Last night on the NovaFM’S Smallzy’s Surgery, Smallzy visited Mark Ronson in his L.A Studio to talk about his latest and greatest collaborations, what it was like working with Lady Gaga, what’s coming up next for Ronson, as well as revealing the launch date for Late Night Feelings Album, following the launch of the same titled song in collaboration with Lykke Li earlier today.
On working with Lady Gaga, A Star is Born and Miley Cyrus
Smallzy: Mark Ronson, thanks for having us mate.
Mark: thanks for having me
Smallzy: So I’m just having a little moment.. to paint a picture, we’re in the midst of Hollywood, you walk outside and you’re in the midst of it all, you walk into a non-descriptive building, and on this couch we are sitting on, I saw in the Lady Gaga documentary, and im like ‘Ive seen this room before!” and this is the room where parts were filmed..
Mark: I think there were things filmed in here – this couch I inherited with the studio so who knows what happened to this Couch!
Smallzy: I come with good news – your song with Miley Cyrus is doing incredibly well in Australia!
Mark: Well thank you! I see, I follow your twitter and I Can see – it’s been insane and so great, and it’s funny, I always get to come over to Australia at the beginning of the promotion of the record, example Uptown Funk, and this will be the longest break – I can’t wait to actually go and finally get to play this record out, because it’s done well there [In Australia].
Smallzy: and you’re as low key as ever! You’ve had some massive success in the last little while – how do you stay so grounded?
Mark: you know what it is – it is amazing with all the success of Shallow, and now with the Miley Song [Nothing Breaks Like A Heart], at the end of the day, at the beginning of the day I do the same thing every morning and kind of make music – you sit in front of the desk and hope something good comes out!!
Smallzy: so you come in here every day and you’re making music, do you know you’re making something that will be as big as the songs you have had? Or do you have more songs that haven’t done much?
Mark: I think it’s a little bit of both but with Nothing Breaks Like A Heart you know, we had the little idea of the chorus for a while then Miley came and she sung it, and the minute I heard her vocal on it, it was pretty clear, wow, this could be something really special, but you know, it’s got some country guitar stuff so you spend all this time like fine tuning the beat because you’re like ‘I have to get this to a place as good as I know it can be’ and sometimes it just doesn’t happen, and I definitely won’t leave the studio until every stone is turned – The thing with Shallow that’s a little different is it’s one of the rare times I wrote a song I didn’t produce, like Uptown Funk, Nothing Breaks, It was months and months of work – Shallow, I think it took like 7 hours like sometime 3 years ago, it almost feels guilty, like it didn’t feel like I worked hard enough for how that songs done but honestly Bradley Cooper & Lady gaga certainly worked hard on it
Smallzy: Did you know you were writing for the movie?
Mark: We [Lady Gaga and Mark Ronson] definitely knew we were writing for the movie, and she [Gaga] had read the script – but I knew what the movie was about. And we knew, in the original script, the first script Bradley had, that it was like he drowned at the end, so I think it was everybody’s idea that ‘deep end’ was a water analogy, but really like, most of that song and the lyrics really came from her, and at some point, you’re just feeding off her energy – She [Lady Gaga] has the music in her, she knows what it is and you’re just there to help pull it out. When we had the bulk of the song done, I was such a fan of Bad Romance and I wanted the song to have more Gaga in it – so I asked her can we do something with the word shallow, like a ‘ha..ha’ or whatever, and that was one of those examples where you’re like ‘hey try this’ - but you know, she sits down on the piano and it’s like strapping into the spaceship like you’re about to go on a ride
Smallzy: When did you cry in the movie? surely you cried in A Star Is Born?
Mark: I did – Bradley Cooper n Rehab, - I think he’s just such a good actor conveying that stuff. I think that’s why he’s so popular, obviously he’s an incredibly beautiful specimen of a man and you’re just like ‘id hang out with that guy he’s so cool and so handsome but not in vein’ – he’s a dudes dude!
Album date reveal:
Smallzy: Now, you’re album, number five, it’s called Late Night Feelings and it’s on its way soon, yes?
Mark: Yes
Smallzy: What can you tell me about the project?
Mark: it’s been the better part of the last two years and obviously I was working on Silk City with Diplo, Kevin Parker and stuff but really like, this record had been this, I hate to use the word Journey because it’s so corny, but it always takes me a little while to make my own records because I don’t sing it, I have to like identify emotionally what this record is really about, and I’ve gone through a break up , a divorce and that definitely gives you some ammunition. It’s the best thing I’ve ever made – it’s the first place on my own record I’ve really gone a bit more to a personal and emotional place, which is what I really love in the music that I listen to. I’ve always made really good fun records but obviously Nothing Breaks Like A Heart and the new single Late Night Feelings, it’s still dancey music and you don’t have to be constantly thinking that somebody was really sad when they wrote this, but the point is, it is emotional but you can dance to it
Smallzy: As you said you don’t sing in it so it’s a record full of collaborations – are you at a point where you can talk about it?
Mark: Yeah of course, the album started really with trying a lot of stuff out in the studio, I had a few ideas but nothing seemed to be very good or was exciting enough, and then I wrote this song Late Night Feelings with Lykke Li, and I knew this was going to be a bit of a DJ heartbreak record but Lykke came up with the lyrics for Late Night Feelings and I like how it sounded quite modern and almost hip hop, and it could be about anything that keeps you up at night, it could be lust, it could be love, heartbreak – and in that last five minutes before you sleep your brain goes through this like slightly funny feeling where you have like fantasy stuff – I love the idea of calling the album Late Night Feelings – I thought it summed everything up. And Lykke is on quite a few songs on the record, there’s King princess, Yebe, there’s Miley obviously, Alicia Keys, Camilla Cabello, and some new people – it was just whoever seemed willing and ready to go to that same zone of what this record was about.
Smallzy: oh nice, and do you know when you wanna birth that to the world?
Mark: I think I wanna birth it – I think I’m just gonna throw out a random date of June 21st 2019
Smallzy: Any plans to visit oz again? It has been a little while..
Mark: Definitely – I always have the best shows there and the best time playing there, so I will be there at some point.
