Mark Time

So Mark, Why release a version of the cheesy karaoke classic record ‘Love is the Air’?

“Well for a start, I don’t think ‘Love is the Air’ is a cool or a credible record. I don’t think it is musically pleasing. It’s just not! This is just a way for me to progress myself. Right now, I have a choice of trying to make inroads into dance or expanding into the pop thing.”

But you’re best known for dance music.

“There are so many people working in the dance scene right now. I don’t think if I was to go that route it would last for me. I’ll just do it small and make small little steps like releasing terrible records like this that a lot of people hate, but a lot people like at the same time! I’ve played drums for eleven years now and I’ve always been involved in bands and making music. It is all about the size of the marketplace and the biggest marketplace right now is pop music. I have a chance to exploit that while being lucky enough not to have huge overheads, or to have Louis Walsh taking 20% or 10% or have some guy from Sweden taking fifty grand just to produce the track!”

Do you foresee a problem with people taking you seriously regardless of how good your music is?

“Absolutely. Within the whole dance scene at the moment there is the perception – ‘Mark McCabe – Cheese, cheese, cheese.’ But at the same time there are some people that say; ‘Fair play to him. He’s got a plan and he is doing it’. I did have an alias for other stuff but I’ve decided not to use it. It was Schizo, schizo being one of two different personalities! There are a few bits out there on white labels where no one knows that it is me, but I’m definitely going to play it very carefully. But I do think it can work both ways. I’d like to progress things a bit more and stay low key. I’d like to do something like Norman Cook – I’ll just put it out and see what happens.”

You’ve had a bit of a thrashing from music critics in the past, are you personally dreading their reaction to ‘Love Is In The Air’?

“I think if ‘Love is the Air’ was done by Daft Punk and came from Paris, people would probably really like it! It is a really tricky one. I think time is going to be the only teller of my tale. I’m being a bit ambitious doing all these things, but I’m in the position to do them. I enjoy working, so I can’t think of anything better.”

What’s your opinion of the general state of the dance scene?

“It is very bitchy. I kind of sit on the outside of it. I feel very sorry for anyone who are trying to break in or just getting into it because there are so many people behind you ready to fill your shoes. I think there is an awful lot of people within the dance scene who producing amazing work. I would like to think that I have proved that we can do it in this country. There is no reason why that DJs from this country who are putting in the hours can’t be making it in the way that Oakenfold, Seb Fontaine, Richie Hawtin or Dave Clarke are.

“In the last two to three years the production and quality side of things has really gone up. I’d love to see a few more people breaking out because we need a bit more room for people coming in. You’ve got Mark Kavanagh and people like Mr. Spring breaking out right now, but I offend them! The reason I offend them is that I sold out and I just don’t give a shit about credibility. I’m not kidding myself. There is no way that I can sit here and claim to you that I am a cool DJ when I go down to the Point Depot for a Childline gig and jump up and down onstage and sing ‘Maniac’.

Honesty is my policy, and I’m not going to pretend to be looking for credibility. I’m just trying to lay a foundation for something.”

Is your Universal deal going to be a vehicle purely for your commercial pop material? Can we expect other projects to appear on other labels?

“I’m very lucky with the deal I have here. I can do all that pop stuff for six albums. I don’t know if I’m going to get to six albums but we’ll see what happens! I am still allowed to do studio production on other projects. I’d love to do a really good live thing like Underworld. That’s my next hope for sometime next year.”

Do you think you’ll ever look back on tracks like ‘Maniac’ and ‘Love is the Air’ and think “What was I doing!?!”

“Well I definitely look back at ‘Maniac’ and go – ‘Oh no!’ I hate it! I cannot stand it. But at the same time, it can’t be denied that 120,000 people bought it. With ‘Love is in the Air’ I don’t know just yet. I played it to a DJ who considers the original to be one of his favourite all times songs, and he thought I did a good job with it. While I think the song is cheesy, I don’t think the production is cheesy. I want another top ten or top five record so I need something that is instantly catchy and instantly recognizable and transgenerational and will appeal to people from twelve to fifty.

“While I would hold myself responsible for commercializing records for a younger audience, I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing. At the end of the day, these people are twelve or thirteen and are enjoying it. They don’t care if I’m releasing ‘Love is in the Air’. When they start growing up they’ll go along the road that they want to go – whether it be dance or hip-hop, ragga or classical. I’d love to think that in some small way that I’d recruit someone to go off and enjoy something brilliant like Richie Hawtin or Dave Clarke or whoever. There are not that many people around that would sacrifice themselves in this way and put up with all this slack!”

‘Love is in the Air’ is out now on Universal