Mark Ronson popped in to the Red Bull Music Academy for a fireside chat and talked about – among other things, – Amy Winehouse, being a celebrity DJ and Duran Duran.
The DJ, producer and guitarist made himself comfortable on the Academy sofa and spilled the beans to Chairman Mao, with whom Ronson worked in his early days as a budding music writer.
Here are Mark's thoughts...
On meeting Amy Winehouse
We met through her manager in Los Angeles. At our first meeting she only had a couple of minutes, so I prepared a real quick and cheap beat. When she came in, she had a listen and went out on the phone calling her manager. I was scared that she hated it and was going mad at him for wasting her time. She was actually telling him that she was going to stay longer and record with me.
On working with Amy
She wanted to have that typical 60's sound on her album. The funny thing is she hated strings, but this sound doesn’t work without them. So we recorded everything and then I hired some strings on my expense. I only played it to her at the final mixdown. She sat at the mixing console, her head down and said nothing for some time. I was expecting the worst, but she stood up and hugged me!
On his musical beginnings
I actually wanted to be a music journalist, but didn't have the balls to write bad reviews! I also had this band, but we were terrible. We played something like funk-rock, covering Lenny Kravitz and Living Colour. After a few gigs in some bars it was all over.
I was more interested in Hip Hop culture and DJing. I already knew some good people and had started collecting records.
On the early days
Over the years I had made a name for myself as an eclectic DJ. There was this girl Nikka Costa and her management approached me. They wanted me to make an album that sounds like my DJ sets. She came from a rock background and the beat I made for Fly like a Feather was in the style of DJ Premier, who I love. It was weird, because when I played the record out the first time he was there. After a minute he came up and asked what it was and I was scared he would kill me for ripping him off!
On Duran Duran
Those guys are the heroes from my youth and now I'm producing their new album! It is a very different thing and I made them go to their basement and get the dust off all their old equipment that they used 20 years ago. All those old synths really got me hooked and had a strong influence on my new album.
On Versions
Being a huge Radiohead fan, I've always wanted to have a take on their material. Through Gabriel Roth and his studio we started those sessions where we recorded some covers, basically just as DJ tools. People love it when they hear a familiar song in a different context.
On being a Celebrity DJ
I don’t really know what makes a celebrity DJ, but some apply this to me. I have played quite a few parties that are important events. My stepfather is a well known musician (a guitarist in Foreigner) and my sister is in the tabloids. I actually thought about stopping dj'ing for some time to take things easy, but it’s fun.
Check out the full version of the Mark Ronson fireside chat in this video:
Term Two of the Red Bull Music Academy London 2010 is already upon us and there’s lots of ways to keep up with all that's happening: you can download the Daily Note, tune in to Red Bull Music Academy Radio or follow the Academy blog, the Twitter feed or connect via Facebook. You can watch highlights from the Red Bull Music Academy lectures on the YouTube channel
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