In short
How Long Gone - Episode 851: Mark Ronson
Episode Overview In episode 851 of the How Long Gone podcast, hosts Chris Black and Jason Stewart welcome DJ, producer, and author Mark Ronson. The conversation dives into Ronson's latest book, *Night People*, which is being adapted for television, alongside a variety of engaging topics ranging from home improvement anecdotes to reflections on the changing landscape of nightlife and music culture.
Key Topics Discussed
Home Improvement Anecdotes
- TJ's Home Repairs: TJ shares the struggles and challenges he faced with a water heater installation in his home, reflecting on the hardships of homeownership.
- Minor Injuries: The episode opens with humorous anecdotes about minor injuries and challenges faced during home repairs.
Insights on Mark Ronson
- New Book: Ronson discusses his new book, *Night People*, highlighting its themes and the process behind writing it.
- Television Adaptation: The book has been picked up for a television adaptation, showcasing its appeal and relevance.
Cultural Reflections
- Club Culture: A deep dive into the current state of nightlife and club culture, with discussions on:
- The changing dynamics of clubs and what is considered "the club" today.
- Comparisons of past and present club experiences, including celebrity sightings and the eclectic mix of patrons.
- The decline of the traditional hip-hop party atmosphere.
Music Discussions
- DJing and Vinyl: Ronson shares his return to vinyl DJing, discussing the unique challenges and experiences associated with it, including:
- The tactile experience of mixing and its psychological effects on the DJ and the crowd.
- Reflections on how modern technology has changed DJing practices.
Nostalgia and Generational Changes
- Gen Z's Nostalgia: The hosts touch on Gen Z's fascination with the 90s and how nostalgia influences current cultural trends.
- Musical Influences: Conversations about influential artists, including Bad Bunny’s impact at the Super Bowl and the legacy of Daft Punk.
Personal Insights and Experiences
- Mark's Personal Stories: Ronson shares personal anecdotes, including memorable moments from his youth and his experiences at the Chateau Marmont.
- Reflections on Fame: The conversation also delves into the nature of fame, personal relationships, and the complexities of success in the music industry.
Humor and Banter
- The episode is filled with light-hearted humor, banter, and playful critiques of various cultural phenomena, including modern DJing and the changing tastes of the music-loving public.
Key Takeaways
- Cultural Shifts: The discussion emphasizes the constant evolution of music and nightlife, reflecting broader societal changes.
- The Value of Experience: Ronson’s return to vinyl underscores a longing for authenticity in music, contrasting with the digital age.
- Connection Through Music: The conversation highlights the enduring power of music to connect people across generations, even as the mediums and contexts change.
- The Importance of Narrative: Ronson's book serves as a personal narrative that connects his experiences with larger cultural shifts, emphasizing storytelling in music and nightlife.
Conclusion The episode combines humor, personal anecdotes, and insightful commentary on the music industry and club culture, making it a rich listening experience for fans of Mark Ronson and the How Long Gone podcast. Ronson’s reflections on his career and the evolving landscape of music provide a thoughtful lens through which to view contemporary cultural trends.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:17Mark Ronson:How Long Gone Recording in Progress. That's Chris Black. I'm coming to you from a supply closet at a photo studio in Pasadena. It is 845 in the morning. This is how we get it done here at how long gone we do it all um them jeans you're just down the street but i'm sure you've
0:34Jason Stewart:had a different morning than i have maybe oh yeah definitely yeah the acoustics in your room are odd i will say i don't know uh hopefully that's just the zoom talking but i think we'll clean it up in post yeah i had a i had a i've had a rough since i got home from austin i've had a rough go but We're getting there.
0:54Mark Ronson:I don't want to bring up anything too sensitive, but just so the listeners know where you're at. Is the water heater repaired? Are we good?
1:03Jason Stewart:We're good. We're good. Yeah, got home Sunday night after a weekend of Tex-Mex and watching guys rip the filters off their cigarettes and drinking Matthew McConaughey hazy IPAs just to get enough water in the system. so you're not dehydrated. And then got home Sunday night. Carolyn was nice enough to pick me up from the airport. And we went and got a little bite to eat at Barsaniski. Had some delicious tomato toast.
