Producer, DJ, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mark Ronson has been responsible for some of the freshest sounds of the last few years. Despite his impressive résumé, which includes Amy Winehouse's seminal album Back to Black, and tracks for Lily Allen ("Littlest Things"
) and Adele ("Cold Shoulder"
), he's also a rather humble and an eminently likeable chap, which, along with the aforementioned, explains why so many marquee artists are keen to work with him today.
Ronson came to prominence with work that showcased his own highly stylized aesthetic, which combines a '60s Motown sound with cool danceable grooves and hipster chic, as evidenced on Back To Black, which was released in 2006, and his second solo full length, Version, which came out the following year. However, he's not a man to be pigeonholed.
Though his own recent full-length,
Record Collection (released under the Mark Ronson & The Business Intl. moniker), without doubt mines the rich vein of his signature sound, his productions for others are becoming increasingly diverse. Ronson's work with
Duran Duran on their thirteenth studio album,
All You Need Is Now (which came out digitally in December 2010 and physically in March 2011), received virtually universal critical acclaim, and has brought the band back to the kind of form even the most devout of fans could only have dreamed of previously.
The next major Ronson-produced work to hit the market is Black Lips latest, Arabia Mountain. Though it's their sixth studio album, it's their first to make use of the services of a hands-on producer, and it's a testament to Ronson's prowess that he was their first choice for the project. Though the official release is set for June 7, the full album is
streaming online now. As with Duran's AYNIS, the consensus of opinion on Arabia Mountain sees reviewers and faithful followers alike appreciating Ronson's ability to subtly, yet progressively, sonically sculpt, while retaining all the key elements that make the band a classic.
We caught up with Ronson by phone to find out how he strikes this delicate balance.
Nicole Powers: What are you doing in England right now?
Mark Ronson: I am in the studio with The Gossip working on their new album...It's just like the second week, but it's all going well. They're a band I liked already a lot. I'm just helping them find a new sonic identity a bit too. They've got great songs, and are just coming out with some new sounds no one's heard before.
NP: How did the connection with The Gossip come about?
MR: I met Beth Ditto because we had done a show in February in Paris. They wanted her to perform but the band wasn't around, so my band basically learned The Gossip song and played behind her. There were a few people at that show - we ended up as the house band for The Kills, Gossip and Janelle Monáe. It was a really cool show. Then we had Boy George and Andrew Wyatt there, so we did "Somebody to Love Me" off our album. It was like a weird fashion show with 18 people performing.
I guess [Gossip] were starting to work on the new record and looking for a producer, so their manager called me and asked if I'd be interested in doing it. I was a fan of their album
Standing in the Way [of Control], and I didn't have to really think hard before I said 'yes.'
NP: So it was serendipitous timing.
MR: It was, yes. Because the old school thing of producers, where that was your only job and you got to focus on making records - and all these great record producers from Quincy Jones through to Richard Perry, and whoever else, that's all they did...Now, producers really, they're either DJs or touring artists or musicians that have all these different side careers and stuff, which I'm not saying is necessarily a good thing, because sometimes it's good to really to just do, and get better at, the one thing you're supposed to be doing. But the music industry doesn't really work like that anymore, so we were lucky that the timing lined up. I would've been bummed out if they had asked me to do this record and I was busy.
NP: The producer's role is slightly marginalized these days. Now everyone thinks they can press record on their computer at home and produce their own album. But it's an important role, not just the physical pressing of buttons and moving of faders, but the psychology of production. Also just having a fresh pair of ears in the room is key. That's one of the interesting things about your collaboration with Black Lips, because they've spent their entire career not being produced and have finally come to the realization that they need to be.
MR: Yeah, I don't know why they came to that realization. I mean, to be honest, part of my hesitation in going in the studio with them - or not hesitation, 'cause I definitely wanted to do it as soon as they asked me - but thinking to myself, 'I really love the sound of their records, especially
Good Bad Not Evil. How am I going to help them?' Obviously we both share this love for some sort of '60s aesthetic, [which is] modernized by being a punk band with one foot in classic garage rock and stuff like that.
But each project is completely different. If you're just working with a singer, you're there to help them with the whole arrangement and figure out what the whole band is going to play around that song. And if you're working with an actual band, it's completely different, because they already have an idea of what their parts are, and you're there to help them with arrangements and things like that. There's no set ethos, because all the bands that I work with are pretty varied in their musical styles and also in the way that they work. No two singers, no two bands, are ever alike. You just figure out what the best thing you can do to help make their songs sound the best that they can, you know.
