MJ Cole: An MM Exclusive

A pioneer of UK garage, MJ Cole has proven he can stand the test of time. During a reflective 2025, he embarked on an incredibly successful tour to celebrate his Mercury-Prize nominated album, Sincere, existing for a quarter century. I sat down with him at the start of 2026 to talk collaboration with artists old and new, scoring the Wu-Tang documentary The Disciple, and garage’s relationship between the UK and US:

‘Still Sincere’ with PinkPantheress came out at the end of January and has been doing some crazy numbers. What was it like revisiting one of your most well-known tunes with a younger artist?

‘Sincere’ has always been a special tune for me. I wrote it in my bedroom. I didn’t have any intentions with it and I’ve never got sick of it. We just thought that PinkPantheress would be so perfect because she started by sampling garage and drum and bass records, so I wanted her to do an original thing with the ‘Sincere’ parts. It’s difficult because a lot of people treat that record as a classic and think you shouldn’t fiddle with it.

My opinion is the original’s still there, it’s just been given a new bit of character. I’m a massive fan of hers. I think she’s totally unique and I love the way she writes her lyrics – you never really know quite what she’s on about and her voice is slightly auto-tuned but got this super vibrant, colourful, energetic shine to it. She doesn’t feel like one of these artists who’s trying to do things a certain way. Her genuine character comes through big time. Interestingly, there are little samples of “don’t do it”, but no mention of the word “sincere” on that whole record which is typical of her – not doing something obvious. 

You also remixed Max Dean, Luke Dean, and Locky’s ‘Can’t Decide’. Do you have a system for remixing someone else’s record?

I’ve done hundreds of remixes over the years. I really love remixing because it’s quite prescriptive. There was a show when I was a kid called The Great Egg Race, where you were given items like a piece of string and an electric motor, and you had to build something. Remixing is a bit like that. I need to hear the bits I’ll work with first before I decide if I can make something good out of them. It’s not about whether it’s a great track.

There are technical considerations, like tempo. The hardest is if I’m making a remix at 130 BPM and the original is faster. When you have to slow down the vocal it can lose energy. Sometimes you have to double the speed. Whereas speeding up something slower, like 100 to 130 BPM, gives it an instant energy boost. 

You did the score for the Wu-Tang Clan film The Disciple. What’s that process been like for you? 

That’s been cool and I really want to do more of it. It’s super fun because you’re not just there with a blank slate; there’s inspiration already there. I know about Wu-Tang from when I was a kid, and basically that whole doc is about a Moroccan guy called Tarik, who was a Wu-Tang Clan fanatic. He persisted in going over to New York, trying to find them, ringing numbers, emailing people. It’s a fascinating tale.

It’s really about persistence, which is a good message from that point of view. Tarik ended up making Once Upon a Time in Shaolin with them. They made one single CD of it, and that got auctioned off. It got bought by a pharmaceutical CEO, he got nicked by the feds, went down, and then some other guys bought it. The director tracked me down after hearing my Madrugada album and really wanted the music to be in contrast to the Wu-Tang stuff. So, I didn’t feel like I had to compete with their music at all.  

Do you find it easier having an image to compose to? 

In a way I do because when there’s a picture in front of you and the music works with it, something just clicks. The music behind pictures can change the mood or your interpretation of what’s going on. On the other side, it can be a bit constrictive as you have to fit whatever emotion is in the scene. It’s a bit more prescriptive but having a starting point and input through your eyes while writing is pretty cool. It expands your palette and adds to your overall breadth as a musician. 

What do you think it is about Wu-Tang Clan that attracts fans so much?

Wu-Tang Clan really had their own thing going on; their own little family, their own ecosystem. That made for strong, direct, and honest music. For me, their records have stood the test of time, probably for similar reasons that Sincere has – they were made from a very honest, no-nonsense point of view. They weren’t trying to be in the charts or make a record like anyone else. 

Last year speed garage really had a moment. Even in the US, Sammy Virji’s crowd at Coachella was huge. What are your thoughts on the UK and US’ relationship to garage?

It’s interesting because it came from Paradise Garage in the States around the late 80s. It’s almost like tossing a football across the Atlantic. It obviously started there but was picked up in 1996 or 1997 in the UK – that’s when I started making tunes. We were interpreting it, making it faster, and introducing UK elements. But then there were US R&B producers who were listening to UK garage. Timbaland famously went to one of the shops in Soho and bought one of every garage record to take back. Todd Edwards has always been there who is very much a US guy.

When I first went to the US, I played there a lot around the time of the Sincere album. Quite a few places I played had never heard anything like it. I had some awkward gigs where I was just wheeled out as a new guy with a new sound from the UK. A couple of those gigs were pretty peak for me. But now it seems that over in the US, it’s much more appreciated. What MPH, salute, and Sammy Virji are doing has been totally embraced over there. There’s still this cross thing going on. It’s interesting – there’s a friendly dialogue between the US and UK now. Both teams have contributed equally to the garage lifeblood. 

