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