Stereo MCs - Cabbages to Kings.
A band that simply refused to fit the mould.
by david ham
Part 1.
Stereo MCs - London 1992
Rob Birch is a music missionary.
“I love lyrics, poetry, you know. And that's why I got into early hip hop, because of the stories. And I mean, that's what's what it's all about”.
Amen to that.
Stereo MCs were and are far more than their iconic 90s album title track ‘Connected’. They are a band respected across the board, with two previous albums that are in my humble opinion, capable of standing toe to toe with Connected. Followed by a portfolio of work and remixes for music legends such as Madonna, U2 and Queen Latifah.
It was a massive honour to be invited to Rob’s house - on his birthday! - to chew the cud. A place of peaceful zen vibes. Across Parts 1 & 2 of this interview, the cud included how it all started (on zero cash), a severed dog head, performing at Stringfellows, influences, consciousness, packing the weed in, Palestine, his love for The Jungle Brothers and Malcolm X, how he views those classic albums and just by chance, I uncovered a rare nugget of music history; the band name they almost chose before landing on Stereo MCs. And if music production tekkers is your thing, you’re in. There’s a competition exclusively for Loaded readers and on top of that Rob’s also curated a playlist for Loaded that features his chosen influential tracks, favourite Stereo MC tunes and some other gems that he’s excited about.
When you meet someone like Rob it’s a blessing. Totally himself and happy to chat away over tea and honey. The difficulty is whittling down the rafts of content he so obligingly threw my way! Therefore you lot are getting not just one, but 2 intriguing parts courtesy of Loaded.
Let’s go back, way back Rob, back to the start…
“When I was a kid, I loved drawing, and I always used to listen to music when I was drawing. Then my brother started playing the guitar. I looked up to my brother a lot, and I loved the whole vibe of it and I thought, ‘yeah, I'd like to do that’. On my 12th birthday my mom and dad bought me a guitar. A Watkins rapier, 12 quid, something like that. Duck egg blue. That was the beginning for me. My brother taught me the 12 bar blues. He said ‘that's the root of everything is the 12 bar’. So I learned the 12 bar, and I had a chord book that just showed me the basic chords and then I just used to copy records, listen to Status Quo, Bowie, you know, just trying to copy some music without getting too complicated at the beginning. And I used to listen to my brothers’ and sisters’ record collections which were Led Zeppelin, Aretha Franklin, Bowie, 10 CC, that sort of music. But it was punk that really exploded my mind. That was where there was a big eruption in what I'd been leaning towards, the energy, a different energy, right? A lot of the early punk stuff, The Clash, The Damned, Pistols, I loved all of that. And I used to try to go to gigs, because I was still a bit young to get into gigs then. But my brother used to sneak me in sometimes and put an old RAF Greatcoat on me to make me look older”.
Where was this?
“I lived in the Midlands. Look a bit different and you're gonna get beaten up. That was when I moved to London and it was like ‘wow!’, I can walk down the street and nobody takes a bit of notice of me. You're not going to get in trouble unless you're directly putting out a feeler for it in some manner. I went to art college. Did a photography, film and TV course, but then I got thrown out of there after a year because I just wanted to do music you know, since I was 12 and started playing that guitar, my whole horizon in life changed because I used to like sports and stuff like that. That all fell to the wayside”.
Is this when you met Nick Hallam? (Stereo MCs partner in rhyme).
