Exarchos was born in 1978 in
Piraeus,
Greece to a
Greek father and
Croatian mother from
Rijeka. At the age of 18, his musical interest brought him to the UK for education in the field at the universities
Leeds Metropolitan and
University of Westminster. In the next four years, he obtained two degrees, Bachelor of Music Technology and Master on Sound Production. During his studies, Exarchos worked as a sound producer at Vault Recording Studios in
Hackney, London, where he worked with several
British hip hop artists, including
Klashnekoff, Bury Crew,
Skinnyman,
Taskforce,
Iceberg Slimm, Mike GLC and JMC. Exarchos also worked as a producer at AMG Records, which led him to his first recording contract as 'Stereo Mike' with AMG's hip-hop sub-label, Mo' Money Recording$. Within two years, he composed and produced his debut album, while accepting a post-graduate lecturing position at London's
University of Westminster in music production. He released his debut album in Greece titled
Satirical Nomads by Mo' Money Recording$ under license to
Universal Music Greece. The album's singles included the anti-racism anthem "O Allos Babis" and the remix "I Polis". Stereo Mike was nominated at the
Mad Video Music Awards in 2005 for "Best Hip-Hop Video Clip" and in 2008 for "Best Hip-Hop Video Clip" and for "Video Clip of the Year". Stereo Mike subsequently signed to
Minos EMI for his second album titled
XLI3H, which is
leet for the Greek word Εξέλιξη, meaning "
evolution". He is concurrently doing research work toward a PhD in
music. Stereo Mike is the first
MTV EMA Award winner in the "Best Greek Act" category, which came into effect with
MTV's 2008 regional launch in Greece. He was also nominated for Greece in the category of Europe's Favourite Act for 2008. Stereo Mike with
Loucas Yiorkas represented
Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Germany with the song "
Watch My Dance". ==Albums==