Heroes and Zeros

It’s been 6 months, 3 hours, 3 radiosingles (4 included “Cellophane”) and a brand new single edit of “The Foolproof” since our debut album ”Strange Constellations” was released 23.04.07. “Into The Light” even appears in Fifa 08, and is released worldwide on iTunes.

In spite of our success with single songs, we feel our greatest achievement is we’ve managed to create a complete album, just as we set out to do. With producer Thomas Tofte’s firm hand on our songs and musicality, and designer Martin Kvamme’s understanding of our background, everything on “Strange Constellations” has been made with great effort and absolute intention. The strength of the album lies not only in the quality of the hits, but in the co-effect between the sound, the artwork, the succession of the songs and the samples in between the tracks (some still to be heard on the streets of Oslo!) and our two music-videos. Seldom in 2007 has the cover artwork been subject for reviewers in Norway. Reviews set aside, our objective seemed so much more obtained to us after we laid eyes on the very first vinyl copy, where the cover has so much more effect, and the change between side A and B equals the change of scenes and moods on songs before and after respectively “The Foolproof” and “The Argument” (not a coincidence!) and makes it so much more effective.

Being album lovers, we still admit the times they are a’changing, and people don’t save money for weeks to buy an album they listen to for months anymore. Music is found everywhere; on every street, in every commercial, in every video-game, in every store, on every phone or mp3 player. Making hit-singles haven’t been more important since Tin Pan Alleys’ hit factory in the late 19th- and early 20th-century. And of course we acknowledge the effect and impact one song can have on ours, as well as on our fans lives. In spite of this, nothing can beat the feeling when you turn your lights down low, pull down your winter curtains, lay back in your sofa and press play on your iPod/CD-player/record-player after your parents or neighbours have gone to sleep, and listens to an album you really like from start to stop, going crazy in between. If only a handful of people have done so with our “Strange Constellations”, it’s worth all the struggle making it!

Live, we’ve always appreciated letting parts of our concerts being unpredictable, even to our own fellow bandmembers, and still maintain the complete and non-doubting-killer instinct from the album. Always being as professional as we can be, putting the audience above ourselves, makes this even more challenging. Not a single concert will feel or be the same, and there’s always a risk we’ll fail in producing great music. Some parts of our existing songs have even started to live a life totally on their own on our live shows, and now demands attention as a whole new musical piece. They may even make it as part of our new material for our next record, unlike all our former songs which only arose from letting our instruments go wild in our rehearsal studio Zeroworld. As our debut album manifests what kind of band we are, even in some parts hinting of things to come, our concerts in addition reflects where Heroes & Zeros is at that particular night; how we absorb the energy from the audience onstage. Further more our liveshows give a scent of sonic escapes to come, always evolving and challenging everyone’s conviction, -including our own, of what we are and what we can become. It keeps us on our toes. We always need to overcome ourselves each night. It keeps us sharp. It maintains our probably most important quality as a band; to hold Heroes & Zeros up against The Light, and take a thorough look from the outside to try to see if what we’re doing is solid. It often hurts to do such a sometimes devastating thing, but it makes us better as a band, and better at being what we initially are; three friends playing music we like together, whether it’s at Sinus, Rockefeller or Zeroworld, night after night after night after night…