“I've known him since I was six years old. He lived on the same street, but was a year older than me which is actually quite a lot when you're that age. He moved to London before I did, hanging out with my brother, and we ended up living in the same building on Sisters Avenue in Battersea. He was experimenting with drum machines and synthesisers because he was into a lot of the early electro music, Meat Beat Manifesto and Kraftwerk. I was playing in bands making a sort of weird cross section of music that sat somewhere between punk, rockabilly and flamenco. My band split up and the band members all went their separate ways on more interesting or profitable pursuits and I was just left on my own. Nick was doing his music, and he said, ‘you come to the studio with me’ because we're like brothers, and I've got a lot of melodies up here, I've got a good ear for a tune. He basically said ‘just help me with some stuff’. I didn't really know anything about drum machines or synthesisers or anything like that. And it was a really beautiful free feeling. It was freedom. I was like, ‘I've got to help him out’. Can’t even remember what I did to be honest, but I must have been of some use! We started experimenting together. We'd make tape loops from a tape machine, reel to reel, you know, with a pencil at one end of the room, with the loop round it going back to the tape machine and stuff like that. We got into the early ideas of sampling and he was getting a lot of mixtapes from New York, underground hip hop music. We're talking 83/84/85, the guys were mixing Tears for Fears with breakbeats, they were great mix tapes. Alongside that, Nick was getting me into electro music. Then Owen - who was a great friend of ours and became our drummer - gave us his old radiogram, which is a cassette player radio with a belt driven turntable, and that's how we made our first tune, using that and a four track Tascam”.
Owen If. RIP.
What sort of records were you messing with?
“We had a cover version of ‘Superstition’, Stevie Wonder and of course, that starts with a drum break. So I sat up all night rewinding the record on a belt driven turntable, which is not an easy feat, just pressing play and record and then dropping out and then trying to remember how many times I'd recorded the loop to make a three minute drum track. So that was basically how I did it. I just sat up all night doing that. Then we discovered this thing called a Bel Delay Unit. Nick discovered it, and it's basically a delay unit with a really long delay time which means that you can actually capture a minute of sound in it and it holds the sound, then you can trigger it from a drum machine. That was what we used. That was our gear, along with the 808, for our first two albums. I got a job on a demolition site, earned enough money to buy the 808, and we hadn't really talked about making a group or even working together. We were just experimenting together and having fun”.
So did you make a load of tracks that then ended up being fine-polished onto those albums?
“No, no, no. It was all experimental and I don't think we even recorded half the time. We just went experimental, on a mission, until we made a record”.
A pensive and amused look came across Rob’s face…
“I’ve never talked about this in interviews before, but we actually started off as, well, we made a record by Dog Man and the Head! I was Dog Man. I used to have this leather jacket, which I'd spray painted with car paint. It was like an electric turquoise green and I had Dog Man written on the back in orange. There used to be these Victorian plaster dogs you could get from the junk shops and I severed the head off one and put it on a chain. I used to wear this dog head around my neck, Nick called himself The Head and we released this track called ‘Turn it Up’ on an independent label called Influx. They just paid for the pressing. ‘Freddie the Fly’ was the track and the cover was orange with a big black fly on it from a science book, a diagram of the fly. It was great. And that was actually how we started. We never actually talk about that, but those records must be out there somewhere”.
Any reader who has one, get in touch!
“Before we even got that pressed up we used to go out on the night bus and just go around the clubs in the West End and say, ‘any chance we could do a gig?’ and then we'd roll up there with our cassette and microphone. We did the Mud Club and that hip hop club that used to be in Richmond, Def Jam stuff. They were all totally mad and everybody was just out of it! Or perhaps that was just me?!”
Stereo MCs - Berlin Wall 1988/1989.
Left to right - Rob, TGG Sherriff, Nick, Owen If (RIP), DJ Cesar
Credit - David Corio
Is the Stringfellows tale true Rob, what the?! Did you approach Stringfellows to book you?
“Haha we just went down there and in those days there was no internet or nothing, no mobile phones, I think they must have just thought, ‘these are two out-there guys’, you know. I really don't get why they did it?!”
How did it go down?
“I don't even remember. I think all I remember is the women walking around with bunny tails and stuff like that. And the funniest part of it was that there was a round platform under the stage and you rise up to the stage through this hole, like in some funny Las Vegas casino. Then that's us, just coming out of a hole and playing these very rudimentary or crazy Hip Hop tracks, some of them at breakneck speed and me trying to rap during it all, ridiculous right? It was pretty funny. But that was how we started, on the night bus.
So it sounds like music was part freedom and part mission for you?
