Blurry strobe lights, half-forgotten faces, and a big question mark lingering over the hours where nighttime and morning are indistinguishable: this could describe the best night of your life or the upcoming EP, zer0, from Scottish musician and DJ, sim0ne. Known for her upbeat techno sound, frilly pop vocals, and Scottish rave influences, she is part of a new wave of DJs and artists being open about their party-girl tendencies, blurring the lines between performer and audience in a cathartic exchange of energy at the clubs.
Their routines? Go to the party, feel the music, go home, make music. You can’t know what the people want to hear – or what you want to make – if you’re stuck at home all alone, blocked off from inspiration and, more importantly, community.
Each element feeds off the other, marking the cyclical nature of energy. When we take from one place, we put it back into another, and the pattern keeps repeating itself, sustaining communities and niche pockets of culture. Sim0ne founded the club zer0 collective with the intent of booking smaller, up-and-coming artists for their parties, staying in touch with the local culture and sharpening her curatorial eye. It helps her collective to find raw talent, and it helps the artists to be able to perform and find their audience. It’s part of her mission to bring people back to the club and away from the algorithms.
Now, sim0ne is working on her new EP, a love letter to the dancefloor and the very people that have formed her. It has moments where you feel like you’re inching closer to the precipice of a cliff, and then being pushed off, only to be saved by something akin to a My Little Pony. It is bubbly, extremely fun, and slightly dangerous – just as every rave ought to be. She is not afraid to change the vibe or sound between tracks, embracing the fluctuations of emotions not just at the club, but in life itself. We’ve dampened our ability to ride (and oftentimes crash) the waves of life because social media has turned into an evasive tool to only show the calm seas, where the waves have been broken by the digital sandbars of algorithms and online performance.
Sim0ne’s music and diversion from the clean-girl aesthetic bring hope for a day when it’s ok to be messy again, to post cringe, pixelated memes, to dance off-beat, or to completely change directions in life. We spoke with her about the energy she tries to bring to each set, how far she’ll go for a party, and the kind of community she fosters.
I’ve seen you’re quite the meme curator on Instagram. So, if you had to choose a meme that describes your upcoming EP, what would it be?
Maybe the one that’s like “I saw you at the party last night and you didn’t say hi” then it’s “what I saw at the party:” and just a picture of blurry lights.
You’re completely self-taught when it comes to producing, singing, and DJing. What was it like to enter this scene without much formal knowledge and also with a lot of critical eyes watching, especially as a woman bringing feminine and “ridiculous, fun energy” into the space?
Honestly very scary, it’s intimidating to lay yourself bare in front of that many people. I came up through the clubs in a time where the DJ world had a lot of pretension and felt very gatekept so when I first started, I strove for perfection and would beat myself up over every mistake. You learn very quickly in front of that many people, though, and get a lot more comfortable which has allowed me to be a little more out-there. I’m more scared of not expressing myself properly than messing up a transition now and I can apply that mentality to the studio and creating music. Honestly, I find singing the most daunting now so that’s what I practice most. It would be cool to use less processed vocals in the future.
Can you tell us a bit about your club zer0 collective? What inspired you to create this and how do you assemble a lineup?
This might sound selfish but a lot of the time I’m just booking who I want to see. It feels important not to tie myself down to one genre or even just DJing. We had Coucou Chloe perform live at one of the London parties. We have more budget now than we did at the beginning, but I really enjoyed the process of finding local talent so that’s definitely a practice I want to continue.
How do you distinguish your roles of producer, artist, DJ, and now club curator?
They blur into one a lot, for better or worse, I don’t have a lot of separation between my work and personal life. I’m grateful to be booked and busy and this project was definitely made with the clubs in mind whenever I got a chance to be in the studio. Maybe it would be interesting to block off time to make a future project, but zer0 is definitely a love letter to the dance floor.
“I’m more scared of not expressing myself properly than messing up a transition now.”
In your stage name and in your event series the number zero appears. What is the significance of that number for you?
It has a lot of paradoxes; it can represent a starting point and a fresh slate but it can also represent nothing. I really try to leave people with the feeling that they can leave the outside world behind, it’s really cathartic to pretend nothing else exists for a couple hours.
You’ve spoken about the importance of third spaces and being in contact with other people, with community and how that in itself is a political act. What does that look like in practice for you?
I always say I’ll fly anywhere for a good enough party but I’m probably a little extreme. Just being with people, moving your body, and knowing there’s some solidarity because you all enjoy the same thing is really good for the soul and that’s something you can do with friends or alone in a crowd.
It feels like there’s a bigger crowd of artists being open about clubbing, making going out cool again like in the 90s and 2000s. For DJs especially it’s important to stay in touch with the crowd’s experience. How do you model that?
I go out. I go out a lot. I think we’re all guilty to some extent of getting caught up in algorithms and metrics these days. Whenever I catch myself starting to think about crowd sizes or streaming numbers, that's when I know I need to go dance to music I’ve never heard before in a tiny club. Being on the dancefloor reminds me why I love music and pulls me out of the industry side which sometimes feels like a popularity contest.
I’ve seen you talk about 90s references in music but also documentaries and fashion icons. Who or what are some of your biggest inspirations across mediums?
Kylie Minogue, Vivienne Westwood, Tetsuya Nomura, Naruto…
Do you have any Scottish-specific recommendations?
Potato scones. Yum.
You’ve spoken about the fun of dressing up for the club that isn’t just an all-black outfit. How do you see experimenting with fashion and aesthetics fitting within club culture?
To me, it’s always just an extension of self in the same way music taste is. It’s another way to express your internal world to other people.
The singles you’ve dropped thus far have an emotional, melodic yet upbeat outlook on different moments of a night at the club. What can people expect out of your upcoming EP?
A lot of 90s and early 2000s references sonically. Each track was made with the dancefloor in mind and I hope people can relate to each moment too.
