Novozero blends powerful vocals, synths and fuzzed out basslines into a big rock sound that packs a punch, but doesn’t necessarily focus on the electric guitar as the primary lead instrument. They draw inspiration from a wide array of genres, art and people. Old bluesy crooning, post-punk, 80’s pop/new wave, 90’s alt-rock and modern electronic dance music. Anna loves powerful choruses and strong melodies, Andreas likes fuzz pedals and 80’s synths. Novozero’s newest single ‘I See’ leans harder into fuzzy, bouncy basslines and distorted synths drenched in reverb, further solidifying the bands take on, the rather unusual, "rock’n’roll, but without a lead guitar”.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Hello Novozero. What first got you into music?
Hi!
Andreas: This is gonna be a long one. My dad is a huge music fan. From I was a toddler until today he constantly sits me down and goes “Listen to this! This is real music!”. When I was little my parents gave me my own stereo for my room and gave me money to buy cassettes and CDs and I was always allowed to stay up late if there was a concert on MTV that I wanted to watch. I remember being 4 or 5 years old sitting on the living room floor late at night watching Dire Straits live on TV and thinking “Those guys are so cool! I wanna do that!”. Later I discovered video game music on my Super Nintendo. Games like Castlevania IV and Street Fighter II had killer soundtracks and I was amazed by the songwriting that was being put into background music in a video game, and at something like 12 years old I decided that I was gonna make video game music when I grew up. I saved up my allowance and bought Magix Music Maker and started fiddling around with electronic samples. Later I discovered hardcore punk, decided I wanted to be a bassist and play like Fat Mike from NOFX and did that for many years. It was only when we started this band in 2021 that I rediscovered my love for electronic music and had to (re)learn how to make synthy sounds again.
Anna: I grew up surrounded by guitars and records, so I don't remember ever consciously making a choice about starting to do music. It felt like the most natural thing to me, and the choice was more about what instrument to start learning. I had a toy keyboard I played around with when I was about four, and I started playing the violin at five. I switched to piano at age nine, and started playing the guitar at about fourteen when I wanted to start a punk band. I've always been singing, and continuously exploring new genres and techniques.
What do you think your role is in this world?
Live, love, laugh... And inspire. Both ourselves and hopefully others.
Your latest track is 'I See'. Can you share with us the background of its creation and did any unusual things happen during its creation?
Andreas: When we recorded and released our first EP (Everything’s a Bit Funny Right Now) the whole country was still in Covid lockdown, and we’d recently moved to the other side of the country and knew very few people. We had to source equipment and find a way to record the whole thing in our living room. Compared to that recording I See was quite pleasant. Everything was again recorded at home and we felt a lot more confident in our songwriting since we’d gotten great feedback on the former EP.
I See was one of Anna’s demos which she had written and recorded on her piano. It started it’s life as an acoustic piano piece with a Danny Elfman/Tim Burton musical-kinda vibe. Then I made the synth arpeggio that’s on the intro and the whole vibe shifted. Suddenly the song had this locked in four-on-the-floor feel and we just ran with it. We’ve been trying for a while to write a “power ballad” with more acoustic instruments, but every time Anna comes up with a beautiful piano piece we start piling synths on it. It’s just too much fun to kick it up a notch.
What’s your scariest experience?
In general or concerning the band? For Novozero releasing our first EP without any clue if what we were doing was good or a total catastrophe was nerve wrecking! We started the band during lockdown and we released the first EP still in the same lockdown, so because of that we hadn’t played our songs for anyone. We also did everything ourselves without a full band, and couldn’t play any concerts. We had absolutely no idea how people would react to it.
We had two friends record additional guitars on two songs, but they did that at home using early demos we had made. So even they didn’t hear the final version of the songs before they hit Spotify.
How do you spend your time?
We both work in “the creative arts”. Andreas is a live sound engineer and Anna works in graphic design, so there’s very little 9-5 and the weekends off for us. This makes writing new music on a regular basis very hard. We can have two months where we barely see each other followed by a month where work slows down and Novozero becomes everything we think about from we get up to we fall asleep. So trying to make some sort of long term plan is next to impossible, but at the same time we’re lucky to have flexible jobs that allow us to dig in when we need to.
Since we’re both musicians living together a lot of our money and free time revolves around music. We’re both avid music fans and constantly talk about and share new artists we’ve discovered, and we plan our vacation days around the tour schedules of bands we like so we can travel to shows.
What are you most proud of?
Right now, our latest release, I See. The response we've gotten so far really encourages us to keep experimenting with different sounds and moods, and that feels great.
If you could go open a show for any artist who would it be?
IAMX
What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as an artist?
We’re constantly writing stuff either by ourselves and then sharing it, or by sitting down and making stuff together. We’re also always scheming on how we can push on forward and try something new.
Do you think that technology is improving lives?
Yes! Get with it.
What superpower would you have and why?
Andreas: I think invisibility would be neat. Don’t wanna be bothered? Just disappear.
Anna: I really love swimming, so to be able to breathe under water would be nice. I also think photographic memory would be practical.