Speaker 1: Loud and Quiet presents Midnight Chats.
Speaker 2: Evening listeners, Welcome to Midnight Chats. Greg here Tonight's guest
Speaker 2: on the podcast is a biggie. I mean, this guy
Speaker 2: has a Wikipedia page just for all the awards that
Speaker 2: he's won. Ordinarily, we introduced these podcasts with a bit
Speaker 2: of background and information about our guest, but you probably
Speaker 2: already know a fair bit about Mark Ronson, the British
Speaker 2: artist raised in the States, DJ turns songwriter and producer
Speaker 2: whose notable work over the past twenty years has stretched
Speaker 2: right from The Black Lips through to Paul McCartney and
Speaker 2: of course Amy Winehouse. And you're remember that his work
Speaker 2: as a solo artist was taken to another level in
Speaker 2: late twenty fourteen when he released Uptown Funk. You might
Speaker 2: have heard it, a song that became so ubiquitous that
Speaker 2: it's probably one of the few tunes you've seen your
Speaker 2: nephew and your nan dance too. Or maybe you've slid
Speaker 2: across a dancer on your knees a wedding with a
Speaker 2: tie around your head while the DJ plays it for
Speaker 2: the third time I've seen it happen. Listeners, interesting that
Speaker 2: in the conversation you're about to hear Mark talks about
Speaker 2: the legacy of that song five years on and how
Speaker 2: he's overcome that. I guess my general point is there's
Speaker 2: a lot to say about Mark's career, too many famous
Speaker 2: names to drop, so much history that you can obviously
Speaker 2: go out there and look up. So let's get much
Speaker 2: more up to date. Back in early March, I packed
Speaker 2: the podcast gear and went to meet Mark in a
Speaker 2: flashy building in Kensington, West London, where his record label
Speaker 2: are based. He'd just flown in from the States, was
Speaker 2: a little bit jet lagged and was off to a
Speaker 2: music awards ceremony that night to pick up another prize
Speaker 2: for his collection. In terms of the timing, this was
Speaker 2: about a week and a half after you may have
Speaker 2: seen him on TV winning an oscar. That's because, along
Speaker 2: with Lady Gaga, he was part of the songwriting team
Speaker 2: for that song Shallow, which appeared on the soundtrack for
Speaker 2: the very successful movie A Star Is Born. But now
Speaker 2: his focus is shifting because Mark has a new solo album,
Speaker 2: Late Night Feelings, coming out on the twenty first of June,
Speaker 2: and true to pass form, the list of guests on
Speaker 2: it is impressive. You've got Miley Cyrus, Alicia Keys, Ricky Lee,
Speaker 2: to name just a few of those involved. The setting
Speaker 2: for our chat was a very stark, white photo studio
Speaker 2: where we pulled up a couple of chairs and I
Speaker 2: like to think we got through quite a lot of
Speaker 2: stuff in the time that we had. There are stories
Speaker 2: about Oscar's night not wanting to discover his statue in
Speaker 2: the toilet of a nightclub like he has in the past.
Speaker 2: There's some stuff in there that people who like British
Speaker 2: indie guitar music from two thousand and eight will appreciate.
Speaker 2: Look up the name Anthony ross Amando for footnotes on that.
Speaker 2: What else, jumping into the window of a moving car
Speaker 2: like he does in the Nothing Breaks Like a Heart video,
Speaker 2: Why you won't sing on one of his own tracks again,
Speaker 2: his views on the most important song that he's ever written,
Speaker 2: and how clearing the dance floor with one of your
Speaker 2: own tunes is the ultimate bloody nose if you are
Speaker 2: a DJ. That sounds like it jumps all over the place,
Speaker 2: but I promise it does make sense. Final mention. This
Speaker 2: is the penultimate episode of this series of Midnight Chats,
Speaker 2: Series seven. Stuart will bring you the closing episode of
Speaker 2: the Run next week on Thursday at midnight. If you
Speaker 2: are joining us here for the first time right now, welcome.
Speaker 2: There are episodes with everyone from Foles to Stellar, Donnelly,
Speaker 2: viv Albertein to Sleepford Mods. To get into from Run,
Speaker 2: do subscribe to get every new one that we make.
Speaker 2: If you like what you hear, please do ratus and
Speaker 2: comment wherever you're listening, and if you're feeling extra generous,
Speaker 2: maybe even share it. But obviously no pressure enough from me.
Speaker 2: Let's get into the conversation. This is episode seventy two
Speaker 2: of the podcast Mark Ronson talking about late night feelings
Speaker 2: and more on Midnight Chats. Mark Ronson, Welcome to Midnight Chats.
Speaker 2: Thank you, no disrespect to anybody else that we have
Speaker 2: on this series of the podcast, but I won't get
Speaker 2: the opportunity to say congratulations to them on winning a
Speaker 2: Golden Globe. I think it was a critic's choice Grammy
Speaker 2: Oscar in the last few weeks, So congratulations.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, it's pretty crazy. I mean, obviously it's all
Speaker 4: for the song Shallow. I mean we want a Grammy
Speaker 4: for Electricity as well. But I'm not trying to like flex.
Speaker 4: I was just staying in the facts. But yeah, it's
Speaker 4: crazy what that song's done. And you know, obviously it
Speaker 4: has so much to do with the movie and the
Speaker 4: goodwill to the movie and Lady Gaga's amazing performance and
Speaker 4: the thing of her and Bradley singing the song together
Speaker 4: is pretty special. But yeah, it's it's it's crazy. It's
Speaker 4: something that I never thought would happen. So I'm very.
Speaker 2: Grateful, fascinating to know a little bit about the Oscars.
Speaker 2: What was the actual night itself, Like.