“Yeah but when you're young, the mission is, well it’s just amazing. You're young, you've got all that energy, and you somehow feel that there's this path in front of you. You don't intellectualise anything, and you don't really pick about your music with a fine comb and toothpick, you're like, ‘we've got to get this shit done’. You got to get this shit out. And it's like, you know, you love what you're doing, ‘yeah, that'll do’, get out there, get running. Everything was more instantaneous because you had studio time and you had to finish it that day. If you were doing a remix you booked into the studio. They're paying for it so you go in, record it and mix it in a day, get it done. It was none of this mulling over a remix for a month. You figure out breaks you're going to use, and vaguely how you're going to make the vocal sit and bash! you're in there and you do it. And that was how we kicked off”.
So where did it go from there, the moves towards blowing up?
“We were both skint, on the dole, and doing anything just to make a bit of money, anything. Rolling up cigarettes from the butts in the ashtray. Buying a cabbage, because that was the cheapest food that you could get. Buy a cabbage, make coleslaw that’ll last three days. That's how life was. And this bloke came round and opened a suitcase to pay us to move out of the flat - because he bought the building and he wanted to rinse it - it was proper bank robber business, right? So you'd go from eating coleslaw to having a burger and that was major luxury. ‘Wow, we can go and get some junk food, wow!’.
So we moved above a shop in Lavender Hill and bought a bit of gear and started Gee Street with John Baker and Richie Rich and built a studio down there. Our first tune - ‘Move It’ - came out on Gee Street. Then Julian Palmer from 4th & Broadway heard it in the WAG club and that was it. If he hadn't been there and heard the tune, things could have been very different, but he heard it and said ‘let me licence that’. Then he wanted to licence the next one, and they wanted to do an album. It all snowballed from there so we ended up being on Island Records and they commissioned us to do that first album”.
33-45-78. An immense piece of music if you’re into old school hip hop and beats. Probably my favourite Stereo MCs album. And may never have happened if those sliding doors hadn’t parted when they did and there wasn’t a suitcase available.
“Yeah 33-45-78 was an experimental album really, because in those days like I said, there was no internet, no computers, no sample libraries, no tutorials, no musical education whatsoever. There's no college you could go to to learn about anything, right? So you hear ‘Rebel Without a Pause’, and that was music from another planet and you think, ‘how did they make that?’. You experiment and you try to copy it and that is how you create something new because you haven't got the gear and we didn't even have 1210s, we're still using a belt driven turntable. Obviously you can't make those sounds but we had this little Casio keyboard you could sample for two seconds, it was incredible. We used it on our first record!”
Stereo MCs, supporting INXS 1992.
That's mad. Which album are you most proud of?
“I try not to be proud about things. I'm proud of my work. Proud that I stuck to it and was willing to commit that part of myself to it. I knew something inside me was saying ‘you've got to commit to this and risk probably being poor for the rest of your life, but at least you're going to do what you love doing’. If you go and get some other job that's semi-serious, to earn a decent wage, it works for some people you know, but for me, it was like saying ‘you're not that good at anything Rob, so you need to commit fully, or it's not going to work. The whole of you needs to be here’. I'm not that talented a guy that I can be quite good at something and be successful, and also do this other thing and be successful at that. I'm pretty one dimensional all in”.
Sometimes you meet people and you know that they've been on a mission, and it feels like, you know, almost like a musical missionary quest, you know what I mean?
“Yeah, that's how it had to be. It had to be that way. And so I'm proud of that. But I think music is a gift, you know? Anybody can do something that carries some presence, right? It's your depth of experience that goes into it, but also it's your openness to inspiration. There's no formula. Some days you're inspired, some days you're a brick, just the way it is. But that's why I try not to feel too proud about the music, because I believe that it's a gift to us. And it's also a gift from your relationships, your relationship with your environment and all of these things, giving you information that you subconsciously absorb. Then, if you're fluent and because you're committed to what you're doing, you're able to pass that on into the music, right, transfer it, so I have to give props to everyone that was around me, and all the influences you’re absorbing and the creative master who conducts all of this. It's not really mine. I didn't buy it or anything like that. It came to me. So all I can say is, I was open to it, thankfully”.
Conduit is that the word?
