Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to another episode of Course Love Supreme.
Speaker 2: I am your host Quest Love.
Speaker 1: We have Team Supreme with us. Uh.
Speaker 2: You know what, guys, I've been getting a lot of
Speaker 2: feedback on the internet's and saying that I'm not asking
Speaker 2: enough of Team Supreme where.
Speaker 1: Their life is right now? Someone actually, wow, they actually care,
Speaker 1: they care.
Speaker 2: Someone went like, yo, you used to check up on
Speaker 2: how Fante's house is doing and any repairs.
Speaker 1: So I'm I'm I'm.
Speaker 2: Asking how how's your uh, how's your time been?
Speaker 1: Fonte? The last month or so, it's been good man
Speaker 1: doing doing more repairs. We did.
Speaker 3: We did windows and we're waiting on like windows like
Speaker 3: the gum because like they measured something wrong so they
Speaker 3: gotta come and replace them. But the windows, but else
Speaker 3: I had to replace. I had to replace my age
Speaker 3: rat unit that went out. I think that was actually
Speaker 3: last summer that went out that went recording right No no, no,
Speaker 3: my a, Yeah, so I do that.
Speaker 1: So did that and yeah, but other than that were
Speaker 1: killing man. I'm cool. It's good here.
Speaker 2: Uh Steve, how's how's your life going?
Speaker 4: It's going keeping it moving. I'm inspired by the reopening
Speaker 4: of everything and hoping that have you.
Speaker 1: Been going places? Oh?
Speaker 2: Hell now, so you're places opening, but you're not going
Speaker 2: to these places I'm finding.
Speaker 4: I'm I'm finding my solace and work, going to going
Speaker 4: to work every day, as as we happened for a
Speaker 4: long time. But now that the audiences are coming back,
Speaker 4: it's uh, it's it's another step.
Speaker 1: I feel you.
Speaker 2: Last night I went to uh, I went to a
Speaker 2: brother Love event and I think I think I stayed
Speaker 2: of all of two minutes.
Speaker 5: So I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: That's the other Oh yeah, oh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the miss the missus wasn't happening that like this
Speaker 2: second we walked in and it was like a nightclub.
Speaker 3: Are they requiring at at fallon? Are they requiring like
Speaker 3: vaccination or for the audience, like what's you gotta get?
Speaker 1: You gotta get vaccines and and.
Speaker 6: You know cars that they had the kids feeling out
Speaker 6: at the CBS.
Speaker 1: Oh guard homemade bootleg joints their hand. That's great. How
Speaker 1: are you?
Speaker 6: I'm great, I'm great. Working a lot podcasts after the podcast.
Speaker 1: And you got three podcasts, you're like your like quest love.
Speaker 6: Here, I'm trying to be sir, I'm trying to diversify,
Speaker 6: and by the time this podcast airs, I would have
Speaker 6: had my first museum showing. My father would have had
Speaker 6: his first museum showing for his photos at the National
Speaker 6: Museum of African American Music in Tennessee. So we've been
Speaker 6: curating that, me and Deianna for Black Music Month, and
Speaker 6: it's been a lot and it's I'm just happy that
Speaker 6: it's probably gonna be over by the time you'll have.
Speaker 2: Word to fuck out. Congratulations, man's thanks, that's what's up.
Speaker 2: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We are honored to have
Speaker 2: a gentleman with us. Yes, I consider him a gentleman
Speaker 2: and a friend. He's pretty much accomplished the world in
Speaker 2: the past two decades. Wait side question, Mark, does it
Speaker 2: even feel like you've been You're like a you're a
Speaker 2: twenty year veteran, you're a twenty three year veteran, Like, yeah,
Speaker 2: you're You're not like our kid brother anymore.
Speaker 1: You're you're You're.
Speaker 2: I was just looking like, Wow, Martin's been doing this
Speaker 2: shit for twenty years.
Speaker 7: Yeah, Mark looks old.
Speaker 5: That's what I was about to say. You look the same.
Speaker 7: No, I guess none of those things And you know.
Speaker 7: Of course, we all know that as you get older,
Speaker 7: pockets of time, uh they quicker because they're less a
Speaker 7: fraction of your life. But it is bizarre, And I
Speaker 7: think like when like, certainly to me, the people I
Speaker 7: grew up, you know, looking up to you Q tip
Speaker 7: like you don't like when you guys And I'm not
Speaker 7: trying to blow you up turned fifty, Like I certainly
Speaker 7: like you didn't feel fifty to me at all. Like
Speaker 7: that's kind of bizarre, But maybe that's because I need
Speaker 7: to just not think that anybody's older who's older than me.
Speaker 2: You literally, if I were to see like my memory
Speaker 2: of you as a nineteen year old or twenty year
Speaker 2: older versus now, I wouldn't tell the difference, right, Like
Speaker 2: you have a you have a gene and you that
Speaker 2: might be the cousin who black don't crack because you're
Speaker 2: you look the same, Uh.
Speaker 7: You don't, stew I don't know.
Speaker 1: What anyway, y'all.
Speaker 2: You know he's accomplished musician and songwriter, producer, label CEO
Speaker 2: and still an accomplished DJ. If that doesn't impress you,
Speaker 2: you know, check his resume. Name him Adele Winehouse Mars
Speaker 2: Meriwether Cyrus Wialle DiAngelo freaking Duran Duran. Oh my god,
Speaker 2: I can't wait to get to that part. Seven time?
Speaker 2: Am I getting the number right? It's definitely seven time
Speaker 2: Grammy winner. Yes, yes, okay, including the coveted Producer of
Speaker 2: the Year. I'm only asking that because even now, like
Speaker 2: people keep fudging my numbers and they never get the
Speaker 2: number five right. They're like two time Grammy winner quest
Speaker 2: Love three times. I kind of want to be that
Speaker 2: guy that's like Grammy. Yeah, you know, I can't do that.
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to quest Love Supreme, the
Speaker 2: One and only ark Onson.
Speaker 7: Guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, where you Where are you right now? Mark? You're
Speaker 1: in your your lab?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm in my lab in Soho in New York.
Speaker 7: I just moved back in. This is the place I
Speaker 7: actually had in the mid two thousands, right when I
Speaker 7: met Amy. And you know, I was in this place
Speaker 7: for a couple of years and then moved back to
Speaker 7: England for a while, moved to la and you know,
Speaker 7: because of COVID and people fleeing the city like they did.
Speaker 7: I was walking past this building and it was actually
Speaker 7: on Amy's birthday and I was just like like feeling
Speaker 7: a little sentimental, like, let me just buzz up and
Speaker 7: see what's see what's in there? So I buzzed in
Speaker 7: the the landlord I kind of gave I have horrible
Speaker 7: making long winded stories that don't get to the point,
Speaker 7: so please put me.
Speaker 1: That's what.
Speaker 7: Okay. So I was like, hey, I don't know if
Speaker 7: you remember, Mark, I used to be on the fifth
Speaker 7: floor and I got it done, and I just thought
Speaker 7: because I wanted to come upstairs. He's like, what, you
Speaker 7: want to rent the space again? And I was like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 7: that's it. I want to rent the space again. So
Speaker 7: I came upstairs and I see this abandoned probably what
Speaker 7: was like a jingle house in between when I was
Speaker 7: here last, and I was just like wow, I mean
Speaker 7: and you know, New York rents are a bit of
Speaker 7: a song right now. And I took this place back over,
Speaker 7: so you know, I really just came in thinking of Amy.
Speaker 7: It was her birthday. I just thought like, maybe i'll
Speaker 7: get a little picture. I remember what that room felt like.
Speaker 7: And then it just led to me being.
Speaker 1: Back here, and then you got cond into ring it again.
Speaker 7: Yeah, but I loved I forgot this place has a
Speaker 7: really good vibe. It was never like a very like
Speaker 7: a name studio, like a hip factory or you know,
Speaker 7: power station. But the but Norah Jones's first record, you know,
Speaker 7: the big one, was made here. We did most of
Speaker 7: Back to Black, like all the demo writing. So there's like,
Speaker 7: you know, just places have a juju like it's just
Speaker 7: just something in the walls.
Speaker 1: It's just.
Speaker 7: Kind of nice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm telling you right now, don't give it up,
Speaker 2: because I mean I have a I have a certain
Speaker 2: superstition when it comes to whenever producer's upgrade, and so
Speaker 2: the place where you found that magic, and I know
Speaker 2: in producers' minds is like.
Speaker 1: I gotta grow and I gotta expand. But I can
Speaker 1: show you.
Speaker 2: The history of where the slow wan starts, and it's
Speaker 2: usually when success comes in and then they upgrade, and
Speaker 2: then they upgrade and then it's just not the same anymore.
Speaker 2: So you know, if if this is, if that's your
Speaker 2: spot where you know you're you're, you're the good vibes were,
Speaker 2: then I tell you you should spot you should.
Speaker 7: Can I definitely I've been on the other side of
Speaker 7: that equation too. I moved into this like basement kind
Speaker 7: of hole. It was mildew and like damp in the
Speaker 7: East village and in like two thousand and three, and
Speaker 7: I remember getting a call from this guise and I
Speaker 7: was like, hey, uh, you know, the Strokes used to
Speaker 7: have that room and they're working on their second record
Speaker 7: and they're really having like a hard time, like they
Speaker 7: might want that room back because that was their weird
Speaker 7: magic room where they it was called the Transporter room
Speaker 7: where they made the first record. I was, yeah, I
Speaker 7: was a big Strokes fan, so I was just like, yeah,
Speaker 7: fuck it, I'll move out of here. It never happened
Speaker 7: in the end, but like I know that that what that?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 7: What that.
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 2: So I'll ask you, and I actually said this on
Speaker 2: your podcast that you know, I purposely held back from
Speaker 2: asking you certain questions in real life, knowing that one
Speaker 2: day you'd eventually make it to the show. So I
Speaker 2: don't want to waste any answers or whatnot. So great
Speaker 2: for those of us that don't know, could you please
Speaker 2: tell us where you were born, what city you were.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I was born in London. My parents are English,
Speaker 7: and then I moved to New York when I was
Speaker 7: eight and I was pretty much I consider myself in
Speaker 7: New Yorker, like definitely, but I have ties to London.
Speaker 7: My family, there, a lot of family that I go.
Speaker 7: I've spent time there. I didn't really realize, weirdly, until
Speaker 7: I started making music and the music came out and
Speaker 7: it did well in England and like when like fucking
Speaker 7: sold eight copies here that I had to be like, oh,
Speaker 7: maybe this connection to England that I like completely forgot
Speaker 7: about most of my life musically is more is kind
Speaker 7: of more in my output than I really realized.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: So wait, let me ask you about your your time
Speaker 2: in England. First of all, are you consciously aware or
Speaker 2: unaware of when your.
Speaker 1: Accent sneaks in and sneaks out?
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's fucking terrible. I mean I used to hate it.
Speaker 7: I mean when you moved to a country. I moved
Speaker 7: here when I was eight from England, and like, you know,
Speaker 7: kids are merciless at that age, and they tease you,
Speaker 7: and I you know, they call me, call me, which
Speaker 7: doesn't make any sense because yeah, they call me, call me,
Speaker 7: like shut up, call me, like you know, because it's
Speaker 7: like the middle of like the you know, the Cold
Speaker 7: War or something. Right, I have a funny accent, and
Speaker 7: then and then you try and lose it to fit
Speaker 7: in as quickly. And then I would go back to
Speaker 7: England to see my friends and be like, why do
Speaker 7: you sound so American? Like I realized it was just
Speaker 7: my you know, my little like it was. I was
Speaker 7: never going to be able to kind of sound like
Speaker 7: I was from one place. I hear it when I'm
Speaker 7: in England and my voice starts to change in the
Speaker 7: back of a taccent, and as part of it, it
Speaker 7: makes me think, like, what am I like this spineless
Speaker 7: guy who can't commit to one accent? Am I such
Speaker 7: a chameleon? And am I so like unsure like or
Speaker 7: trying to please people in public snaries that I'm that easily?
