Chris Stoker is a top man. We met him through a club he ran with his partner in crime for some time Andy Bainbridge (they run the Not An Animal label together) and are lucky to collaborate with Chris and his company Magic Castles / ACMH on the New Age Dance series of tees that we originally put together for the Love International festival. It's a story of friends and music and that's a good place for things to always start from...

Easy Chris. We’ve known you for some time through music and initially through your party Bad Passion (a good time for a long time), but tell us how you first got involved in the clothing game.

I’ve been involved in some shape or form since I was 19 and dropped out of college to work in a clothing shop in Newcastle. I was in a band then, so working in a shop was an easy fix rather than the first step on a career ladder. As my dreams of rock & roll stardom fell by the wayside, my unintended career in clothing kept progressing from buying at a store called Strand to working for Nike in Amsterdam. Eventually, I crash-landed in London, where I worked at the Margiela store for a while before settling with a brand called Folk doing sales, where I worked for 13 years. My role there took me all over the world, during which time I was promoting the Bad Passion parties, which helped land gigs in most of the cities I visited along the way through the contacts I’d made throwing the parties.

What were the first labels you got into as a kid, and when did you first become aware of streetwear for want of a better term?

Initially, it would have been brands like Griffin, Duffer & Levi Vintage around the time I started getting student loans, which was the first time I could afford any of these brands - albeit I couldn’t afford much else by the time I’d spent the loan on clothes and records. Then, when I started working at Strand, I was introduced to more premium brands like Dries Van Noten, Comme Des Garcon and Kim Jones and started to take more of a keen interest in clothing from there on in.

Was there a scene for those clothes where you came from?

Yeah definitely. There were some great independent clothing stores in the north and in Scotland. Some of the best outside of London at the time. Stores like Stand in Newcastle & Leeds, Autograph in Birmingham and Ichi Ni San in Glasgow. The rise of online shopping & the arrival of Flannels on every street corner with heavily discounted goods replaced all of those stores. There are still good regional stores now, but they’re doing a different thing.

When we grew up the clothes went hand in hand with the records and these days it doesn’t feel so linked in quite the same way? Do you think the approach has changed to clothes with the younger crew?

Things have changed massively. When we were growing up, you had to actively seek out the things you were into. Now, you can have your interests and culture in general curated for you through algorithms, & influencers and have it delivered to your inbox via a newsletter each week, so there’s less of a quest and equally less of a sense of reward.

That’s not to suggest that people are any less into things than we were, but there doesn’t seem to be the same eagerness or drive to unearth clothes or music of your own volition, which makes things less precious and more disposable. One week you’re a punk, and the next week you’re a hippy based more on what en vogue. It’s less that you find it and more that it waved under your nose to the point that you’re seduced into thinking you need it to keep up with the Joneses.

Tell us about Magic Castles. Where and when did you first get involved? Was it your label or idea initially?

As I mentioned, I worked for Folk for a long time, during which the founder, Cathal & became close as we had so much in common. We’d come from similar backgrounds, and both found our way to where we were via similar routes but mainly bonded over music. I left Folk to work freelance and to allow more time to make music, but I always remained close to Cathal. He suggested we set up something new centred around music, which I would run and build my own team. The concept was to build a community inspired by music and collaborations within that world, starting with the people we know, which so far seems to be working as we have a great team designing the product and creating our identity through visual language. Then we have a monthly show on Soho radio which adds an extra layer for telling our story and promoting the brand as well as interacting with a lot of the people we collaborate with on a more human level, sharing music and chatting about what they’re up to.

You have always been clearly linked to music and clubs - what were your first collaborations?