1:39Mark Ronson:How many places are there called bar something? We got to stop. Let's get more creative.
1:44Jason Stewart:I agree.
1:44Mark Ronson:Like if you're a restaurant, I'm going to assume you have a bar. Just putting that out there.
1:48Jason Stewart:But I think people want, I think the problem is people are like, okay, we don't make any money selling food. only selling alcohol because the margins are shite we need to lead with the fact that we're
1:58Mark Ronson:a bar that also serves food alcohol's over too though and this is a whole nother issue but yeah that that does i i i see your point i don't know if that's gonna help but i see alcohol is i mean
2:08Jason Stewart:i'm not saying that's why they're doing that that's just one theory i just came up with off the down but went home and then there was a leak in the in the primary bathroom that had was coming down and dripping through the AC vent. Had a little bucket there, so Carolyn kind of had a little Chinese water torture going for the whole weekend while I was gone. And then I went up into the attic, scooped out some, you know, moldy water that was pooling up in a water heater drain basin, you know, get up into the attic with the roaches and get a little insulation, fiberglass, you know, kind of underneath the surface of my skin.
2:51Jason Stewart:That's nice. Yeah, that's nice. So, you know, that's good. That's good. And then, you know, eventually went to bed and then guys came over in the morning and then from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. just hung out with no water and no power while two guys installed a new water heater.
3:08Mark Ronson:Why is the power? They have to turn the, I didn't realize they had to turn the power off for that kind of thing.
3:12Jason Stewart:Well, not for the whole time, but for some moments.
3:15Mark Ronson:Okay, sure. No, no. Well, I'm sorry.
3:16Jason Stewart:Because they had to unwire the old one. Oh, I see. So there could be some. And there's other complications, of course, with pressure. And we bought more stuff, more tubes and more pipes and more regulators and stuff. Thank God. We got to spend a nice little bag yesterday.
3:34Mark Ronson:This is the dark side of homeownership that people don't want to acknowledge, that it sucks, I would say, 50 % of the time. No, no.
3:41Jason Stewart:when things like it's five percent of the time where you're like like everything is beautiful and hunky-dory and you own your own property and life is good and blah blah blah and then you know obviously things come around and you're like oh today i had to spend nine thousand dollars to get a new water heater installed you know i guess you're right if it was less cool if it was
4:01Mark Ronson:half the time you couldn't pay your mortgage so if based on these figures i see i mean i think
4:06Jason Stewart:I think it's more like when the property tax, like that shit hits. Yeah, that's the worst. I think that one hurts the most.
4:12Mark Ronson:That is actually, you're absolutely right. That's a really great point. Thank you so much. And I try not to think about that, but then I have someone in my life who likes to remind me. So that's special for all of us.
4:24Jason Stewart:Shout out to you, Shorty. And then, yeah, then this morning, as I had to hurry up and pick up the dog shits in the backyard before Frank, our gardener, came, you know, get a nice and presentable form, And then the old HVAC filter, I had to throw that away, folding it up into the trash can. And then a little piece of metal kind of sliced my middle finger open. So then I had to dress a wound that was... Oh, God. You're not going to be able to play guitar for a while. ...peening around dog shit and garbage cans. So, you know, we're getting there.