The first success I had was with Amy Winehouse and
Version, and I guess I became known for a specific sound because those were the first two things that anyone knew of by me. But, at the same time, you don't want to be like, 'OK, I'm going to go in and give them the same sound that I did for this last record.' Because you become a one trick pony, and you also cheapen what you've done in the past. Like, if I went and decided to do the sound of
Back to Black with another artist, A) it wouldn't be anywhere near as good anyway 'cause
Back to Black was mostly about Amy's voice and her songs, but it kind of cheapens
Back to Black in a way.
NP: Right. But no one can accuse you of doing that. The last three things that you've done, your own solo album, the Duran project, and then Black Lips, they're all very different in sound. With Black Lips, what do you think you brought to their record that wouldn't have been there if they had just shuffled into the studio and hit play and record themselves?
MR: I think just helping them knock some of the songs into shape. And arrangement ideas, and maybe guitar lines that they had, and going, 'Why don't you move that here and repeat this at the end.' Just kind of Producer 101 stuff. Then also, I guess the thing that's cool about working with bands that you're a fan of before you work with them is that you feel like you're speaking for, you know, in Duran Duran's case, a million Duran Duran fans. Or the Black Lips, maybe it's a smaller cult following, but you kind of know what other fans want to hear because you know what you love about that band.
Every band wants to progress a bit with each record, but, as a fan of the Black Lips, I know what my favorite things are. I might not have the same favorite songs of every Black Lips fan, but there's certain magic elements and things that they do that's really unique to them and you go, 'OK, I'm going to help bring a bit more of that out because I know that's what I'd want to hear if I went into the shop and bought a Black Lips record.'
The same thing with Duran; They drifted pretty far from the blue print. They're a very savvy, constantly evolving band, but sometimes you need to remind a band that it's okay to go back to the magic formula that they had 25, 30 years ago. Especially if you've got new bands that have been going to town for the past eight years using some of that magic, which was basically disco influenced drum beats with great bass lines and a whole load of synths on it and great melodies. I think that was the thing with Duran, of not being of afraid to just be like, you know, "Girls on Film" is a fucking amazing song, you shouldn't be ashamed to do something that's slightly reminiscent of that.
NP: I feel with Duran Duran, that you gave them the confidence to be themselves. And that's particularly hard for them because they had such extreme success in the beginning, and then it's like the world turned on them. But they have had several periods of success.
The Wedding Album was actually, in terms of sales, one of their most successful albums. They deserve a lot more respect than they get for their tenacity and staying power.
MR: The thing about Duran is that when you make such a giant impact the first time around, in a way that maybe one or two other bands from that era, maybe Depeche Mode and someone else did, you can still go out and play and it never feels like you're cheapening it. To be honest, there were some Duran Duran records in the last ten years that, as a fan, I don't even know. But there was never anything that diminished any of the love for them for some reason. I think it was just because every time they played, they played great. And for the past 8 years there was enough of the full lineup that you didn't feel like you were getting gypped when you'd go to a show...
Regardless of the quality of the records they've made recently, there's still just an immense amount of love, goodwill, and passion towards them. I think all anyone was doing was waiting for them to make a great record, to sort of come back in their corner. I think it's still early, their record has only just come out commercially, but just even off the back of the critical reception, the reception from the fans, and some of the fans like me who may have gone away for a little while - it's been so incredibly positive that I think it's turned around.
I've read a couple of reviews of their shows in America, Coachella and stuff like that, which have said they played songs from the new record in between the old ones and they didn't really loose the crowd for one minute - which is a lot to say when you're playing against songs that have been classics for thirty years. 'Lightening in a box' is what they call it the first time around and then with
The Wedding Album. It was pretty magic and you're not ever guaranteed that that's going to happen exactly the same way again. But if you make a really great record, like I think that they did, you just open up to the potential of what your career could be, or what they could be. I think they could be now around for another 10 or 15 years because they've made something that seems worthy.
NP: I feel that you've given Duran Duran their career back.
