Zero went from a solo to a group. Zero is no longer a solo artist, but he is still the main heart of the band. Zero has also been working on a new album for the band and is also working alongside a local instrument brand, Raku, to endorse and promote the local music culture.

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Shikai: What made you want to form a group？

Zero: At that time when my personal album was released, Zero’s drummer, Samm, stumbled upon my music. After some consideration, I was worried that I also needed a drummer to work together when I was writing new music, so I decided to collaborate.

Before that, I just wanted to play music alone, and never had the idea of forming a band again. In the past, the band would come up with different ideas amongst each other. Their ways of expressing music were different and it would cause arguments, but after knowing the current members, we found that our ideas are similar.

Now this band has given me inexplicable affection because peers with the same idea are working together, there will not be too much unnecessary friction, and the current music we play is also extremely comfortable and relaxed.

Shikai: Have you known your current members for a long time?

Zero: Our bass player, V, is a designer, an old friend that I have known for more than ten years. He also likes to play music very much, but he hasn’t been in contact for a long time.

Our drummer, Samm was the first friend to voluntarily join the group. Like our bass player, we all knew each other before.

Our Guitarist, Shankar, is Indian and one of the senior musicians. Shankar currently plays in multiple bands, such as Damn Dirty Apes, who are quite well-known in the underground scene. He is well known and he is very responsible. He will put 100% of his efforts and spirit into any band work, and I appreciate him.

Shikai: Does the band still use the name “Zero”？What are the band’s current plans？

Zero: The band adjusted its name slightly, the word “Zero” is still written in English, but we have recently added a Chinese character in front, 䰱. We have found that many bands from overseas are also called “Zero”. In order to be different from other bands, we decided to add 䰱. 䰱  and Zero homophones are rare ancient Chinese characters and represent a god.

The music we play is a bit psychedelic and mysterious, with imaginary space, so it is named after 䰱, which is quite in line with our band. Although the name is slightly different, Zero’s music concept is still the same, and it also starts from Zero.

At present, Zero is planning to launch the first album. At present, Music Videos and final productions of 5 songs are being done. In the future, concerts and performances will be arranged one after another.

Shikai: I recently saw that Zero was endorsed by the Raku instrument brand, can you share more information about it？

Zero: I have a friend who is a music teacher. I was talking to him about Raku guitars and he introduced us to the brand owner and mentioned that the brand promotes bands endorsement. The brand owner is also a music fan. After communicating and developing an understanding with each other, he also decided to cooperate with us, and all the instruments within our band were replaced with Raku’s brand.

Shikai: What’s Raku’s story?

Zero: Raku was born during the pandemic. At that time, the livelihoods of many musicians were affected, and some could only turn to live streams to earn any income. The founder of Raku felt that this was not the way to continue for a long time, so the idea of selling musical instruments through performance was born.

In fact, the prices of internationally branded instruments in Malaysia are relatively high. The price of Raku instruments is cheaper than foreign brands, but the quality is also really good. Many people who like music are influenced by the price of the instrument, and the high cost is a determining factor.

Raku’s primary concept is to allow everyone to buy higher-quality instruments at an affordable price. After all, other international brands, the same price may only be available for lower-level products. Raku’s quality will never be compromised and is comparable to higher-quality foreign brands, we highly recommend Raku.

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This is a translation, the original article can be found here: https://www.somusics.com/topics/exclusive-interview/zero-raku/

Connect with Zero
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/0theband
Instagram: https://instagram.com/0theband?igshid=Zjc2ZTc4Nzk=
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2aB3Wr8G54f42srAZOxx32?si=BczGJviETDGEMKpcXvoiFA