Mark Ronson
My grandmother always used to wear this English perfume called Tuberose and then she died and then I dated this girl who wore the same thing. Every time I hung out with her, I could only think of my recently deceased grandmother. So sometimes a signature scent can be good and sometimes it can be bad.Collection: Dating
Being a die-hard Knicks fan, I remember hunting down these orange-and-blue Nikes that they only released in England. And I used to hunt for sneakers when I DJ'd in Japan. But then Nike flooded the market with a head-spinning array of color combinations and it just didn't seem cool anymore.Collection: Cool
The cologne you pick should make you feel good when you go out with it. I think confidence comes across more than any other of our attributes.
When I started 'Record Collection,' I had no idea that it would come out sounding the way that it did, and that's one of the best things about the creative process, taking turns with the things you didn't know.
D'Angelo could sing the phonebook and it would sound good.
I never had that wicked stepmother or evil stepfather thing at all. I'm very close to both step-parents and I consider them to be my parents, too.
A 'GQ' award is kind of, like, insane. It's a huge thing.
I'd be saying, 'No, I'm so not a DJ, I'm a producer.' But no matter how much faith you may have in yourself, until you have a hit you can't really run around telling everyone you're a producer.
I'd been DJ-ing in these clubs in N.Y. and I hated everything that was coming out. So I decided I would make it myself. People were making mash-ups or remixes, but I was extra bored, so I actually started remaking these records from scratch.
I'm always nervous before starting a record because I can never sleep. I'm like, 'I have no good ideas, everyone is gonna see through me.'
Sometimes I have to shut off the omnipresent disco ball and flashing lights that are always in my head. It's a part of maturing, I guess - just learning that it's not just always about a quick, easy fix of getting people to dance.
I never studied jazz technically; I just know and love the music.
I think that the things that are interesting sometimes, when you're striving for a sound, you just get it wrong 'cause of your own limitations. That's when you get something kind of original.
I think I have an inherent modest level of stress, but I'm only super-aware of it when it goes away, when I'm on holiday and I think, 'Oh this feels pretty good.'
My mother was pretty strict. I hated it, but maybe it made me a bit more sensible.
I don't have a crazy rider clause saying I have to stay at fancy hotels. I don't have a problem with staying at a Marriott. But I will admit that I've gotten just basic, regular service there.
I knew I wanted to be in music, but I didn't know my role, so I did everything from interning at Rolling Stone to writing heavy metal fanzines to playing in a high-school band, and I think all those things probably helped in a way.
I don't know if I'd ever sing a whole album because I don't know if I'd want to hear my voice for more than three or four songs.
I don't think I really make singer-songwritery-type music - it's not my strong point.
I made my name and reputation DJing in hip-hop clubs in New York. 'Celebrity DJ' is a term that I hated. To me a celebrity DJ is someone that's on 'Big Brother' or in some kind of B-movie who gets a gig to DJ even though they're not talented enough to do it.
DJing is an art that I have the utmost respect for, and I've been practising it since I was 17 years old. Doing Tom Cruise wedding-type things becomes the focal point of every interview, and you realize that you have to cut it out if you don't want to be answering questions about that.
I used to be a serious sneaker addict, but I've moved on a little bit from those days.
I know it sounds really lame and hater-ish, but I think 2009 was maybe the worst year for music ever.
I think it's important for a guy to be 'protective,' shall we say, but you don't want to come off like you just rolled around in an Old Spice factory. Everyone has their own natural scent.
I vaguely remember in the '90s when Calvin Klein started making unisex CK1. Don't worry about whether it's made for men or women. Listen, we all like to put mum's clothes on sometimes. What's important is that it feels right for you.
Stevie Wonder doing 'We Can Work It Out' by the Beatles is one of my favorite records of all time.
I had a somewhat frenetic childhood because my mum and dad split up when I was five, and then my mum remarried.
My mother was incredibly strict, especially when we moved to New York. Compared with most of the American parents, who seemed so relaxed with their children, my mother was virtually a dictator.
