Roberta Fischli

(c) Mark Ronson

INTERVIEW: Mr. Ronson, do you dance to your own songs?

MARK RONSON: I’m not much of a dancer. To be fair it’s not like I’ve had tons of time of practice. As a DJ you always hide behind the booth. It might also have something to do with the fact that I don’t like doing things I’m not good at.

INTERVIEW: Is that why you always have other people sing for you?

RONSON: I don’t have a choice. I can’t sing.

INTERVIEW: For your new record Uptown Special you sat in a car and drove through the South, hoping to find a singer. Do you believe in karma?

RONSON: God, karma, whatever you want to call it. There’s the cliché image of somebody like Mozart, writing his symphony while he’s just sitting there, when suddenly this lightning bulb strikes his head and he starts scribbling furiously and it’s all down on the paper. That might happen every now and then, and I have been around people like that, Amy Winehouse for example. When she wrote the lyrics to „Back To Black“ it seemed like it was like an hour and then it was just done. But I don’t work like that.

INTERVIEW: When was your last really bad day?

RONSON: I’m trying to think back. I have quite a thin skin so it was probably a couple of weeks ago. Sometimes you got so much work on you don’t really have time to deal with it. And sometimes it’ll just stay inside me until the next time I go boxing or something.

INTERVIEW: You go boxing?

RONSON: Twice a week. I grew up in in pretty turbulent household, and am not really the confrontational type. Boxing helps me in many ways. And then, what else? (plays around with his toothpick)

INTERVIEW: I get it. You stab people.

RONSON: No (smirks), that wouldn’t be the nice thing to do. Now I remember. The last really shit day I had happened a couple of weeks ago. I had this song on my album that I had done with A$AP Rocky and Miguel, and the last minute the guys said they’re not going to let us use the sample, so we had to get rid of the whole song.

INTERVIEW: What happened?

RONSON: There’s not much you can do about it. It’s a real tragedy, because it’s such a great song. Hopefully I’ll be able to do something and fix it, so I can put it on the album in a few months from now.

INTERVIEW: Do you always hang out with cool people?

RONSON: Bruno Mars is about the only cool guy I know.

INTERVIEW: Ah.

RONSON: As far as my core crew, I’d be embarrassed if anybody got a look at that.

INTERVIEW: Why?

RONSON: We’re are all pretty nerdy characters. We all chose a profession which guarantees that you’re gonna sit in a dark room by yourself for at least 12 hours a day.

I can’t get on a plane and hear the buzzer intercom before they make the announcment without thinking „What song does that remind me of?“

INTERVIEW: Is it ever silent in your mind?

RONSON: I think it’s silent some of the time but I have to say that’s probably two percent of the day.

INTERVIEW: And what stuff do you hear?

RONSON: It could be anything. Also I can’t listen to music during sex, it’s too distracting. I’d be thinking stuff like „I wonder what kind of microphones they used?“

 Roberta Fischli für Interview Magazine, März 2015