Rob Birch Interview

Rob Birch Interview

15 April, 2010
by: Trol23

Tomas Olesen has a quick chat with Rob Birch of the Stereo MCs ahead of their performance with the Bays at the Ether festival tonight.

So initially you were in bands before moving to London – what was your first hip hop record? How did you feel about music back then?

Schooly D's Saturday Night! It was a total buzz, at that time the music was fresh to the planet. When Public Enemy came out with 'Rebel Without A Pause' it was like you'd never heard a record like that in your life. It had this energy that was like you'd been given a blood transfusion. It was so amazing, all the clubs were just full of excitement, there was a fizz in the air. That's the only way I can describe it, like this fizziness in the air, like taking a drug without taking any drugs.

Gee Street put out some amazing artists. How did you end up with your own label?

The reason we started it was because we were fed up going round major labels having the door shut in our face. Giving them cassette tapes knowing they probably wouldn't listen to it and getting little 'better luck next time' type chats. It just became a bit boring. We were going out with a cassette player and a microphone to all the clubs trying to do a little impromptu thing at any club we could. Then we had a bit of good fortune, a bit of money came our way, we were able to buy a bit of gear and a little old mini and start a label. Once we had it the obvious next step was to put out other people's stuff too. Consequently we had all these amazing acts, like this guy called Sheriff, Outlaw Posse, and PM Dawn. They were very exciting times.

So what do you listen to now?

Well we DJ quite a lot now, so a lot of what we end up listening to is stuff we're checking out for our sets, which is everything from jack beats to L-Vis 1990, quite hard club music. I dig a lot of the music that's out there at the moment, but then if we didn't get inspiration from what people are doing now, we probably wouldn't be making music any more. I think if you're not plugged into the now then you're just rehashing history.

What's your all time favourite piece of music equipment?

First off my laptop – I'm pretty inseparable from that. And I'd have to say this old Bell delay unit which is what we made our first two albums with. We could sample in to it and we'd just trigger it from an 808 drum machine. When we finished our second album at a studio in New York people used to come in to the studio just to see our antiquated equipment. Because everyone was starting to use Akais and there we were just doing tracks with this delay unit. 

Who'd be on the line-up at the great gig in the sky?

I'd say the Roots, they're probably the best live band on the planet – I mean what a drummer! If you want to see someone playing live with a full live band they're just incredible. I do quite like seeing Benga and Scream when they do a set together. I saw them recently in East London, and I had a really good time. I really enjoyed the music and the flavour – it had an old school feel to it, but with heavy modern sounds. That'd be the start of my line-up.

I've always wished I could've seen Sly and the Family Stone play, or Bob Marley and the Wailers. I've seen live footage of them and I've always been amazed that they sound better than they do on record – you know, how amazing is that? And I wouldn't have minded checking out something really heavy like Led Zeppelin, in their original heyday. And The Clash – I'd love to have seen The Clash.

How did Ether Festival come about?

The organiser saw us playing at Glastonbury last year and we had a really good set there and he said he'd love to have us at the Ether festival. We said, “yeah, we'd love to” because the whole vibe of it is to put on something different to the normal. We've always done shows which are a bit off kilter – we've supported people who probably weren't the wisest choice of people to support. But we always wanted to break through to another audience you know,

Well you guys definitely did that cross-genre thing a long time before it became the norm.

We had a good reason! In those days the only way you'd get to see a live rap concert it'd be on a dodgy PA in some dodgy club and the sound would be rubbish. You just kind of thought, “but this music is incredibly heavy – much heavier than most rock music, and it's more groovy. Why is it that this music doesn't get the same props that all the rock acts get? How come it's not on the big PA systems on the big stages? The music is talking to people, it should be out there being given it large really.” So we thought maybe we should try to become a live group with a drummer to get on that circuit and challenge the status quo a little bit.

Sometimes it was hard – when we supported Living Colour, their audience was pretty hostile. They actually used a film of us in conflict with the crowd as a public announcement of how an audience shouldn't treat a group out of courtesy! It was good experience though 'cos once you've taken a bit of flack you can deal with it. You got to remember why you're doing what you're doing – you can't please everyone.

Photo by Jesus Presley

Click here to download the Tom Middleton remix of Stereo MCs The Here and Now

Click here for Stereo MCs v.s The Bays gig.
Click here for Ether Festival line-up.
Click here for all London hip hop.
Click here for all things to do in London.

Trol23