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Such as
pondering if this album might be their most coherent to date? "Possibly, it's difficult to say," says Nick. "I guess it only sort of makes sense
after you put the tracks together, and it was done in a short space of
time. We almost didn't have time to get sick of it! It represents a forward
move for us; we've changed record company and management. We'd reached a
stagnation period with people we'd worked with for a long time, we were
pretty much stuck."
Not only stuck, but also caught up in several unpleasantries, not least
of which was a row with their manager. "The music business sausage machine
rubbed us up the wrong way!" says Nick, cheery about it all now. "After
Connected, everyone said "what did you do for nine years, where did
you go?" We just fucked up and stuff to be honest. And in a few ways it's
harder with the album now, there's no promotional budget of £1/4 million
behind us. The new album is a start of getting back on course, building
into a place where we can sell a lot of records, but under our own steam.
We're reinventing ourselves!"
"We're reinventing ourselves!"
- Stereo MCs' Nick Hallam.
Nick co-writes most of the songs with principal vocalist Rob
Birch. "I think it's been pretty strange a lot of the time, it just
happens. Often Rob will just do a track without me even being there, he'll
stay up until 8 in the morning because he's had an idea. We're a couple of
mates who wanted to do this, we both have the same intention and love this
group!"
Such domestic bliss, but the album, in spite of its Paradise title,
deals with lows as well as highs. "In general it's just kind of, well,
life. We wrote the lyrics to do with mentality, a bit about how Blair and
Bush are warmongering, and a lot on the general air of aggression that's
around these days. People just want to pick fights with you, there's a
complete lack of tolerance going on. Technology's moving on but there's
this real animal instinct around. I think the Sun and all those
papers really kind of enhance that, like when the whole Falklands thing was
on, and now they've done it with Muslims."
In the light of this current affairs observations, what counts as
'paradise' for Nick? "Well the idea of Paradise is on the cover - it's
where we live, just down the road. And it's saying, "stop sitting around
moaning about everything, don't dream about winning the lottery or what
you're gonna do when you retire. Live for the moment, live for what's
happening now. It's still great and exciting! There's nothing ironic about
that either - we don't really do ironic!"
"I think what people used to call 'world' music has changed, it
isn't pigeon holed half so much now."
- Stereo MCs' Nick Hallam, bigging up Brixton.
The band head out on a European tour this Autumn, and both Nick and Rob
have family to think about. "I have a daughter who's fifteen, she's into
music. You're almost listening to the same music, which is different to
when I was growing up. I wanted to listen to stuff my parents didn't like!
We try and pace things now so the band aren't away too often. When
Connected was out my daughter was one or two and we were away pretty much
solidly for a year and a half. When we were back I consciously wanted to
give her time, as I'd been away for so long. Rob's kids, they're still
pretty young too."
We return to the music, exploring the possibility that Paradise looks to
the East more than in their previous work. "Well we work with a broad range
of source material, listen to a lot of records to get samples and stuff.
We've always had a bit of the Eastern/African thing though. I think that
goes back to the 'B' side of Connected (Fever) where Steve Hillage
did a remix that had a Moroccan feel to it. We're also influenced by things
like in Brixton, where you walk down Atlantic Road and all the butchers'
shops are blaring out a cross between R&B and house beats, with Bhangra
mixed in. I think what people used to call 'world' music has changed, it
isn't pigeon holed half so much now."
"I don't think we've been all that influential."
- Stereo MCs' Nick Hallam gets all humble.
I suggest the Stereo MCs have influenced quite a few of today's newer
bands, the Audio Bullys among them. "We've just done a gig with
them, actually. I kind of like what they're doing. It's just part of the
chain really though, in the late 1980s and early 1990s there was a whole
change in the music scene, there was the Stone Roses, Happy
Mondays, us, Public Enemy, Orbital, we were all part of
the same thing that was changing. People didn't know what we were exactly.
I don't think we've been all that influential though!"
Have they become more emotive though? "Er, yeah, I guess. There's
definitely aspects of that earlier on though, tracks like The End on
Connected. With this one we needed to make ourselves go for it, and the
soulful side of us came out a bit more. We wanted to push the songwriting
side of things, and Rob and me were muddling through. We've already started
a new album; we're locked down with it and should be finished by the end of
the summer. I'd like to get it out next year - it's good to just keep
rolling. We have more energy than we've ever had!" And modesty by the
bucket load too, as the charming Hallam demonstrates. He has every right to
feel satisfied with the way the band are countering the critics, many of
whom said they'd never recover from their nine years away.
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