Mark Ronson

Yeah, we would have these crazy arguments, you know, and it was the first time that I really was like in a full collaboration with Nika and her husband, Justin, who was the co-producer.

And, you know, she came out playing in live bands and like she didn't...

maybe love hip-hop and the program drums as much as I did, and I was trying to force that hand.

Of course, Lauryn Hill, Miseducation had just come out.

There was just this incredible synthesis of live and program, and we all were enamored with that.

Yeah, it suddenly was.

I realized I wasn't the most important person in the equation.

And I still hold that to this day.

If I'm working with an artist, of course, if I have an idea I feel passionate about, I'm going to fight for it.

But they're the one that has to go around singing that for the next two years or maybe the rest of their life.

So it's like, okay, at the end, I will give that artist the final say if I haven't whatever...

pleaded my point strong enough but yeah the collaboration thing was um that i learned from that but to be honest like growing up in a family of 10 siblings and sort of like constantly you know practicing diplomacy or whatever the hell it was i think that my childhood like made me a good listener and understander and that's kind of that's an important tool for a music producer

The klaxon.

Yes, there's something about that that's sort of like, it's a little bit like a...

extra explosion in a film right it's like kind of like alright if you're not making me feel it enough with the music like I don't need the horns to be bullied into having a visceral emotion to this music but I also I also kind of like the air horn I mean there's something about it like it feels very New York radio yeah yeah

The other ones are like, and I sort of talk about them because, you know, the book, I said how to be a DJ in 90s New York City is the title because it's a little bit tongue in cheek.

No one's ever going to be a DJ in 90s New York City.

So, but there are a lot of things in this book that I feel like at any era might be.

sort of like help out so there's things like back in that era my era it was a cardinal sin to really play a record more than once in the night like if there was a huge hit to play it five times throughout the night it was like this thing like oh you're not good enough to like to to rock a night with only playing the big records once there was a bit of that sense there was this thing like

never play all the big records when you're the opener.