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Mark Ronson must be one brave man. Not content with re-working Radiohead, the producer du jour is now releasing a whole album of cover versions stamped with his trademark brassy funk, aptly titled ‘Version’. The project, which is the follow up to his 2003 debut ‘Here Comes The Fuzz’, was conceived after he reworked Radiohead’s ‘Just’ for the Exit Music compilation. Songs given the Mark Ronson treatment in the selection are a diverse lot; from ‘Toxic’ by Britney Spears, to ‘God Put A Smile On Your Face’ by Coldplay to his brilliant current single, a cover of The Smiths’ ‘Stop Me.’ Gigwise duly caught up with the producer extraordinaire shortly before the album’s April release...
Keen to be respectful towards those who were involved in the original tracks, Ronson made sure that he had their approval before including his version on the album. “I think if somebody came back said I don’t like your version but I’m going to let you go ahead and do it anyway, I probably would have taken it off the record, because it’s like these are the people who wrote these songs and inspired me to make music, so if they’re not into it I might as well throw it in the trash,” says Mark.
As might be expected the people whose permission and approval he was most anxious were Morrissey and Johnny Marr of the Smiths, “because you just would imagine that they’re quite specific about what they like and what they don’t like and how people treat the legacy of their music”. Mark also admits that ‘Stop Me’ featuring Aussie soul vocalist Daniel Merriweather was the most difficult track he found to rework.
“I must have redone the whole string arrangement twice. Like blew a shitload of money doing that because I didn’t think it was quite right and emotive enough. Also it took a long time to do the vocals, because Daniel’s a brilliant singer, but just to get that emotion exactly right so it has some of the same emotion as the original…,” he recalls. “Even though they’re such different singers - Daniel’s a soul singer, Morrissey, you can’t even define what kind he is ‘cause he has his own style, - but there still has to be that kind of same hurt and that thing that hits you right in the middle of your stomach when you hear the song. That’s one of my favourite songs of all time, probably one of my top three songs of all time. That’s the one that took the longest to get perfect”.
Although based in New York, the London born turntablist, who has famously DJed at P Diddy’s birthday bash, keeps a keen eye on the British music scene. “I think it’s incredibly important. It’s way more important to me than the US music scene. I signed directly with a label in the UK with my record because I wanted to focus on here, and I prefer dealing with people, talking about music with people here,” he enthuses. “Maybe it’s just the kind of places I play in the US just aren’t as much fun or something, but it’s definitely more fun playing here. The crowds are more open and willing to go on a bit of a ride with you. It’s not like if I don’t know it, I’m not going to dance to it. Also with my music being bigger here, it’s fun to play stuff from the new album already, that’s not out yet and have people know it when it comes on and stuff”.
Mark manned the mixing desk for Christina Aguilera, Lily Allen, Robbie Williams as well as being behind Amy Winehouse’s highly acclaimed ‘Back To Black’ album. He believes that Winehouse has what it takes to crack the difficult American market. The Rehab singer is currently touring the US and Back To Black has recently hit the top ten in the billboard album chart.
Ronson has his thoughts on why Amy has what it takes to crack America: “I think the thing is traditionally, ‘black music’ like hip hop and soul music, it’s always been hard because that stuff comes from America even though there’s a lot of talented English artists that do it, so, they’re always a bit sceptical. But the Amy stuff is just so good and just so refreshingly honest and raw and pure and obviously she’s wrote some great songs and she’s interesting to read about because she says honest things. Amy’s contemporaries, going with the people who are popular, you’re looking at like Britney and all these people… they’re not bad people, but it’s just cookie cutter,” he says. “I feel like they’re saying what they actually feel, no one’s making music that’s really going to be around to listen to and enjoy in ten years. You come to Amy, it just feels incredibly real. I think that’s why the Americans are blown away by her right now”.
And he doesn’t’ think that the yanks will be put off by her outspoken, less than clean cut ways. “I think if the music wasn’t as good as it was maybe she would become maybe just tabloid fodder, but there’s no denying that talent. There’s nothing you could say”.
One artist who hasn’t had such a good time of it recently though is Robbie Williams, whose last album Rudebox was considered a flop. “The funny thing is that it got amazing reviews and stuff that had never ever taken him seriously up ‘til then that applauded him for taking a chance. I think people might have felt that maybe it didn’t’ feel like Robbie’s true voice. I think the people who really loved Robbie wanted to hear what he’s singing, but I don’t know. Maybe he’d been riding too high and people were ready to knock him down,” reckons Mark.
“Lovelight, one of the records that I did, I know people who don’t even know who Robbie Williams is, they hear that when it comes on in the club when I play it and they’re like ‘what the hell is that, that’s amazing’. I do think that’s a great song. Mos Def actually came up to me at one of Amy’s first gigs in Joe’s Pub in New York. He came up to me and was like, ‘did you do that Robbie Williams song Lovelight? It’s incredible I want to rap over that.’ Maybe not all the songs were terribly good, but I’m definitely into the stuff we did”.
As for the man who managed to make Radiohead sound like a party, Mark Ronson still has one or two cover versions up his sleeve. “I kind of wanted to do Bang Bang You’re Dead by Dirty Pretty Things, with 1930s instruments like ukulele, but I’m not sure…”