Speaker 4: Well, everyone told me, like, we'll get ready. It's really
Speaker 4: boring though, and like all this stuff, and to be honest,
Speaker 4: it really wasn't. It was actually kind of it's so
Speaker 4: different than the music awards shows because it's like in
Speaker 4: this small fitter like Grammys and stuff, Like they're in
Speaker 4: like giant arenas, and so it's like maybe like two
Speaker 4: thousand people and you know, you're sitting around really interesting people.
Speaker 4: I happen to be sitting in front of like the
Speaker 4: set designer from The Favor, like the movie happened to
Speaker 4: Love and the sets were amazing, and you know, like
Speaker 4: we weren't in that like first five roads with the
Speaker 4: craziness of like the you know, Glenn Close, Olivia Coleman, Gaga,
Speaker 4: you know, like thing, but it was amazing. And then
Speaker 4: to to have your name read from that envelope, it's
Speaker 4: just such a really surreal thing. And to get to
Speaker 4: celebrate it with Anthony and Andrew, two really dear friends
Speaker 4: of mine, and and Gaga of course was it was
Speaker 4: like something that might never happen again.
Speaker 3: So I definitely relish it.
Speaker 2: In the UK, obviously, news of Olivia Coleman's win was
Speaker 2: really greeted with so much goodwill outside of the Stary
Speaker 2: is Born, which obviously you're a fan of. Was the
Speaker 2: favorite the one you were kind of you know it was?
Speaker 4: I think the favorite was like, yeah, after Star was Born,
Speaker 4: like you know, to take taking away all personal involvement,
Speaker 4: I think the favorite was probably my favorite, sorry to
Speaker 4: be redundant movie of the year.
Speaker 3: I loved Vice as well.
Speaker 4: I haven't seen Beale Street and some of the other ones,
Speaker 4: but no, it was, it was great and it was
Speaker 4: such a you could tell Olivia Coleman was so visibly
Speaker 4: surprised and she was just great. She gave such a
Speaker 4: quintessentially British speech and it was wonderful, and yeah, and
Speaker 4: then we got to kind of meet her a bit afterwards,
Speaker 4: which was a big deal.
Speaker 2: And yeah, we get to see the acceptance speeches and
Speaker 2: the media run afterwards and the photos of people on
Speaker 2: the red carpet, But the practicalities of the night you
Speaker 2: went on stage you accepted the award, like you go
Speaker 2: out into the corridors of the theater and you do
Speaker 2: all of that stuff. But did you actually get a
Speaker 2: chance to sort of take a moment together with the
Speaker 2: people that you wrote Shallow with so yourself, Gaga, Anthony Roussimundo,
Speaker 2: Andrew Wyatt, Like later in the evening, was there a
Speaker 2: moment where all the cameras had gone and all of
Speaker 2: the hustling bustle was out of the way and you
Speaker 2: were just like, Gods, I just want to Oscar.
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely there would be like moments would be we
Speaker 4: were walking down the side thing to like to the
Speaker 4: Governor's Ball, which is the thing you go to immediately
Speaker 4: after and that's where you get your statue engraved.
Speaker 3: It's so crazy because also the Grammys like it.
Speaker 4: Obviously I'm so thrilled and lucky to want any Grammys,
Speaker 4: but they send them to you in the mail. You
Speaker 4: don't actually get anything. The same night the Oscar, they
Speaker 4: put the statue in your hand, and if you go
Speaker 4: to the Governor's Ball, you get your engraved thing and
Speaker 4: they hook it up right there. So you're like walking
Speaker 4: around the whole rest of the night with the oscar
Speaker 4: that says for shallow, Like it's so crazy. And I
Speaker 4: was just so like yeah, and every now and then,
Speaker 4: like even like Lady Gaga would just look and be like,
Speaker 4: can you believe we want to fucking oscar?
Speaker 3: Like it was just yeah.
Speaker 4: And then I went to pick up my girlfriend at
Speaker 4: the Beverly Hills Hotel and I'm like, obviously I can't
Speaker 4: even like let go of this thing.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: I'm just like standing waiting.
Speaker 4: By the valet at like the Beverly Hills Hotel because
Speaker 4: that's why she's meeting me on the way to the party,
Speaker 4: and like the people are just like, hey, man, oh yeah,
Speaker 4: can I take a picture with you in the Oscar?
Speaker 4: Like It's like I wasn't even trying to flex. It's
Speaker 4: just like that first twenty four hours you're just so giddy,
Speaker 4: like you just don't even want to like take it
Speaker 4: out of your hand for a second.
Speaker 2: Whatever you do you don't want to leave it in
Speaker 2: the glove compartment. You don't want to just you know.
Speaker 3: I got in trouble one time.
Speaker 4: I had to go accept a Q Award for Amy,
Speaker 4: and I think that I left it at the at
Speaker 4: the awards. I think I just like forgot Q Awards
Speaker 4: were like in the middle of the afternoon, and it
Speaker 4: showed up for some reason, that award in the toilet
Speaker 4: of like the Grout show club. And of course, because
Speaker 4: of my reputation at the time, I was like partying
Speaker 4: a little. Everybody was like, oh man, it must have
Speaker 4: been Mark once. I must have gone in there to
Speaker 4: do like drugs or left it in the toilet. I
Speaker 4: totally didn't. I just left it there. And then I
Speaker 4: met this guy like six years later who fessed up
Speaker 4: to me that he saw it on the table at
Speaker 4: the Q Awards. I left it, and he took it out,
Speaker 4: and they took it out all night with their mates,
Speaker 4: and then they actually accidentally left it while they were
Speaker 4: doing something bad in the toilet at the Croud show clubs.
Speaker 4: So yeah, there was no way that I was ever
Speaker 4: going to run the risk of that this time.
Speaker 2: Do you each get an oscar? So everybody was involved
Speaker 2: with the creation of that record, because I wasn't sure
Speaker 2: whether you basically had to sort of take turns in
Speaker 2: having it.