4:55Mark Ronson:You're not making a good case. All right, but tonight we're going to have some delicious pizza together. You're going to have a couple cold brewskis. it's going to come back around this day is looking up we have a great guest today a friend of the show it'll be an easy one you know it's it's the it's it's going to be fine the weather's not not
5:13Jason Stewart:too hot it'll be great we're going to finish this it's not too hot i've got a nice cowboy colostrum powder whipped into my cold brew it's going down it's going to give me the energy i need as soon as we finish this then i'll get to go to home depot and rent a dehumidifier which i will then install in the attic i don't and then look at least you can buy other things you can do this
5:34Mark Ronson:stuff when i go into home depot they basically call me the f slur and tell me to get out like they don't even let me they don't even let me look around sections in the back they don't even let me look around they're like i'm sorry sir it's a private party like let me guess you want
5:48Jason Stewart:to get a what uh we don't we have lighting but not a lot of ring lights i don't know what you're
5:53Mark Ronson:looking for here young man that's more of a target thing sir and i also lost while we're while we're here we have a few more minutes i just want to shout out to all the um lucy dacus fans who uh are scandalized by our chat with her which i thought was like pretty straightforward and fun like i didn't i i know who her fans are and i know that boy genius fans are absolute fucking psycho blue hair everything hurts vibe but i did not i really felt like we had a really nice normal conversation with her that was interesting and fun and i can't believe that
6:32Jason Stewart:these she they's could find a problem with it the blue hair barista say you thought bitch i i honestly i was shocked that you had a you thought you had a nice conversation but what you did was trigger me
6:43Mark Ronson:to hell and back it was several microaggressions i guess that i wasn't aware of and i guess we we made fun of stuff too much and also laughed too much um which is a funny oh i didn't read that i didn't read we laughed too much no no but the vibe was like they make fun of everything she says which is just not what happened it's not what happened like i don't i don't i just i feel like i really had a different experience than what they heard yeah i mean in in the through
7:08Jason Stewart:through their blue tinted lenses and blue tinted hair uh you know we were it was basically like she was having a convo with you know pete hegseth or or something like that you know what i mean
7:22Mark Ronson:She was on Monday Night Football giving some commentary.
7:26Jason Stewart:Yeah, she was on Monday Night Football, and we were talking about what we're going to do about the border. But instead, we're like, whoa, it's crazy. We both went to the same house show in Richmond, and yeah, I really like this peanut butter at Erewhon.
7:40Mark Ronson:Yeah, I just don't. These fandoms are so crazy. I mean, those people particularly. And I feel like it's just, I can't imagine those being the audience. And I think she obviously is a very sensitive and like kind of emotional person. Like she's very in touch with that. But she's also from our hour with her, she was very normal and cool. And I don't under, I couldn't deal with that. Like I couldn't.
8:06Jason Stewart:So if you somehow, yeah, she's, she's a cool, normal person. And, you know, the music that she makes is emotional. It attracts a certain type of person. If you saw that your fan base was starting to go into that direction where you really sort of had to walk on eggshells and you know you could not make a joke about anything you have to talk about land back programs and indigenous peoples and housing income equality and pet adoption or whatever would you would you be like damn i'm getting a little bag right now i'm gonna i'm gonna throw on my um captain my greta thurnberg hat and get this party train rocking or would you crash the plane because you couldn't handle it i would crash the plane i would
8:50Mark Ronson:that would be the time where I could finally step into my uh quote cool unquote religious leader role I would go the opposite I would be like all right that's it we're starting a church
9:00Jason Stewart:all right I gotta I gotta start I gotta start a church Lucy Dacus she comes out on the on the cam with uh who's the country music singer that brings somebody out and doing the little hallway walk oh no that's not that you're Morgan Wallen oh yeah Morgan Wallen does the stage the Drake style Morgan Wallen brings out, we got the MyPillow guy and Lucy Dacus coming down the hallway.
