"Major record companies have been ripping off people and artists since Elvis."

England's electro masters Stereo MCs shall present their new album "Double Bubble" live at the Festivalna Hall in Sofia, Bulgaria on November 11, 2008. Let's find out what to expect from the show from Mr. Nick Hallam...

Atanas Ruskov: Nick, how are you? Are you at home in your studio?

Nick Hallam: Yeah, we're back home now. We just did four shows in the Ukraine and got back the day before yesterday, so we feel a little bit... Well, the roads are kind of rough in the Ukraine, so I wasn't getting much sleep... It felt like going down the road on a donkey with a carriage... We were on a tour bus, but I don't sleep very good on tour buses at the best of times, and now it was kind of bumpy...

A. R.: Tell us now about Stereo MCs' new album "Double Bubble". How has it been received so far?

N. H.: I think it's good. We wanted to make a kind of more up-tempo record. During the last 3-4 years we've been getting into the more electro kind of stuff. I like the electro stuff, it's got a hip-hop kind of feel to it, and it's more up-tempo and dirtier. With "Double Bubble" we kind of naturally went in that direction - a bit more just getting into the computer and making a bit more electronic sounds rather than samples. It's kind of weird, because you can make a record and some people will say, "Oh, it sounds the same as all your other ones", and other people will say, "I wish it sounded more like the other one..." We're please with it and it's sounding great live. I think it's more the younger crowd that's responding a lot the record, and that's pretty much what we wanted to achieve - to move on and make new music. If you've been around for a while, this doesn't mean you have to give up not do something new.

A. R.: Yeah, it's different to "Paradise", which was sort of more acoustic...

N. H.: You know, with "Paradise" we wanted to try and remember what we were doing in a funny sort of way - we just had gotten out of our deal with Universal, which we felt was a noose around our neck, so that's what came out. That enabled us to go and get back on tour and find our feet again. Now I feel like we're back in a family situation - with our label and our manager, and it feels like we're confident again in what we want to do, not what we've got to do.

A. R.: Is "Double Bubble" out on your own label, just like "Paradise"?

N. H.: Yes.

A. R.: In what line-up shall you guys come to Sofia?

N. H.: It's Rob, me, Owen playing drums, Cath and Rachel singing. There'll be a lot of visuals going on, as we also have a VJ now. I thing it's more cutting-edge now and... It just feels like the best shows we've ever done.

A. R.: You know about all that stuff about the record industry - how it's dying, the record sales are going down, etc... What do you think about it?

N. H.: I'm glad it's changing. Major record companies have been ripping off people and artists since Elvis. I think it's time for something else to happen. Although it's difficult to know how you'll make money from your music on the Internet, I think we should put the control back in the hands of people making music and the general public. I think now it's just healthier, there's better music around.

A. R.: Is there anything you're really tired of talking about in interviews?

N. H.: Ha-ha, no! One question that everybody was asking us was, "Why did it take you nine years to make a record?", which was a little irritating, because "Deep Down and Dirty" took us actually three months to make. You just have to live with it.

Copyright: Tangra Mega Rock