Speaker 4: You know, No, no, it's really it's cool. They give you,
Speaker 4: they give you four so I think it's up to
Speaker 4: four people. Luckily, there are only four songwriters on it,
Speaker 4: so nobody has to fight for that for that last slot.
Speaker 2: One of the piece of reaction that I really enjoyed,
Speaker 2: which wasn't after the Oscars. It was after one of
Speaker 2: the earlier ceremonies, possibly the Golden Globes, which was just
Speaker 2: a tweet from and fans of British Indie will appreciate this,
Speaker 2: The Cribs butt a tweet. I think they said, Anthony Russamunde,
Speaker 2: this guy just won two Golden Globes or a Golden Globe,
Speaker 2: whatever it was, and he played trumpet on the Goodfellows
Speaker 2: and it was just like, I really like that because
Speaker 2: I think it was just a reminder, oh yeah, you
Speaker 2: know people, I mean, you've certainly, you know, been a
Speaker 2: part of the grind to get to the point where
Speaker 2: you went in Oscow. But I just thought really pleased random.
Speaker 4: Of course it was great for Anthony, I mean Andrew's
Speaker 4: another guy that came up like making music, like we
Speaker 4: all had our success. Anthony was like in successful indie
Speaker 4: bands and like, you know, the first time I ever
Speaker 4: saw him was playing a trumpet on Deadwood the Dirty
Speaker 4: Pretty Things at a gig, and I always loved that song.
Speaker 4: And then we became good friends. And Andrew busted his
Speaker 4: ass and bands and making music forever until his early
Speaker 4: thirties when he broke with Mike Snow and the stuff
Speaker 4: that we did together, everybody put in their dudes, you know,
Speaker 4: I started off djak and hip hop clubs in New York,
Speaker 4: like it was a really it's a really cool thing.
Speaker 4: But I like that Andy got the props from like
Speaker 4: the Cribs because it's like I mean Anthony, because he
Speaker 4: really put in his time in the UK indie scene.
Speaker 2: Is it total call back to two thousand and five
Speaker 2: and me, I just enjoy that.
Speaker 4: In fact, actually I forgot when we were always going
Speaker 4: to his house on he had this He lived in
Speaker 4: Shoreditch and he had this loft like way before it
Speaker 4: was kind of like trying being super gentrified, and he
Speaker 4: had a drum kit and upright piano and it was
Speaker 4: always like the end of the night destination.
Speaker 3: The bars, pub's clothes. What are we doing?
Speaker 4: All right, We're going back to ants. So we go
Speaker 4: back and we have these jam sessions. And at the
Speaker 4: time I had just met Lady Gaga in two thousand
Speaker 4: and eight maybe nine. She was singing on a track
Speaker 4: for Wilele, this rapper that was signed to our label
Speaker 4: at the time. And you know, we left the studio
Speaker 4: in London, It's eleven at night. I was like, you
Speaker 4: want to come out with my friends and me and
Speaker 4: like have a good time tonight. She was like, yeah, sure,
Speaker 4: So I take it to like some club that everyone
Speaker 4: was hanging out at the time, probably like a bunch
Speaker 4: of Clacksons Anthony. We all go back to Anthony's house
Speaker 4: and we're having this jam session up there and Gaga
Speaker 4: is like on the piano and she's like a boss.
Speaker 4: She's giving orders, like to Anthony. She doesn't even know
Speaker 4: he is. She's like, hey, pretty brown eyes, like speed
Speaker 4: it up a little, you know, like Jack Bengatti's on
Speaker 4: the base, Like this is like real two thousand and
Speaker 4: eight nine moment, And then she had to go, like
Speaker 4: just dance was just blowing up and she had to
Speaker 4: go to a gig in Birmingham or something, and it
Speaker 4: was like it was one turned into two, turned into
Speaker 4: three in the morning, and her tour manager eventually showed
Speaker 4: up and like a double wide, proper tour bus on
Speaker 4: this tiny street. I don't even know how you got
Speaker 4: it down, and like rang the buzzer like five in
Speaker 4: the morning.
Speaker 3: It's like, is Gaga there. They're like, yeah, she's here.
Speaker 4: It's like, can you tell her we got to go
Speaker 4: to Birmingham, So like her tour bus had to come
Speaker 4: to like Great Eastern Street to pick her up to
Speaker 4: go to this gig because she was just like having
Speaker 4: such a good time jamming with us. And that was
Speaker 4: the first time we met. And then to think like
Speaker 4: cut to you know, eight years later we're writing this
Speaker 4: song and ten years later were this awards thing is crazy.
Speaker 2: The stuff we talked about painty jus there. Do you
Speaker 2: think that's why it seemed like such an emotional moment.
Speaker 2: There was a lot of very genuine tears, particularly from Gaga,
Speaker 2: you know, in the speech, but then afterwards when she
Speaker 2: speaks to the media, it did feel like it was
Speaker 2: quite an overwhelming moment, possibly for all of you. Is
Speaker 2: that part of the reason why.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was because like you never expect to be
Speaker 4: on that stage, and you know, even if people tell
Speaker 4: you you got a good chance of winning or whatever,
Speaker 4: that is, like you blocked that out because like there
Speaker 4: can always be a upset. You never want to take
Speaker 4: anything as a given. It was an emotional moment. It
Speaker 4: was to be representing that film, to be up there
Speaker 4: with three people that I love.
Speaker 3: And I love making music with. It was it was real.
Speaker 2: To get back to work the next day. What did
Speaker 2: you do the morning after the Oscars?