“Yeah and you can say ‘oh you got to work at that’. But as soon as you start saying ‘I'm working at being a conduit’ it just vanishes. It's something deeper than that. It's something to do with having freedom in your spirit. Some days you feel it, and some days you don't. That's life, but it's important to be there and turn up and do your stuff. So that's what I'm proud about. I'm proud that I kept my head down and I still keep my head down”.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone explain the intangible process of creativity so eloquently. Does the art of performing change? Because that’s another conduit scenario right?
“I still feel nervous before going on for a show and I still do my thing that I've got to do before I hold the mic, that's important to me, and I know that that's what I need to do, even though it can be a pain in the ass, that's what I need to do, and I can't slouch on it, because I love doing that. I love getting up on a mic and knowing I've done what I need to do. With a bit of luck, it's going to work well. I need total discipline in that area”.
Back briefly to the debut album, 33-45-78. I've only just realised listening to it again now later in life, how timeless it is, and the beauty of sample culture feels manifested right there. It must be awkward when people say, “Oh, I could hear this influence and that influence” and it might not be in there, but I thought I could hear Eric B & Rakim for example, Stetsasonic, even early NWA in the ‘What is Soul’ intro?
“The energy in NWA’s music was just amazing. We didn't have much money, we'd be going to junk shops to buy twelves and you'd find weird cover version records or Gospel Choir versions of Jimi Hendrix and stuff like that, that sound nice over a particular groove. So that was the beauty of sampling, you chuck something 1000 miles away from the groove that you'd built, and you just go, ‘what a lovely juxta’. It was great to hear things that didn't belong, suddenly feel so good together”.
Joy in creating. How do you feel music has changed since then?
“These days grooves are smoother and more uniform. Back then grooves used to be like they were going along cobbled streets, bumpy and lumpy”.
Thanks Rob.
What’s the competition gonna be?
“We have very few photos of the early days so anyone with some pics from 1987 to 2005 could win free tickets to a show and have a word after”.
Just post your image/s and tag @stereomcsmusic and @loadedworld to enter.
Stay Connected for Part 2, where we get deeper into influences, consciousness, packing the weed in, Palestine, his love for The Jungle Brothers, meeting Joe Strummer and how Malcolm X changed him. Rob’s curated playlist for Loaded readers is below, and features his chosen influential tracks, favourite Stereo MC tunes and some other gems that he’s excited about.
Stereo MCs are touring Europe so if you loved the good stuff, check yo’ head and go and nod it.
See you for Part 2.
By David J Ham.
@stereomcsmusic for tour dates.
Rob, Kent, 2025.
Credit - Cynthia Lawrence-John
Rob Birch Playlist Exclusive for Loaded:
Influential tracks (in no particular order):
Moodymann - ‘I Can’t Kick This Feeling When it Hits’
Osunlade - ‘Envision’
Mark Stewart - ‘Hypnotized’
Cymande - ‘Bra’
Kraftwerk - ‘Musique Non Stop’
Grand Master Flash & the Furious Five - ‘The Message’
Public Enemy - ‘Rebel Without a Pause’
Human League - ‘Being Boiled’
Felt Kuti & the Afrika 70 - ‘Sorrow Tears and Blood’
Linton Kwesi Johnson - ‘Dread Beat an Blood’
Augustus Pablo - ‘KingTubbys meets Rockers Uptown’
Sly and the Family Stone - ‘In Time’
A Tribe called Quest & the Jungle Brothers - ‘In Time’
KC and The Sunshine Band - ‘Shake Your Booty’
Phuture - ‘Acid Tracks’
Favourite Stereo MC tunes:
‘Wake Up’
‘Part 2’
‘Lost in Music’
‘Fever’ (Steve Hillage remix)
‘Move’
Tracks Rob’s excited about:
Da Mike and Deep Aztec - ‘Caught in Silence’ (Henrik's High Low Remix)
Oscar Mbo, KG Smallz, Dearson, MÖRDA, Thakzin, Mhaw Keys - ‘Yes God’ (feat. Dearson) (Mörda, Thakzin, Mhaw Keys Remix)
Aytiwan & Starving Yet Full - ‘Ndoto’ (Chaleee Remix)
Falle Nioke - ‘Falle Le Le Le’
Floyd Lavine - ‘Together’ (Afrikan Tales)
Little Simz - ‘Lion’ (feat. Obongjayar).