Raising the roof with Rob Birch from the Stereo MC’s
By Hayley Adkins

Hey Rob, how are you today?
I’m all good thanks mate.

Great let’s kick this off then!

So you and Nick are both from Nottinghamshire, how did you make your way down to Brixton?
Well I guess Nick made it down here first, I was still at Art College. Then I came down to London as well. There wasn’t really much going on in Nottingham and there was not enough opportunities music wise or any future in music for us there so we both settled in London and it was more by chance that we ended up living in the same house. Nick was living in Battersea at the time and we ended up making music together because we where in to the same things. We were both at the same stage in life you know. We where always friends since we where little its just he was doing his thing and I was doing mine and our paths crossed, I think by fate probably!

Were you ravers when you were younger? Where were your favourite haunts?
Umm, yeah (pauses) there was a place called the Tabernacle in Ladbroke Grove. We used to do a night down there; it was called the W11 Express!

Were you taking it seriously or just having a laugh and going with the flow?
A bit of both really I mean we have both always loved music and wanted to make music. We took it seriously but in another way it’s all about enjoying yourself and doing what you want to do! It is your life though so it’s serious in one degree.

Are you all grown up with family or children?
Yeah we both are! Nick’s got 1 daughter and I have a son and a daughter!

Can you tell us more about the name you have used in the past ‘Ultimatum’?
Yeah it was a name we used for remixing when we did remixing back in the day. We don’t use that name anymore, we mix under our own name.

Your debut album was called 33-45-78 what was the name all about?
It was about the different speeds on an old fashion record label. You know you could have 33 for LP’s, 45 for singles and 78 for the old records that were made in the 1920’s you know the really old records.

Do you think you your sound has changed a lot since you started out?
Yeah definitely, when we started out we used an old belt turntable and an 808 drum machine. Now we use laptops and work in Logic. We use the state of the art equipment now but we are still the same people making the same music so some things will never change. Everything changes, you change as a person and what you want to achieve in music changes so you are no longer naïve about the world and the music so I guess things have to change. We are alive so things naturally change and I think that’s a positive thing.We all love your ‘Connected’ tune that got released in 1992.

We didn’t hear much from you again until 2000, that’s 8 years! What were you up to?
We were touring for about 2 or 3 years then I think we lost the plot spending to many hours in studios, spending too much money in expensive studios and having to many people telling us what we should be doing; we ended up building our own studio where we could keep all those people out and we started getting our act together again!

You song ‘Sophisticated’ from Deep Down and Dirty was used in series of Pizza Hut adverts – did you get free pizza at the time?
No! I didn’t (laughs) I never really thought about that at the time! My kids love pizza as well! We should have made it part of the deal!

You’ve worked with some truly amazing artists such as Madonna and The Jungle Brothers, is there anyone you plan to work with in the future, or are you just going with flow?
I think I would like to work with people who are on the brink of just starting out. We have been working with a young producer called ‘Tic Toc’ and that’s been exciting working with him and there is also so much exciting new music out there. At the end of the day people come to us and ask us to do vocals for theirs tracks. I think it is quite cool when artists you never even dreamed of working with pleasantly surprise you.

You Toured with U2, then toured for nearly 2 years, did it ever get frustrating just doing their warming up?
No we had an amazing time and learned so much. We always went there and did what we had to do. The only frustrating thing is that it took 3 days to set up one gig because they had such a huge set up so you would have a lot of time on your hands!

How do you find news ways of progressing and inspiring yourself?
By keeping up with the present. There are so many changes always going on within the music industry and technology and so much new music being made that you are constantly in a learning curve, that’s one way and the other way is looking around and outside yourself you know, you have to keep looking out and stepping out of your comfort zone to feel inspired.

You’ve both been together so long do you ever feel like you are just one person and do you ever get sick of each other?
I think we have known each other for so long I think you would have to be pretty retarded to think like that you know (laughs) I mean its like everybody has bad days and you have a bad mood, its human nature you know. We both have the same goals and we both want to do the same thing. You have good days and bad days, simple as that really. You’re kicking off your summer gigs in a small club in Hoxton (Hoxton Bar and Grill). That’s quite a small venue, do you feel like your starting all over again?
I have felt like that since we left Universal really; since we started our own label –Paradise, it felt like we were a new band then and now there will be a lot of young people in the audience who don’t know who we are so we will be a new band to them. So yeah I guess in a lot of ways we like we are.

What are your plans for the future and the world in general?
Boy! Yeah I am hoping that our records and our new album ‘Double Bubble’ is very successful. I am hoping we get that we get to play in some great places, we are doing a load of festivals in the UK and Europe; Bestival, Melt Festival to name a few; some pretty nice things you know. I am hoping for a bit of sunshine, some nice food, a bit of time with the Mrs. You know stuff like that! (laughs). The kids have gone on holiday with their Grandma so I am missing them at the moment!

Sounds amazing Nick, I hope you have a great time.
Yeah great, nice one man, Peace.