Amy Winehouse and Adele owe their platinum records to Mark Ronson. Now the renowned producer reveals the music that gave him the impetus to skyrocket.
Mark Ronson is an indefatigable all-rounder; a guy who never seems to rest. The 35-year-old Brit commutes between New York and London, juggling DJ gigs, live shows and recording studio appointments all over the world. He produces Grammy award-winning albums for the likes of Amy Winehouse, Robbie Williams, Adele or Q-Tip, tours with his own outfit the Business Intl, runs a record label named Allido, models for Tommy Hilfiger or composes the score for movies such as the new Russell Brand comedy remake, Arthur. So how does Ronson spend his (limited) spare time? Well, he listens to music a lot, he says. Here are five of the records that have stuck on his playlist.
The Brand New Heavies – People Get Ready
I was 14 when the first Brand New Heavies record came out and it blew my mind. Suddenly there was Acid Jazz and this great young English resurgence of good soul music. I was listening a lot of heavy metal and hip-hop at that time, but this record was the first thing I heard that made me go back and discover all the original stuff. My older friends were like, "Oh, if you like The Brand New Heavies you should check out Roy Ayers or The Gap Band." People Get Ready was a real seminal record for me because it sent me on my path. The horn arrangements were heavily influential over the first 10 years of my production career.
Stevie Wonder – I Was Made to Love Her
When you say Motown it’s so easy to think of pop classics like Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, but there’s also an era of Motown from 1964 to 1971 where they didn’t make a bad record. I think there wasn’t one morning when we worked on Amy’s record I didn’t listen to some Motown song. Something like this track by Stevie Wonder, because it’s the more mono-ish scratchy 1966 era of recording where it’s a bit dirty, you can hear the mic is breaking up while he’s singing. When we did Amy’s vocals, we did them a lot on this old RCA mic that has a
lot of scratch and hiss in it, but that also gave it attitude and sentiment that wouldn’t have come from just throwing up a good classic clean mic.
Public Enemy – Welcome To the Terrordome (Album: Fear of a Black Planet)
That era of Def Jam records including stuff like LL Cool J or this Public Enemy record had a sonic energy, similar to metal bands like Pantera and Slayer. Welcome To The Terrordome has these great James Brown breaks layer upon layer. What a lot of white middle class kids like myself loved about rap is that you felt you weren’t supposed to be listening to it. It was kind of dangerous – it was like being a voyeur.
Blur – There’s No Other Way
This is simply an outstanding record combining Britpop melodies with a hip-hop influenced beat. When I first heard it I was like, "What the heck, I wanna make music one day that sounds like this." And that has always been the touchstone for music I make all the way to now. It’s just like if you have an amazing beat in the background and you have a great melody you can’t go wrong really.
Tame Impala – Innerspeaker
It’s my favourite record of the past year. We just toured with them in Australia and watched them every day before we went on stage. They have a similar aesthetic thing. It seems you don’t have to necessarily sound like someone as long as you share the same palate.
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- Mark Ronson official site www.markronson.co.uk
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