Zero to Hero: Snafu Shakes Up Loft

On Friday 10th February, SNAFU - Durham’s biggest DJ event organiser - took over The Angel with a Secret set from renowned DJ Zero, before he headed down to Loft for a night of jungle, UKG, and all round carnage as he electrified the club with an ‘anything goes’ set alongside fellow Durham favourite Sammy Virji. After his set at the Angel, James Woodward got the chance to sit down with Zero- while he recovered with a pint and a cigarette- and ask him about his music.

So you’ve played in Durham before with SNAFU last year, so how excited were you when you were offered the chance to come back?

Really excited, because that was the first time I’d played and it was sick! Obviously I’ve been gigging for a while now so it was mad that my first show was in 2022 - under a year ago - so I was buzzing because the crowd was wicked.

‘Let Go’ came out on January 9th, can you tell us a bit about that track?

It’s just a classic kinda Zero tune really, soulful vocals, I don’t really ever work with male vocalists on my music - I don’t think it works too well - but big soulful female vocals, euphoric chords, punchy drums, and just weird harmonic sound design all just mashed into one banger. I made it at the start of summer last year, I always use samples that I shouldn’t use and I used a vocal sample from some Alicia Keys track and I sent it to my publisher and my manager just said ‘You can’t release this’, so sent it out and Leah May used the instrumental and it made ‘Let Go’. It’s one of them tunes where I wanted people to be able to stream it at home, in the car, on their speakers at a party, but also get played in clubs and get just as good reaction everywhere really!

Talking about samples, your most popular song ‘Enter the Dragon’ samples ‘Do You Really Like It?’, so how do you usually go about selecting the samples you use in your tracks?

Literally, just if I like a tune. It just comes out of nowhere, I dunno! I was chatting to my manager in my 3rd year of uni and I just said ‘I need to make something that can really resonate with everyone and catches the bassline sound at the moment and also something that people can sing along to and that people know… but I dunno! I just sit there and it comes to me really.

That song has over 13 million streams now, and ‘Boozy’ has over 5 million. What’s it like to see that sort of success for your music?

Amazing. You know what, for ‘Enter the Dragon’, I don’t get too gassed on that, but that’s not really my song, it’s a remix. But ‘Boozy’ - that is crazy! Me and Window (Window Kid) worked really hard on that and we made it during COVID at the start of 2020 and it did exactly what I wanted it to do. With music, you take a lot of risks and a lot of the time it doesn’t pay off. That wasn’t a risk but it was an idea that I wanted to do, me and Window Kid were both known for enjoying a night out and going for a drink and that just completely captured it and it’s amazing to look back at it now and be like f***** come on, that has done exactly what I wanted it to do and more.

Another key part to your music comes with your collaborations with vocalists and rappers and how they bring a new element to your music. How fun is it getting in a studio with someone and hearing them add to a track you’ve created?

It’s so good, so so good. I did it the other day with Capo Lee who’s a sick grime artist but now that I’ve moved to London it’s such a reality for me to do this cos I’ve got my own space, I’ve got my own setup in my room all ready to go so did that the other day and it’s just wicked! Sometimes it doesn’t work out the way it is, a lot of the time with my vocal tunes, the tune that you hear is not what it was originally recorded on. So ‘Top Boy’ for example, with Slick Don, he sent me vocals and I tried two different tunes and then eventually just made a tune around his vocals. That happens a lot, I build a vibe around what the vocalist has given and most of the time that works out better for me.

That’s really interesting, I just assumed it was always them putting it on top.

No, no not for me. I don’t know how other people operate but that’s something I’ve done because there’s a lot of time in between these things. I could send an artist a thing, they could take 3 months to get back. In 3 months time I might have moved on and think ‘I could make something way better than this’ and the tune doesn’t do the vocals justice so it’s nice to repurpose them.

Off the back of that, who would your dream collab be with?

Ummmm, I think Joyride just because he’s a huge inspiration for me, that bass house sound. I’d love to do a track with My Nu Leng at some point, but I don’t know - just so many people - I can’t even think. I got into music through really heavy dubstep and it’s so cool to be in the same kind of zone, playing festivals with their names on it. I’ve just been billed for Parklife, I’m seeing Skrillex’s name up there and the Prodigy and stuff and it’s just like ‘What the f*** is going on?’

You went on a Christmas pub crawl through central London, and invited everyone who saw it to sign up- so is it important to you to have that personal connection with your fanbase?

100% - I love it. I don’t see why you wouldn’t wanna do that and I’m glad that I’ve been able to solidify that persona because that is who I am. I love just going out and speaking to people and meeting new people. For me, if I put myself in my followers shoes, if I had the opportunity to do that when I was 18 - I remember seeing people in clubs and being like ‘OH MY GOD!’ So it just gives me so much happiness and joy just knowing that they’re gonna be gassed. It’s no bother for me, I just got loads of free drinks and got to dress up as a Christmas cracker!

You went on a tour of Australia and New Zealand at the backend of last year, what was it like to be given an opportunity to play your music on the other side of the world?.

So, it got cancelled in 2020, and Australia and New Zealand absolutely love it! They’re a few years behind, the UK bassline scene is going through a weird transition at the moment where garage has taken over, but in Australia they just love everything. I went over there and played the maddest sets, just went crazy and I just got so involved, went out with all the promoters for dinner, pints - just had the sickest time ever! Hopefully gonna be back out there later this year. The maddest thing was on the first show in Perth - big up Perth! - I got to the airport after a 22 hour journey, so tired, didn’t sleep on the flight. Three lads turned up and met me at the airport with a bottle of Fireball and packet of cigs for me, and I was chatting to them for like 10 minutes thinking they worked for the promotion company but they were just there to see me! It was like 1:30 AM! It was mental.

Obviously you’re about to go play at Loft and I caught the end of your set here. DJ sets live are a whole different thing to a band’s live performance - so talk me through the experience from behind the decks? What’s it like seeing a crowd really respond to one of your tracks when the drop comes?

It’s good when they enjoy it! When they don’t you think ‘What have I done wrong?’ When I play music I play what I enjoy. Obviously you play stuff because you think people will enjoy it but it’s still music that I like, so when the reaction isn’t as good it takes your set in a different direction. You’ve gotta read the crowd a lot of the time - that set I did not plan at all, I just played what I wanted! It’s hit and miss. Sometimes it’s amazing, sometimes it’s a bit demoralising but you can’t get caught up in it.

Final question - what’s your Desert Island Disc, one song for eternity. What are you choosing?

Oh my Christ. You know what, I know. Well I don’t know but this is one that’s come into my head that I would listen to forever: SG Lewis - Warm. He makes electronic- sorta acoustic chilled music but it’s one of his old tracks from like 2014. I’ve made love to this tune. I’ve partied to this tune. I’ve done everything to this tune, it is insane and I would happily listen to it forever if I was stranded on a desert island.

By James Woodward