9:23Mark Ronson:Oh, God. Dude, that is so funny. I heard a great story, actually, from someone that will remain anonymous about Morgan Wallen. He has a festival. And he offered this person an insane amount of money to play. And they said no. The number got bigger over a four-month period to the point where I was like, you have to do. I would have if you would have called me I would have told you you had no choice but to do this and and and they were like nah I can't and you know this person yeah yeah I know this person yes and I was like you next time don't call me bleep it ho I was like don't call your manager like call me because you fucked up like that that is not like because at a certain point you're getting one over on him he needs you more than you need him and that kind of bread like bleep this out too it was i was just like bro you gotta come on now but you know like i get it people some
10:21Jason Stewart:people are principled i i you know down payment that's the whole house but at a certain point i
10:26Mark Ronson:think that like when things like that happen you're actually taking advantage you're winning you know what i mean donate half the money if you want if that makes you feel good and keep it and you won that's a victory for the the resistance to me but you know i get it that's a good way to
10:41Jason Stewart:spin it yeah i think easier said than done and when you're totally totally totally you know i know but i could i could i i see both sides yeah i see i see no i see both sides too i think i i
10:52Mark Ronson:wish i had principles of that level but i don't um all right we got it we got a guest today friend of the show superstar dj mark ronson uh he's been on the program before he's got a new book out that's great called night people i'm sure you've seen him um out promoting it for the last couple
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11:08Jason Stewart:months yeah the book is pink i read it while i was on holiday in europe it's a real page turner obviously for somebody like me it's a little bit more compelling information as i am an elder millennial dj as well not as old as him of course but yeah what a great book what a fun read less successful much much much and uh but yeah he's a great guy we're gonna have a fun chat we're not gonna talk about bullshit with this guy we're gonna get really good into it you know
11:35Mark Ronson:We're going to get into it. I can't wait to get a lesson.
11:38Jason Stewart:What's your favorite song to play in the club?
11:40Mark Ronson:So what happens? Yeah, I want to get into needle stuff. Not that kind. I mean like record needle stuff. There is a chapter about needles. I know. I know. It was educational. It really was. All right. Let's give Mark a call. Oh, and don't forget to finish the Barneys book by Thursday. This episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by our dear friends at BetterHelp. we are back with better help jason sometimes it can feel like everyone else has it all together in their love lives you know i'm talking about whether married dating or single the truth is most of us are still figuring it out and finding our way and no matter where you are in your romantic journey therapy can help you find your way help you determine what you want what feels heavy and how you can take some pressure off of yourself uh february i mean we're in the heat of it jason it's full of flowers candy stuffed animals and of course lots of talk about relationships and dating and no matter where you are, whether you're married or dating or single or just focusing on you, you're right on time.
12:37Mark Ronson:Therapy can help you find your way and see more clearly where you want to be.
12:41Jason Stewart:For whatever relationship you're in, however you're looking for love or not looking for love, however asexual you are, you still need to talk to somebody about the world and what's going on. That's why I love therapy and that's why we love BetterHelp. They have over 30 ,000 therapists, the world's largest online platform, served over 6 million people globally. It's very highly rated. If you don't like your therapist, easily switch it up. It's all remote. It's super easy to use. It's how we all do therapy now. Sign up and get 10 % off at BetterHelp.com slash HowLong. That is Better, H-E-L-P, as in Patrick Redden Keefe, dot com slash HowLong.
13:22Mark Ronson:All right. This episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Cheers. We're up early. We got workouts. We're traveling. We're tracking our sleep score. But after the age of 30, which unfortunately we are, even responsibly drinking a little booze will make you feel less than 100 % the next day. And look, there are obviously more negative effects from alcohol than just dehydration. Otherwise, how could alcohol be hard on your brain and liver? It has a depressant effect on specific receptors in your brain, and it's toxic to your liver. That's bad, Jason. What can we do? What do you think? is there a fix for this you think is there a way to sort of hack this that is bad chris there is a
14:00Jason Stewart:good one you know i like to drink i like to put them down a little bit certain alcohols give me certain feelings and headaches and bad feelings you know when i drink wine i'll get a little you know i won't be feeling so good the next day compared to something else and that's where i like to grab a little cheers they appeared over on shark tank let's go and now cheers is sold in over 30 ,000 stores, Walgreens, CVS, 7-Eleven, all that stuff, served over 50 million doses. So that's why we reach for Cheers, Chris. You're going to feel at least 50 % better the next day or your money back. Basically, two drinks feels like one the next morning.
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15:06Mark Ronson:and let them know we sent you this episode of how long gone is brought to you by superpower superpower jason you know recently i went to see the old doctor you know and i i left the medical facility in beverly hills and uh i just i felt like i didn't get any good info you know it was sort of like you're fine uh drink more water i'm gonna try this and let me know in three months
15:30Jason Stewart:and i said that doesn't seem very efficient am i even going to be alive in three months because
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17:37Chris Black:Mark, can you hear us? I can, yeah. Can you hear me? Yeah, you're sounding good.