You made ‘Doctor’ with Sammy Virji which came out last year on his album. What was he like to work with?

Wicked. He came to my place in London. We started a couple of tunes. One of them is on the go at the moment, so there’s probably another one from me and Sammy coming out. ‘Doctor’ was the second thing we did. I just played a load of Rhodes over this beat and didn’t think much of it, and then sent the bits to Sammy and he did a real scientific, athletic chop-up on it. He’s super energetic and has a great vibe about him – he’s Mr. Smiley. I remember we played at Defected Croatia on the same night. It was the last night of the Kiwi Rekords thing, which is Conducta’s label, and Sammy played ‘Doctor’ as his last tune. I hadn’t heard what changes he’d made to it. It was sick to hear the final version in an olive grove in Croatia.  

Tion Wayne and LeoStayTrill sampled ‘Crazy Love’ last year for their song of the same name. Is it always flattering when someone samples you? 

At the first level – someone picking it up and wanting to do something with it – is flattering in itself. I’ve definitely had versions over the years that I haven’t liked, but with this one, Tion took it in a completely different direction. It was a bit of a surprise, but I was super behind it. It went mental on TikTok. I saw that like 80,000 videos used the tune and my kids suddenly started knowing my record from ages ago because their mates were sharing it. It’s fun when people take something made a while ago and twist it, make their own version, without it being forced. They weren’t doing a remix with me; his producer found the sample and did it before even asking. It’s nice that they were inspired and made something naturally.

There’s a thread emerging here, like when I made Sincere, I had no expectations. With this, it wasn’t forced together. The best music comes when there’s no agenda, it’s honest, and, in a way, sincere. 

Last year you celebrated 25 years since the release of Sincere. What was it like reflecting on the album? 

It didn’t seem like that long ago, but time flies when you’re having fun. I’m normally a very progressive person in terms of music. When I’ve done something, I’ve done it, and I try to spend most of my energy on creating new stuff, but it felt like a good time to honour and celebrate Sincere. The combination of the 25-year anniversary, getting to play some keys on stage, and having some of the singers with me was pretty sick and I got to do some new stuff as well. 

I saw you at Glastonbury last year. How was it for you?

Glastonbury was so good. The crowd was fresh because I was the first one on the Glade stage. That was a proper vibe for me because I’ve only ever played Glasto as a DJ so to do the live thing there was sick. Then I finished for the weekend by 6.30pm on Thursday so I got involved and disappeared into the festival until Monday.

Was that the first time you did that setup with the live keys and special guests?

That was the second one. The first was the Jazz Cafe gig at the end of March last year. I think Glasto was the first time we had all those visuals going with the different guests. Over the year I’ve had so many different guests on, which has been a lot of work because every set has been completely different. I did a Manchester show in December and actually got Danny Fallacy to come back out of retirement to MC the whole thing. He hadn’t been on stage for 12 years or something. We did some tracks off Sincere like ‘Slum King’ and ‘Bandalero Desperado’. 

On the tour it felt like you were doing reinterpretations of some of those Sincere tunes. Did it bring anything new out of them?

Yeah. It didn’t feel like they sounded old. All the singers perform slightly differently as well – adding little bits. I had different controls on stage; all these interesting bass things, filters to play with, and I used different sounds which meant it was more like live improvisations of those tunes. So yeah, it felt like they’re still alive, which was cool. I much prefer doing a live show and being in front of keys and having control over everything rather than DJing. I do love DJing, but playing keys is really where I come from and that’s where the heart of my soul is. Live shows are always on earlier too, which is good. I just did a DJ show this weekend and I was playing 2:30am-3:30am, but I’d been up since 6am, so I had to go to bed, and set an alarm for midnight. 

The Camden gig had an incredible number of guests. Who were you most excited to bring out at KOKO?

It was really good to have Becky Hill come out because we sort of did a swap. She did an arena tour last year, and I had a couple of tracks on her album, so she asked me to do the whole tour and play keys in her band. I couldn’t make the whole thing, but I did her OVO Wembley Arena show, and we played ‘Man of My Dreams’ together on this round, rotating stage that went up and down. I did her that favour, so she came and did KOKO. I rate her highly for doing that. Also, having Hak Baker was really cool because I only met him 6 months ago. We’ve probably made 5 tracks together but none of them are actually out yet. Also, AJ Tracey came out as well and we did the instrumental of ‘Knock Knock’, which I did with Clementine Douglas, but with his Jorja Smith tune over the top; it was sort of a little mashup■

MJ Cole’s latest single With PinkPantheress, ‘Still Sincere’, is out now:

Words by Charlie Edmondson