|
  Mark B Interview
interview 0268 added 24.12.04 words: Elplate 1, QED & Nikesh
technical:
QED
UKHH.com tag teamed up
and took on super producer Mark B. For years he has been
one of the best known beatsmiths from the UK and with his work
with Blade took exposure and recognition to new levels. Check
out what he had to say about getting himself unsigned from
Virgin, his split with Blade, how he likes to run his studio and
what the future holds for him...
Could you fill the people in on where you’ve been, and what has
been happening since The Unknown?
![Mark B [photo: Josh Cole]](mark_b-1_by_josh_cole.jpg) Well after & all the touring & promotion of the Unknown my music
quite unexpectedly took a bit of a sudden halt in my life which
looking back is something that kinda threw me cos I thought we’d
done pretty well. I'm the kinda person that always tries to make
things happen for myself & I wasn’t used to sitting around &
waiting for the things to happen like it was about to. I was
caught up in a deal where Virgin refused to drop me & also I
couldn’t just walk away, everything had to be sorted out legally
so I could release music again. This took near on a year to sort
out cos Virgin went through a lot of major staff changes & so
whilst this was happening it kinda threw any creativity I had
out the window so I just took things easy for a while done a lot
of DJ gigs around the UK, built up my studio, went to Australia
for a while & also thought a lot about how I would have to
return with something extra special when it finally happened.
Could you elaborate on how your partnership with Blade came to
an end?
I’m not totally sure how to answer this cos even to this day
we've never actually had a conversation about splitting up or
going our own separate ways. I think people just presumed we had
or should split up cos Virgin signed Blade to strangely do a
solo album. But anyway the one thing I would say is even though
I'm real glad for Blade & his family that he did get his deal I
instantly thought that long term it would turn out to be a
terrible decision by both 'Virgin A & R' & also Blade to think
we could separate for a few years to do solo albums & then have
another Mark B & Blade LP. We had pretty much made it mainstream
& people were starting to except UK Hip Hop music into their
homes from seeing us & other artists regularly on radio & TV, so
to me It was like starting from scratch again cos we had some
good hype going on, the shows were packed the website was busy.
I quickly realized that yet again a few peoples ego's had
probably got the better of them & just waited for everything to
slowly come crashing to the end like it did.
Could you see yourself working with him again?
With Blade ? Yerr for sure, to me I just wanna make good
original music with talented people that have the same
enthusiasm & hunger for this as myself. Over the last 3 years
Blade has asked me on numerous occasions to do music together
but I just felt like the time wasn’t right cos he has his own
thing going on & he should express himself through his own
music.
After experiencing life in the major label fast lane, what’s it
like to be back releasing on an independent level?
 Well its still the same amount of work but just in a different
context, the hardest difference’s being is if your releasing
music on your own label then you have to either find an investor
or put your own money in & that’s where the struggles comes in
cos the return isn’t exactly 'Richard Branson' like over night.
Also the everyday office things like sending out promos &
chasing people is a huge distraction which I'd rather not do cos
I wanna concentrate on making music.
How many tracks do you currently have stockpiled with the
intention of using?
I would say there are at least 100 good beats here & 90% of them
will never see it out of my studio. I do get asked a lot for
tracks & I know I should release a lot more songs but the
trouble is I've got high standards & I've set myself a very high
benchmark that I always wanna go one better than the last
release & wanna work with artists that compliment my music
rathering than just rapping over the beat & adding nothing to
the song. I feel that of late a lot of artists especially US
artists have relied way too much on the producer's name to sell
there songs to the public rather than finding music from lesser
known producers with proper talent & new more original sounding
songs.
How did the partnership with Tommy Evans happen?
Me & Tommy first hooked up through 'Lewis Parker', I was touring
UK in 2001 & was heading in down to 'Poole' for the very last
Mark B & Blade show, I was on the phone to Lewis whilst on the
tour bus a few days earlier & he mentioned that Tommy was close
by in Bournemouth so he gave me Tommy's number & I invited him
to come to the show & kick a verse on 'The Long Awaited' track.
Tommy really impressed me with his stage presence & I thought
this would be someone whom I'd like to work with in the future.
After that we bumped into each other here & there & then back in
late 2003 I was at 'Kung fu' & saw Tommy, we briefly spoke about
doing some tracks together for his forthcoming album that he was
working on. Basically after that he came over to my studio a few
weeks later & the rest as they say is history.
"...We
had pretty much made it mainstream & people were starting to
except UK Hip Hop music...."
What are your plans with him are we going to see an album?
There is no plan with Tommy & myself, & he will also tell you
that there never was. The 'Move Now' single was originally only
planned for Tommy's album, which is out right now. I knew as
soon as it was recorded it was gonna have a lot of wide spread
appeal so I kicked the idea to him that I release it on my label
just before his LP is released as a limited edition single which
would help create a small buzz for us both, he didn’t hesitate
for one single second to agree. I tested the waters with some
CDR's & test pressings & 'Radio One' & 'Sky Sports' immediately
jumped on it & then the very weekend before release I got a few
phone calls from people wanting to sign it from me. The one I
took the most serious & licensed it to was from PIAS (record
label). We both took the single to the whole next level adding a
new B-side, video & the much-needed promotion to the whole mix.
Are you collaborating with anyone else at the moment?