Speaker 4: I think, I like, I think I took I'm always
Speaker 4: like way too ambitious and I like book like some
Speaker 4: like boxing session or some crazy shit at like eleven
Speaker 4: in the morning. And and now I know, after like
Speaker 4: the fourth time I've canceled, I'm like, what am I
Speaker 4: trying to do here? So actually that day I took
Speaker 4: the day off, which was very nice. And then I
Speaker 4: think I had a meeting with King Princess I was
Speaker 4: supposed to do and I was like, I'm sorry, do
Speaker 4: you mind if I skip it today? But then Tuesday
Speaker 4: I was back to work.
Speaker 2: So yeah, the time that you spend together, the four
Speaker 2: of you in the room making shadow the song that's
Speaker 2: done so well and been recognized by so many people.
Speaker 2: What do you recall from that day or that night
Speaker 2: just put us in that room with you. What was
Speaker 2: it like and how did that song come together?
Speaker 3: I think there was a couple of nights.
Speaker 4: Actually there was at least two nights, and I had
Speaker 4: already introduced it to Anthony and Andrew. She knew they
Speaker 4: were my friends. I think she got a good vibe
Speaker 4: from them quickly, and you know, obviously I had been
Speaker 4: working with her on her Joe An albums, so like.
Speaker 3: We had this quick.
Speaker 4: Bond and everybody, you know, Anthony and Andrew two are like,
Speaker 4: these are like talented songwriters, but these are like emotionally sensitive,
Speaker 4: vulnerable people. I mean, I think most fucking people are.
Speaker 4: And it just felt like in that room there was
Speaker 4: like this kind of slightly ghostly feeling, and she we
Speaker 4: hed the headphones on, and because she likes to record,
Speaker 4: instead of everyone's sitting around the piano kind of singing
Speaker 4: out loud, she likes to sing into the mic and
Speaker 4: everyone has their headphones on because the nuance of her
Speaker 4: voice and the different turns that she can take, like
Speaker 4: just doing this most subtle different thing she has so
Speaker 4: much emotion and different kind of ways to a motentor voice.
Speaker 3: They changed the way the song is, so it's really
Speaker 3: helpful to hear that voice up so close. And yeah,
Speaker 3: it just.
Speaker 4: I remember there was just like this kind of sensitive
Speaker 4: energy because I feel like everyone was going through some shit.
Speaker 4: I was having, like my big breakup was happening, and
Speaker 4: I don't know exactly about the other guys, but I
Speaker 4: felt everything she was singing that night, and it felt powerful.
Speaker 2: Onto other things. At the end of last year, you
Speaker 2: released Nothing Breaks Like a Heart. Yeah, the first time
Speaker 2: I heard Nothing Breaks Like a Heart. I watched the
Speaker 2: video at the same time, and it's a great video.
Speaker 2: Hopefully people have seen it by now. It features Miley
Speaker 2: Cyrus being chased by the police through streets of La.
Speaker 4: It's kind of supposed to be La, I think, I mean,
Speaker 4: we shut it in Kiev, but it's I imagine it's
Speaker 4: like kind of LA. I mean, the most of the
Speaker 4: video is kind of Miley and Roman Gabres's brainchild. But
Speaker 4: I could try and answer any questions as best as possible.
Speaker 2: This one moment where you jump out of a moving
Speaker 2: car and into another car, and I was like, is
Speaker 2: that Mark Ronson or is that a stunt person I am.
Speaker 4: I can safely say that it's me landing in the car,
Speaker 4: but I'm not doing the jumping off of I remember
Speaker 4: I watched this video treatment and I was like, listen,
Speaker 4: like Miley Cyrus is like one of the most charismatic
Speaker 4: pop stars in the world. Like, I'm not trying to
Speaker 4: like overdo my FaceTime in this video. But I read
Speaker 4: the treatment and I was like, kind of barely in it,
Speaker 4: and I was like, well, at least can I like
Speaker 4: jump from a moving car or something, or is there
Speaker 4: enough money left in the budget?
Speaker 2: Was it like a throwaway comment or were you like no, Like.
Speaker 4: I was like, I want to do some fast and
Speaker 4: furious shit, like I want to jump from a moving car.
Speaker 4: So at least when I'm I have my little scene
Speaker 4: in this video, it's it's kind of memorable. And that's
Speaker 4: how it came about.
Speaker 2: How have you felt, broadly about the reaction to the song.
Speaker 4: I'm super like, you know, happy, because you know, obviously,
Speaker 4: usually when I put out a new song, it doesn't
Speaker 4: sound a lot like anything else going on on the
Speaker 4: radio the charts at that time, so it's always a
Speaker 4: little bit of a gamble, but you know, you start
Speaker 4: with the song you really believe in, and then you
Speaker 4: kind of like ford to fight with all these other elements. Okay,
Speaker 4: like let's make sure it's like dancing. And then obviously
Speaker 4: Miley is an incredible singer and one of the biggest
Speaker 4: stars in the world, so that's not gonna hurt.
Speaker 3: It's great.
Speaker 4: And I guess the thing is like when you come
Speaker 4: out with a song that doesn't sound like anything else
Speaker 4: and has a chance to do well, that's when you
Speaker 4: really like that song gets really felt because I think
Speaker 4: the biggest songs I've ever been involved with, like rehab A,
Speaker 4: Locked Out of Heaven or Uptown Funk, like they don't
Speaker 4: tell like anything else at the time, so they really
Speaker 4: stand out if they get if they do get big.
Speaker 4: So I'm super fucking psyched that people have, you know,
Speaker 4: fuck with it in the way that they have, and I'm.
Speaker 3: Proud of it.
