It’s easy to overlook quite how seminal the 90s were in birthing pretty much everything that
has since come to dominate UK culture. In just a matter of years garage, jungle, UK funky,
bassline and many more genres would explode out of one another like firecrackers. On the
coal face of it all was electronic spearhead MJ Cole, whose pioneering 2-step sound went on
to influence everything from grime to dubstep to bands like The xx. His breakthrough track,
“Sincere”, was one of the first proper garage songs to penetrate the UK top 40, and even
now it is the track played religiously at 6am during every house party from Hackney to Hartlepool.

Over the years, Cole has established himself both as one of the most consistent producers
in Britain and a mastermind for bringing through new talent. He’s produced tracks across the
spectrum for artists like Dizzee Rascal, Katy B, Becky Hill, Shift K3y and Stormzy. He co-
wrote and produced “Nobody But You” for Mary J Blige, alongside Sam Smith and Jimmy
Napes. He has since teamed up with the ferocious young grime MC AJ Tracey to create
“The Rumble” – a dark and industrial colossus that showed just how diverse his sound has
become. “I like to throw those things in now and then and surprise people,” he explains. “The
harder the better for those tracks. I really like that dirty and distorted sound; angular,
energetic, anti-establishment.” The Rumble was followed by Shelter featuring Bruno Major,
also released on Cole’s new label 892 Recordings. Outside of his own label, MJ Cole has
dropped records on Disclosure’s Method White label, and Redlight’s label Lobsterboy.

Cole grew up in West London, near Twickenham and the city of London has always been
deeply close to him. “People always like to go somewhere to write, like LA,” he tells me. “But
the truth is, music always turns out best when you make it in London. There is something
about it. It’s so multi-cultural, cross genre and magic.” His family home was always an
intensely musical environment. Dad was a singer and actor, starring in West End musicials,
his grandparents both played piano and so did his mother. He ended up studying at the
Royal College of Music, and that classical background still informs much of the way he crafts
electronic music. He tells me: “Those earlier years learning in the classical world really
trained my ears to understand how music works and learn the language of musical

expression.”

As a teenager, Cole and his mates got a hold of a music program called Octalyser for the
Amiga. They would set up two computers with a DJ mixer in the middle and start switching
between different chunks and samples to create their own tapes. Quickly they upgraded to
the Atari and got Cubase. “I’d go out to raves,” he tells me, “then I’d come back home to my

little computer in my bedroom and try to re-create what I was hearing the clubs.” After
sending his demos around, he ended up with a job at the cult label Sound of the
Underground, and the rest, as they say, is history. By 1998, “Sincere” was into the top 40 and in 2000 he got his first top 10 single with “Crazy Love”.

Looking back on a twenty-year career, it would be easy for Cole to become entrenched in
the past and just try to re-create those 2000s days, but instead his obsession is the new. He
talks glowingly about D&B, Amy Winehouse and early Radiohead, but what happened
yesterday is still what is inspiring him the most when making music. His record label, 892, is
one that rapidly adjusts to the changing face of the modern music industry, and when you
add that to The Gin Factory, he’s created a innovative platform not just for himself, but for
new artists as well. “The best stuff right now is coming from the underground,” he tells me,
“the artists making stuff that’s real and connected to their lives, without this industry point of view. I always try and capture that in my music.”