 Right now
I'm just putting all the music together for a new
album, which will either feature one or two artists for the
whole album or a compilation of British artists & hopefully one
US artist. Also I've just finished a new single for an MC in
Australia called 'Delta' the title name is 'Mayday' & will be
released in Australia soon on 'Delta's' own label 'ATLED
records.
Could you speak a bit about your production techniques, what is
your set-up?
My studio set up is pretty simple cos unlike other studios it
only consists of equipment that is being used on a daily basis.
Its equipment that I've more or less stuck to since day one of
seeing, hearing & felt was best for the sound I wanted to
achieve which is clean, rugged, compact & affordable to a
certain extent. I've heard some very awful mixes come out of big
studio's & have never really impressed by seeing loads of
equipment in a studio that never gets used so I wanted to keep
mine very minimal like it was back in the late 80’s. Also I
would add I've never really been tempted by people saying 'Oh
are you going to get that new latest Akai MPC or plug-ins? If
you have something that’s works well for you already why the
need for change, I've still got the same basic samplers for the
past 9-10 years - SP1200 & an Ensoniq ASR10. Recently I've also
added a TLA Audio valve desk, Manley vari-mu compressor, TLA
Audio C1 compressor & pro tools / Mac for recording vocals. But
also I would say stick to what you can afford & are only going
to use.
Can you play any instruments and how does this affect your
production style?
(Laughing) Nah actually I’m not even gonna front cos unlike
other producer’s I'll quite openly admit I cant really play at
all. I think if your naturally gifted at something you'll just
pick it up & put it into practise whether it be playing the
piano, football or doing whatever. But I know what I wanna hear
& know when things are in or out of tune. I think your right
this must defiantly effect what I do cos I would probably drop
everything in a second to play instruments & create my own music
from scratch.
"...
I know I should release a lot more songs but the trouble is I've
got high standards...."
Is sampling over because of clearance costs and legalities?
Actually I think sampling has never really been gone from the
scene, its just a lot more hidden now cos of the legalalities &
costs of clearing samples, publishers have seen Hip Hop music
sell more & more each year & have gotten greedy to this fact
which has also pushed artists into making those poptastic ‘BS’
keyboard style records. Also what you have to remember is
musically times have changed now from say 10-15 years ago.
Hip Hop is a lot more excess able now & everyone is after that
big hit record which to me is killing / killed real Hip Hop
music.
Are you a strictly
Hip Hop beat smith or are you interested in
making music outside the genre? If so, what appeals to you?
As long as its Hip Hop based & I don’t have to change what
I'm
doing I'd work in any genre that fitted to my sound. I have no
qualms whatsoever in taking what I do outside of my genre.
What producers and DJ’s do you particularly admire?
Just anyone with originality doing their own thing. Nappa,
Alchemist, Dre, Premiere. DJ's Scratch Perverts, Woody, Blakey,
Skully, Mr Thing, Chubby Kidz.
"...I
would say in my eyes pretty much everyone is still overlooked in
some way or another...."
What do you prefer production or DJing?
I would say producing is my first love, but also I love going
out & playing clubs & gigs & seeing people first hand embrace
your music which is a whole different feeling which sometimes
cant be expressed in words.
The past 12 months has seen a selection of fairly high-profile
debut releases from UK artists, who do you feel has been
overlooked?
![Mark B [photo: Josh Cole]](mark_b-5_by_josh_cole.jpg) As they say looks can be very deceiving from the outside but in
general I would say in my eyes pretty much everyone is still
overlooked in some way or another. If we all had the proper
support of radio / TV & maybe even some more higher profile
record labels behind us a lot more 'real' artists would of sold
a lot more records & broken through this year, but instead as
always it looks like its been a very long hard uphill struggle
for everyone involved on all levels.
What do make of the recent developments in UK
Hip Hop, are we on
a slow course for world domination?
Well I wouldn’t quite say world domination is there just yet but
there is definitely a lot of talent here that needs to be heard
outside of the UK that people still don’t know about properly. I
would love to see 'Chester P' / 'Life' / 'Klashnekoff' or 'SkinnyMan'
in any New York cipher or club & just watch them take out all
competition. I think if something like that happened it might
just wake people out there to what is really going on out here.
All people are hearing is what the big DJ only limitlessly plays
& sometimes recommends cos he doesn’t want anyone to be bigger
than himself.
What needs to happen for it blow-up once and for all?
Not too sure where to start here, firstly even though it might
appear to be - overnight success doesn’t & wont necessarily
happen overnight like you'd hope it would. It takes time to
build an artist from ground level upwards which takes a good
strong experienced team behind you to firstly believe in you,
what your doing & wanna achieve long term, I feel when this
motivation is in place it will bring out the best in the artist
to concentrate on music full time & thus get the best results.
Any shout outs?
Yerr just wanna shout out the whole UK scene to keep doing their
thing. Support real music, real artists, & check my website.
New album coming in 2005.
Perseverance & determination. Peace.
-
Elplate1 |
QED |
Nikesh Shukla
Related Links:
 
|
![Mark B [photo: Josh Cole]](mark_b-4_by_josh_cole.jpg)
![Mark B [photo: Josh Cole]](mark_b-3_by_josh_cole.jpg)
![Mark B [photo: Josh Cole]](mark_b-2_by_josh_cole.jpg)