With their first two albums, NERO made two different kinds of statements: now, they’re about to split the difference, and head Into The Unknown.

That’s the title of the electronic trio’s forthcoming album, due out in 2024. “It definitely feels like the album that bridges the two worlds together,” the electronic trio tell GRAMMY.com.

“Quite early on, it felt like we were revisiting some of the heavier elements from [2011’s] Welcome Reality,” they continue, “but there still is a sort of a musical and sometimes band-like feel that you get from [2015’s] Between II Worlds.”

The sonics aside, Into the Unknown completes something of a trifecta, and shines a harsh light on an increasingly probable dystopian future.

“We were always very influenced by sci-fi films such as Blade Runner, Akira, 2001: A Space Odyssey,” they say. “We were thinking about this sort of post-human world that is sort of trying to be resuscitated by AI.”

With that in mind, the barreling “Truth,” which you can hear below, is a thrilling entryway into NERO’s forthcoming adventures.

Read on for an interview with NERO, and listen to “Truth” below.

"Truth" marks your return and first new song since 2018. Why return now?

We've been writing this one since about 2019. That's when we first started working together again and collating our ideas. Shortly into that process, the world shut down due to the pandemic and there was a sort of apocalyptic feeling due to the lockdowns. This felt like a good time for us to pull out of shows and just focus on studio work so a lot of it was probably just the way that things aligned timing-wise.

What did you do in between your time away from the Nero project? What's been going on since 2018?

Well, Joe's been busy working on his solo Joseph Ray project. Alana and I were briefly working on a project called The Night, which we still want to come back to at some point. I had a project with my brother-in-law called Fickle and Vice which was a passion project of 80s pop music in which we only used 80s instruments and synthesizers. Alana and I also became parents, so that took up a lot of our time. It feels like now is a good time to bring the focus back onto Nero.

What can you tell us about "Truth"? What is the inspiration? How did it come together?

We found a recording of Amanda Palmer reading the poem "The Mushroom Hunters" by Neil Gaiman. The way she delivered it and the content of the poem really resonated with us and inspired us.

It talks about science and experimentation. I think in today's world, with the various conspiracy theories.floating around and stuff that rages on the internet, it felt good to highlight the importance of science.

She also has such a cool voice and it had this kind of 'message from the future' feel to it, which follows through to the video.

We felt the vocal really lent itself to the sci-fi intro which builds to quite a dark and menacing track. I guess this reflects our aesthetic and the sounds we have always made.

You're also releasing a new album, Into The Unknown, in 2024. What can you tell us about the new album? What does it sound like? What can we expect?

I like to think that this album sits somewhere in between Welcome Reality and Between II Worlds. I think it definitely feels like the album that bridges the two worlds together.

It also feels like it's part of a story arc, but is still set in the NERO universe as we travel in time from the near future, to the far future, to the year 2808 and beyond. In the case of  this album, we were thinking about a post-human world that is trying to be resuscitated by AI.

Sometimes these ideas come later, after the music has been written, but as is with anything we write, hundreds of ideas don't get used and we whittle it down so that we can find what represents both the story and the ideas that excites us the most musically.

I think quite early on, it felt like we were revisiting some of the heavier elements from Welcome Reality, but there is also a musical and sometimes band-like feel that you get from Between Two Worlds.

Your music as Nero has always featured post-apocalyptic tones and futuristic, scientific themes that explore the past, present and future of humanity. Will Into The Unknown continue that sonic trajectory? How will Into The Unknown reflect our time and humanity of the past few years?

We were always very influenced by sci-fi films such as Blade Runner, Akira, and 2001: A Space Odyssey, to name a few. What they've all got in common is that they have a post-apocalyptic and dystopian feel to them. I think synthesizers often lend themselves to that kind of imagery. The soundtracks for films like Blade Runner were seminal so picturing the mood of these films is always a good starting point for us to get creative, musically.  From those images, we can start creating sounds using our synthesizers that reference that imagery or mood.

We've amassed quite a cool synthesizer collection over the years and we love creating modern and new sounds with them. What's also cool, is that some of these synthesizers have been around for 30 or even 40 years, in the case of the Yamaha CS80.

Going back to your second question, I think with Into the Unknown, as is with any of the NERO stories, it's holding you to ransom slightly with this idea that you know humanity will end up destroying itself.

It's all pretty bleak in a way, but I guess sci-fi, (especially the dystopian kind) is, by its nature, going to be pretty bleak. The prediction is that humanity will eventually destroy itself leading way to a post-apocalyptic world.

Nero is known for its live shows. Any plans to tour the new album in 2024? Can you give us any sneak peek or a test at what your live show/tour will look in 2024?

We're definitely bringing back a live show in 2024 and hope to do maybe even a couple of different types of shows. 

Performing live has always been a big part for us. We love DJing and it's great to be able to play our music out and test it in front of a crowd.

We've really enjoyed road-testing material our entire careers. You can go down a rabbit hole in the studio and I think it's quite important to witness your audience hearing new material in real-time, but once we've finished an album, the thing that we've always really looked forward to is building a new live show.

With that, comes us thinking about how or what we're going to perform, what synths and instruments we're going to use and which kind of equipment and visuals we are going to incorporate. It's sort of like like the cherry on top when you finish the album. It's a really fun part of the job and so we are very excited about what we're planning for 2024 for our live shows, but for the moment, it's a bit of a secret.

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