Speaker 7: But I just I realized I have no control over
Speaker 7: it anymore. So I just fucking I've just given up.
Speaker 2: No, you definitely talk like you like I don't think
Speaker 2: you'd talk American or English. But like I'd always wondered
Speaker 2: in your head, are you trying to navigate the vehicle
Speaker 2: so that you.
Speaker 1: Don't reveal your English side to us?
Speaker 2: And if you're over there, you don't reveal your American
Speaker 2: side to them?
Speaker 7: No, because I definitely. I've definitely sounded American as soon
Speaker 7: as I went back to England the first time. I'd
Speaker 7: only been in America for like a year. And they're like,
Speaker 7: why you sound like a fucking yank now, mate? And
Speaker 7: or you know, obviously there were nine year old kids.
Speaker 7: They didn't sound like a like a like a pub bartender.
Speaker 7: But yeah, no, I hear it when I'm like, I mean,
Speaker 7: we all have all these different mechanisms that we used
Speaker 7: to assimilate, you know, their social mechanisms. How we just
Speaker 7: like if you're standing next to the one and they
Speaker 7: crossing their arms and suddenly you start crossing arms. It's
Speaker 7: just like coding and genetics and evolution. But I just like,
Speaker 7: you know, poor Josh Stone, she got it really bad.
Speaker 7: She was like the first person her and I remember,
Speaker 7: I'm a right, Everyone's like, why they fucking sound like
Speaker 7: that now? Josh Stone for sounding American? Madonna for sounding English?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 7: But and so I always was like, oh, is there
Speaker 7: something that when you sound when you switch it up
Speaker 7: that much? Is that is that inauthentic? Like that's the
Speaker 7: only thing I didn't want to be read as inauthentic.
Speaker 5: Reason for sounding like that? They did well. I don't
Speaker 5: know about Josh, I didn't know about that.
Speaker 6: But Donna, Madonna just came out of nowhere and was like,
Speaker 6: why does she sound like that?
Speaker 2: That happens though, Yo, Like after the year I was
Speaker 2: saying the word yeah after everything yeah rum yeah yeah, like.
Speaker 7: Oh yeah yeah yeah exactly, and everything has to end
Speaker 7: exactly In England, all the sentences end like on a
Speaker 7: slightly higher note than they started, and you say yeah
Speaker 7: at the answer, it's like, all right, so I see
Speaker 7: at the club lady yeah. Fuck. Like everything just like
Speaker 7: goes into this like lilt.
Speaker 2: It's kind of like Brooklyn, Brooklyn, like when we first
Speaker 2: got here to record do you want more? Like every
Speaker 2: that whole era of like ninety three to ninety four,
Speaker 2: especially like when Tarik was hanging with like the Gang
Speaker 2: Star Foundation and all those cats and they were just
Speaker 2: talking mad Brooklyn, but like everything was interrogative like they
Speaker 2: were it was asked if they were always asking questions.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yo, how many pairs of booms you got?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Eat over there, kid, Like everything is a question.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And using the word aggie, which I've yet to
Speaker 2: see any other place in the world use aggie except.
Speaker 7: For yeah, my sister. Weirdly, Charlotte uses that word all
Speaker 7: the time, but just only from like hearing it in
Speaker 7: jay Z songs and she just loves that show. She
Speaker 7: just always goes like, why are you acting all Aggie?
Speaker 1: Right? Mark, what was your first musical memory?
Speaker 7: I have like almost snapshots in my head, like partial memories.
Speaker 7: I remember having a little trap drum kit when I
Speaker 7: was three or four. I I remember also having it
Speaker 7: was either a Sony or Fisher Price record player that
Speaker 7: was like plastic, like.
Speaker 3: A brown joint or like a little tan one, like
Speaker 3: a little tan joint, whereas.
Speaker 7: No, this was like primary colors. It was like red.
Speaker 7: Maybe it was just like an English one. It was
Speaker 7: like red, yellow, green. And I just remember lifting the
Speaker 7: needle and putting it down on the record and just
Speaker 7: that excitement when the first like crackle happened, and then
Speaker 7: like just being like whoa, I can control this. I
Speaker 7: mean it's so not I mean it's not even deep
Speaker 7: enough to compare it to DJ because it literally is DJing.
Speaker 7: But yeah, those are some of my first first memories.
Speaker 1: Mark.
Speaker 2: I'll be the first to admit I was today years
Speaker 2: old before I realized that you're not at all related
Speaker 2: to Mick Ronson no, which I think the whole world
Speaker 2: thinks you are. Yeah, your stepfather is Mick Jones. At
Speaker 2: how is this a common mistake that all of us
Speaker 2: had made. Yeah, in my mind, your dad was Mick Ronson,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, no, his dad was Mick Jones.
Speaker 1: Now I get it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, No, it was crazy because even before like Wikipedia,
Speaker 7: like in the early two thousand, when I first came out,
Speaker 7: like you know, Wikipedia's made it pretty common that if
Speaker 7: like somebody gets a fact wrong, it just kind of
Speaker 7: just stays there. It stays there, stays there. But this
Speaker 7: is weirdly like one of the examples of of a
Speaker 7: wrong fact staying there before Wikipedia. And I think it
Speaker 7: was because when I first came out in England, where
Speaker 7: I had my initials, like my only success really with
Speaker 7: my with my solo record, the first one that yeah,
Speaker 7: they knew that my stepdad was a musician named Mick,
Speaker 7: or they knew I was related to somebody music They Mike,
Speaker 7: and my last name is Ronson, so it must be
Speaker 7: Mick Ronson. So this started to get written a lot
Speaker 7: in the in the in the Times of London or something,
Speaker 7: and uh, Mick Ronson's poor like widow Mick Ronson obviously
Speaker 7: being the genius arranger guitar player for Boeing and Spiders
Speaker 7: from Mars rights to the newspaper, and she's like, she's
Speaker 7: she's like, if my you know, thinks that I'm some
Speaker 7: either some weird bastard child that he had out of
Speaker 7: wedlock or maybe somebody claiming falsely to be the son
Speaker 7: of mcronson. And she sued the newspaper, I think cause
Speaker 7: she's like, you know, I think that was probably stressful
Speaker 7: for her to be, like, wait, is there some fucking
Speaker 7: ronson running around here? Well up, so I think she's
Speaker 7: I think mc ronson's widow sued the paper at that time.
Speaker 7: But then, you know, obviously I did my best to
Speaker 7: clear up and also because you know, I'm proud of
Speaker 7: my stepdad, I don't want people to think I'm trying
Speaker 7: to write off the coattails of some wrong information. But yeah,
Speaker 7: I'm not related to mc ronson, just a fan.
Speaker 1: Damn.
Speaker 2: I never It's never even occurred to me that I
Speaker 2: can just start suing people for false rumors or whatever,
Speaker 2: because yeah, you know, Wikipedia insists that my grandfather is
Speaker 2: a member of the Dicks Hummingbird's Beachie Thompson and people.
Speaker 2: But the thing is like reporters just fall in love
Speaker 2: with this whole thing of like wow, three three generations
Speaker 2: of music makers. Your your grandfather is in the rock
Speaker 2: and roll Hall of Fame. Your dad was a legendary
Speaker 2: d opera. Now it's you and now just I don't
Speaker 2: have the strength anymore. I actually met Beachy Thompson's family,
Speaker 2: like I think maybe a nephew or two lives out
Speaker 2: in LA and they just they're claiming me now.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's like we got the same last name.
Speaker 1: You might as well.
Speaker 3: Just myth becomes legend, print the legend exactly, fuck exactly exactly.
Speaker 7: Also, Wikipedia is like the easiest thing to sort of
Speaker 7: fix anyway, So what like there's just some guy that
Speaker 7: whenever someone works for you change it, it just goes
Speaker 7: back and just puts it back like we like the
Speaker 7: old way.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I to try to erase it, and it just
Speaker 2: winds up back there like three days later, So forget it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't do nothing about it.
Speaker 7: My favorite like weird thing on somebody posts on Wikipedia
Speaker 7: that was just so preposterous that I just had to
Speaker 7: laugh and leave it was that. It said, it was like,
Speaker 7: you know, all the way down the thing personal life,
Speaker 7: he grew up in Dada dah, it's like the fourth paragraph,
Speaker 7: it's like And also at the age of six years old,
Speaker 7: he actually wrote the theme song to the hit cartoon ThunderCats,
Speaker 7: but originally wrote it as a tribute. Bennett wrote as
Speaker 7: a tribute to Benedict Cumberbatch, and the theme went cumber Bat,
Speaker 7: cumber Bat, cumber Back, and I was like, I can't
Speaker 7: even take that out. It's too good.
Speaker 5: That's awesome, all.
Speaker 2: Right, So there you have it. You're all exclusive. You
Speaker 2: sleep writ in the ThunderCats. I'll take that. I'll take that.
Speaker 2: So in growing up, you're saying that drums was might
Speaker 2: have been your first weapon.
Speaker 7: Yeah. When I was my parents were kind of like,
Speaker 7: they liked to party. They had a lot. There was
Speaker 7: always people over in the house. And I would wake
Speaker 7: up in the middle the night and I would probably
Speaker 7: I walk into what I'm told and vaguely recalls his
Speaker 7: sea have grown up, smoking, drinking whatever, probably walking through
Speaker 7: the room, getting pat on the head, and I would
Speaker 7: just go straight for the speakers wherever the music was playing,
Speaker 7: and I would sin front of the speakers and just
Speaker 7: close my eyes and play air drums to like whatever
Speaker 7: was playing like that was my like zone. And Simon Kirk,
Speaker 7: the drummer from Bad Company and Free was there one
Speaker 7: night and just was like a friend and and the
Speaker 7: of my parents was like, hey, like he looks like
Speaker 7: he'd have fun on the drums, Like he kind of
Speaker 7: looks like he knows what he's doing. Getting a kit
Speaker 7: and they got me a little kit. My and my dad,
Speaker 7: my real dad, loved music like a typical English soul
Speaker 7: boy in the sixties, like had Stacks, winder k Frog,
Speaker 7: like all those forty five's and you know, northern soul
Speaker 7: stuff too, and just that's what he played in the house.
Speaker 7: So that's kind of just what it was like. It
Speaker 7: was like groove music, you know, and that's what I
Speaker 7: was kind of drawn to.
Speaker 6: Can I just want to ask what your parents did,
Speaker 6: because I feel like in some way your life has
Speaker 6: been romanticized or even hell a dopey as.
Speaker 7: Far as my dad managed bands, and he he came
Speaker 7: from like a kind of like you know, a family
Speaker 7: that was like you're supposed to like North London Jews
Speaker 7: are like a very I wou'd say insular, but it's
Speaker 7: like you do the family business, you go. It was
Speaker 7: like old school tradition, this kind of thing. My dad's
Speaker 7: family were like one generation removed from being like fucking
Speaker 7: butchers on brick Lane, like not quite peaky blinders, but
Speaker 7: like that kind of shit. And so they so he
Speaker 7: my grandfather made the successful business like gas stations. It
Speaker 7: was like, that's what you do, You go work in
Speaker 7: the family business. So my dad was loved music and
Speaker 7: they just weren't trying to hear that. So that he
Speaker 7: kind of like became a little bit of like the
Speaker 7: black Sheep, and he went and managed bands and did
Speaker 7: all this kind of things. And do you remember the
Speaker 7: band Rochford, Yes, and yeah, so he managed Roachford. Uh,
Speaker 7: this was like a little later, but yeah, he like
Speaker 7: discovered Andrew was in another band and was like, hey,
Speaker 7: the keyboard play is really good. You should fucking go
Speaker 7: to your solo shit. So he kind of you know,
Speaker 7: plucked Andrew out and you know, you know those first
Speaker 7: couple of Roach for records. And he just loved music
Speaker 7: and stuff and he loved to party, and so did
Speaker 7: my mom. And my mom was from Liverpool and she
Speaker 7: was just kind of you know, wonderful mother of you know,
Speaker 7: kind of dynamic persona.