Speaker 4: And you know, it's like, I guess it's got some
Speaker 4: more emotional depth, and like usually when I'm working on
Speaker 4: other people's records, I'm like, well, that's why I do
Speaker 4: serious music, you know, working with Queens of the Stone
Speaker 4: Age or Lady Gaga and my own records should be
Speaker 4: fun because that's what people want from me because I'm
Speaker 4: a DJ. And then this with this record because of
Speaker 4: shit going on in my personal life, and I was
Speaker 4: like confronted with stuff that like I really kind of
Speaker 4: had no choice but to put the emotions first. And
Speaker 4: then you got to find a way to still make
Speaker 4: it feel like a pop record, and that's a challenge,
Speaker 4: and that's a fun challenge too.
Speaker 2: You mentioned having worked with Miley and like the fact
Speaker 2: that she has not just an incredible voice and the
Speaker 2: performance on that track is phenomenal, also that she's very,
Speaker 2: very charismatic, and it made me smile, like looking at
Speaker 2: some of the stuff when you come over to the
Speaker 2: UK at the end of last year in December to
Speaker 2: obviously do like the big chat shows like the Graham
Speaker 2: Norton Show and do Radio one and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: What was it like when you go on a promo
Speaker 2: tour with somebody like Miley Cyrus. Is it like behind
Speaker 2: the scenes when you're doing the car between the Graham
Speaker 2: Norton Show and the Radio one Breakfast show or whatever.
Speaker 2: Is it is it fun? Is it like? Is it
Speaker 2: like keeping up with her because she seems like she's
Speaker 2: got an incredible energy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is really fun.
Speaker 4: In fact, I was thinking about it the whole time
Speaker 4: while she was waking up at eight in the morning
Speaker 4: to go do whatever radio thing we're doing on TV shows,
Speaker 4: Like she has such a good attitude and she was
Speaker 4: really treating this whole thing like it's her comeback single too,
Speaker 4: so she would like she put all her energy into it.
Speaker 4: And I remember just being in some of those car
Speaker 4: rides that you're kind of like talking about, just being like, man,
Speaker 4: how lucky that this is like my riding shotgun partner
Speaker 4: for this for this record, because you know, I've done
Speaker 4: records with big people for and nobody showed up like
Speaker 4: she has for the promo and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: In terms of putting a song together, I know that
Speaker 2: last time you and I caught up a few years
Speaker 2: ago now, it was around Uptown Special, and we talked
Speaker 2: obviously about Uptown Funk and the amount of time that
Speaker 2: it took to put that song together. Am I right
Speaker 2: in thinking that with nothing breaks like a Heart that
Speaker 2: came together relatively quickly compared to something that Uptown Funk
Speaker 2: it did.
Speaker 4: I mean the fact that we had the little skeleton
Speaker 4: of the chorus idea, and we got with Miley. And
Speaker 4: even though I had kind of chased Miley for four years,
Speaker 4: kind of blowing up her phone to no avail, but
Speaker 4: like had always wanted to work with her. She was
Speaker 4: like in the zone working on her new album because
Speaker 4: she was working with Andrew Whitt and I knew they
Speaker 4: were in the studio, so I was like, all right,
Speaker 4: fuck it, I'm gonna try one more time, send her something,
Speaker 4: and she didn't. She wrote right back, So she came
Speaker 4: to the studio, her and Ilsey who wrote the chorus, like,
Speaker 4: they wrote all the verses, and then Miley went on
Speaker 4: and sang it. The minute she sang like the first
Speaker 4: maybe two lines, it was so obvious, I was like,
Speaker 4: oh man, this is gonna be special. Like it was
Speaker 4: just the way her voice and that stuff. And then
Speaker 4: the verses they wrote were so good. And we did
Speaker 4: leave this studio that day pretty much with a written song,
Speaker 4: which is not something that I'm really that used to
Speaker 4: because you know, other things I've done taken so much longer.
Speaker 4: But then I guess, you know, it's always like two
Speaker 4: percent inspiration ninety eight percent perspiration.
Speaker 3: Then once the song was written.
Speaker 4: It was like months of like tweaking the drums, you know, mixing,
Speaker 4: like all these kind of things to just like, like
Speaker 4: I said, really fortify the tune and make sure that, like,
Speaker 4: what's the point in having this amazing song with Miley
Speaker 4: Cyrus if I haven't done enough to the track and
Speaker 4: the production to like give it a chance to like
Speaker 4: to pop. So I spent so much time in a
Speaker 4: room by myself, like staying at a computer screen, try
Speaker 4: moving drums around, trying different shit, But like that's my job,
Speaker 4: So I don't really mind.
Speaker 2: How do you feel about the ubiquity of Uptown Funk
Speaker 2: in the end, just how omnipresent that song became.
Speaker 3: I think it's just remarkable.
Speaker 4: Like I don't know, I can't really think about it
Speaker 4: too much because it's so like I said, like you
Speaker 4: make these songs, and like you do the best thing
Speaker 4: that you possibly can in the studio, and you nurture
Speaker 4: and you like add these elements to really give it
Speaker 4: a shot.
Speaker 2: Have you been at any weddings where it's come on yet?
Speaker 2: Because I don't think I've been to a wedding since
Speaker 2: where Uptown Funk has not been played.
Speaker 3: I don't I think I've been to one or two weddings.
Speaker 4: I've been in a couple of clubs, some random places
Speaker 4: where it's come on. And what I hear mostly is
Speaker 4: like my friends who have kids who are like two
Speaker 4: or three, they're like, it's it's their favorite song, and
Speaker 4: they send me videos of them like dancing to it,
Speaker 4: and like that's.
Speaker 2: Is that still cute or is that got annoying?
Speaker 3: No, that's always cute.
Speaker 4: You can't really tell like your friends, like I may
Speaker 4: I've seen a lot of these already.
Speaker 3: Sorry.