MR: I don't know. That's nice of you to say. I don't feel comfortable saying that. But somebody said in one of their reviews that...if you came of age in the age of Duran and you compare it to Bob Dylan, this is your
Blood On The Tracks. This is the record that comes 30 years later that reminds you why you love them so much - and I think that sort of sums it up the best.
NP: On this record there's a few tracks where you have writing credits. [The title track and then "Girl Panic" and "Safe" on the initial online release, plus "A Diamond In the Mind," "Other People's Lives," "Mediterranea," and "Return to Now" on the subsequent physical release.] That must have been kind of freaky, getting to the point where you're writing with your heroes.
MR: Yeah. I think that my role as a producer is to come in and do whatever is best for the song. I never try and force myself into the situation of writing, or be like, 'Hey, here's my chords.' Because I don't write like Duran Duran. The chemistry that they have when they're in a room together is something that if I tried to throw my chords in, they might be good chords, it might be a good change, but it wouldn't sound like them. So I was just there for a couple times when I had a little idea for a bass line, or a place for the chords to go, or a lyric idea that, if I thought it was worth it, I'd throw out. A couple of times it worked.
The first time I ever picked up an instrument to play in public was [when] I played "Wild Boys" by Duran Duran at my talent show in the fourth grade when I just moved to New York. I played bass because I wanted to be John Taylor. I remember that was the first time I ever played an instrument in front of a bunch of people.
It's so weird because I'm actually standing in the place right now, Eastcote Studios in London, I'm having such déjà vu...[I'm] in the live room where I showed John this bass line I did to see if he liked it. It's a bass line from "Safe." Of course, in some ways, I'm influenced by him anyways, because he was probably one of the first people I ever probably listened to as a kid...So I was like showing him back his bass line. One of the first things I ever did was play "Wild Boys" on the bass, and it was one of the most bizarre things that 27 years later...John's asking me to show him this bass line because he thinks it's kind of good, and it became a kind of seed for the song. But it is really strange that I'm actually standing right in the place where I remember him playing the bass line for the first time. That's really quite strange.
NP: I was reading
an interview with Roger Taylor, and he was talking about how you approached the project very scientifically, and that you got the band to bring all of their old instruments out of storage that they recorded with back in the day, and you set them up in the room in the same way that they used to have it - that you were physically trying to recreate the situation that helped give them their signature sound.
MR: Well, basically, we just got some of the old gear, some of the old bass amps and stuff like that. But it was more about not where it's positioned in the room, but more just the fact that Roger and John were facing each other and actually laying down the rhythm track together like they would have on the first three or four albums. I think Duran get a bit of a rap because they were such a bunch of pretty boys that people forgot that they could actually play their instruments really fucking well. So to have John and Roger, who are a super tight rhythm section, in a room, playing together, staring at each other - it comes across in the music. That's how people used to make records all the time. Because of technology and people being lazy, you know, we'll do a drum [track] and we'll do the bass a bit later, and then we'll do this and we'll fix that. If you can just have two people that can really play sitting in a room together, and you get something out of that, it's going to be so much better than faking it or cheating it.
NP: You had Simon Le Bon sing on the title track of
Record Collection. I absolutely love that whole record. It's interesting to hear the progression through the three albums that you've done...
MR: With this record, I just decided to do something without all the horns and stuff...I had just come to the halfway point working with the Duran record, so I learned so much about synths from sitting with Nick...The song with Simon on the hook on
Record Collection came about because Nick had been such a big influence on the record, just from what he taught me about the synths...it was near the end of the record and Nick had played keys on this song, and I was just like, 'Hey Simon, do you like this hook for this song? What do you think about singing it?' It was quite unusual for Simon, because he writes everything and he sings it himself...He happened to like this hook that Nick Hodgson from the Kaiser Chiefs had come up with...He went in and it was just one of those bizarre things; you're just in the studio, in and out in 15 minutes, and the next thing you know you have Simon Le Bon singing the hook on your album.
NP: You also have Boy George on the album. His vocal on "Somebody to Love Me" sounds so good. It's the best record he's done in ages.
MR: Yeah, that's pretty magic that song...There was never the intention of asking him to be on the record. I had written that song with Andrew Wyatt from Miike Snow, who also sings on it, and Alex Greenwald, who tours and wrote a lot of the record with me. Two days after we wrote it, I just had this weird thing. I was like, 'We need to ask Boy George to sing this song.' I have no idea. It was just one of the things you sort of wake up in the morning...