Speaker 5: And how many of them?
Speaker 7: How many Ronsons there's Okay, so there's my mom and
Speaker 7: dad had three of us, and then my dad remarried
Speaker 7: had three more Ronson's, and my mom remarried and had
Speaker 7: a couple more Joneses. So there's ten, ten brothers and
Speaker 7: sisters altogether.
Speaker 2: Yike, yeah, okay, speaking of which, Yeah, I was going
Speaker 2: to say, why it's it's Andrew Rochfort who would bring
Speaker 2: if you remember New Jehan from three seven thousand and
Speaker 2: nine in the Black.
Speaker 5: Lily Days to.
Speaker 2: Our very first show when we moved to London, Okay,
Speaker 2: and that's how we met New and then New became
Speaker 2: our tour manager.
Speaker 1: But at the time she was dating Roachfort, so that's
Speaker 1: how we knew Okay, Yeah, that's how we knew him.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: So in addition, like I know, of course I know
Speaker 2: Sam DJs, I know that she Ronson is I assume
Speaker 2: fashion designer? Yeah, and that's not your shout out on
Speaker 2: the jay Z record, but your sister, yes exactly, you'll
Speaker 2: take it. But like, is anyone any of your other siblings?
Speaker 2: Are they accomplished musicians as well? Or just in terms
Speaker 2: of producing and songwriting.
Speaker 7: Yeah, my brothers, like my brother Alexander is really talented.
Speaker 7: He's in LA and he's more in that kind of
Speaker 7: like avant garde LA. Seemed like he did stuff with
Speaker 7: Ario Pink before it was bad to say Ario Pink's name,
Speaker 7: I guess, but uh right, I forget. But yeah, just
Speaker 7: like just cool, more weird shit than I do. And
Speaker 7: uh but and then and then my brother Chris actually
Speaker 7: lives in Miami and he's like part of terrorist squad
Speaker 7: and he like makes music with like poohgre and Scott Storage.
Speaker 7: So like, yeah, everybody's everybody has a has a kind
Speaker 7: of musical gene somehow, except my family in England, who
Speaker 7: I'm very close with. They all decided to like do
Speaker 7: real ship. So they're like lawyers and you know, business
Speaker 7: and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: I see, Hey, I heard his story once about you,
Speaker 2: and I thought, this is weird that we kind of
Speaker 2: have this thing in common. Can you talk about your
Speaker 2: interning at Rolling Stone at the age of twelve?
Speaker 1: I believe yes.
Speaker 7: Wow, So you know, one of the parks of growing
Speaker 7: up up in New York City and on the Upper
Speaker 7: West Side of my stepdad being a musician. It's like,
Speaker 7: you know, the cool people were over a lot of
Speaker 7: the time, and whenever I jan Weena would come over,
Speaker 7: the founder of Rolling Stone, like I knew exactly who
Speaker 7: it was. I was a you know, nerdy kid. I read.
Speaker 7: I loved music, and I loved everything about it, and
Speaker 7: like I would read Billboard and the trade mags and
Speaker 7: liner notes and stuff just because I just wanted to
Speaker 7: absorb all of it. So when Yan would come over,
Speaker 7: I would always just like want to grill him about stuff.
Speaker 7: And I'm sure it was sweet and to a point
Speaker 7: it was probably annoying because he just wanted to hang
Speaker 7: with the grown ups too, But I would just.
Speaker 2: Really am as in, like why did Jagger get like
Speaker 2: four and a half stars for a primitive cool world?
Speaker 7: Yeah? Yeah, Like why did you give the police don't
Speaker 7: stand so close to me eighty six remix such a
Speaker 7: bad Like I would really like it was like showing
Speaker 7: that I probably read it. And I think like he
Speaker 7: was very to me and probably part exasperatedly once he
Speaker 7: was like, listen, just stop, I'll give you a job
Speaker 7: this summer, just like stop bothering me please. So so yeah,
Speaker 7: I went to Rolling soon and for the summers when
Speaker 7: I was twelve, thirteen, fourteen, I was I interned there
Speaker 7: like and I was just like manning the phones. I
Speaker 7: was doing all sorts of shit like that. At that time,
Speaker 7: they had their own chart. They had their own album chart,
Speaker 7: which was a very random thing of calling up mom
Speaker 7: and pop stores around thirty mama pop stores and then
Speaker 7: they would average and then make their own chart, which
Speaker 7: is kind of weird because they could have just called
Speaker 7: Billboard and be like, hey, what's the top ten this week?
Speaker 7: But you know, they had their own shit. So that
Speaker 7: was partly my job to call these mom pop stores.
Speaker 7: My voice hadn't even broken. I was like, Hi, I'm
Speaker 7: calling from Rolling Stone and we just want to know
Speaker 7: you're ten, you know. And then I would have to
Speaker 7: compile the chart then go down to the art department
Speaker 7: and tell them what the number one album was so
Speaker 7: they could put the little picture in their box hofs
Speaker 7: with the bucks. So you were.
Speaker 1: Responsible for that.
Speaker 7: Yeah, nobody should have made me responsible for that. So
Speaker 7: I went down to the art department and that year
Speaker 7: the Batman soundtrack, the Prince Soundtrack that week was number one,
Speaker 7: and they were like, go tell Jenny and art the
Speaker 7: head of art department. It's Batman's you know, it's the
Speaker 7: number one record. So I go down and I'm like
Speaker 7: walking around. I've never been in the art department before.
Speaker 7: It's a different floor. I'm like, hi, like I'm looking
Speaker 7: for Jenny and they're like she's just there, and I'm like, Jenny,
Speaker 7: She's like, what do you want, kid, I was like,
Speaker 7: Batman's number one. She just thought it was like a prank,
Speaker 7: like some kid just came down to just say like
Speaker 7: he loves like Batman or something. And I was like, yeah,
Speaker 7: it was the album.
Speaker 2: I was going to say that, out of all your
Speaker 2: life accomplishments, that's probably the one that I'm super jealous
Speaker 2: of the most because, you know, like my relationship with
Speaker 2: that periodical, like I'd been endless saturdays going through like
Speaker 2: back then, you know, if you didn't we had a
Speaker 2: large library in Philadelphia, but our local ones of course,
Speaker 2: like they maybe have like two years of back issues
Speaker 2: and then you wouldn't see anything. So you would have
Speaker 2: to put these, uh you know, these scrolls in like
Speaker 2: the way these microsh right, and so just eons, just
Speaker 2: hours upon hours upon hours of like they would just
Speaker 2: keep the entire Rolling Stone collection, like you know, thirteen
Speaker 2: years of they would have like somewhere between like seventy
Speaker 2: three to you know, whatever year it was at the
Speaker 2: time when I was doing like eighty seven eighty eight,
Speaker 2: and I'd sit there endlessly and like just all my
Speaker 2: walls were wallpapered with all the leave reviews.
Speaker 1: So like Robert Risco.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so when I turned four party, I think Jimmy
Speaker 2: did this for me. Jimmy had Robert Risco, uh do
Speaker 2: a caricature of.
Speaker 1: Oh cool and that. Yeah, that's that's amazing. Wow, maybe
Speaker 1: Rolling Stone, that's crazy.
Speaker 7: And now being like obviously I was aware that it
Speaker 7: was special in being there, but now like I realized,
Speaker 7: like the people I was around are grabbing coffee for
Speaker 7: from whether it was David wild David Frick, Anthony the Curtis,
Speaker 7: Sheila Rodgers who went on to be the music booker
Speaker 7: at Letterman, Like all these people that like had this
Speaker 7: little like like I was just their little pet like toy,
Speaker 7: Like it was fun and they all thought it was
Speaker 7: kind of amusing that I was in there, But I
Speaker 7: also like, do.
Speaker 1: You think they're aware that you were that twelve year
Speaker 1: old kid? Now?
Speaker 7: David Wilde like definitely comments on my Twitter and he'll
Speaker 7: be like, hey, you know whatever. And Sheila Rodgers when
Speaker 7: I you know, when we played Letterman before, She's always
Speaker 7: been sweet. So yeah, some somehow they kind of kept track.
Speaker 7: I had this, you know phase where I didn't really
Speaker 7: have any of my first musical success from my early thirties.
Speaker 7: So really my twenties, while I'm making is a hip
Speaker 7: hop DJ was not something that really registered on Yon
Speaker 7: Winner's radar, you know, so, so I think he would
Speaker 7: always be like, hey, what are you up to? Oh yeah,
Speaker 7: I stood in the club's great So when Amy came out,
Speaker 7: and obviously she was on the cover of Rolling Sona
Speaker 7: was a big thing. I have this letter still framed
Speaker 7: from Yahn. That's just like, hey, Mark, so glad that
Speaker 7: you know that you finally made something of yourself essentially right, Yeah, like,
Speaker 7: congrats on on the Amy racket. It's fantastic and that
Speaker 7: that kind of meant a lot to me.
Speaker 5: Wow, But he also hip hopped you.
Speaker 6: That's ill, Like I mean, it was a compliment, but
Speaker 6: it was also a slap in the face to like.
Speaker 1: Keep doing that little rap cool keeping.
Speaker 6: In that moment, I was like, yeah, that's a whole
Speaker 6: moment and being a you know, a hip hop artist
Speaker 6: icon or whatever.
Speaker 2: Exactly, Mark, do you remember the first album that you purchased?
Speaker 2: I know, there's a weird question to ask, being as
Speaker 2: though you grew up in a musical household.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm certain that collections.
Speaker 2: All right, well, let me let me put it this way.
Speaker 2: What was the collection like in your household as you're
Speaker 2: growing up? And then do you remember the first album
Speaker 2: that you went out and purchased with your own money?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Away from your parents' influence.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so the collection was like, certainly my dad we
Speaker 7: left England when I was six or seven, so you know,
Speaker 7: I'd come back once or twice a year to see
Speaker 7: my dad. That that was always just like I remember
Speaker 7: really clearly, like my dad playing He loved Grandmaster Flash
Speaker 7: and the Furious Five, so the message in New York.
Speaker 7: He would always play those and me and my sisters
Speaker 7: would jump on the bed and you know, that was
Speaker 7: a very when you're a saw, when you're a kid,
Speaker 7: like that song a like it's so clear that you
Speaker 7: can understand every lyric. It's so hooky and even though
Speaker 7: you don't know what you're talking talking about, it just
Speaker 7: like I remember just learning that wrote and then I
Speaker 7: also remember like things because he probably he didn't really
Speaker 7: get three feet high in Rising, but probably someone told
Speaker 7: him that. He liked, like, hey, you should check this out.
Speaker 7: This is the new shit, and he kind of probably
Speaker 7: took it home and was like, oh, this is a
Speaker 7: little too like avant garde from me or something. I
Speaker 7: remember him giving me that. But the first time I
Speaker 7: really remember buying something for myself was like, I got
Speaker 7: my pocket money. This is New York and I went
Speaker 7: to the Tower Records on sixty six to buy a
Speaker 7: twelve inch. I think my stepdad was like, here's ten bucks,
Speaker 7: go buy a couple of twelve inches, And I bought
Speaker 7: just bugging by Whistle Whistle Wow and sly Fox Let's
Speaker 7: go all the way the way yeah, and maybe something else.
Speaker 7: And then those are the first things I remember like
Speaker 7: really like buying that. This is my own money. I
Speaker 7: want to get this.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, Okay, by the way, the listeners maybe I
Speaker 2: found out maybe three years ago that one of the
Speaker 2: members of sly Fox was Booty Cowns is main singer,
Speaker 2: the one that sings real cartoony.
Speaker 7: Okay, yeah yeah, like uh damn almost like think Gary.
Speaker 1: No, not Gary Shot. I think Gary Mubum and Cooper.
Speaker 2: Okay, I hope I get this right because anytime I
Speaker 2: get p funk uh trivia wrong, they you know, they
Speaker 2: beat up on me.
