Metropolis: Mark Ronson Interview

The last time we spoke to Mark Ronson was in January, just as ‘Uptown Funk’ commenced its eighth week atop the Irish Singles Chart. Since then he’s deejayed his way round the world, appeared on every major TV chatshow going, become a patron of the Amy Winehouse Foundation and been nominated for some really cool awards, including the MOBOs, which are being doled out next month in Leeds’ First Direct Arena.
“It’s definitely not why you do it or what you’re thinking of when you’re making the records but it’s a nice acknowledgment,” Ronson beams. “To be in the company of people like Skepta and Bonkaz who are still quite underground is really important to me, because that’s still the music I love to play as a DJ. It’s good to know that I’m not obsolete yet!”
With Jamie xx, Jess Glynne, A$AP Rocky, The Weeknd, Lianne La Havas, Little Simz and, swoon, FKA twigs, among the other MOBO runners and riders, dance music has arguably never been so vibrant and varied.
“Yeah, that really formulaic stuff can only last for so long,” the impeccably quiffed 40-year-old nods. “There’s always going to be room for silly pop records but it’s nice to see that there’s some more progressive stuff making its way into the mainstream. FKA twigs is amazing. I’ve known her since before she blew up and hadn’t added the ‘FKA’ to her name. We’ve written some stuff as friends – a couple of the songs were really interesting – but I’m happy just to be a fan. I’ve been to a number of her shows and there’s this fervent admiration from the audience that very few artists really get. There’s this hush, this reverence which is really great. She puts so much into the choreography and the lighting and the design conceptually. It’s impressive to see someone on their first album who has that kind of vision. Music-wise they’re poles apart, but artistry-wise she reminds me of Kate Bush.”
Praise really doesn’t come any higher than that. Metropolis on November 7 is the latest in a long line of festival stop-offs for Mark and his record box.
“Talking about FKA twigs, we both played at The Orange festival in Warsaw. I rolled up with literally two pieces of vinyl not realising I was headlining to 30,000 people on the main stage after Big Sean. I was like, ‘Fuck, it’s just me by myself! I’m going to have to bust out some serious dance moves...’ There were two camera guys there ready to film some crazy show and what they got instead was me wearing my headphones. It was me sort of warming up for Glastonbury with zero production, but the place went off! Another incredible show was the free back-to-back I did in Berlin with Hudson Mohawke who again is adored by his fans. They’re up for whatever musical journey he wants to take them on. There’s been a lot of fun shit this summer, but those are two that stand out.”
We hope Mark’s been behaving himself because in the United Arab Emirates, where next week he’s headlining the first Green Grooves festival, a positive blood or hair strand test is enough to get you slung in jail.
“We’ve been told, ‘Guys, seriously, don’t do any shit for at least six months beforehand,’” Slash informed us as Velvet Revolver prepared to travel there in 2008.
“I’m flattered that you think I’m as rock ‘n’ roll as Slash, but I’ll be okay,” he laughs. “I’ve been so busy that I’ve had to behave myself.”
One of the several zillion people who’ve been drafted in to work on Adele’s 25 album, Ronson was also on Lana Del Rey’s production wish-list earlier in the year but only had time to pay her a flying studio visit.
“I was going to work with Mark but, you know, his single was so big,” she revealed last week. “He stopped by in town for about three days but as soon as he came he had to leave ... we tried but he didn’t have too much time.”
Does Adele ring up and say, “Oi, Mark, get your arse down to the studio!” or do her people talk to your people?
“It’s very rare that somebody calls management. What happens – with me anyway – is I’ll run into some band or singer, start talking about music and discover that we have a shared passion for Earth, Wind & Fire or Stevie Wonder or The Clash or whoever. Even when you’ve made a genuine connection, going into the studio with somebody has all the awkward aspects of a blind date. It definitely helps knowing beforehand that they’re cool and not, for want of a better word, dicks.”
Has Mark ever gone into the studio with people he thought were nice but turned out to be complete bastards?
“I don’t even really need nice. Arguing in the studio’s okay if you’re both really passionate about your ideas. It happens a lot when I’m working with someone like Bruno Mars. We went back to the drawing-board thirteen times for ‘Uptown Funk’. Everybody thought they knew what was missing and then it was, ‘Nah, that’s not it.’ I have to put my producer ego aside because the author might have a better idea than you for the arrangement or the horn line. As much as your ego bristles, it’s great when they’re right because it makes the song better.”
It’s a question I’ve previously asked Nile Rodgers - his answer being, “Luther Vandross, obviously!” - but what’s the sweetest thing Mark Ronson has heard in his production headphones?
“The guys – Tommy, Homer and Nick – who played on Back To Black and most of the other recordings I’ve done have such a beautiful feel,” he enthuses. “I’ve listened literally all night long to Tommy Brenneck, who started off with Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings and is now a member of the Menahan Street Band and Budos Band, and been in a perpetual state of wonderment.”
From Graham Norton and Ellen to James Corden and Alan Carr, Ronson has relentlessly worked the chatshow circuit, sharing green rooms along the way with the likes of Samuel L. Jackson, Kristen Stewart and Ben McKenzie. Does he ever get starstruck?
“Getting to say ‘hi’ to Samuel L. Jackson’s great, but I’d get more star struck over meeting someone who’s on Portlandia or one of the other underground comedy shows I obsessively watch. If I ran into that little kid from This Is England, Thomas Turgoose, I’d be, ‘Oh my God, wow!’ too.”
Following the Amy documentary premiere in June, Mark proffered that, “What I love about it is that my wife never got to meet Amy and I am always telling her stories about us in the studio and the clever, witty things that Amy would say. We watched it and my wife said, ‘Now I get it. Now I see the Amy you talked about.’ I forget that not everyone got to see that side of her.”
Today he adds: “The first hour is so wonderful to me. I’ve seen the film twice and done a Q+A with the director who said that what he wanted to do was put Amy back up on her pedestal and remind everybody that it was her insane talent that put her up there in the first place. You get to see the real Amy as opposed to the tabloid version in the film. I’ve just become a patron of the Amy Winehouse Foundation, so anything I can do to protect her legacy I will.”
What does he have in store for us tune-wise at the RDS?
“It’s all a blank canvas until I look out into the crowd for the first time and see where we’re going to go,” he reveals. “You can tell by the reaction to the first record whether it’s a funk or a hip hop crowd. I used to DJ five nights a week in clubs in New York and every night the crowd – and by extension the set – was different. You have to be ready to adapt, which is what I love about deejaying. You’re never on autopilot.”
Mark has met his fellow Metropolis heavy- hitters Nile Rodgers and Giorgio Moroder before, separately but never together.
“It would be a genuine thrill and honour to be in the same room as them,” he concludes. “Longevity is a really hard thing to achieve in music, but these guys have been writing and producing hit records for over 40 years. Stick ‘Le Freak’ or ‘I Feel Love’ on anywhere and the place is guaranteed to go wild. If that happens with ‘Uptown Funk’ in 2045 I’d be delighted!”