17:41Mark Ronson:Great.
17:42Chris Black:It's not too live, this room.
17:44Jason Stewart:Oh, there's issues, but what are we going to do, Mark? This is what you give us. I can move. Just kidding, it sounds fine.
17:50Chris Black:I can move rooms.
17:51Jason Stewart:No, no, no, this is fine. This is fine, this is fine. I have AI technology that will clean it all up.
17:55Mark Ronson:I love the idea of you calling down to the front desk at the Chateau Marmont saying you need to change rooms for an hour just to kind of...
18:01Jason Stewart:Can I get the podcaster suite, please?
18:03Chris Black:No, I meant I could move from this room to my bedroom. But yeah.
18:09Jason Stewart:Oh, I know what you meant.
18:11Mark Ronson:I could move from my dining room to my bedroom or the closet if we really need it.
18:14Jason Stewart:I think the study has a big couch, so maybe it'll sound a little better in there. Trap some of that bass. It'll be.
18:21Chris Black:You know it.
18:21Jason Stewart:Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. Mark said, look at my little sweet. Suck it. Okay, does your room at the Chateau smell like cigarettes or is it feeling clean and crisp?
18:30Chris Black:It actually doesn't, but I saw the little ashtray next to the bed with the matches in it. It made me a little wistful. I was like, oh, God, I remember when I used to really enjoy that ashtray. You're saying you've smoked in bed in several hotels throughout your life. I smoked in bed. I've probably stubbed a cigarette out and fallen asleep the other way around. In fact, when I was probably 15, I fell asleep smoking a cigarette, and I woke up and my comforter was on fire. I mean, that wasn't like definite. That's just being like a shitty teenager, but yeah. Sure, but it has its own charms to it.
19:09Jason Stewart:Hey, thank God that you were awoken by the flames and smoke.
19:13Chris Black:And I even remember what song I was listening to or when I came to. I was listening to the Juice soundtrack and I fell asleep during whatever, some song, and I woke up during Son of Berserk's What Could Be Better Bitch. I just will never forget that.
19:29Jason Stewart:What a tune. I'm going to insert it into the episode right now. So our listeners can immerse themselves.
19:33Mark Ronson:I'm not super familiar with that. No, nobody is.
19:37Chris Black:That's why it's funny to go to sleep during something iconic and just wake up on fire during an album track.
19:57Jason Stewart:The Juice soundtrack wasn't full of platinum singles. You know, there were a couple lesser known jams in there. For the heads?
20:05Mark Ronson:It's for the heads.
20:06Jason Stewart:On the D side of the double gatefold LP that I'm sure you had doubles of as well. I always thought that whenever you go to the chateau and the hotel room has the ashtray in it, I always was like, are they going the extra mile, like the five-star service where they find out if the guest, like each individual guest is a smoker or not, and only those people who are smokers get the ashtray and those who are clearly not don't. Right. But I guess you pop that balloon for me.