Speaker 7: That I love. Like when I listen to record now,
Speaker 7: it's so funny because like you don't have any of
Speaker 7: when you're a kid, any of that like uh sneary
Speaker 7: attitude or like jadenness, And I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 7: if I was twenty when that record came out, I'd
Speaker 7: be like, what the fuck is this Prince rip off?
Speaker 7: You know he's singing exactly like Prince. I mean, the
Speaker 7: beat is incredible, is an incredible song. But I love
Speaker 7: when you hear songs from your youth and you have
Speaker 7: none of that like Barrier Jadens. You're just like, this
Speaker 7: is my ship. And that is still still that still
Speaker 7: is on a lot of workout playlists for me.
Speaker 1: That song.
Speaker 2: I'm still trying to figure out how come no one
Speaker 2: never made the correlation between the Bookie Boys A fly
Speaker 2: Girl and that song, which was the and B version
Speaker 2: of Yeah Fly Girls, Like it's.
Speaker 7: Just what's just they took the drums off of fly
Speaker 7: Go right?
Speaker 2: Or was it I believe it's sort of like can't
Speaker 2: trust it and don't be afraid.
Speaker 7: Like right, right, right, it's the same.
Speaker 2: It's the same two inch they just you know it
Speaker 2: right exactly.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I didn't think about it.
Speaker 7: It's this, It's the exact same track that side Fox
Speaker 7: record was like, uh, one of the first records to
Speaker 7: be like huge on alternative rock radio and R and
Speaker 7: B and just pop because it had that dumb beat
Speaker 7: that just like spoke to everybody, which was kind of cool.
Speaker 5: Wait the of it again because some of us, well,
Speaker 5: let's go.
Speaker 2: All the way. You know, it's a flag girl. Here's
Speaker 2: the weird thing. I actually thought when jay Z. When
Speaker 2: jay Z used it for I know what girls like,
Speaker 2: I know what girls like, I thought that was gonna
Speaker 2: blow up for him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, come on, you were like twelve back then.
Speaker 5: Nah.
Speaker 3: That was my first because you know where he sucked
Speaker 3: up at with that, because he started the album off
Speaker 3: with a million and one in rhyme no more.
Speaker 1: Right, and I was like, holy ship, here we go.
Speaker 3: Yes, and then yeah, the Black Streak joined and then
Speaker 3: it was the Flager Nigga.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 7: It had a even I like in my weird like
Speaker 7: even though I was like a club DJ. So I
Speaker 7: was just like looking for anything that was like commercial
Speaker 7: and bouncy, like I could even feel like there was
Speaker 7: something sticky there on that record, Like I was like,
Speaker 7: this feels like this feels like reach And that had
Speaker 7: the city his mind on it too, probably c Yeah,
Speaker 7: that was that's because in Germany.
Speaker 6: That's because that song had been remixed on the play
Speaker 6: around about fifty thousand times by the time he put
Speaker 6: that version out, because like it's was just making cheers.
Speaker 5: That was a check y'all remember that.
Speaker 3: You're right, Yeah, you're right, Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But I don't know, I feel I don't know.
Speaker 2: I get frustrated that he denies it like a bastard
Speaker 2: son and.
Speaker 3: Girls like the girls like record.
Speaker 2: Well yeah, I mean just that album in general, that
Speaker 2: album had moments it was I mean, it's it was.
Speaker 7: It's not a bad album.
Speaker 1: But it was most defining song is on that moment
Speaker 1: and which one?
Speaker 2: All right, here's the deal, you know, how like when
Speaker 2: at the beginning, Earth Wind and Fire obviously didn't plan
Speaker 2: on September being the biggest thing they ever in the one, right,
Speaker 2: but how that was chosen even though they did, like
Speaker 2: Star and all this other shit. I feel like the
Speaker 2: song that really defines jay Z isn't even the sits.
Speaker 2: I think imaginary players. One yes, because of the j
Speaker 2: C song. It's arrogant as fucked, like yeah, I feel
Speaker 2: like you know, I love that just one yeah, he.
Speaker 7: Just like whatever, I'm my my face off twelve inch,
Speaker 7: Like that was a song I love to play. I
Speaker 7: love it well. It just says a club DJ and
Speaker 7: then back and forth. And I just like that was
Speaker 7: just like one twelve beats per minute, Like I needed
Speaker 7: that in the set at that at that moment, I'm
Speaker 7: looking out and that was the one.
Speaker 1: That was over the it was over to.
Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, I'll never figured that out ever since.
Speaker 2: Here in Jadakiss's version of how that song went down,
Speaker 2: like I'll never see it the same again. Basically, like
Speaker 2: they were on like a trip from the UK and
Speaker 2: they had to go straight to the studio to do
Speaker 2: their verse. They couldn't shower or anything, so it's like
Speaker 2: after they got our customs, you know, they were on
Speaker 2: a nine hour flight and then had some customs thing
Speaker 2: for like four hours and then had to go straight
Speaker 2: to the studio or else they were going to not
Speaker 2: be on the record, and you know, Jaded just has
Speaker 2: this like weird other take about it that totally takes
Speaker 2: me out of what I thought.
Speaker 7: That was also Pitchfork eight point four for Volume one.
Speaker 1: They just recently re reviewed that.
Speaker 7: I don't know because I just wikipedd because I wanted
Speaker 7: to remember what's on that album because I was like, oh, actually,
Speaker 7: who you were face off Imaginary Player, this very strong album.
Speaker 7: But eight point four, yeah, I know what.
Speaker 2: I like that record, so I will quasi agree, even
Speaker 2: though he hates that record. And f was trying to
Speaker 2: chase Puffy. He was trying to chase Puffy bad Boy,
Speaker 2: but it was like it was ninety seven. It was
Speaker 2: time to do like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we it's understandable. It's like we get it, but
Speaker 3: not right. It wasn't it.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 7: You know, it's funny we were talking about we're talking
Speaker 7: so much about God Now I'm such an idiot. But
Speaker 7: when we when I interviewed me for my podcast and
Speaker 7: we talked about the huge album and then the one
Speaker 7: for the first one for Interscope, and you weren't really
Speaker 7: swearing it off like in the way that we're talking
Speaker 7: about Jay, but you were kind of you know, saying
Speaker 7: like it was rush and you were trying to make
Speaker 7: a record maybe just to fit where you were, and
Speaker 7: I think, don't say nothing came up. And I was
Speaker 7: trying to please.
Speaker 1: Yes, I was trying to please my label president.
Speaker 7: So I was sitting. I was sitting the other day
Speaker 7: with my girl now fiance, who's ten years younger than me.
Speaker 7: Don't congratulate.
Speaker 5: She's a.
Speaker 7: Thank you, thank you. I'll tell her you said that,
Speaker 7: and don't or hopefully she'll listen to this or both,
Speaker 7: but don't say nothing came on. And she's like, that's
Speaker 7: my ship. And because she was she she was a
Speaker 7: teenager like that agent. It comes out and you're just like,
Speaker 7: oh this, I just fucking love this. Like you have
Speaker 7: no context. You're not thinking like where it rests in
Speaker 7: the cannon. You're just like, you know, like it's just Yeah, she's.
Speaker 5: Not being a music's not like y'all the rest of us.
Speaker 1: Yes, exactly. Well, I'm extremely thank you. I appreciate that.
Speaker 6: Can I Speaking of that snobbery, I wanted to ask
Speaker 6: Mark a set question because I'm so curious about where
Speaker 6: you started like working out your sets and where you
Speaker 6: how you started like refining and knowing what to do
Speaker 6: and what what what the crowd wanted, and what crowd
Speaker 6: wanted what and what I would.
Speaker 7: Import to you. In the beginning, I would just go
Speaker 7: and I would watch uh Stretch arm Sean and Clark
Speaker 7: Can and Goldfinger and just rip off all of their routines,
Speaker 7: like I'm not I'm not afraid to say, like I know,
Speaker 7: I stretched when he first came and I said, it's
Speaker 7: like was not happy with me because I wouldn't literally
Speaker 7: rip off his mixes. But he invented this, or maybe
Speaker 7: not invented, but his big thing was this thing where
Speaker 7: you'd be playing a song and then the line that
Speaker 7: everybody would sing you turn the volume off so be
Speaker 7: like double x posse, Like, oh no much Jim happened
Speaker 7: Broke Broke June June June. Before then, I saw on
Speaker 7: the on the thing and I just thought it was
Speaker 7: like uptown baby, up town baby, we got down baby,
Speaker 7: you know, to dinner, and like so this was so
Speaker 7: and I loved that. I thought it was so clever,
Speaker 7: and I just started doing it all the time. And
Speaker 7: then obviously in the beginning, you're just picking up scraps
Speaker 7: of the people that you that you look up to.
Speaker 7: But I guess I also I loved what was called
Speaker 7: rare groove music, like from all that kind of like
Speaker 7: mid tempo nineties, like you know, not really rare records.
Speaker 7: But don't look any further, baby, I'm scared of you
Speaker 7: saw me a striplin And I would play all those
Speaker 7: and and I loved building a night and I was
Speaker 7: never afraid to play like seven hours, like I just
Speaker 7: loved playing. And eventually I got this sort of reputation
Speaker 7: as this teacher had good taste, knew the classics new
Speaker 7: hip hop, knew how to build a room. And that's
Speaker 7: when I guess also Puffy and Jay and those people
Speaker 7: were coming to the clubs I was playing, So it
Speaker 7: was all this kind of nice dovetailing of I was.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, what was the name of
Speaker 1: the club? Damn?
Speaker 2: Now now you're you're now you're pulling me out where
Speaker 2: Now I'm remembering that maybe I was a New York
Speaker 2: club kid for half a second, because I definitely remembered
Speaker 2: what was the club that was across the street from Justin's.
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, yeah a lot, Yeah on seventeen That was Cheetah.
Speaker 7: That's Cheetah and a Monday Nights and Jay shouts that
Speaker 7: out and uh and do it again on one of
Speaker 7: those songs. Yeah, man, And and he says, I used
Speaker 7: to fill in on Cheetah, and then I did Wednesday
Speaker 7: Nights at Shine and then Fridays at Life. So every
Speaker 7: night that he mentioned in that Cheetah Monday Night, Wednesday
Speaker 7: Nights at Shy and Evan with the Model bitches, Friday
Speaker 7: Night at Life or whatever it is. And I was like,
Speaker 7: that's are online right now?
Speaker 1: He used to.
Speaker 2: Yes, he would often be there, like was an event
Speaker 2: like until until the ABT came along and solidified Mondays.
Speaker 1: Yes, like you were basically.
Speaker 2: You know, usually my club nights would be like if
Speaker 2: back then, especially on two inch Real, you know, a
Speaker 2: mix with Bob Power would probably be something like kind
Speaker 2: of like eight nine hours or whatever. So yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: if you're starting at three in the afternoon or something like,
Speaker 2: we get there late and the reel gets there at four,
Speaker 2: you know, Bob is basically like, you know, get out
Speaker 2: of my hair and come back at midnight, like let
Speaker 2: me least get the you know, get the mixed straight
Speaker 2: first before you guys start micromanaging. So usually you know,
Speaker 2: on on Mondays or whatever coming see you play and whatnot?
Speaker 1: What was it all right?
Speaker 7: So well to be I just wanted to cut out too,
Speaker 7: because Jules and Julian were the main DJs on Monday,
Speaker 7: specifically a cheater, but they would let me fill in
Speaker 7: or I play the basementwise.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I usually I'd watch your sets, you know. So
Speaker 2: that's like my memories of it, all right. So one
Speaker 2: of the one of the discoveries we made in the
Speaker 2: last five years of doing the show is that, you know,
Speaker 2: a lot of our a lot of the accomplished producers
Speaker 2: that we admire were great DJs.
Speaker 1: And you know, that's the case with.
