Running hot off the release of his fourth full-length record Uptown Special, Mark Ronson is gearing up for a special one-off DJ set performance tonight at Sydney’s Oxford Arts Factory (sorry, it’s completely sold-out) and while he’s ‘Down Under’, the master producer spoke of his love for Australian music.
Speaking with Fairfax Media, Ronson detailed the collaborations on his new record, which has spawned the cataclysmic hit ‘Uptown Funk’ featuring Bruno Mars.
However Ronson was a lot more excited to chat about the tracks he’s made with Aussie artists Kevin Parker and Kirin J Callinan, the former providing vocals and the latter the “insane guitar solo” on the psych-funk fusion, ‘Daffodils’.
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On meeting the enigmatic Callinan, Ronson was charmed by the Sydney-sider after Callinan apparently told “skateboard royalty” to “grow up”. Ronson recounts, “I was like ‘this is the coolest guy I’ve ever seen in my life, he’s gonna play guitar on my album’. He’s also a phenomenal guitar player.”
Of course, that’s not the only love he has, having collaborated with Kevin Parker on two more tracks, ‘Summer Breaking‘ and ‘Leaving Los Feliz‘. On this, he stated “the psychedelia thing is really strong I love [Kiwi] Connan Mockasin and obviously Tame Impala, Pond. Really great melodic, clever, fun music.”
Speaking of Australian music, Ronson explained what he believed to be the key to the unique sound that emanates from our great land girt by sea, “Basically, you have good taste. What’s cool is [Australian bands] are always slightly left-field. Being so far from American [allows] them to have their own take on things.”
“It’s just a little bit cooler than what everybody else is doing right now” well said, Mark Ronson.
