Get To Know: Cero Ismael

Photo taken by Jaimy Gail

Describing the cultural hotbed that is Amsterdam as a “beautiful” and “chaotic” place, Cero Ismael has called the Dutch city home for the past 8 years since he moved there as a bright-eyed 17-year-old.

Recently coming back from a trip to London we catch up via Zoom to talk about his new EP Eureka, the experimentation with his newfound electronic sound, life and the artistic growth between when he first started to now.

“It was a good switch for me”, Cero shares. From living in the quietness of Almeria to a city that is “always moving” it would be appealing to anybody who is approaching adulthood.

“Almeria, it’s a very small town. It’s like twenty minutes from Amsterdam. It was fine growing up there, I wouldn’t want to grow up anywhere else. It was a starting point for a lot of things in my life music wise but at some point, it was time to move.”

The meaning of the word Eureka, orginated from the Ancient Greek word εὕρηκα heúrēka,which means I have found (it).

It took roughly a year and a half for “the very personal story” that is Eureka to form, an 8-track sonic experience that Cero has created to share with us. Cero's only wish is to “Dance to it, sing to it, cry to it but if anything, I hope you learn from it."

All of the singles that Cero has released in anticipation of Eureka dropping have learnt towards a newfound electronic sound that the Dutch singer-songwriter has experimented with.

Finding a new distinctive sound to express his thoughts and feelings, “I think music-wise I listen to a lot of different genres and every project I’m in a new phrase where I want to tell a certain story but also want to experiment with a certain style that I’m really into.

Speaking about his debut EP Blue Man and its follow up AS MUCH AS YOU DID BEFORE, “ The other projects had little bits of electronic hints in there but I never really got the chance to focus on trying to build out that electronic style I have now dived into ( on Eureka).”

“It’s just a music style that I’ve always had a big interest in and one that I love listening to but I just wasn’t ready to tell the story I wanted and combine it with the electronics and make it an effortless project.”

Explaining the story on Eureka “The first project is a heartbreak story, the second is me focusing on myself in regard to mental health and depression.”

“I still wanted to tell a love story on the third project (Eureka), the stuff that I’m going through like mental health as well, but I also wanted to focus on the bright side in life because the projects before that were kind of dark.”

“For this project, I kind of wanted to put light on the bright stuff in my life and the things that I am very grateful for or the things that make me happy but also still I wanted to make it look realistic and speak about the things that make me sad.

That’s why the project is called Eureka, it’s about finding what I’ve been looking for since the first two projects.”

Striking that balance in life comes with the realisation that now you have to maintain it. And whilst sonically, Eureka is a project where you can hear the lightness, and brightness of the project, however in certain tracks the project darkens due to the stories being told.

‘112 (Don’t call the cops on me)’ is a perfect example of this. “Yeah, It’s serious”, remarks Cero. “I Really loved that record because you cannot necessarily hear what I’m speaking about because it’s like do not call the cops on me because I’m doing what?

You don’t know what I’m speaking about! And I kind of wanted to keep that open for people but the song is about racism and discrimination. On one of the other projects I had this song called 113 and which is a suicidal helpline here in the Netherlands and on this project 112 is the cop helpline in the Netherlands.

Even though on the project we engage with wider social issues, we also learn a lot more personal details about Cero. One of the topics that we learn more about is how “Fatherhood” has impacted him and “ the relationship between my parents and what that does to me being a parent.”

On songs like 'Prove me wrong' and 'Love for you' Cero shares what it was like for him to suddenly find himself a father at 17.

And how our own relationship with our parents influences how we behave with our children. He says “I’ve had an unstable relationship with my parents, and how I’ve been struggling with that as a parent myself but at the same time me just being grateful about having these things.”

“This project was really me saying what I’m grateful for and at the same time feeling like a really blessed human being. I have a. beautiful son, friends that I see as my family that have helped get me through every phase of my life.”

Already working on a new project, and with plans to tour Cero will have plenty of experiences to draw from. He is scheduled to perform at the Great Escape weekend in Brighton where he will be playing two shows and will perform tracks from the new project.

If there is one thing to take from the project, it is to enjoy the good experiences and appreciate the bad because in life you’ll go through both.

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