Speaker 2: Jimmy jam Uh, definitely the case with doctor Dre. And
Speaker 2: then you know, when I brought this up to Dre,
Speaker 2: he explained to me that because of the duress that
Speaker 2: he was under, he would say, like, if you basically
Speaker 2: played the wrong song, you might risk the club getting
Speaker 2: shot up. Yeah, he so he was hyper aware of
Speaker 2: what he played, and he says that that informs him
Speaker 2: of how he produces because it's almost like there's no
Speaker 2: room for experiments. You have to be spot on knowing
Speaker 2: what your audience responds to. So for you though in
Speaker 2: that particular atmosphere. Because the thing is is that I
Speaker 2: know I can get away with murder, and you heard
Speaker 2: me experiment and do crazy shit often, but I know
Speaker 2: I can get away with murder and in front of
Speaker 2: a particular crowd that will let me do that. But
Speaker 2: you know, my clientele was really never Puff or jay
Speaker 2: Z or any of those, like any of those parties
Speaker 2: that you know Steve Stout's going to show up at.
Speaker 1: So what is it? What is what is the What
Speaker 1: is it like when you are the attraction at these
Speaker 1: particular parties?
Speaker 2: Because is it like what you really want to do
Speaker 2: or what you think serves them that keeps you working?
Speaker 1: Like what mind state are you in?
Speaker 7: It's a little bit of both, you know. I love
Speaker 7: starting the night at ten pm because you could start
Speaker 7: building and you could play classics and different records in
Speaker 7: R and B and builded into the hip hop. I
Speaker 7: hated coming on at twelve thirty when the parties at
Speaker 7: the peak and it's like, what's the first record? Like
Speaker 7: that just gives me like the anxiety of life. But
Speaker 7: the parties that I was playing, I was pretty like,
Speaker 7: you know, this was I was never on the mic.
Speaker 7: This is before people really cared or even looked at
Speaker 7: the DJ like it. They only looked at it you
Speaker 7: if you fucked up, really so like I love the
Speaker 7: anonymity of being a DJ and just keeping the night
Speaker 7: rocking and that that was it. But I remember like, yeah,
Speaker 7: occasionally i'd throw a curveball or you know, after eight
Speaker 7: years of playing the same kind of shit'll be like, oh,
Speaker 7: I wonder if I could sprinkle like rock and Roll
Speaker 7: in here or something. And I remember the Benjamin's was
Speaker 7: the biggest record at the time, and there was that
Speaker 7: rock and Roll remix of it, and I was I
Speaker 7: wanted to play somehow, I wanted to play back in
Speaker 7: Black by ac DC. By the end of this set,
Speaker 7: I was like I just got you know, when you
Speaker 7: go to the the set and you're just like, if
Speaker 7: I can just play these one or two songs for
Speaker 7: me tonight, like that'll kind of that'll do it. That'll
Speaker 7: do it. And I remember I was like, all right,
Speaker 7: so right on the Biggie I'll switch to the rock
Speaker 7: version right on the Biggie verse because no one's gonna
Speaker 7: stop dancing. I know what the fuck's happening if Biggie's rapping,
Speaker 7: right and then right on that thing when he goes
Speaker 7: it's all about the Benji d obviously, like ac DC
Speaker 7: is is like kind of in the books as like
Speaker 7: as a hip hop break beat in some ways, but
Speaker 7: not in the clubs where it was like a lot
Speaker 7: of you know, people's got like squire yeah, and it
Speaker 7: was like, you know a lot of like cool people
Speaker 7: in downtown types and then a lot of like drug
Speaker 7: dealers who were spending twenty grand at like a banquette
Speaker 7: to like look cool. So like one of the banquettes
Speaker 7: was right behind the DJ booth, and right when I
Speaker 7: played that once that was playing for like eight seconds,
Speaker 7: this drug dealer with like his friends and a lot
Speaker 7: of money and champagne everywhere, like leaned over to me.
Speaker 7: It was like, what the fuck are you playing? I mean,
Speaker 7: I can't remember exactly what he said, but there were
Speaker 7: like times where it was like definitely like you couldn't
Speaker 7: get too creative, but I think that, yeah, I had
Speaker 7: a mix. I was playing those crowds some night, and
Speaker 7: then sometimes I was playing for like slightly more like
Speaker 7: kind of you know, just like miscellaneous crowds. You could
Speaker 7: play more underground shit or different stuff.
Speaker 2: So at this period when you're kind of like the
Speaker 2: darling of hip New York society as far as like
Speaker 2: being there go to DJ you know, like you were
Speaker 2: doing the campaign with Aliyah or Tommy Hillfig or whatever,
Speaker 2: so we knew you. Asked DJ Mark Ronson, like, what
Speaker 2: is how are you navigating in this double Dutch game
Speaker 2: of how to get in the roups so that we
Speaker 2: now know that you are a musician and a producer, Like,
Speaker 2: at what point are you trying to figure out how
Speaker 2: to really get inside of this thing so that we
Speaker 2: take you seriously as a producer.
Speaker 7: Yeah, well I was trying all the time to be honest.
Speaker 7: Anytime I met someone at the club who wrapped and
Speaker 7: be like, come to my house tomorrow like one pm,
Speaker 7: and you know, let's make shit. And that was like
Speaker 7: when someone introduced me to a Psygom when he had
Speaker 7: just got out of prisoner, was like that, you know,
Speaker 7: Saigon and I would be together every day making music,
Speaker 7: and but I really didn't know what I was doing.
Speaker 7: I probably thought I did like everybody does at that age.
Speaker 7: Oh I'm fully formed, I'm arrived, i know what I'm doing,
Speaker 7: and I was just figuring it out.
Speaker 2: And then was this, wait, let me interrupt one second
Speaker 2: was this was the first entry like Okay, you're gonna
Speaker 2: be You're gonna be making rap beats and work with rappers,
Speaker 2: I think, I think. And if that's the case, what
Speaker 2: was the album? What was the hip hop album that
Speaker 2: called you to This is exactly what I want to do.
Speaker 8: Mecca and the Soul Brother Yes, no, yes, yes, because
Speaker 8: although I think main ingredient is probably my favorite of
Speaker 8: it too, but Mecca is still I mean, that's yeah.
Speaker 1: It's funny you said that.
Speaker 2: I ridiculed Kanye for saying that publicly, but when I
Speaker 2: really think about it, I have a way different relationship
Speaker 2: with me even though my face it's almost like Role
Speaker 2: is my favorite album, but I know that eighteen fourteen
Speaker 2: is the better record for me. I think it's only
Speaker 2: because the main ingredient is all that we had living
Speaker 2: in London, and this is without the Internet, without computers,
Speaker 2: without change the station, like you could turn on the
Speaker 2: radio and you gotta listen to Scatman forty times and
Speaker 2: you know, like for real, like Scatman was the only
Speaker 2: thing on radio in Jamarquai. So it's like put that
Speaker 2: peap rock figure in. So even though I never say
Speaker 2: that's my favorite record of theirs. But I have a
Speaker 2: way more fuzzier memory of that saving my life than
Speaker 2: Mecca and the Soul b Yeah, Wow.
Speaker 1: What was it? What was about Mecca for you? Bart? Like?
Speaker 1: What was what?
Speaker 7: How?
Speaker 1: Why was that your your kind of life?
Speaker 7: I played in a band. I played guitar in this
Speaker 7: band in high school, and my drammer, Scott was just
Speaker 7: like he just loved rhythms, and he was a really
Speaker 7: good drama and he'd want to talk about like Dave
Speaker 7: fucking I don't even know these drummers and paradiddles and
Speaker 7: like real like he was just into rhythms, interesting rhythms.
Speaker 7: So he discovered it. He loved it obviously, probably because
Speaker 7: like the drum fills and the things Dada Da da
Speaker 7: Dat spoke to him and he just played me reminisced.
Speaker 7: One day we'd come home from like a band rehearsal,
Speaker 7: maybe like a really late night gig, and I was
Speaker 7: sleeping on his floor and he played it for me,
Speaker 7: and I was so moved by it. I'd never heard
Speaker 7: a rap song that really hit me like that hard
Speaker 7: and emo way, and I listened to it probably eleven
Speaker 7: times in a row that night. After he went to bed,
Speaker 7: I was just like wanted to keep hearing it over
Speaker 7: and over, and I think that that was probably one
Speaker 7: of the first things we had rappers come up on
Speaker 7: stage with us when we were like this band, but
Speaker 7: we were like sloppy kids, like we were not holding
Speaker 7: it down. So I was just like, Okay, well, I'm
Speaker 7: not a rapper, I don't know anything about producing, but
Speaker 7: I love this music and that's what kind of led
Speaker 7: me out of the band and to become a DJ.
Speaker 7: And then so that's why I though it still has
Speaker 7: that once I did discover production. I think that was
Speaker 7: always this kind of like, I don't know, Touchstone.
Speaker 1: What year did you start DJing?
Speaker 7: Ninety three so just at the end of my senior year,
Speaker 7: and I remember the first four to twelve inches I
Speaker 7: bought at Rock and Sall. I bought Time for Some Action,
Speaker 7: Rebirth of Slick ZIGGI Raking in the Dough and the
Speaker 7: original Yeah, the original of Protect Your Neck, the original,
Speaker 7: the original Risk.
Speaker 1: Makers Orange and Yeah.
Speaker 2: Okay, I hope you still got that because that shit
Speaker 2: is worth money, man, Listen, Yeah, it's worth money.
Speaker 5: Now still say ninety three was the best year.
Speaker 7: I don't care really ninety three years music. Yeah, it
Speaker 7: was amazing.
Speaker 2: So what was the what was your what was your
Speaker 2: weapon of choice when you are making these beats?
Speaker 1: Like, what did you did you start off.
Speaker 7: On the three thousand and I got I went in
Speaker 7: the store to get this NPC sixty or i'd kind
Speaker 7: of saved up or I had enough for half of it,
Speaker 7: and then I was like, I want to pay for
Speaker 7: this on layaway or whatever it is. And he was like, well,
Speaker 7: by the time you were ready to pay it off,
Speaker 7: actually the NPC three thousand will be out. So so
Speaker 7: I managed to get that. It was a year later
Speaker 7: and I had made really archaic beats. My stepdad, you know,
Speaker 7: being a musician, had a S nine hundred or a
Speaker 7: kit I don't even know which one it was in
Speaker 7: his stuff the rack mount and I made some really
Speaker 7: like like really like rudimentary beats where I didn't know
Speaker 7: how to adjust the time, but I knew that if
Speaker 7: I could get the samples to be exactly the same
Speaker 7: tempo and lent that if I just hit play on
Speaker 7: both of them at the same time, I could kind
Speaker 7: of make it work. And that's and someone was like
Speaker 7: this kid that I was making beats for in my
Speaker 7: school was like, you know, that's what djaying is, essentially,
Speaker 7: like blending two things together on time. You would probably
Speaker 7: like that, and so that was part of the reason
Speaker 7: as well that I'm sure that I've kind of led
Speaker 7: me to the path, But NPC three thousand was my
Speaker 7: first beat machine.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 2: Also side note, speaking of your stepfather, this is he's
Speaker 2: not to be mistaken for Mick Jones of the Clash.
Speaker 7: Not to be another second, that's another Mick Jones.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was about to say, you got crazy Mick ronson
Speaker 2: Mick Jones, the mc jones and the other mc jones.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, still legendary.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I was going to say, because I was like,
Speaker 2: wait a minute, you're not.
Speaker 7: In the class, right, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: Right, exactly, Okay, So would you would you say your
Speaker 2: first steady client was Saigon?
Speaker 7: He was the first, like I guess rapper. There are
Speaker 7: some rappers from from my school, Like I went to
Speaker 7: Vassar College for one year, uh, and there were some
Speaker 7: rappers up there who I worked with, Lodi and Ian
Speaker 7: lovely guys. And then I came back to the city
Speaker 7: and someone introduced me to Saigon. So he was like
Speaker 7: the first person that was like over my house, and
Speaker 7: actually John Forte as well at this time as good
Speaker 7: friends with John, and we had this weird production duo
Speaker 7: called Epstein and Sons. I have no idea why we
Speaker 7: called it Steine and Sons, and uh weird. He would
Speaker 7: be over at my place all the time, and so yeah,
Speaker 7: and then and then Sigon sometimes would bring down like
Speaker 7: sticking and one from deb Present. I remember, for very
Speaker 7: obvious reasons, being like very nervous when they came over
Speaker 7: to my house. I don't know what they're gonna think
Speaker 7: of me, and then also being slightly disappointed when they
Speaker 7: weren't like horrible to me, like almost like standing in
Speaker 7: the front sitting in the front road of at Don
Speaker 7: Rickles concert and he doesn't insult she does? What then?
