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The fashionably flamboyant 35 year old New York based Brit has a chequered musical history less associated with electronic music then other genres. As a mainstream music producer he was behind chart hits for talents such as Britney Spears, Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen, but, cut his trade first and foremost as a musician and DJ. The man who sits before me is not what I expected. A relative of British politicians, twin sisters, one a New York fashion designer, the other, a DJ who hangs out with famous Hollywood actresses.

Who hasn't heard about the Ronsons and their partying shenanigans? I expected a toffee nosed stuck up fashionista public school boy, Ronson is quite the opposite. Under a cascade of burnished walnut colour hair soft brown eyes drift in and out of eye contact with me in a shy retiring way. He talks candidly, without reserve and listens intrepidly. It's comforting to be in his space which airs as one gentle in disposition and highly grounded, as if the British ascendency in his bloodline or the Hollywood and New York high life has not touched his life or else it's all just an impression naturally created onwards to those he encounters.

Ronson's DJ career started in the early 90's at small hip-hop clubs in downtown New York to which minor hip hop luminaries and eventually Puff Daddy and Jay Z- started attending to which he say's "The first club I played Puffy gave me a $100 note, telling me to take the money. I refused he scrumpled it up and threw it at me. Then he gave me his no. and told me to call him." After Puffy others followed such as Pharell and Kanye West "I was a huge fan of their music. "Here Comes the Fuzz" kind of came and went past me and at 30 I was saying maybe I'm just not that good. I'd seen Pharrell and Kanye just go really stellar, but it wasn't happening. Then I met Lily in a pub and it happened and then the Radiohead cover changed everything. I was really lucky, to be fair I got more credit for Lily's single, I know people would say I was the man behind Lily Allen and she would get really angry, phone me up and say F**k you and hang up."

In the past it was almost as if Ronson dispelled his own self ability and worth, happy to be the producer, not fully convinced he was worthy of the creator moniker "When I met Amy I had given up on achieving commercial success which gave me freedom. I was really surprised in America when it started to do well. Even though I live there I had kind of resigned myself to not being successful over there." Those Winehouse productions he worked upon sold millions of albums but a visit to the IMS showcase at Dalt Villa Ibiza was his chance to be a 'DJ' and to be interviewed by Pete Tong for the conference attendees about a forthcoming album "Record Collection" by his new project Mark Ronson and The Business Intl.

O n collaborations with Duran Duran and Boy George for tracks on the album he say's "Duran Duran were my first music obsession, I had the Smash Hits sticker book", but, its new single 'Bang, Bang, Bang' with an infectious electro pop fused hip-hop collaboration from tribe called quest legend Q-Tip who sings lyrics that connect to a generation and newcomer MNDR that really impacts "I wanted to make something for the kids that they could jump up and down to."

5 minutes with the down to earth Mark Ronson.

You seem like a really humble guy did you have encounters with any strong personalities in the music industry and how did you learn from that experience if so?  
Well I think I'm mainly a producer before I'm an artist. You have to be able to collaborate with people well and pull the best out of them. Working with Amy Winehouse, we made most of the songs in about 2 weeks and she taught me in a studio you are in a really sensitive situation, she would just say "No I don't like it, don't bother cos its shit." I think it's helpful now that I just have a bell in a front of the office. Playing Ibiza is great, I don't play house music but the energy here and the way people get excited about its awesome. I'd like to try and maybe play an Ibiza Rocks gig before the end of the summer...If people don't like it they can hit the bell and there is no emotion and we can move onto next idea. Then you have producers that are really famous for being very competitive and they get the drummer really pissed off before they go in because they think they get a better performance out of it. I can't really do that and I don't work like that. I'm quite lucky to be friends with most of the people I work with cos everybody is quite cool. I don't know if it's an inherent thing when I meet them, ok that person seems cool I can work with them. It's not super important for the craft to gel, you hear stories about Gwen Stefani, she always said making that record with Dre or the Neptunes she was in tears every day. Me personally I don't like that energy in the studio I don't work well from it. I'm lucky that I've not had to work with anyone that I've had to think about that too much. When your producing a record you might have ideas that you have that you think is good but at the end of the day it's that band or that singer's album so you kind of have to take a backseat. You can input but if at some point somebody say's I don't like that idea I don't want to do it you have to say ok, cool it's your album 

You've come a long way since doing gigs for $50 in New York, do you ever feel the payment you get now is too far from where it started or its just credit where credits due?
Basically, I don't think people know this but when you produce records all your getting is an advance, so all it is an upfront against your future royalties, now obviously records don't sell like they used to so it's good kind of to get an advance, cos your not guaranteed and you never know when the bottoms going to fall out of the industry but your only getting what your gonna get back anyway. It seems to be fair it's a system that's worked for a while anyhow.

What's your feeling towards sampling? You've sampled a lot in the past with your albums; have you ever come up against barriers?
You just have to be smart about it. You know not to go sampling The Beatles or Led Zeppelin no matter how tempted you can be. I discovered when I was working with the DAP Kings the band that played on Amy Winehouse track, I discovered that there was a band that played and sounded like my favourite records that I sampled from and that era and that made me realise my life is changed here. I never need to go back and sample again.  

What's on your DJ and Producer equipment list then?
Serrato. I'm not as good of a DJ as I used to be when I played vinyl. There's something about getting your 200 records ready and prepping them for the club. I used to put anal BPM stickers on mine. I love the convenience of digital and playing with Serrato but I do miss a little bit of the culture that was there when I started. The MPC 3000 is a cool drum sampler, playing instruments, that's all I knew about producing and then I learnt all that stuff later. I used an 8 track machine from 60's on Amy's records but my ideas. The whole idea we were making on Amy's records was to make a soul record.

Ibiza - what have you got planned for the summer out here? How important is Ibiza to you? Are you still thinking like a DJ or is it pure producer thinking now?
I have a gig with Zane Lowe on August 5^th which I'm really excited about. Me and Zane usually do one thing each summer and he's got amazing as a DJ I really have to step my game up a bit when we play together.  Playing Ibiza is great, I don't play house music but the energy here and the way people get excited about its awesome. I'd like to try and maybe play an Ibiza Rocks gig before the end of the summer if I can get my band together

It was rumoured that you were on a hit list created by extremist Muslims for being a prominent Jewish person was this is true?
No, I found out it was some planted story. Yeah, at first when I heard it I thought that's a little weird. It's not like I'm Salmon Rushdie and there was like 80 contracts on my life. This guy was exposed he ran a security company for high profile clients and I think he was trying to scare up more work for his industry. It was a really bizarre thing. It was an English guy who planted this fake email to get people thinking that there was some reason to be afraid. It was a little scary when I saw it but then I was like f**k it I can't change the way I live my life. If I'm supposed to go I'm supposed to go. Just live your life. 

Mark Ronson Ibiza Dates
Radio 1  from Come Together @ Space
05th August on the Covered Terrace
Radio 1 Presents:
Zane Lowe B2B Mark Ronson
More Info Here

Radio 1 in Ibiza live from Ibiza Rocks
Friday 6th August 19H00-21H00 (UK time)
Annie Mac
Mark Ronson
Tinchy Stryder
Chase and Status feat. Mali and MC Rage
Riva Starr
Katy B

www.markronson.com | www.myspace.com/markronson