Nero are a dubstep trio hailing from London, England who formed in 2004. After making their debut in 2011, they became one of the most succesful dubstep artists around, hitting number one on the UK Album Charts with their first record “Welcome Reality”.
The trio is composed of producers Daniel Stephens and Joe Ray, who formed the group back in 2004, and singer Alana Watson, who joined them after featuring on some of their early songs in 2008. Ray and Stephens met when they were 17 years old, at the specialist music school in Pimlico that they both attended. Both of them were pretty much musical prodigies, Ray playing classical guitar and Stephens the cello, but both of them composed electronic music on their laptops in their own time. By the age of 17 they had decided to create music together, setting up their studio in Stephens’ bedroom, and a year later, the duo met their future bandmate Watson.
By 2004, the band had signed to Formation Records and over the course of the next four years, they released a critically acclaimed series of 12 inches that started out as straight drum ’n’ bass but over time developed into their signature sound of pop-inflected dubstep. Watson guested on a couple of their 2008 releases, most notably their first attempt at straight dubstep “This Way”, released on the Audio Freaks label. By the end of the year was a fully-fledged member of the group, however, it was 2009 that saw them truly gain momentum.
Their single “Act Like You Know” started getting some genuine radio play, and their remix of The Streets’ “Blinded By The Light” was played in high profile sets by everyone from Skream to Diplo. Late 2010 saw the band listed on the BBC’s Sound Of 2011 list, one of the most on-point choices the list has ever made, as it turned out. Their debut album “Welcome Reality”, released in the same year, hit number one with a bullet in the U.K and reached the top ten of the US Dance albums chart and ever since then they’ve been one of the biggest names in EDM.
They’ve won a Grammy for a collaboration with Skillex and worked with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra to bring the world “The Dubstep Symphony”, and have built up a reputation as one of the best live acts in electronic music. The best part is that they’re just getting started, and in their prime, they’ll be practically unbeatable. Highly recommended.
Ezra Collective
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