Speaker 7: What is going on? That's why I paid for they
Speaker 7: were They were they were. They were very very cool
Speaker 7: and and patient with me because I really know now
Speaker 7: that I didn't know what the fuck I was doing.
Speaker 7: But the person that really plucked me from like just anonymity,
Speaker 7: like just to kind of DJ was like djaying the
Speaker 7: hot parties was our friend Dominic Chaneer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so tell the story of how that morphs
Speaker 2: into you can I say that is Nikga like.
Speaker 1: Your first like major work as a producer.
Speaker 7: Of course by a country mile for sure.
Speaker 1: Okay, wow, so wait I worked on like your first production.
Speaker 7: I was like, yeah, that's why I was so fucking spoiled.
Speaker 7: I laugh about that, Like the first time we go
Speaker 7: into the studio, it's like I've been in the studio.
Speaker 7: It's like you and Pino and Jane. Somebody was just
Speaker 7: saying like, don't get used to this, like I remember
Speaker 7: that real.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, this this is one of those legendary moments
Speaker 2: where where you know, like Electric Lady is just going
Speaker 2: to be just an open house of whoever comes in,
Speaker 2: and you know, it's it's not it's not normal for
Speaker 2: a person to be generous and let like usually like
Speaker 2: if someone finds a good sound in a good room
Speaker 2: or whatever, they like.
Speaker 1: Lock it down and they're like, no one else goes
Speaker 1: in this room but us.
Speaker 2: But it was almost like, you know, de was like, well,
Speaker 2: you know, obviously if I say three pm, I'll be
Speaker 2: here at seven or eight pm. So you know, whatever
Speaker 2: y'all do in the daytime is cool with me as
Speaker 2: long as that, you know, once I get there, so
Speaker 2: we would just take advantage of all those early hours
Speaker 2: and work on other things.
Speaker 5: I kind of.
Speaker 6: Feel like that album needs to be re released in
Speaker 6: a way released, yeah, because I feel like there's a
Speaker 6: whole generation of people who don't understand nick A Costa
Speaker 6: killed that shit and didn't drop them like it was like,
Speaker 6: I don't know that's what.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it was the twentieth anniversary like last week, and
Speaker 7: I was like, doesn't get you know a lot of
Speaker 7: a lot of people anytime that song comes up, people like,
Speaker 7: oh yeah, fuck, I love that song. Was like my
Speaker 7: fiance partner whatever included like people because it was in
Speaker 7: the Hill Figure commercial and then everybody got there's something
Speaker 7: you know ended up as the Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was so have oft for you. That was my
Speaker 1: favorite rong on that record. I love that song.
Speaker 7: Yeah, no, she's she really wrote some wonderful songs on
Speaker 7: that record.
Speaker 2: So what was what was the collaboration process like with
Speaker 2: you uh Nikka and I assume Justin also worked justin Stanley.
Speaker 7: Yeah. So so Dom would come to the parties that
Speaker 7: I would DJ, like Life and stuff, and he would
Speaker 7: be like I'd be playing one of my regular sets.
Speaker 7: I would be like Rufus, the Chaka Khan e p MD,
Speaker 7: then the Biggie and then at the end maybe Seven
Speaker 7: Nation Army or that probably wasn't even out yet, but
Speaker 7: some kind of rock shit missed you by the Stones.
Speaker 7: And he was like, He's like, I don't know if
Speaker 7: you make music or not, but like I have this
Speaker 7: singer and I just like, she's incredible. She has the
Speaker 7: best voice, and all I know is that her record's
Speaker 7: supposed to sound like this DJ set.
Speaker 2: It's amazing that Dom saw something in you that was
Speaker 2: Dom's real gift.
Speaker 1: Dom was able to.
Speaker 2: See something in you that you yourself wouldn't see. I would
Speaker 2: almost say, like, you know, you know, like Puffy kind
Speaker 2: of has that he can sell you the Brooklyn Bridge
Speaker 2: thing against your will or I mean, there's something about
Speaker 2: him that makes you say yes, even if it's like
Speaker 2: like I know instantly when he calls the phone, I'm like, no,
Speaker 2: I'm not doing this gig. I can't spend what's up, playboy?
Speaker 2: We got we got magic to make. And then suddenly
Speaker 2: you're like, yes, Dudy, I will do yeah, yeah, for
Speaker 2: seventy off the price that I normally charge.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But Dom also had Dom was just one of the
Speaker 2: greatest motivational yes pushers.
Speaker 1: Like he's the one.
Speaker 2: That talked all that all the magic that came from
Speaker 2: Electric Lady. Chances are Dom was there as the foundation
Speaker 2: of YO do this idea?
Speaker 7: So you know he he yes, he did, and he's
Speaker 7: he's like, I'll come to your studios. Because I was
Speaker 7: probably just like, yeah, I make beads or whatever. He's like,
Speaker 7: let me come to your studios that we do. So
Speaker 7: I had this little studio in my bedroom's apartment on
Speaker 7: Sullivan Street and he was doing space Jam at the
Speaker 7: time or it just finished it, and he was like,
Speaker 7: I need a remix of Seal did Fly Like an Eagle?
Speaker 7: And I need a hip hop remix, So why don't
Speaker 7: we try. I think that was like just to see
Speaker 7: if I could do anything. And yeah, and it was
Speaker 7: not very good. And I tell you, I almost feel
Speaker 7: like I can still remember him like almost like holding
Speaker 7: my hand through like the production of this remix to
Speaker 7: try and get me to make it better. Like I like,
Speaker 7: you know, like I was doing these kind of STEVJ
Speaker 7: puffy type drums, a lot of shakers, yeah, yeah, before
Speaker 7: the top thing, yeah, all of it. And then and
Speaker 7: but then somehow I must have done something that just
Speaker 7: gave him a little more faith. And then a couple
Speaker 7: of months later he brought Nika to my studio U
Speaker 7: and I still didn't have the match for her musicality,
Speaker 7: but then justin her husband came into the equation. It
Speaker 7: was very musical and knew his way around a studio.
Speaker 7: And then that was kind of the trio.
Speaker 1: You were there for that, Steve, were you not? Yes?
Speaker 1: I was there for the back. Yes, Rush rusted all
Speaker 1: the work out.
Speaker 4: But I'm a secret sauce.
Speaker 1: It's the same old story. He got the bacon, I
Speaker 1: get it.
Speaker 4: Yes, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 4: Those were very very cool sessions. I mean very memorable
Speaker 4: for me because I was just starting out too, and
Speaker 4: the music was so good, so happy to be because
Speaker 4: I had to do all kinds of different sessions where
Speaker 4: the music was of varying degrees of quality.
Speaker 2: Let's say, I was about to say, if you're an
Speaker 2: engineer on a session that of a song you don't like,
Speaker 2: then I don't even know what that's like for a person,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, just to be held against
Speaker 2: their will listening to a song where shit ain't good,
Speaker 2: it's not good at all. Yeah, I remember, like my
Speaker 2: favorite was just because man, that that shit could still be.
Speaker 1: That shit could.
Speaker 2: Come out tomorrow and I'd still ride for that thing.
Speaker 2: And that's also one of my favorite. I would probably
Speaker 2: say that's probably if I were to compile a top
Speaker 2: five of like my drumming performance, because the thing is,
Speaker 2: the weird thing is is that I'm serving the song
Speaker 2: so much that I'd never get to not have fun
Speaker 2: but just be be myself. I don't know if it's
Speaker 2: like me being tofu like I have to bend to
Speaker 2: the will of what the song sounds is. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: just because usually if I wind up sounding like Steve Faron,
Speaker 2: that's more like the natural me, Like, that's not me
Speaker 2: trying to sound like a break beat or me trying
Speaker 2: to redo this beat or not get kicked off my
Speaker 2: own song because it doesn't sound.
Speaker 1: Hip hop enough or whatever.
Speaker 2: So it's but I'll yeah, I'll say that just because
Speaker 2: it was was one of my Probably i'd put that
Speaker 2: in my top five, Like drum sounds that I actually
Speaker 2: that I dig I.
Speaker 7: Need to listen back. I remember Billy Preston came in
Speaker 7: and we were really excited for him to play piano
Speaker 7: on it, like that was the whole thing. And he
Speaker 7: came into the studio and we were like wow, and
Speaker 7: he just like sat down and listened to the whole thing.
Speaker 7: I was like, nah, the demo piano is pretty good
Speaker 7: and she's like, no, no, that's just something that I
Speaker 7: just played like just for you. Go I don't hear
Speaker 7: I'll play some clad though, and like that was it.
Speaker 7: There was like no talk. We were just so psyched,
Speaker 7: like Billy Press is gonna play piano this thing and
Speaker 7: he was just like, no, play some clap for you.
Speaker 1: How long was it until.
Speaker 2: You got a chance to work on I'm about to
Speaker 2: say the OUI record, not OUI your You're here, Here
Speaker 2: comes the Fuzz, your first solo job.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that was basically off the back of Nika's album.
Speaker 7: There was like a lot of buzz about it just
Speaker 7: before it came out, and it was in this hill
Speaker 7: Figure commercial and I had this little moment of like,
Speaker 7: you know it's there. It's never better than the moment
Speaker 7: just before the record comes out, because it's just like
Speaker 7: the possibilities are endless and you look just look like it,
Speaker 7: you know, that's whatever. So I got this deal with
Speaker 7: Electra Records that thing at the time, because you know,
Speaker 7: I had a little name as a DJ, nowhere near
Speaker 7: like the name recognition of the Clues and the Flexes
Speaker 7: and the people that were getting those big mixtape deals.
Speaker 7: But I also had this record that people were excited
Speaker 7: about and like a feather and the slightly new sound.
Speaker 7: So I got this deal and then uh then it
Speaker 7: took me a year to make that record, and that
Speaker 7: came out in two thousand and three, and I got
Speaker 7: dropped a week after the album came out because it's wow, yeah,
Speaker 7: pretty much got dropped. Like the record, I think they
Speaker 7: spent a lot of money on it. I had a
Speaker 7: lot of big cameos on it, they did, but I
Speaker 7: think that it just you know, did it charted in
Speaker 7: England where it was sort of like, you know, number
Speaker 7: twelve or something, But yeah, I was gonna say I
Speaker 7: heard it again in Europe? Yes, a lot in Europe.
Speaker 7: It was big enough to make a little dent there.
Speaker 7: But no, I remember having to pay out of my
Speaker 7: own pocket to get Nate Dogg and ghost Face to
Speaker 7: come out to do the Craig Kilbourn show because at
Speaker 7: that point, like a week later, lecture just like closed
Speaker 7: the close the budget.
Speaker 2: Wow, So how did you at least at that point,
Speaker 2: I think this that The Fuzz came out with like
Speaker 2: two thousand and two, two thousand and three, three, Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was like around okay, So at that point, like
Speaker 2: were you your own point person Like did you know
Speaker 2: Rivers Cuomo and Jack White and like all the people
Speaker 2: that were on that that first secord.
Speaker 7: For the most part, the people that I didn't really
Speaker 7: know personally were Rivers Cuomo and Jack White because they
Speaker 7: were sort of more from rock world and Jack was
Speaker 7: in Detroit and Rivers's la that wasn't but anybody else
Speaker 7: that could kind of call because of b you know,
Speaker 7: just being in the New York clubs for so long.