Speaker 2: It was interesting because again, when I was a few
Speaker 2: years ago, when you were putting that album out, you
Speaker 2: were talking about how you'd love to make a track
Speaker 2: that just felt classic, that hung around, that's something really
Speaker 2: endured and you did that. So like that has joined
Speaker 2: this upper extralong, this sort of elite bracket of songs
Speaker 2: that just seems like, yeah, it's just it's it's a classic,
Speaker 2: it's a modern classic. So is that was that a
Speaker 2: big tick in that box or what tave you on
Speaker 2: to then start making more music.
Speaker 4: It feels good, definitely. I Mean, like I said, it's
Speaker 4: not something that you really have any control over, so
Speaker 4: you can't get too caught up in those things, but
Speaker 4: if it does happen, it's incredible and it's one in
Speaker 4: a million things. And then, yeah, it was I would
Speaker 4: say that. You know, I followed it up by working
Speaker 4: with Lady Gaga and Joeanne and Queens of the stone
Speaker 4: Age on Villain, so like it wasn't like I went
Speaker 4: straight into making my own record, but it was certainly
Speaker 4: daunting to you know, come back and start working on
Speaker 4: my record. And I, you know, as much as I
Speaker 4: love working with Kevin Parker and Diplow, I think I
Speaker 4: used those projects in the beginning, when I was working
Speaker 4: on them in like twenty seventeen, as a distraction because
Speaker 4: I was like, Okay, well if I work with them,
Speaker 4: like it's not a solo thing, it can't be judged
Speaker 4: against uptown funk. Like I think I was shying away
Speaker 4: so much because subconsciously, I just like didn't want the
Speaker 4: pressure following up that record. And then you know, shits
Speaker 4: happened in life, and like I ended up with this
Speaker 4: kind of like emotional excess baggage to burn and that
Speaker 4: started started making some music and it started to once
Speaker 4: I had late Night Feelings, the song with Leaky Lee
Speaker 4: and Don't leave me lonely with Yeah. But it suddenly
Speaker 4: started to feel like maybe I had an album growing,
Speaker 4: and it was like it had a bit of a theme,
Speaker 4: and you know, there was something to worth.
Speaker 2: Before we go a little bit deeper into late night feelings.
Speaker 2: I went to a talk the other day that was
Speaker 2: about technology and music, and I kind of thought of
Speaker 2: you because I was interested to get your take on
Speaker 2: all of that stuff. It was about artificial intelligence and
Speaker 2: where that's going to be meeting with music and the
Speaker 2: product of that. You know, where we might wear a
Speaker 2: wristband that responds, that plays us music depending on what
Speaker 2: type of emotion that we're feeling at that sort of
Speaker 2: certain time, and things like that. As somebody that's always
Speaker 2: been known for creating music using not old fashioned techniques
Speaker 2: but loving like the analog sounds like loving visiting those
Speaker 2: really storage studios, for example in Memphis when you record
Speaker 2: it down there. How do you feel about the emergence
Speaker 2: of new technology and music.
Speaker 4: I don't mind, however, people like I'll always make the
Speaker 4: music the way that I make it.
Speaker 3: And you know, some of my.
Speaker 4: Favorite producers, whether it's Kevin Parker or Hudmo or whoever,
Speaker 4: they're all unable to, and they make stuff that I
Speaker 4: love as well. I just happened to, you know, have
Speaker 4: the tools that I have at this point, and that
Speaker 4: works for me. You know, technology has changed the way
Speaker 4: that we kind.
Speaker 3: Of like access music.
Speaker 4: Obviously, streamings changed everything. I don't mind it, Like that's
Speaker 4: how kids want to listen to music. That's great, and
Speaker 4: I want them to listen to my music. So I'm
Speaker 4: going to figure out how to hopefully make that happen.
Speaker 4: It's the only thing that I ever like kind of
Speaker 4: doubt is like when they have to thing about algorithms
Speaker 4: like creating music and stuff like that. I'm not sure
Speaker 4: if a computer could fully like kind of get the
Speaker 4: same thing out of like writing a song, but maybe,
Speaker 4: like some songwriting is math.
Speaker 3: So it's hard to say.
Speaker 2: In terms of the origins of late night Feelings, what
Speaker 2: role did Club Heartbreak play in that and putting on
Speaker 2: those events and for those people who don't necessarily know
Speaker 2: what that was or is, tell us some more.
Speaker 4: Well, actually, like they kind of happen concurrently. So while
Speaker 4: I was working on the record and I was out
Speaker 4: writing lyrics, Rommi from XX was out there and Caius,
Speaker 4: our friend who manages the XX as well. Had you know,
Speaker 4: he's always got good, clever, grand conceptual ideas.
Speaker 3: He was like, you guys should do a.
Speaker 4: Club night while you're working on this record and play
Speaker 4: your favorite kind of like emotional dance music.
Speaker 3: Whereas my friend Rory Phillips.
Speaker 4: Coined at Sad Bangers and we called the night club Heartbreak,
Speaker 4: and I came up with this idea to put you know,
Speaker 4: a broken heart like discoble in the shape of a
Speaker 4: broken heart and just invited our friends, like maybe thirty
Speaker 4: people to the studio and played records. And it did
Speaker 4: inform because like the next day we came in all
Speaker 4: excited and I was like, we should do something simple
Speaker 4: with a kick and like an acoustic guitar like and
Speaker 4: nothing breaks came out of that, and so that album
Speaker 4: kind of informed the night and vice versa, and then
Speaker 4: we did a couple more since then, and I'd love
Speaker 4: to do I'm looking forward to doing some more as well.
Speaker 2: Do you still enjoy DJing as much as you ever did?
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I still really enjoy it. And it's like really nice,
Speaker 4: like when you got a few new singles out those
Speaker 4: a couple of records you made that you're excited to play.
