MJ Cole on the Virtual Sessions presented by The DJ Sessions 7/12/22 About MJ Cole - One of U.K. garage's first true stars, MJ Cole's work has spanned Mercury Prize-nominated albums and a lengthy career as a remixer and producer. His widely praised 2000 debut Sincere was a landmark release for the genre, taking the pirate radio-bred sound aboveground by emphasizing its soul and R&B influences. Following 2003's Cut to the Chase, a guest-heavy set that touched on U.K. hip-hop and ragga, Cole remained busy remixing artists like https://open.spotify.com/artist/4iHNK0tOyZPYnBU7nGAgpQ and https://open.spotify.com/artist/6Q192DXotxtaysaqNPy5yR, collaborating with artists ranging from https://open.spotify.com/artist/0gusqTJKxtU1UTmNRMHZcv to https://open.spotify.com/artist/0du5cEVh5yTK9QJze8zA0C, and continually exploring rhythms with his solo EPs and singles. He returned to his classical roots with 2020's MJ Cole Presents Madrugada. While growing up in London, Cole studied the oboe and piano, ultimately earning a degree in music from City University. He also immersed himself in electronic music culture, working as a tape operator and engineer for the drum'n'bass label https://open.spotify.com/search/label%3A%22SOUR%22. Cole issued a breakbeat single as Morf in 1995. While working on https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rBBAjkUV1bF89nr9AGpEu's 2-step remixes for https://open.spotify.com/artist/7CgweQAq49HmeMQaxzyuXC in 1996, he caught the garage bug and worked on numerous productions as well as remixes for https://open.spotify.com/artist/2sIx6SmAMw9IBySG3Uj0jf, https://open.spotify.com/artist/2SYqJ3uDLLXZNyZdLKBy4M, Gwen McRae, https://open.spotify.com/artist/3kcqSqWEss8JZtHBE5IJzZ, and https://open.spotify.com/artist/6Piel9jEbV4Qb18Yw1B2dI. He started releasing garage singles under his own name in 1997, and a few as Box Clever, including one of the first releases on https://open.spotify.com/search/label%3A%22Prolific%20Recordings%22, which he founded in 1998.  Cole's song "Sincere," recorded using a sampler and Atari, was released via https://open.spotify.com/search/label%3A%22AM%3APM%22 the same year, and was one of the first Top 40-charting garage singles. Soon after, Cole signed to https://open.spotify.com/artist/4fH73bVIwM24QrBqjTrhAA's https://open.spotify.com/search/label%3A%22Talkin%27%20Loud%22 label, which released the "Crazy Love" single in May 2000 and the full-length Sincere that July. The album's quick, crisp production style earned him a Brit Award nomination as well as a Mercury Prize nomination. Cole released another album, 2003's Cut to the Chase with https://open.spotify.com/search/label%3A%22Talkin%27%20Loud%22, before leaving the label in 2004. That year, he began releasing a steady stream of singles and EPs on https://open.spotify.com/search/label%3A%22Prolific%22, issuing collaborations with Tubby T, https://open.spotify.com/artist/7k9T7lZlHjRAM1bb0r9Rm3, and Elisabeth Troy (who had previously sung on "Crazy Love"). During this time, he remixed artists such as https://open.spotify.com/artist/6Q192DXotxtaysaqNPy5yR, https://open.spotify.com/artist/3DiDSECUqqY1AuBP8qtaIa, and https://open.spotify.com/artist/4iHNK0tOyZPYnBU7nGAgpQ, took his DJ set on the road, and composed music for television ad campaigns. His own Riddim EP appeared in 2010.  Over the next several years, he co-wrote songs with https://open.spotify.com/artist/0lwmhJGJcTgbcY4bnXGDgj and https://open.spotify.com/artist/2wY79sveU1sp5g7SokKOiI, remixed tracks by https://open.spotify.com/artist/4ScCswdRlyA23odg9thgIO and https://open.spotify.com/artist/3m38ZSwkLdeBDUhdGnFPrn, and produced tracks for https://open.spotify.com/artist/0gusqTJKxtU1UTmNRMHZcv and https://open.spotify.com/artist/5EUdiv20t58GCS09VMKk7M while also finding time to release his own music on the Panoramic EP. https://open.spotify.com/search/label%3A%22Lobster%20Boy%20Records%22 issued the single "Alcatraz" in 2016. The following year, he returned with "Shelter" featuring https://open.spotify.com/artist/0hDjKSKjl1DC7ovYTDJHe8, the https://open.spotify.com/artist/1cwlYsgHBYvLzT4C24AliQ collaboration "Interbass," and the solo single "Pictures in My Head." The material kept on coming in 2018 with the https://open.spotify.com/artist/1HMhQzj2QXxR40zGDdaK6y collaboration "Soak It Up," the Foundations EP, and "Waking Up" featuring https://open.spotify.com/artist/5pDjmC5mRl7vDJhsjVwNfk. 2020 saw Cole release his first album in 17 years, one he had always wanted to make. Inspired by his early classical background, Presents Madrugada, released on https://open.spotify.com/search/label%3A%22Decca%22, was an instrumental album of piano and strings with a soaring, transcendent, filmic quality. In 2021, Cole collaborated with https://open.spotify.com/artist/4WN5naL3ofxrVBgFpguzKo and Josh Barry on the single "Remember Their Names." ~ Heather Phares & Paul Simpson   About The DJ Sessions - “The DJ Sessions” is a Twitch/Mixcloud "Featured Partner” live streaming/podcast series featuring electronic music DJ’s/Producers via live mixes/interviews and streamed/distributed to a global audience. TheDJSessions.com The series constantly places in the “Top Ten” on Twitch Music and the “Top Five” in the “Electronic Music", “DJ", "Dance Music" categories. TDJS is rated in the Top 0.11% of live streaming shows on Twitch out of millions of live streamers. It has also been recognized by Apple twice as a "New and Noteworthy” podcast and featured three times in the Apple Music Store video podcast section. UStream and Livestream have also listed the series as a "Featured" stream on their platforms since its inception.  The series is also streamed live to multiple other platforms and hosted on several podcast sites. It has a combined live streaming/podcast audience is over 125,000 viewers per week. With over 2,300 episodes produced over the last 12 years "The DJ Sessions" has featured international artists such as: https://www.thedjsessions.com/podcast/bt-interviewed-on-the-dj-sessions-presented-by-itv-live-6-11-13/, https://www.thedjsessions.com/podcast/youngr-on-the-virtual-sessions-presented-by-the-dj-sessions-1-25-22/, https://www.thedjsessions.com/podcast/sevenn-on-the-virtual-sessions-presented-by-the-dj-sessions-2-9-22/, Boris, MJ Cole, Lady Waks, https://www.thedjsessions.com/podcast/arty-on-the-virtual-sessions-presented-by-the-dj-sessions-5-25-22/, https://www.thedjsessions.com/podcast/miri-ben-ari-on-the-virtual-sessions-presented-by-the-dj-sessions-6-8-22/, https://www.thedjsessions.com/podcast/party-shirt-on-the-virtual-sessions-presented-by-the-dj-sessions-5-3-22/, https://www.thedjsessions.com/podcast/plastik-funk-on-the-virtual-sessions-presented-by-the-dj-sessions-5-17-22/, https://www.thedjsessions.com/podcast/endo-on-the-virtual-sessions-presented-by-the-dj-sessions-6-27-22/, https://www.thedjsessions.com/podcast/john-tejada-on-the-virtual-sessions-presented-by-the-dj-sessions-6-28-22/,