Speaker 7: And I even remember when Yes Seen Then Most came
Speaker 7: and we did our song. We were like, you know,
Speaker 7: what sounds so good on this mop, Like wouldn't it
Speaker 7: be cool if it was just like the seventies when
Speaker 7: like Eric Clapton would call up like Dwayne Allman and
Speaker 7: be like come down and play on this thing. I
Speaker 7: was like, well, let's just try and call them and
Speaker 7: see if they'll they'll come. So we were like called
Speaker 7: Lai's or whatever. The manager. And then they did come.
Speaker 7: They just they came three days later. We just didn't know.
Speaker 7: I was still waiting in the studio. They came Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 7: But you know it was amazing. But no, all the
Speaker 7: people Freeway, Sean Paul, these were just people that I
Speaker 7: somehow had a relationship with from just like one degree
Speaker 7: of separation from the clubs or just like I knew them,
Speaker 7: you know.
Speaker 1: Okay, when did uh?
Speaker 3: When did because around the time, but I mean I
Speaker 3: knew you're the stuff you did with Niak and everything.
Speaker 3: But around the time that I came became familiar with
Speaker 3: you with the hip hop stuff was with Saigon Us
Speaker 3: I had to done Didnt record and then also with
Speaker 3: ron Fest.
Speaker 7: Yeah how did how did?
Speaker 1: How did all that come about?
Speaker 7: We used to play the Foreign Exchange Records so much
Speaker 7: on the tour.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, thank you so much.
Speaker 7: Loved it. That came about through uh my friend Ron
Speaker 7: minor DJ Indiana Jones, who you know in the past. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 7: I know. Yeah, it's crazy when you start talking all
Speaker 7: these people that just don't seem that far away in
Speaker 7: your life. They're not with us. But anyway, Ron was
Speaker 7: Ryan Fest was Chicago, but was living in Indianapolis at
Speaker 7: the time, and and Ron but I knew, and it
Speaker 7: brought him to New York and we just started hanging out.
Speaker 7: I just loved the way that he just like he
Speaker 7: just liked all this weird other ship too, because I'm
Speaker 7: not very good at making straight up the middle of music,
Speaker 7: you know, to a fault. I can't like pick a
Speaker 7: genre even within one song. But me and Ryan Fest
Speaker 7: had a lot of funny together, and then he kind
Speaker 7: of came on the road, and then we had a
Speaker 7: labels we put out his record and yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, was Alito?
Speaker 3: Was that the only was his record the only record
Speaker 3: that came out on that label?
Speaker 1: Or did y'all put out anything else?
Speaker 7: Daniel Merriweather right, and the first album Wait a minute, Yeah,
Speaker 7: I forgot before he went into may Back. Everyone was
Speaker 7: way better after they left us. No, Daniel Mary, Daniel
Speaker 7: Marray that sold a lot of records.
Speaker 1: His love and War that was that was yours? Right?
Speaker 1: War was on you there?
Speaker 7: Yeah, James Saw was my I love that song so coolly,
Speaker 7: you know that's great. Daniel would love listening to this.
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, damn, this is killing me now because
Speaker 2: I was under the impression. Okay, I'll admit there's a
Speaker 2: lot of like transparency admissions by quest Love this episode. Yes,
Speaker 2: of course, I when I saw your label name, I
Speaker 2: couldn't for some reason.
Speaker 1: I just it just read dildo to me. Wow, But
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't expect that coming.
Speaker 2: But the thing is is that when I read it again,
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, all I do because he probably
Speaker 2: loves it for Stevie won the record.
Speaker 1: What is the name of your label?
Speaker 7: Well, that's the thing. It was all I do for
Speaker 7: the Stevie song. But the first records that Saigon, you know,
Speaker 7: put out a few signals with us, and he would
Speaker 7: just yell out Alito, like at the end of the song.
Speaker 7: We're like, okay, well the first person who said our
Speaker 7: name is public record has already said Alito, you know
Speaker 7: it's not a great.
Speaker 1: That's exactly what it was. I heard him say it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's why I thought the label name was
Speaker 3: because Brian Face will hol it to Alito.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, it's it's not a good sign when the
Speaker 7: people within the label can't even agree how to pronounce
Speaker 7: this the you know, the title, so you know that's
Speaker 7: how it was.
Speaker 5: But how did you say it Mark.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what was the why'd you name it that?
Speaker 7: It's so I don't know because dildo was already taken.
Speaker 7: So I just love the TV song and I should
Speaker 7: have just made everybody commit to one pronunciation that's correct.
Speaker 1: I was correct.
Speaker 2: It is all I Doah, Okay, I was getting worried
Speaker 2: about myself for a second. I was like, damn, I
Speaker 2: have it wrong.
Speaker 6: The whole time when music Soul Child album came out,
Speaker 6: was you mad? Because it was like everybody got those.
Speaker 7: Just what But for some reason, I love I love
Speaker 7: the idea of like this kind of like bad like
Speaker 7: nerdous comedy sketch, of like mispronouncing all the word famous
Speaker 7: famous rap labels. So it's like I'd like to play
Speaker 7: this record by good Boy.
Speaker 1: Oh wait, that's another see I wish I'm paying Bill
Speaker 1: was here. It just hit me.
Speaker 2: I was trying to figure out remember when we were
Speaker 2: trying to figure out what a Manda Green was, like
Speaker 2: the Prince way of writing things out, and it's called
Speaker 2: a Manda Green.
Speaker 7: I was.
Speaker 2: I was trying to figure out who's the king of
Speaker 2: Manda Greens now? And that's yeah, that's music Soul Child's
Speaker 2: lame music unpaid bill is not here for that, all right.
Speaker 7: So with hashtags, my mom's hashtags on Instagram are just
Speaker 7: like crazy run on sentences that are just wild.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: So Mark two thousand and six, Man, I mean I
Speaker 2: probably told you this story before, but to even the
Speaker 2: amount of paralyzed producers that sat and tried.
Speaker 1: To figure this shit out.
Speaker 2: When we got back to black and I got a
Speaker 2: call from Jazzy, I didn't get a call.
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 2: I was in Barcelona and Jazzy Jeff Instant messaged me
Speaker 2: whatever AOL instant message and he's like, man, I'm.
Speaker 1: Depressed, and he's like what, He's like, Ronson's King. I
Speaker 1: was like huh. And then he sent me.
Speaker 2: The fiul to the album and literally the I called
Speaker 2: it and I was like, wait, who produced this? And
Speaker 2: he says Mark Ronson. I said no, no, no DJ
Speaker 2: Mark Ronson. He's like, yes, that Mark Ronson. No DJ Mark,
Speaker 2: like you know NBC sixty with the New York Knicks
Speaker 2: beats that Mark Ronson.
Speaker 1: He's like yes. And I was just frozen. Yo.
Speaker 2: I sat until showtime. I sat in that room and
Speaker 2: listened to that album for seven hours.
Speaker 1: So how did.
Speaker 2: You connect with Amy at the time, like he just
Speaker 2: explained the working relationship.
Speaker 7: Yeah, like, well, I remember just saw that Jazzy Jeff thing.
Speaker 7: I remember this because records weren't so global then, they
Speaker 7: didn't just blow up like this, So like I didn't
Speaker 7: know if people in America had heard the album yet.
Speaker 7: And I remember being about to board a plane in
Speaker 7: some airports somehow, and there was a message from Jazzy
Speaker 7: Jeff and I heard on my phone and he goes, yo, Mark,
Speaker 7: this is Jeff. He had never called me before, but
Speaker 7: you know we were cool, and he was like, which
Speaker 7: you just did, like everybody's fucking with this, Like that
Speaker 7: was the first call I got from one of my
Speaker 7: peers or someone I looked up to. Was this affirmation
Speaker 7: of the record. It meant so much. I remember exactly.
Speaker 7: I was standing outside looking at the window at the
Speaker 7: planes on the ground when I listened to that message
Speaker 7: from Jeff. That's how like much it meant to me.
Speaker 7: But to go back, so I met Amy because I
Speaker 7: had had a little bit of you know, heat off
Speaker 7: of that we record in England, just people kind of
Speaker 7: knew where I was. And Guy Moot, who was the
Speaker 7: head of EMI Music Publishing at the time, amazing air
Speaker 7: cool guy called me and he said, hey, Amy Winehouse
Speaker 7: is in is in New York for a couple of days.
Speaker 7: You want to meet with her? And I didn't have
Speaker 7: fucking shit else going on anyway, but I was like, yeah,
Speaker 7: I remember that girl because I because Made You Look
Speaker 7: is one of my favorite tracks of all time. And
Speaker 7: I loved her song in my bed. I used to
Speaker 7: play it, you know, in the sets here. And she
Speaker 7: came to the studio and I met her, and I
Speaker 7: actually met her at the front door, and uh, she
Speaker 7: came up the same time and she was like, yeah,
Speaker 7: I'm here to see Mark Ronson. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 7: I'm Mark and she goes, no, no like Mark Ronson.
Speaker 7: I was like, no, no, I am him, and she goes,
Speaker 7: I thought you were like an old guy with a
Speaker 7: bid or something like. I think she just like probably
Speaker 7: heard my name for longer, like thought I was somebody
Speaker 7: or whatever it was old guy. Yeah, just like a
Speaker 7: different like an older producer or something.
Speaker 2: So you were Mick Ronson, Yeah, that's it exactly, or
Speaker 2: Rick exactly.
Speaker 7: So we like when and we went and sat in
Speaker 7: Lapang coutiden On Grand and Mercer and we just talked
Speaker 7: for a minute. I instantly liked it because she was
Speaker 7: so funny, I mean, you know, and uh, we came
Speaker 7: up into my room, and you know, usually at that
Speaker 7: point it was this thing where I'd play beats for people,
Speaker 7: do you like this?
Speaker 1: You like this?
Speaker 7: But the minute she started talking about music, I just
Speaker 7: knew that I had nothing near what she was talking about.
Speaker 7: But it was so exciting, and I said, what kind
Speaker 7: of record do you want to make? Because she says, well,
Speaker 7: they play this stuff down at my local, like the
Speaker 7: Shangri Laws and stuff. So we listened to it and
Speaker 7: it's maybe a little familiar with something from like a
Speaker 7: Scorsese film, but that wasn't my shit. And then I
Speaker 7: was like, well, listen, I don't have anything like that,
Speaker 7: but if you come back tomorrow, like, let me just
Speaker 7: fuck around tonight and come back and see if there's
Speaker 7: anything you like. So I stayed up all night and
Speaker 7: I was like running around in this live room back here,
Speaker 7: I say, with every fucking instrument, And I came up
Speaker 7: with the chords on the piano for back to Black,
Speaker 7: and I just put a little like kick and tambourine
Speaker 7: on it and put a fucking reverb on everything, because
Speaker 7: I was like, oh, that's she likes this shit, that's
Speaker 7: what it sounds like. And she came back the next
Speaker 7: morning and I was I was like nervous, but I
Speaker 7: was also so delirious from being up all night, like
Speaker 7: lack of sleep, working on this thing. And she sat
Speaker 7: behind me and I just kind of hit play. I
Speaker 7: was like, yeah, I made this thing last night, what
Speaker 7: do you think? And she just kind of had her
Speaker 7: head down like this, and and then it finished and
Speaker 7: she just looks up and she goes, yeah, I love it.
Speaker 7: I want my whole fucking album to sound like this,
Speaker 7: because she never had to. I wasn't even a poker face.
Speaker 7: She just never was gonna like gush. She didn't, you know,
Speaker 7: that wasn't her hard thing. And so she like took
Speaker 7: the CD, ran in the back room, wrote like the
Speaker 7: words and the everything in like an hour, and and
Speaker 7: she stayed in New York an extra five days so
Speaker 7: we could do the rest of the songs and demo them.
Speaker 7: And then I was using every plug in in the
Speaker 7: book to try and make it sound old. I didn't
Speaker 7: know what the fuck I was doing. And just about
Speaker 7: that time I had met Dave Guy and he had
Speaker 7: been playing on some other stuff I was doing. I'd
Speaker 7: started to do this version record of these covers, so
Speaker 7: they were playing. I didn't know how to record a band.