You draw the best things from your parents and family. You're going to pick up some of the bad things as well - there's a temper that runs through my dad's side of the family that I'm not especially keen on picking up a giant block of.
I rarely ever respond to misquotes and wrong information. Plus, it only serves to bring attention to the matter.
I think Katy B encapsulates young London in a way I never could. She reps London harder than anyone song-wise since Lily Allen.
Kids can make fun of you for having the wrong shoelaces: that's just kids. But I don't think I had any trouble making friends.
I didn't start making music in order to be famous.
I don't think I've got an innate sense of style, but I guess I'm influenced by those I love and admire. You hope that you combine those influences in a way that becomes your own.
Making music is a lifestyle; go to the studio and sit in front of your computer, drum machine or guitar for 10 hours a day. The good stuff will come.Collection: Guitar
I mean, my wife is always like - I don't write lyrics. So I couldn't, like, really technically write a song for anyone. I could write a very nice instrumental. So she always sort of gives me a hard time because it's just such a ridiculously impossible standard to live up to, that your step-dad wrote that song for your mom.Collection: Mom
I remember that the bass was turned up slightly more on the mix from last week, and I thought that was good - or whatever. Like, there were some little things in there that he said that he came to, like, really enjoy my opinion or at least, like, my little comments on the songs. So I was kind of destined to probably be a studio rat.Collection: Song
Then, you know, the other more-traditional role of the producer in, like, the kind of Quincy Jones sense is kind of part arranger. So you're coming up with, like, these - you hear these songs that are quite bare-bones, and you dream up what's the band doing? What's the rhythm section doing? What's the guitars, strings, pianos - that sort of thing. It's almost like a little toolbox.Collection: Dream
I guess the best thing about having a successful record like this is, like, I know I'm at least good for another five years, like, before everyone starts to like - all the haters start to come out again. And that's really what it is.Collection: Successful
You have to put these hooks in it, you know? You've got to make sure you got all that ear candy in it to get it through the gate.Collection: Hook
I didn't really get that good at cutting because I didn't have those three years of gestating and nurturing my skills in the bedroom. I was kind of, like, out and playing in clubs after three of four months, because I was pushy with promoters. But I would just listen to the radio - Stretch Armstrong and Red Alert - and then I would go hang out with Mayhem, who did the WNYU hip-hop show.Collection: Cutting
I really love something about being around the recording studios - you know, like, those days in the '80s they'd be, like, in the studio 'til 4, 5, 6 in the morning working on these songs.Collection: Song
So when I was working with Amy Winehouse on "Back To Black," you know, she had all these beautiful songs, incredibly well-written and just her on an acoustic, nylon-string guitar. And she'd play them for me, and then I would kind of drum up my idea of what I thought - make a demo with what I thought the drums should be doing, the guitars - like, quite a crude demo.Collection: Beautiful
You just pick up a little bit of whatever the ones you think are appropriate, and you try and, you know, combine them. And then you bring in other people that are great for the things that you're not so good at.Collection: Thinking
So sometimes if I'm working with a rapper, like Ghostface Killah or Nas, producing usually means, in hip-hop, that you make the music. You make the beat, and you give it to them. And they write the rhymes.Collection: Writing
I think, you know, for me, whatever I need to slot into to make that music the best it can be or help the artists, or whoever I'm working with, achieve whatever vision they have in their head for a song.Collection: Song
And then, also, when you're doing something that doesn't sound like anything else on the radio at the time, you almost need to, like, ironclad it to make sure it gets through, you know?Collection: Sound
I think that that spirit, or at least the raucousness of maybe that, is in there. And then yeah, like, along the way, you fine tune it 'cause you're thinking, like, OK, we need to now turn this into a song.Collection: Song
It's like every time you have one of these, you're sort of - your lease is renewed another five years. And that's kind of great for me 'cause that's all I really want to be doing still at this point, like just making records and getting to work with, like, artists that I think are exciting.Collection: Artist
I think that where it came from and the initial birth of it - it did come out of a jam at Bruno's studio, you know? He was playing drums. And Jeff Bhasker, who co-produced the record with us, is on synths, and I was playing bass.Collection: Thinking