Speaker 4: There was nothing worse than kind of like just before
Speaker 4: Electricity came out and I was like on my third
Speaker 4: summer of playing uptown Funk and just being like, oh man,
Speaker 4: I feel like a parody in myself. Like people just
Speaker 4: looking at the stage like really bro, like you haven't
Speaker 4: made anything new since then. But yeah, now like to
Speaker 4: go out and get to play nothing Breaks and Electricity
Speaker 4: and like work them into the set and make it
Speaker 4: rethink how I play it.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: With all of your DJ experience over the years, having
Speaker 2: started DJing in the clubs over New York City in
Speaker 2: the mid to late nineties, do you ever still drop
Speaker 2: a song where people leave the dance floor and you're
Speaker 2: like your ego just gets bruised as a tiny bit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course.
Speaker 4: I mean it hasn't happened in a while that I
Speaker 4: cleared the whole dance floor.
Speaker 3: About it better th knock on wood.
Speaker 4: I think that the only thing worse than clearing a
Speaker 4: dance floor is clearing a dance floor with one of
Speaker 4: your own songs. So like you have to you have
Speaker 4: to be kind of careful of like playing anything that's
Speaker 4: like a little too New. I had to talk with
Speaker 4: Calvin about it too. You know, he made an amazing
Speaker 4: album Funk, and he said, like, you know, I got
Speaker 4: I'm playing Vegas and it's like hard for me to
Speaker 4: play anything except slide And I think it's crazy because
Speaker 4: I play like I played the Katie Perry ferrall on
Speaker 4: all the time and stuff.
Speaker 3: But yeah, no, it's it's yeah, I guess it's every
Speaker 3: DJ sphere.
Speaker 2: And will you take the songs from Late Night Feelings
Speaker 2: out on the road in that form? Because you didn't
Speaker 2: tour Uptown Special with a live band, because I mean
Speaker 2: presumably that was because there were so many people involved,
Speaker 2: and maybe you want to do something slightly different. What
Speaker 2: do you think you might do this time?
Speaker 4: I think it was just impossible to take out Uptown Special.
Speaker 4: I don't know if it would be any easier to
Speaker 4: do Late Night Feelings. But for Uptown Special we did
Speaker 4: like a Glass and Bari and a couple Australian festivals
Speaker 4: and it was wonderful to even get to do that.
Speaker 4: For this album, I think, yeah, but in Leek and
Speaker 4: King Princess are down to come do some shows, it
Speaker 4: would be fun to maybe just take out the club
Speaker 4: Heartbreak Night and then have different people perform.
Speaker 2: When you released Uptown Special, you had Michael Shabn involved
Speaker 2: on the lyrical front, which it was one of your
Speaker 2: favorite authors, and so you brought him in and he
Speaker 2: came into the studio. I remember you telling me stories
Speaker 2: of you know, you'd be there with Kevin Parker and
Speaker 2: the rest of the musicians that helped you put that together.
Speaker 2: Michael Shaban, very much a fish out of water, would
Speaker 2: be in the corner writing lyrics as you were putting
Speaker 2: the song together. So when it came to the lyrics
Speaker 2: on this record, are they all yours and your collaborators?
Speaker 2: And why did you want to do something different again?
Speaker 4: I guess I just wanted to make something that felt
Speaker 4: a little more personal this time. And Michael's a good friend.
Speaker 4: He's such an amazing writer and he's my favorite author,
Speaker 4: and he also wrote brilliant lyrics. He like did exactly
Speaker 4: or like even better than what we wanted for that record.
Speaker 4: But there's also not personal at all. I think that
Speaker 4: the music was a little bit personal, but like there's
Speaker 4: like a detached thing. And I mean I think that
Speaker 4: like even on my other records, I love Bang Bang Bang,
Speaker 4: I love the bikes, but they're not really a lot
Speaker 4: of me and those lyrics if at all. And then
Speaker 4: version is you know, couldn't be any further from it.
Speaker 4: It's a covers album. So this was really the first
Speaker 4: album where yeah, I was like either wrote the lyrics
Speaker 4: or co wrote them with the singers, and because it
Speaker 4: just felt like that's what the album needed. And I
Speaker 4: don't want to get all like new age and stuff,
Speaker 4: but you know, like going to therapy and going through
Speaker 4: some shit like I probably like never even thought it
Speaker 4: was all right to even like voice out loud like
Speaker 4: some things that I might be feeling like let alone
Speaker 4: actually put them in a song. So you know, it
Speaker 4: makes sense that this is kind of the album that
Speaker 4: I've done.
Speaker 2: Now, is this by far and away the most personal,
Speaker 2: the most Mark Runs and of Mark Runs and Records?
Speaker 4: Yeah, but like nothing else really compares because I mean,
Speaker 4: I mean, I think the other ones are dear Mark
Speaker 4: Runs and Records obviously, because like they're my core and like,
Speaker 4: you know, my sensibility. But there had never been my
Speaker 4: personality or never really like my emotions or what I
Speaker 4: was kind of like feeling at the time.
Speaker 2: So yeah, any reluctance to doing that and sharing that
Speaker 2: or did it just feel completely like there's no right
Speaker 2: to be vulnerable? Was the right thing to do?
Speaker 4: It felt like the right thing to do, and to
Speaker 4: have like sparring partners like Elsie Juba and Leaky Lee
Speaker 4: and King Princess and yeah, but while you're doing that
Speaker 4: is like it's incredible because obviously, like you know, sometimes
Speaker 4: I just had the chords. It's not like I had
Speaker 4: all the songs and lyrics and not everybody has to
Speaker 4: be going through the exact same thing and saying it
Speaker 4: the exact same way. There's just like a shared sense
Speaker 4: of like, Okay, this feels like we're all in the
Speaker 4: same ballpark.
Speaker 2: And what about singing? Do you think you're singing one
Speaker 2: of your own tracks?
Speaker 1: Ever?
