My London: HALE ZERO – DJ’s & Composers

Born in  Brixton, the classically trained siblings attended The BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology where they studied as teenagers, before striking out on their own to explore and pursue individual careers across various sectors of the music industry.

Empowered by the success of their solo endeavours – alongside DJ’ing, designing and illustrating, the boys have also written scores for a host of international brands, television shows and documentaries, and utilised their skills as musicians by playing live with, and producing records for, artists including Rihanna, Chris Brown, Leona Lewis, Jessie J and Rita Ora – the three brothers now combine their talents to form the creative collective, HALE ZERO; a multifaceted brand, spanning numerous artistic mediums, that’s rapidly catching the attention of some of fashion’s biggest names.

Specialising in providing music direction for fashion houses, films and the arts, the trio pull from their vast knowledge and expertise to create bespoke content for a plethora of clients including Louis Vuitton, Chanel, adidas, Armani, KLOSS Films, Mercedes, Kurt Geiger and Ozwald Boateng.

In recent months the group have served as music curators at some of the U.K.’s most prestigious and elite events, most notably the official BAFTA’s After Party sponsored by British Vogue and Tiffany Co., where guests including Naomi Campbell, Riccardo Tisci, Emma Watson and Edward Enninful, charged the dance-floor to enjoy the full HALE ZERO experience.

We caught up with the Haley brothers Carl, Greg and Rafael, aka HALE ZERO, for the latest edition of our ‘My London’ interview series.

Favourite neighbourhood:

Rafael: It has to be Brixton. It’s where we grew up and we just love its energy. There is always something going on, and there’s a great mix of people and cultures.

Favourite place for brunch:

Carl: I love the cafe at Riverside Studio in Hammersmith. It’s got a great view of the Thames and Hammersmith Bridge. There’s usually an exhibition to check out, and it’s a really convenient place to grab food, before or after the cinema, that’s located in the same building.

Best coffee in London:

Greg: Federation Coffee in Brixton Village is a good spot to grab quality coffee and take a laptop to do some work.

Favourite gallery or museum:

Carl: That’s a tough one, but I’d have to say the National Portrait Gallery. Before getting into music, I wanted to be a portrait artist so it was the place I’d go for inspiration. I still love the BP Portrait Awards which I go to every year.

Tell us a secret:

All: The very first advert we composed music for was a Galaxy Chocolate campaign. They agency asked if we had done ad work before and we lied and told them we had… we hadn’t (Laughs). However, they loved the music, and we got the job.

Favourite place to shop:

All: We’ve lived in London our whole life but never really shopped in Soho until recently. We love it; it has a great variety of shops.

Favourite place to find inspiration:

All: We love to visit museums and galleries. London has so many great exhibitions so we’re never short of finding something inspiring.

Best London destination for a date:

Rafael: Pop Brixton is really cool as there are so many places to eat and grab drinks. It’s also a great place to people watch, so on first dates you’ll never be short of stuff to talk about.

Favourite park:

Greg: It has to be Brockwell Park – we have so many fond memories of spending time there as kids! We would go every summer to watch our Dad play cricket. We also loved the annual country show.

Favourite food market:

All: We’d definitely say Brixton Village. There is a huge choice of restaurants and being Brixton, the atmosphere is always lively.

Your sanctuary in the city:

Carl: Alongside the river by Hammersmith Bridge, is a really nice place to go for a ride or just sit and chill.

What inspires you?

All: We’re inspired by polymaths like Virgil Abloh and Pharrell Williams, who have always done what they love and pushed the boundaries of what a creative life can look like. Their careers serve as a blueprint for what we’d like to achieve.

This season I’m loving…

Rafael: We’ve actually loved experimenting with our own designs and wearing them at our gigs recently.

Keep up to date with HALE ZERO by following their official IG account, @halezero now!