in Central America together and we got back and we got very fortunate to be able to do this remix for Radiohead, largely down to my mate Nigel. So we did that, and you kind of develop a style as you go on. In between trying to earn a living, we were knocking out these EPs. We were just getting on with it. We never sat in a room and said, "I know, we're going to hit the chill-out scene!" It’s never been like that, nor should it be. It's very anti-music, I think, to start thinking about what other people might like, as opposed to what was coming out of you.
SHOCKHOUND: So the Radiohead remix is the first thing you did?
BINNS: Yes. That was one of the first things we did.
SHOCKHOUND: And your friend Nigel would be producer Nigel Godrich?
BINNS: Yeah. We all went to school together. Basically, we went and worked in a studio in North London and he was an engineer there. He started working with John Leckie and then he started doing b-sides for Radiohead. It was actually for OK Computer that he got us that remix. That was all very fortuitous, really.
SHOCKHOUND: Why hasn’t he produced any Zero 7 albums?
BINNS: The thing is, I think he thinks we're a bit shit. I mean, he's become über-cool.
SHOCKHOUND: And you guys are not?
BINNS: Evidently. It took me a long time to get over that. I used to get bummed out but now I’m fine.
SHOCKHOUND: When you’re cool, you just have to worry about to losing it anyway.
BINNS: You become paralyzed by it. I know what it's like, a little. For a small time there, I thought I was cool. You can't make a fucking decision. If I'm trying to second-guess what other people think it doesn’t work at all.
SHOCKHOUND: It’s much more punk to just be yourself.
BINNS: I hope this album goes some way to describe that. That’s what it's all about — listening to things and just trying to do anything, no matter how shit. Just putting it out there to try and not falling on devices you've used before. One of the main things was Sam trying to convince me to be the singer in the band. I'm not a lead singer. I sing in the shower like everyone does. We did get one song on the album that we ended up being happy with, “Everything Up (Zizou).” That was quite a triumph.
SHOCKHOUND: Why didn’t you sing on more of the tracks?
BINNS: We had another couple. I wasn't sure. It became impossible for me to make any decisions. It was a weird one with me and Sam. We had a locking of horns a couple of times. A lot of the time we were waiting for the heavens to open and it didn’t look like that was going to happen.
SHOCKHOUND: It all worked in the end, didn’t it?
BINNS: Well, yeah. I listen back to the album now and I'm quite happy with it. Right now I might be inclined to puff up my ego before it takes a plummet down Niagara Falls. But I do enjoy this one at the moment.