Speaker 2: Again? No, is that because the experience of going out
Speaker 2: and performing it and having to sing was such a
Speaker 2: difficult thing to encounter.
Speaker 4: I just don't really want to hear my own voice,
Speaker 4: so like it's not like to be self deprecating, it's
Speaker 4: just it's not something that I'd listened to on a record,
Speaker 4: so I would be not that tempted to make it.
Speaker 4: And also like the songs and the I mean, the
Speaker 4: voices on this record, from Lee Key to Angel Olsen
Speaker 4: to Alicia Keys, like these just some are like the greatest,
Speaker 4: most powerful, wonderful, extraordinary, unique voices of a generation. Like
Speaker 4: there's nothing in them that you listen to and you girl,
Speaker 4: like I could do that, Like that'd be fun. I
Speaker 4: like great voices too much. I don't think I have
Speaker 4: a fuck around with it.
Speaker 2: By the time people hear this, it obviously have heard
Speaker 2: the chat that you've done with Miley Nothing Breaks like
Speaker 2: a Heart, But they'd also have heard the song that
Speaker 2: you've got with Ricky Lea you just mentioned. Tell us
Speaker 2: a little bit about that song and why you're so
Speaker 2: you know, happy, I'm looking forward to sharing that. Well.
Speaker 4: That was one of the first songs that really like
Speaker 4: came about that started to point the direction of the album.
Speaker 4: And it was actually while I was working with Silk
Speaker 4: City Diplo and I met this song writer at Ilsey
Speaker 4: Juba and it was at the end of the night.
Speaker 4: I think we had tried to write over a bunch
Speaker 4: of dance tracks and like it didn't work, and she
Speaker 4: was like, do you want to try one more thing?
Speaker 4: And I was like, what I really want you to
Speaker 4: is go home, because I want to go home, Like,
Speaker 4: but we just I just started playing some chords and
Speaker 4: she came up with that verse lyric and melody and
Speaker 4: it was really special. I had this kind of haunting
Speaker 4: Stevie Nick sing to it as well, but it like
Speaker 4: had a four on the floor drum beat. And then
Speaker 4: we were having a bit a hard time with the
Speaker 4: chorus and she was like, well, I should get Leaky
Speaker 4: over because she was working on Leeky's album at the time.
Speaker 4: And then Leaky came in and helped write the whole
Speaker 4: chorus and came up with Late Night Feelings, and yeah,
Speaker 4: it's just like I love this song. I love a
Speaker 4: vocal performance on it. She's on like three or four
Speaker 4: songs on the album. She really is kind of like
Speaker 4: the running thread Leaky.
Speaker 2: Where are you spending most of your time these days?
Speaker 2: Are you in Los Angeles for the most of the part?
Speaker 4: I'm mostly in Los Angeles, but I spent a lot
Speaker 4: of time in New York.
Speaker 3: I really missed New York. Most of my work is
Speaker 3: in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: So in the past, You've obviously always worked on numerous projects,
Speaker 2: often dipping in out of things at the same time.
Speaker 2: Like what lessons is kind of doing this for twenty
Speaker 2: odd years kind of taught you, like, do you take
Speaker 2: things a little bit slower these days? Do you have
Speaker 2: a little bit more time for yourself? Do you I'm
Speaker 2: just interested in the day to day, like how you
Speaker 2: feel about it.
Speaker 4: You know, It's like I've learned to make it more manageable.
Speaker 4: I think the fact is that I'm not going out
Speaker 4: caning it every night, like that certainly makes a big difference.
Speaker 4: LA is really wonderful because even though like, I'm not
Speaker 4: like somebody who cares about what the weather's like honestly,
Speaker 4: because I spend most of my time inside the studio.
Speaker 4: But like LA is great for the amount of great
Speaker 4: talented people who work there. That like, if I have
Speaker 4: a song, like the last song on the album Spinning,
Speaker 4: I just had like one idea even though the album
Speaker 4: was kind of rapped, and I can just call it
Speaker 4: Ilsey up and be like I got one less heartbreak
Speaker 4: you ready, Like it's just like so many great talented people.
Speaker 4: LA has the concentration of wealth when it comes to
Speaker 4: like writers and all that shit right now, so like
Speaker 4: in it, you know, it fluctuates, It goes from London
Speaker 4: to New York, to Atlanta to La But right now
Speaker 4: it's kind of there, so that's why I'm there.
Speaker 2: What do you think has been the most important song
Speaker 2: that you've ever made during your career? Not necessarily the biggest,
Speaker 2: but like maybe the one that's changed the direction of
Speaker 2: things for you. So if you were to look back
Speaker 2: over all of that, what's the most important song you've
Speaker 2: ever made?
Speaker 4: I mean, I'd have to probably say back to Black
Speaker 4: because that's the first song that me and Amy did together.
Speaker 4: It's the only song we wrote together. It's the reason
Speaker 4: it started everything. You know, my success with Amy is
Speaker 4: really the reason that I met anyone, Bruno whatever it is,
Speaker 4: Gaga like, So, yeah, that's that would be the one.
Speaker 2: Do your memories of Amy Jenardy come up just when
Speaker 2: you're doing things like this, recording interviews and things like that,
Speaker 2: or day to day are you like, do you think
Speaker 2: about it?
Speaker 3: I think about it a lot.
Speaker 4: I couldn't tell you if it's like three days a
Speaker 4: week or two days a week, But of course I
Speaker 4: think about her a lot because she was such a
Speaker 4: big influence over me musically, and she's like her presence
Speaker 4: is still like hangs over.
Speaker 2: She'd have been a great voice on this record.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know if she would have liked this record.
Speaker 3: I can never tell.
Speaker 4: I played her eight bars at Bang Bang Bang, and
Speaker 4: like she started to turn it down once at her house.
Speaker 3: I don't know. It's hard to read.
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