Steppin' Out

These days British outfit Nero – Daniel Stephens and Joseph Ray – are even hot in Hollywood. They brought some overground dubstep cred to Baz Luhrmann's blockbuster, The Great Gatsby, with Into The Past. “We were working in a recording studio in LA when we heard about the project,” Stephens relates. “A couple of days later Baz came down to the studio and we just sat and talked about music and films for a couple of hours. When he had to leave, we realised we'd hardly even spoken about Gatsby. He was a great person to work with – very knowledgeable about music, but also very chilled. He encouraged us a lot to just do what we felt was true to us, as well as to the film.”

It's been a monumental year for Nero. The Londoners consolidated their crossover success by winning a Grammy, albeit for a remix of their own biggest hit, Promises, with Skrillex's input. Teenage friends, and bedroom producers, Stephens and Ray introduced Nero in 2004 with a now-forgotten track on Reformed Recordings – a sub-label of DJ SS's Formation. Seven years on, joined by singer Alana Watson, they dropped the single-laden album, Welcome Reality, on Chase & Status' MTA imprint – and it topped the UK charts.

Nero have resisted pressure to become producers-for-hire – although, aside from helming Example's UK No. 1, Stay Awake, they did team with Muse for Follow Me, off The 2nd Law – a dubsteppy LP that challenged conservative rock types. “We're Muse fans ourselves and we think the album is great. We were pretty surprised when we were told at one of our live shows a couple of years ago that they were in the crowd but, actually, they've always embraced electronic music influences in their work. It was great to be a part of one of their other avenues of exploration.”

A second Nero album is coming, Stephens assures. “We're working very hard on it – and [we] have been for well over a year. We're not rushing it, but we're definitely getting there. When we wrote the first album, we just wrote what felt natural to us at that time and place in our lives. We're doing exactly the same thing this time 'round.”

The duo, who in 2013 shirk the dubstep tag, are keen to demonstrate their sonic range. Stephens claims not to listen to much EDM. (Reaching Out did sample blue-eyed soulsters Hall & Oates.) “It's important to keep the Nero sound that people liked us for, but it's also important to explore and push the boundaries of that sound. We are sometimes more easily pigeonholed as 'dubstep' based on some of our older music. We don't care about genres, though – especially now. We just want to write good electronic music, at whatever tempo that may be.”