Things I Found On Flower Road EP

Things I Found On Flower Road is the debut EP independently released by Negative Zero. It was made as a tribute to Linkin Park back when they were known as Xero and had Mark Wakefield on vocals. After multiple teasers, delays, and random drops of motivation and members, the EP was finally released on July, 7 2021



Background
In May 2020, Raishi was working on Xero tracks and posting it on his YouTube channel such as (Xero: Reading My Eyes Instrumental). Then, Raishi created a song called "Faith" on his YouTube channel as a "Xero Instrumental Idea". The song was 48 seconds long with no vocals and was incomplete, but still, people liked the song, and they left a comment asking to finish the song and in August 2020, the "Xero Part 2" project began and Faith was finished and uploaded to YouTube. After the song was made, the vocalist of The Outsiders, Aaron, offered to be a vocalist for the song, then Raishi released a video saying that they are looking for a rapper, a rapper named Tyler said he sounded like Mike Shinoda and Raishi then made him a rapper. Tyler only did rapping for "Faith" but he caused many problems with the project and when Gage (Young Hostyle) joined, Tyler was no longer the rapper. Later on, Raishi found a vocalist called Danny (Elvishspirit), who sounded a lot like former Xero Singer "Mark Wakefield". The first song that Raishi listened to by Danny was an early version of Get Out that Danny wrote personally. Raishi liked the song, and Get Out was later used on the EP. Danny was then in the project and they got to work. However, Danny mentioned that he was very busy and that he could not stay in the project for long as he had a job and his own band he was in. He was able to record vocals for the songs and write them. After that, a DJ called "And One" said that he could do scratching and Raishi let him in the project. After that, they got to work with a lot of songs such as remaking Cuidado and rewriting some songs. Later on, a guitarist called Machine Man joined the band he played guitar on all songs, but he only ended up on Deftest and Get Out.

In April 21, 2021 the first verse of Cuidado was released on YouTube and on June 26, 2021 the preview for Flower Road was released onYoutube.

The project had a release date for the EP on July 7, 2021 and the release for Flower Road on July 4, 2021 including the release of Cuidado on July 5, 2021.

The EP was very close to being delayed due to Raishi's internet not working on July 6, 2021 (a day before the EP released).

On July 7, 2021 Raishi was not active at all until he came back a few hours later with his internet fixed to post the EP on YouTube.

The EP was released on SoundCloud and Bandcamp on July, 10 2021.

A few days after the EP was released, guitarist Machine Man was fired from the band as he had trouble playing a lot of songs for the EP which is why his guitar is only on 2 songs (Get Out and Deftest).

Artwork
The cover of the EP is the cover from the Cuidado single. The band chose the Cuidado cover since they liked it more compared to the tons of artwork they had.

The cover was made by Retheora.

The physical copy of the EP has a different cover art designed and created by Gages friend. They also designed the new logo for Negative Zero.

About The Tracks

 * The song Flower Road was the most anticipated song from the project. It went through multiple reworks by Raishi, spanning out years in developing and workshopping, until Raishi, and the rest of the project was satisfied. It’s also the only song on the EP to feature J$tackins (formerly known as JQT), who is also a rapper, and is also a personal friend of Gage. J$tackins can be heard in the bridge of the song.


 * The song Faith was the second most anticipated song from the project and was one of the first songs to be created before Negative Xero started, it was made and released on Youtube by Raishi as a sort of test song. It remained more true to its original form, with only slight deviations from the original.


 * The song Get Out is a song written by Danny personally pre-Negative Zero in his free time. It was initially written by Danny out of boredom and uploaded to Youtube, but unbeknownst to him, it would eventually be seen by Raishi, and then used as an audition type of song to be the deciding factor if Danny could join the project, the answer was yes. Get Out was later slightly reworked a bit to be used as an actual song on the EP.


 * The song Deftest, which was originally conceptified as a troll song of sorts to trick hardcore Linkin Park fans into thinking it was the unreleased Xero demo known as Deftest. Deftist later became a proper song and is quite different from the previous songs on the EP, it seems to opt for a little more of a Post-Grunge sound, and it’s one of the only songs on the EP where Danny does most of the vocals.


 * The song Cuidado had the most changes done to it out of all of the other songs on the EP. It’s one of the only songs on the EP where Gage does most of the vocals and even some singing. The song opted for more of a sadder mood unlike the original version of Cuidado. Unlike Faith, It's one of the only songs on the EP that sounds almost nothing like the original version.

Unused Tracks
Dot (She Couldn't Recreated as a Xero Demo)

The song was supposed to be She Couldn't recreated as a Xero Demo but it never made it into the EP for an unknown reason and possibly to save time.

By Myself

This demo was leaked months before the EP released and it was never made into the EP it was supposed to be a cover of Linkin Park's "By Myself" song off Hybrid Theory.

Hiroshima

This song never made it into the EP to save time. A instrumental was created but it was cut shortly after.

Social Media

This song was cut 2 months before the EPs release because it was incomplete and the band had to save time.

The song was leaked by Raishi and it also has Machine Man's guitars on it. It is unknown if vocals exist for this song.

Outro

An outro song was supposed to be on the EP but it wasn't worked on and it was cut last minute.

Last Xmas

This song was mentioned by Machine Man on the Negative Zero Discord. It was supposed to be on the EP but never made it.

Creation Beast

Not much is known about this track. It appears on an artwork that Retheora made and Raishi shared and said it was supposed to be on the EP but never made it.

Malware

A 2018 track from Raishi's old project Nothing Make Sense that was made with Wishmaster. The song was planned to be remade as a Xero Song for the EP but never ended up being on the EP. Not much is known about the EP version of this song only that it was cut out.

No Longer Here

The name on this track was also on the same artwork as Creation Beast. Raishi said this about the song ''"i remember you (gage) and danny saying u bothdisliked no longer here maybe im misremembering" ''

Remixes

 * Flower Road (SMONIX Remix)

Track List

 * 1) Flower Road
 * 2) Get Out
 * 3) Faith
 * 4) Cuidado
 * 5) Deftest

Bonus Tracks:
 * 1) In The End
 * 2) Flower Road (SMONIX Remix) (only on the physical copy of the EP)

Trivia & Other Facts

 * Flower Road is the oldest song created by Raishi personally. It has been utilized, remixed, and remade time and time again in Raishi’s older projects prior to the creation of Negative Zero.


 * Flower Road went through numerous name and sound changes pre-Negative Zero, names like Bullying, Bell Garden, Green Garden and Flower Garden were all originally the names of Flower Road, but when the time came, it was ultimately decided to be called Flower Road on the Things I Found On Flower Road EP.


 * Whether it was from time restrictions, over ambitiousness, or lack of motivation. The songs that are known to be cut from the Things I Found On Flower Road EP are Creation Beast, Malware, What I Wanted To Be, On The Floor, Christmas, Heavy, Lost, My Mind, and Chester B.

Credits
Negative Zero:
 * Raishi: Writer and Producer
 * Elvishspirit: Writer, vocals and guitar on Get Out and Deftest.
 * Young Hostyle: emcee, vocals and writer.
 * And One: Turntables
 * Machine Man / MrS041: Rhythm Guitar (On Get Out and Deftest)
 * Rethorea: Artist and music video animator for Flower Road.

Contributing / Featured Artists:
 * Aaron: Vocal Melody on Faith and Deftest
 * J$TACKINS: Featured rapper on Flower Road