The first was with Sub Club in Glasgow & The Dundee V&A. There was an exhibition called Night Fever exploring the connection between club culture and design and featuring iconic clubs like Studio 54, The Hacienda & Sub Club. Cathal had pretty much grown up in Sub Club & it’s somewhere me and my friends would make a point of visiting as often as possible to listen to the residents, Dominic & Harri. Then, Cathal and I started going together, and our friend groups met and hit it off. One of Cathal’s friends who was running Sub Club when the exhibition opened, which led to us being asked to design a T-shirt to commemorate it came about. I’m unsure if that would have happened were it not for his relationships there. Then the opportunity came about to make the merch T’s for Dresden which was a new party by Ivan Smagghe & Manfedas. I’d worked with Ivan on a project when I was at Folk for the Bayou Blue Foundation, which is how we met. The nuances of T-shirts & caps were always a go-to topic when we hung out, so the collab was an obvious one. The first drop was an instant success selling out in a few hours, forming the foundations for all of the collaborations to follow. Another one I need to mention, which has been a lynchpin in reaching our audience, is our annual project with Love International Festival, which is the umbrella under which New Age Dance was born, as well as teaming up with the likes of Club Blanco, Klasse Wrecks, Ransom Note & Hola Mudo. The team there are amazing to work with.

One of the nice things about Magic Castles is that it has a friends and crew vibe, which seems to be filtering out. It was super nice to see so many people wearing the merch at Love International this year. Is this an important part of the brand to you?

Absolutely! Seeing so many people in it at Love International was quite overwhelming. It wasn’t just the latest merch on site, either. It was pieces from different seasons and lots of other collaborations. It was quite reassuring, really, as we had been flying blind for so long, sticking to our guns and hoping that it would catch on organically. So this is this affirmation that the right people are discovering us & joining the community. It’s an incredible feeling seeing people from far and wide wearing their favourite pieces from a time and place in their lives that made them happy, all coming together on the dance floor to celebrate life & togetherness.

You mentioned a name change is on the cards - what’s happening there?

Yeah, that’s right. It transpires that Disney owns the trademark to Magic Castles. Of course, they do. After exploring every other avenue, we’re having to change the name. Not ideal, but hopefully, we have enough of a following now who like what we do that it shouldn’t matter too much so long as it’s communicated properly. It’s an interesting challenge, but now that we’ve settled on the new name, I’m looking forward to the transition which will come into effect for the launch of the SS25 collection that drops early next year, giving us a clean slate and a new beginning. Our sins of the past can be washed away.

The new name is Almost Cut My Hair, or ACMH for short. You may have noticed it popping up on T-shirts & caps for a couple of seasons now. Named after a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song from the album Deja Vu.

It’s a top name. Why did you hit on it?

There’s a little bit of a story attached, dating back to when Cathal and I were getting to know one another. We were on a road trip together when I first started at Folk, and the conversation hit a brick wall early on when Cathal quizzed me about football which isn’t a specialist subject of mine. As the realisation set in that this might be a painful couple of days without much in common, I spotted the Deja Vu CD in his car, which was a favourite of mine and of course, his. We got on famously from there on in. We’d talked about starting a brand using that name years ago when I was still with the Folk, which didn’t materialise, then after many a fruitless brainstorm with the whole team to come up with a new name, we kept coming back to this.

Whats next for MC / ACMH?

We have a new Dresden T-shirt launching in line with the MORE '2-dayer' that they do in Vilnius, which is Dresden’s home. I’ve been to the party a few times but will be playing this time which is exciting. We have the launch of the new Test Pressing collab of course. Lots of heat and enquiries around that atm. The ongoing New Age Dance Project has almost become a sub-brand of sorts within the collection so its nice to broaden the offer with hats and bags. We have a few other new collaborations coming up but can’t really mention them at this point, but some are pretty big and should open us up to a new audience. Aside from that a lot of admin to prepare for the relaunch and general levelling up.

And last one - while we’ve got you, you’ve got a nice wonky take on music and you’ve got your radio show? Whats the current Top5?

Always a tough question, but here are some newer bits, along with some lold favourites.

1. Solma - Reef (Impossible Mix)
2. Absent Music - The Monkey House
3. Psychic T.V. - Orchids
4. Pale Fountains - Unless
5. Christopher Lamp & Artificial System - Sermon in the Jungle
6. Repulsive Force - Shed Of Life (Float Mix)

That's six but we'll let it go heh. Thanks Chris!

Welcome mate.

You can check out Magic Castles / ACMH HERE at their website and follow their radio show on Soho Radio HERE. We pinched the photo of Chris from Beats In Space. Shout to Tim.