The Song That Connected: Stereo MC’s Reflect on Their ‘92 Global Hit

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Stereo MC’s belonged to those of us who spent our nights into mornings at illegal underground raves—the extraneous apostrophe in their name be damned. When mainstream radio stations in Los Angeles started playing the British act’s song “Elevate My Mind” from their sophomore album Supernatural, it felt like our mildly illegal behavior was being exposed. At first, it was jarring; then it felt like something was being taken away from us, something we wanted to keep for ourselves. Still, it was kind of cool that regular people recognized how amazing the music we loved was.

The attention “Elevate My Mind” received was a blip compared to the global success of their 1992 single “Connected,” from their next album of the same name. More than three decades later, Stereo MC’s—and their fans—are still feeling the impact of “Connected.” In January of this year, vocalist Rob Birch and DJ/producer Nick Hallam, joined by original vocalist Cath Coffey and drummer Tansay Omar, returned to North America for three shows in Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and Boston.

The last time Stereo MC’s toured North America was 24 years ago with Jane’s Addiction. “I remember six of us and the equipment, in a tiny van driving to Phoenix with no air conditioning,” Hallam tells SPIN. “You can reach a point where you’re so oversaturated with travel, you just need to step back from it. But suddenly you go, ‘I feel like doing that again.’”

Their brief but positive run earlier this year inspired a return for Stereo MC’s. “I really enjoyed being there this time,” says Hallam. “I saw a whole different side and I got a totally different feeling from America, which was nice.”

This month Stereo MC’s perform at the Cruel World festival in Southern California on May 17, preceded by six dates in Dallas, Austin, Denver, Seattle, Portland, and Oakland. “We’re finely tuned with each other,” states Hallam. “The gigs we’ve been doing the last few years have been the best shows we’ve done.”

From Battersea to Brixton

Nick Hallam: We moved houses from Battersea to Brixton, and it was during that process that the tune started to grow. The original starting point of “Connected” was a little groove we had in the machine. Once we’d settled down and got the studio running in Brixton, the track started taking shape musically. It was one of those tunes that didn’t happen overnight. We’ve done tunes that would happen in three or four hours, the whole tune would come together in an afternoon, the vocals and everything. This tune had a chorus and a good groove. There was something about it.

Rob Birch: The raps I was trying weren’t working. In the end, Nick and Al, the engineer, said, “Why don’t you just go and jam.” We had this little melodic vocal refrain, which we just looped up throughout the track for a vibe. I went in and just jammed on it in the moment, and that’s how the rest of the vocal came out. It was pretty much in one or two takes, just jamming. Sometimes music’s like that, you know? You can think about it too hard, and it becomes a mind track rather than a spiritual track. Sometimes you have to let go of all your thoughts and just search for the visceral feeling that’s sitting there in the groove.

NH: We’d recorded some vocals on the choruses with Verona [Davis] and Andrea [Bedassie], but when we’d finished Rob’s vocal, the whole thing didn’t quite feel totally there for us. Then we got Cath down who had joined us for Supernatural. It was unclear whether she even wanted to be in a group or ever do anything with us again. But we said, “Oh, why don’t you just come down?” She’s like a non-singer vocalist. She’s not like a session singer. It added a little fairy dust to finish off the sound and make it authentically what we felt we sounded like.

Rob: I’m pretty sure “Connected” was the last track we finished for the album. We had no main vocal. But we didn’t get the tune finished until the summertime after we’d experimented with a lot of different vocal ideas, and really pushed it to see its musical potential. We were upstairs in the studio playing pool. We went down and the vocal suddenly came, happened in the space of 10 minutes, and that was it. It was done.

Coming to America

Nick: We put out Supernatural in 1990 and we went to America because Power 106 in L.A. started playing “Elevate My Mind” a lot. It was kind of a hit on the West Coast. We were doing gigs in San Francisco, L.A. There was a Hispanic audience. We played at a lowrider show on the L.A. Fairgrounds. It was pure Spanish rappers. For us, coming straight from South London, it was pretty amazing, a real culture shock.

Rob: Everything you do in life shapes you in your journey.  Just the fact that you’re going out and seeing different parts of the world and meeting different people, it broadens your perspective. You’re not just seeing what the television channels allow you to see of the outside world. We did a lot of touring in America. America is very different when you actually see it in person than it is to the British perspective of what you see on TV. It changes the way you think.

Nick: Just being there in the summer, driving around L.A., there was something in the air, Rodney King and all that stuff going on affected us. Although it’s not mentioned specifically, there’s elements of that in “Connected.” Interstate 5 is in there. Those kinds of things affected the vibe of the song, and hopefully that’s the right feeling that comes out of it.

Rob: The way people operate in America, the way the record company operated, they were ruthless. The way they promoted you and got you to go out and promote what you were doing, it was quite ruthless. Obviously it must have an effect, just in the fact that it adds something to your experience of life.

From Empty Clubs to Overflowing Festivals

Nick: When we finished the song, I knew it was going to be a breakthrough track for us, because I liked it. Every opportunity, like doing the WOMAD tour in America with Peter Gabriel and all the other people on there, an egoless tour where people didn’t care whether they were headlining or not, was pretty amazing. Headlining Glastonbury on the NME stage, we swapped our headline spots with The Orb, because they said if they went on before us, they wouldn’t be able to use their lasers because it was too light. We let them go on after us. 

Rob: In 1987 or ’88 we did some shows in Germany. It was just [Nick] and me, with Monie Love. We played down the Reeperbahn in Hamburg. There was one person in the club. Go forward only five years and we’re playing to 100,000 people. It’s just an amazing thing that you can go from playing an empty, small club to playing in this huge arena, and it’s all a bit of a blur. It’s almost like you’re on some kind of wheel and you’re going round and round. These things are just going in front of your face and a lot of it you barely remember. It just happens so quickly.

Nick: “Connected” still has a life of its own. We still enjoy playing it. It still has a kind of energy.

Unexpected: The BRITS, a Moose, and Dr. Ruth

Nick: We hit a moose at four o’clock in the morning on the way to Canada, wasn’t really expecting that. We had to get out with the driver, straighten up the bumper.

I never had us down as doing all these weird TV shows where you’re interviewed by a puppet on breakfast TV. Who was that one in America? It was an old lady. Dr. Ruth?

We won two BRIT Awards, which was kind of weird for us, because that’s not really our thing. Prize givings or whatever they are, ceremonies, we’re not those kind of people.

Rob: When you look back on it, it all seems quite abstract. The extremity of the experience of life, sometimes feel like you’re watching a movie? Once we were touring in America at that period, we had to go back to New York to do some press. The rest of the band and the crew stayed in Florida. Whilst they had hurricanes, we had blizzards in New York. I remember being able to run down Broadway. Remember how busy Broadway would be with three lanes of traffic on each side? There was no cars. I could go running all the way down Broadway in the snow. It was amazing. It was beautiful. It was great.

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