Speaker 7: I could barely just record a horn section. So they
Speaker 7: had just played me this Verizon commercial they had done
Speaker 7: with Sharon Jones that was like a cover of Sin
Speaker 7: Sealed Delivered or something like that, and I was blown away.
Speaker 7: I was like, wait, you guys made this like like today,
Speaker 7: Like how this you know, this sounds old. I don't
Speaker 7: understand how this happened. Like, yeah, it's Gabe Man, He's
Speaker 7: a genius engineers the guys, and we plan this is
Speaker 7: our other band. So I asked Amy. I played it
Speaker 7: for Amy. I was like, Yo, this shit sounds incredible, right,
Speaker 7: we let me go ask this band to play these demos,
Speaker 7: these songs have been working on. She said. I played
Speaker 7: it for She goes, yeah, it's the nuts, Like that
Speaker 7: was her expression if something was really good. She liked
Speaker 7: that fucking Verizon commercial, whatever it is.
Speaker 2: So then talking about by that point, you'd never heard
Speaker 2: of Sharon Jones and the dap Kings and just that
Speaker 2: whole underground Brooklyn E.
Speaker 7: I knew this stuff. I'm pure because I had sampled
Speaker 7: something off there on my first record, so something else
Speaker 7: they had done. But I didn't really know the Brooklyn scene,
Speaker 7: and because I got dropped from my label rather unceremoniously
Speaker 7: a week after my album came out. Apparently some of
Speaker 7: the samples hadn't been paid for either. So when I
Speaker 7: finally met Gabe, bro oh, wait, did you.
Speaker 1: Do brand new from Rhymfest?
Speaker 7: No? No, I didn't.
Speaker 1: Joint.
Speaker 7: Okay, I was walking past the Mercury Lounge. I probably
Speaker 7: knew that somehow how it's gonna get in touch with
Speaker 7: the Dap Kings. I didn't really know, and it said
Speaker 7: tonight Sharon Jones and the Dapkings. I was like, fuck,
Speaker 7: these are the guys I'm looking for, you know. So
Speaker 7: I walk in up the street and Gabe's kind of
Speaker 7: like closing up his bass. The gig is over. I'm like, hey,
Speaker 7: I start talking a mile a minute, probably trying to
Speaker 7: give him the seal and da da da he like clicks.
Speaker 7: He's like, I need the guy that sampled. Yeah, I
Speaker 7: never got paid for that song that you sampled from
Speaker 7: your record. I was like, I'll definitely take care of that. Yeah,
Speaker 7: I'm so sorry, and like can you just come and
Speaker 7: like if can I play these demos and like if
Speaker 7: you like him, maybe like we works on the out
Speaker 7: and we could do the recorded And so I think
Speaker 7: Gabe just relented eventually and he came to my studio
Speaker 7: a couple of days later. Amy was already back in
Speaker 7: London and I played the demos and Gabe was like, Okay, well,
Speaker 7: I'm gonna have to check with Homer. Like Homer it's
Speaker 7: hard for him to get someone to watch his dog
Speaker 7: a lot of the time, Like he's thick caroly, like
Speaker 7: they're sewing their own world. He wasn't caught up. There
Speaker 7: was anotherhing that would have enticed about money. I think
Speaker 7: he always found and he said this before the Amy
Speaker 7: songs quite intense emotionally and like a little down and
Speaker 7: there music is so uplifting and soulful that like he
Speaker 7: also wasn't quite sure about like the lyrics and stuff.
Speaker 7: You know, it wasn't really his thing. He's a very pure,
Speaker 7: like instinctual guy, Gabe. But we got it together and
Speaker 7: we cut. Amy wasn't here, but I had all her
Speaker 7: vocals from the demos on a CDJ that I brought
Speaker 7: to the studio. And the band, you know, doesn't play
Speaker 7: to click. So the band would start and I would
Speaker 7: run Amy's a Cappella on a CDJ, speeding it up
Speaker 7: and slowing it down with the band so they could
Speaker 7: hear the vocal while they track, like you know, so
Speaker 7: you so you're pitch it, well not pitch, but you
Speaker 7: change the tempo with the temple so they hear her
Speaker 7: voice while they're tracking. From the demo, and the one
Speaker 7: song I really didn't have an arrangement that I liked
Speaker 7: for was you know I'm No Good. I kind of
Speaker 7: hated it, and I didn't know what to do with
Speaker 7: those chords because it was kind of like it reminded
Speaker 7: me of like a Spanish flamencoy thing because of the chords,
Speaker 7: and I had this very on the nose beat that
Speaker 7: was like boom got bud herd dunt dun dud dun
Speaker 7: dun jun ja. And I remember just playing that one
Speaker 7: for the band we had already done Back to Black
Speaker 7: and some of the other shit. I was confident enough
Speaker 7: to be like, I hate this thing that I did.
Speaker 7: Can you guys just think of like anything cooler to
Speaker 7: just play right there? And I think like three seconds
Speaker 7: home where Nick looked at each other and I was
Speaker 7: just like, how about doom did you do?
Speaker 1: Doom? June?
Speaker 7: Doom? Doom did you do do? And I just remember
Speaker 7: just being like, this is one of the greatest moments
Speaker 7: of my life.
Speaker 1: I know it. I know you know.
Speaker 2: So you did all the tracking at Daptone Studios.
Speaker 7: The reason I'm coming off the mic is because I
Speaker 7: remember I just found because these are the lyrics to
Speaker 7: back to Black, how she wrote them in the background,
Speaker 7: and it's got these are going to a museum and
Speaker 7: ship but like just for the last couple of days
Speaker 7: I get to hold on to him. But yeah, it's
Speaker 7: even got like a phone number of this guy like
Speaker 7: Broncas who used to do this thing last night's party,
Speaker 7: so she must have got his number the night before
Speaker 7: and all the other ship.
Speaker 1: That is amazing.
Speaker 5: Man, What museum is it going to be in?
Speaker 7: Oh? Anybody who wants it? I mean, I'm just I
Speaker 7: just realized, like I found these rather recently, and I
Speaker 7: just realized that I do not need to have these.
Speaker 7: These need to be somewhere where people can see it,
Speaker 7: enjoy it. Yeah, got okay.
Speaker 3: I wanted to ask mart Man what was the what
Speaker 3: were your thoughts on the Amy documentary, the one that uh,
Speaker 3: the one that came.
Speaker 1: I saw it in theater.
Speaker 3: I can't remember the name of it years ago, but yeah,
Speaker 3: I think it was just It might have been just Amy.
Speaker 3: What were your thoughts on that and do you think
Speaker 3: that captured in your opinion, you know who she really
Speaker 3: was as a person.
Speaker 7: I remember the first hour of it. I was just
Speaker 7: in love with it because you got all of the
Speaker 7: joy of Amy, all the humor, the wit, like the talent.
Speaker 7: I hadn't even really understood how amazing the lyrics to
Speaker 7: songs like fuck Me pumps and stuff on the first
Speaker 7: album that I wasn't that familiar was. Until I saw that,
Speaker 7: I was like wow, and it was like spending time
Speaker 7: with an old friend. The second half is very hard
Speaker 7: to watch, but I thought it was well done. I
Speaker 7: have a little bit of a problem relationship with it
Speaker 7: because you know, Ray Cosbert and her dad are people
Speaker 7: that I care about and that Amy cared a lot
Speaker 7: about and probably wouldn't feel great about them being treated disparagingly.
Speaker 7: But then it was also brutally on his film, so
Speaker 7: I thought it was a very difficult to watch. I've
Speaker 7: only seen it once, but I did think it was
Speaker 7: a powerful film that was like I think as I
Speaker 7: saw that scent of film, and I was like the
Speaker 7: other documentary that guy made for us, and I was like,
Speaker 7: this guy's gonna make a movie as weighty as her work,
Speaker 7: Like I feel like she deserves a great filmmaker.
Speaker 2: This is what I want to know, because you and
Speaker 2: and Salaam sort of held the majority of the weight
Speaker 2: of the album that production. Are you two comparing notes?
Speaker 2: Are you hearing each other's demos? Because the thing is
Speaker 2: is that sonically that album sounds, you know, it's seamless,
Speaker 2: it's it's it's absolutely seamless.
Speaker 1: But you know, how are you two even knowing what
Speaker 1: the do you are you guys.
Speaker 2: Even comparing notes? Like what the other is doing to
Speaker 2: make it make it that way? And who sort of
Speaker 2: gets the who's the fifty one percent of the forty nine?
Speaker 2: Like who decides yea song order and all that stuff. Really,
Speaker 2: I'm asking why was Addicted treated like a bastard step job?
Speaker 2: I know that wasn't your song, but yeah, in the
Speaker 2: London version, the album opens with Addicted.
Speaker 7: Wow.
Speaker 2: In the American version, it's like the last song, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: the American version opens with Rehab and I'm like, wait, what, Like.
Speaker 7: Yeah, because they're like Americans have short detention spans, we
Speaker 7: have to I don't I really don't know. I'm sure.
Speaker 7: I'm sure she had nothing to do with that either.
Speaker 7: But yes, I think, to be fully honest, Solam and
Speaker 7: had an incredible musical bond, and uh Slam has made
Speaker 7: many of my favorite tracks, like Stone.
Speaker 3: I mean, just the fact that he bought you know
Speaker 3: you said when you said your twelve inch was breaking
Speaker 3: the dough, I'm like, man.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's fujila all of it. And but I think
Speaker 7: that they were doing a similar thing, a little closer
Speaker 7: to what they had been doing on on Frank and
Speaker 7: they heard and Slam heard the demos. Amy said she
Speaker 7: was very excited about it, and then Salam took it
Speaker 7: into more of a live direction that maybe he would
Speaker 7: have done anyway, but I think he was probably excited
Speaker 7: to get to do that as well.
Speaker 2: So initially his work was more contemporary and whatnot, and
Speaker 2: then once you brought it to the sixties, then he
Speaker 2: adjusted his music accordingly.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's what I've been told.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, okay, I get it.
Speaker 5: You know, in a.
Speaker 2: Year of highlights, like in two thousand and six, two
Speaker 2: thousand and seven, especially when you win Producer of the Year,
Speaker 2: Like what's going through your mind as they're reading off
Speaker 2: the nominations. And I mean by that point, were you
Speaker 2: basically like I got this or no?
Speaker 7: No, because it was still like, you know, Timbaland was up,
Speaker 7: and I was like they could easily give it to
Speaker 7: him for like a life service whatever. But you know,
Speaker 7: I'm not an idiot again and not going to pretend
Speaker 7: like I know what ticks Grammy otis boxes and this
Speaker 7: was like a record that really fell in that zone
Speaker 7: because it had touches of the classics and the past,
Speaker 7: and it's like a nod to the old school shit.
Speaker 7: But no, I don't. I do remember I was very
Speaker 7: hungover at the Grammys, which because I was just like
Speaker 7: part like that was my first time at the rodeo.
Speaker 7: Suddenly I kind of made it like I'm like high
Speaker 7: fiving Rhianna some party the night before, like with my
Speaker 7: stupid like beetles blowout bob or something that I was wearing.
Speaker 7: But I was pretty hungover. It was very surreal. I
Speaker 7: do remember when they read out Producer of the Year,
Speaker 7: my friend had to like kind of like shake. It
Speaker 7: was like hey, they said your name, like you know,
Speaker 7: like it's in the movie, but the Grammys themselves. I
Speaker 7: took my mom and you know, we sat next to
Speaker 7: each other. Obviously it was my first time there, but like,
Speaker 7: you know, there's no food, there's no water, you're hungover.
Speaker 7: It's like there, you know, it's basically like sitting next
Speaker 7: to my mom in synagogue on Yong Kapor. It's like
Speaker 7: the same thing, or just like okay, when is this
Speaker 7: gonna end?
Speaker 1: But it was.
Speaker 7: It was also a magical night.
Speaker 1: Where do you keep your Grammys?
Speaker 7: Right now? They're in storage