NP: Those are the best ideas, when you listen to your subconscious.
MR: Yeah. And I think a little bit was we were quite aware of "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" when we were writing that song in the room, because they're both sort of non-Western rhythms. Theirs has a reggae beat, ours has a kind of afrobeat. And the blue-eyed soul song is a bit sad and regretful but bouncy. I think that must have been what was staying in the back of my mind.
I'd interviewed him once for
Interview Magazine. I called him up when I got to London, I got his email, and I said, 'I'd like to play you this song.' He came and he heard it, and a week later he came to the studio and we recorded it. It was quite scary at first. I had no idea what his voice was going to sound like because I hadn't heard him sing in like ten years. I just had this idea that I wanted him on the song. The minute he sung, it was already an octave lower than it was written because his voice is just...
NP: It's got deeper.
MR: Obviously his voice is different than it was when he was twenty years old, like most people. And I just suddenly realized, right there in the room, it was like, wow, this song has just taken on an eight thousand percent emotional depth that it didn't really have before just because of everything that he put into it. It was a great song before that, and Andrew sounded brilliant singing it, he's one of my favorite singers...
NP: But the lyrics seem to very much apply to Boy George's life.
MR: Well, there's a line in the song, "
See the boy I once was in my eyes." When he started singing that I was like, how fucking weird is this that he's singing this thing that we wrote completely unintentionally and it was meant for him.
NP: It does sound like you wrote it for him.
MR: Yeah, I think it's one of those things. It's like when I was playing with John Taylor on that bass line, the music of those people influenced me so much as a kid, it would only be sort of natural in some way [that] I would end up writing something that would be fitting for them to play. It's just like a circle that's going around; they influenced me, and I'm writing something that sounds like something they would've written anyway, so now it sounds cool when they play it or sing it.
NP: Who's left that you have a burning desire to produce?
MR: I don't know. There's nobody who's super famous that I'm like, wow, I'd love to work with these guys. I mean, there's bands that I love, whether it's
Tame Impala or Arcade Fire or whatever. I get so nervous about working with people that I like anyway that if somebody like the Gossip or the Black Lips approached me and said do you want to work, then, you know, I have to fucking grow a pair and be like, OK, I love this band and it's nerve wracking, but I'm going to go in the studio because it would be stupid to waste the opportunity to work with them... I'm really lucky that the people have come into my orbit whether it's Rose Dougall, or Duran, or anyone. That's how I've ended up working with them. You know, I'm working with Rufus Wainwright in October on his new record. I think he's one of the most talented songwriters and singers. You know, he wrote opera, he's an aria writer of our generation...
I feel like after Amy's record, the success of that, I realized that it kind of puts you at a crossroads. You can go and chase that success, which often times is really futile 'cause it's not really up to you what the people like. Or you can just continue to do the things that you really love and carve out your living doing that. Some of the things I work on because of that sell 10 copies and some sell 2 million, but it's the only thing I know how to do. I'm not really great at planting like a giant career trajectory...
NP: I think that's a much healthier way to go about it. If you chase success, you're less likely to get it, and it's a very unfulfilling thing. Whereas if you just do the things that you love and do the things that you believe in, because they are true passion projects, success will come to you.
MR: The other thing is that I've been producing records and trying to get my foot in the door for 12 years before my first success, which was probably with "Littlest Things" with Lily that went in to
Version and
Back to Black. I remember the only reason I did those records was because I'd sort of given up...I resigned myself to believe I'm never going to have a hit record. Because I'd seen these other guys that I looked up to, who were at one point starting out like I was...Like I knew Kanye in the very beginning, I knew Danger Mouse, and I'd just see their star shooting straight into the stratosphere and it made me think, 'Fuck, maybe I'm not that good at this, so I'm just going to like fuck off trying to make hits and just make stuff I like.' I was lucky enough to meet a couple of people at that time, like Lily and Daniel Merriweather and Santigold, that I started making records with 'cause I just really liked them. Then that ended up being my first success. So I think that just taught me a good abject lesson, and to just stick with doing the things that you think are good, and hopefully sometimes people will agree with you.
! I may add more to this blog later...maybe...
BUT! I have many many photos and new friends. We took over St. Augustine, FL, for a week. We rented a big house with a pool by the ocean, we also rented a castle for 4 hours to shoot sets. 
instagram: @lavezzaro 
