Tom Cross—now recording as ZERO TO ONE—pushes his On Air saga into its second chapter with “Stage 2 – Anger,” a visceral follow-up to “Stage 2 – Numb.” Framed around the twelve stages of grief, the series is both therapy and thesis: turning upheaval into art. After closing a celebrated run with Wh0, Cross stepped away from house to reconnect with the sounds that move him—electronica, breaks, bass-heavy, festival-ready intensity. “Anger” arrives fast and cathartic: rolling low end, sharpened drums, and bold production touches (including a phase-flipped hi-hat for widescreen width). A prebuilt sample pack seeds recurring motifs across the project, while saturated tape, Decapitator, Driver, SP950, and Thermal supply grit and glue. The workflow is ruthless and refined—living with drafts in cars, gyms, and runs; mixing into a newly rebuilt master chain for authenticity over loudness. Next up: collaborations (EMBER among them) and more stages to come.
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From “Numb” to “Anger”: What moment or idea flipped the switch for Stage 2? Which musical motifs carry over from On Air (Stage 2 – Numb), and what new elements did you introduce to express anger without losing the project’s continuity?
Each track is a play on the 12 stages of grief—a way of processing everything I’ve been through and turning pain into something meaningful. This music became my therapy, and now I’m sharing it in the hope it resonates with anyone who’s ever had to start over.
After leaving Wh0, I had to dig deep to figure out what I really wanted musically. The obvious choice would have been House, but honestly, with Wh0 and my previous aliases, I’d achieved everything I set out to do—and by the end, I’d fallen out of love with it. So I looked back at the sounds that have always moved me, and the answer was clear: electronica, breaks, bass-heavy, festival-ready tracks.
The emotions behind Numb and Anger really dictated the music. Numb carries that lyrical longing for past times, while Anger… well, it just feels angry—the fast tempo, the rolling bass—it’s high-energy and cathartic, and it pumps me up every time.
Building the sound palette: Which choices—tempo, drum programming, bass design, distortion, vocal treatments—became the backbone of “Anger”? Any specific hardware, plugins, or recording techniques you reached for to get that grit and urgency?
Preparation is everything for me. Before writing the tracks, I built a unique sample pack of sounds, motifs, and textures I could pull from, so across the 12 stages, you’ll hear recurring sonic elements tying it all together.
For grit and authenticity, I lean on UAD’s tape machines, often cranked into their most overdriven settings to lower the quality on purpose. I also reach for Soundtoys Decapitator, NI Driver, WaveTracing SP950, Output Thermal, and plenty of others. One of my favourite touches on Anger was flipping the phase on the main hi-hat loop—it sent it super wide in the mix. I debated it for a while, but it felt bold and added so much character, so I kept it.
Collaboration & curation: Did you bring in MCs, vocalists, or co-producers, or is this entirely a ZERO TO ONE solo build? How did your experience with Wh0 and work alongside icons (e.g., Angello, Mark Knight, Armand, Nile) shape the decisions on this track?
I will be bringing in MCs and vocalists as the project unfolds. The third single actually features EMBER, Lizzie from House Gospel Choir’s alias. Collaboration is one of my favourite parts of producing—working with other voices and energies always pushes me further.
Having been in rooms with legends like Angello, Mark Knight, Armand, Nile… you can’t help but raise your game. I try to channel that mindset every time: would my future self look back and think, “Yeah, he gave this everything,” or would he feel I held back? I always want it to be the first one.
Workflow to master: Walk us through the path from first sketch to final bounce—demo iterations, arrangement breakthroughs, mix decisions, and the point you knew it was finished. Did lessons from big projects (FIFA placement, Abbey Road sessions, Beyoncé tour contributions) change your QC process
I’ve always been an ideas guy—before leaving Wh0, our SoundCloud had over 1,500 private tracks, from tiny loops to full demos. With ZERO TO ONE, I’ve flipped the process: instead of chasing quantity, I spend much longer pushing each idea to its limits, seeing if it truly deserves release.
I live with tracks for weeks—blasting them on runs, in the gym, driving around. By the time I’m sick of them, I can hear the fixes clearly. That’s when I dive into arranging and mixing, always with my master chain on so I’m mixing into the final shape.
I use both visual and audible cues—SPAN, TR5, Reference plugins—to make sure I hit consistent standards that translate everywhere. For this project, I completely overhauled my master chain. I moved away from the “big, pushed” house/EDM chain I’d used before, and adapted an approach I saw from Laurence Hart (big ups to him). That shift made all the difference—it sounds less forced, more authentic to the world I’m in now.
