Mark Ronson

	There’s no time to lie and pretend that I’m immune to the shit that gets printed about me

*New album ‘Record Collection’, out from 27 September*

Fans can pre-order it from here, including the special vinyl boxset

Mark Ronson is STILL growing as modern music’s most sought-after kingpin, having risen from a trendy New York scenester to a recording artist of serious, chart-busting glory. His third and latest album features collaborations with the likes of Ghostface Killah and The Zutons’ Dave McCabe, and crams in hooks so large, you could hang a pregnant woman’s washing off them.

When Maxim caught up with him, he even managed to stay awake for our interview, having confessed to dozing off in an earlier one. It’s all in the questions, eh Mark…?



Hello Mark. We love the new peroxide hair look…
Thanks! Yeah, well I was doing a shoot for this American mag Black Book and they asked if I mind doing this. I had no idea what it was going to look like. I thought it’d be an interesting change I guess… I was bored of my own hair.

One things that’s noticeable about your interviews is how honest and self-deprecating you seem to be, be it worrying about being too old or trying to sing…
I believe in being honest. I’m pretty self-aware that because I was a fan of music before I became an artist, I know how it works. I know why people like certain things, why they don’t and why they don’t like things they used to like. There’s no time to lie and pretend that I’m immune to the shit that gets printed about me.

You certainly sounded very anxious about the fact that you’re singing on your new record ‘Record Collection’.
Well, I’ve worked with some really, really talented vocalists like Adele and Daniel Merriweather. They’re not people you listen to and think ‘Oh, I can do that’. But because this is my own record, I wanted to challenge myself, or at least put myself in an uncomfortable zone and see if I would be comfortable with it!

You are the master of collaborations. Do these artists come to you or is it a case of you banging down doors and screaming ‘Play with me!’
It’s always different. Many people on this record are ones I’ve worked with in the past, like Spank Rock or Kyle Falconer from The View. With other artists, it’s a case of calling their manager and wait in line like everyone else. What connects them, though, is that people seem to be on this record because they genuinely like the music. Everyone has been quite ego-less in giving their time and writing stuff.

It must be a different day at the office everyday working with all these different artists…
Definitely. Ghostface Killah likes to work in his own studio at nights, so it’s a case of sending him the track. But when we were writing the Boy George song ‘Somebody to Love Me’, we all locked ourselves in a room for three days. And with someone like Johnny Pierce from The Drums, I’d send him a track, and he’d send it back an hour later with a fully written song on it. He writes amazingly fast!

The Maxim editor rates your gig with Duran Duran in Montmartres, France, in 2008, as one of the best gigs he’s ever been to…
Really?

Apparently so… So what’s the best gig you’ve ever performed, and the best one you’ve ever been to?
The best gig I played was probably one of our shows at the Hammersmith Apollo, or at the Paradiso in Amsterdam. One of my favourite shows I went to as a punter was Outkast in 1999 when I saw them in Miami, but there’s just been so many though.

Have you got any semi-obscure records that you think we should check out?
There’s this new band from Australia called Tame Impala. I love that record right now. A great older one that I recently discovered is from a band called The Embassy. It’s the one with the song called ‘Boxcar’ on it. I can’t remember what it’s called though. [Hunt them out on YouTube - finding them on Google is near impossible!]

*New album ‘Record Collection’, out from 27 September*

Fans can pre-order it from here, including the special vinyl boxset