20:35Chris Black:well maybe not but i guess they they still associate me like i probably been staying over 20 years so more than half of that time i was sure but i'm sure if they you know this nice european family of five check-in oh no then they were definitely they were definitely no they have
20:52Mark Ronson:one in every they have one in every room i think it's in every room it is it is for sure i i can't i can't believe they closed the liquor store next door i felt i didn't think about that that was an iconic i would yeah i had some friends tell me the trick was that you would basically that place existed in part because you could drink the full mini bar at your leisure and just go refill it
21:16Chris Black:replace it yeah just replace it there before you left that's amazing i didn't even think about that but i definitely had hit up that liquor store before and then i could tell that my reputation started to get more tame and like the hotels because sometimes when you check in they like leave you like those little like manhattan cocktails or some kind of like thing in it and now i come in the thing and it's just gummy bears so i'm just like also i guess and also i'm not so but i don't want to like mislead anybody but it's definitely my other days like i always think about like what's the denzel washington movie is it called flight um uh the one where he's uh he's a he's a troubled pilot and he has to he's you know he whenever he checks into the hotel he has to have them clear the mini bar before yeah it's called flight 2012's flight that's the thing i like just get the milk duds and the twizzlers out of it please thank you
22:08Mark Ronson:that's chris's life yeah yeah i have to clear the dessert and the alcohol that's how dark it is but the the these kind of mini bars where it's stuff you actually want i'm so glad that that is sort of chateau's always been like that but i think other hotels like a kettle potato chip is exactly what
22:24Chris Black:i want like that's i know that's good oh wait oh you have your own this is real no so this is the one that comes with the run the small kettle bag of you know the regular brown sea salt for some reason when i checked in there was a party size bag of salt and vinegar so that's how i know my
22:42Mark Ronson:reputation is proceeded but it seems like just and i don't want i don't mean to break the fourth wall but it seems like you've opened the salt and vinegar and enjoyed a few of those i have but what
22:51Chris Black:I do is to make myself feel better. I just put some in a bowl and then I take that to the bedroom so I know I won't go crazy.
22:59Mark Ronson:You know, that is very triggering for me, Mark, because I, um, I DJ portion control over here. Yeah. My dad used to, so my dad would eat peanut M &Ms every night and he would walk from the kitchen to the living room with a handful and just do that over and over the process didn't work so I would try that's what I saw that was the example set for me so I tried to do that and I had a similar fate when I tried that
23:25Chris Black:don't play the blame game Chris the amount of times I go like when we're in the studio and it's a long hallway and a fairly long walk to the little kitchenette area and I grab a handful of trail mix which is you know M &M's mixed with peanuts or whatever the fuck else and then I walk back and by the time I get back to the studio It is empty and I'll just go back before I've even got it. It's pointless.
23:50Mark Ronson:I think the positive spin on this is that at least you're walking to and from. You're not in a scooter. You've walked off
23:59Chris Black:one eighth of an M &M.
24:02Mark Ronson:Every little bit. We're chipping away. Every little bit counts.
24:06Jason Stewart:Pistachios, high calorie item. You already know that, Mark. You had a party there on Friday. Chris and I were out of town. We were in Austin. and my wife was like, can you email someone so I can go to this party? And she went and she said it was great. I'd love to hear some more about it. A little FOMO, who's had the best DJ set, who fell, stuff like that.
24:30Chris Black:Yeah, it was a really lovely party. It was a last minute party to celebrate the release of the book. So I had a couple of my favorite DJs. Well, one of my very favorite DJs who actually features in the book, this DJ named Mighty Mai, who's this great hip-hop DJ from Philly and was in New York doing the clubs with me. He was part of an underground hip-hop group called The High and the Mighty, if anybody, they were on the rockers. Of course, of course. So he came out from Vegas, played a set. Zane Lowe played a very tasty set.
25:00Mark Ronson:Wait, Zane Lowe can actually DJ? Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, I didn't know that. I thought Zane Lowe, I didn't realize that.
25:05Chris Black:When you say tasty, expand on that, Ronson. Tasty, like John Lee Hooker into biggie kicking the door and like like well done and just good good like the shit that i think he probably loves it doesn't get to play a lot zane was djing for you and only you as well
25:23Jason Stewart:yeah and i would i would do something similar in his cardigan as well jane and i used to have a
25:28Chris Black:dj duo where we'd play like in a beat that's a like a thousand two thousand like sweaty english university students like a couple times a week like we were we kind of rinsed that for a It was pretty like, there's a bit of jump around in Darude in there. I'm not going to lie, but it was fun. And then my sister played an amazing set because obviously she was playing in the 90s. She knew the shit. Kevin Parker from Tame Impala played some stuff. I was like, who's playing Kanye? I was like, oh, he's from Australia. He doesn't. You're going to be mad at Kevin. And he played a killer set. And I couldn't even tell you, honestly, who was there.
26:09Chris Black:I saw pictures after. I was like, oh, that's cool, because I was just literally in the DJ booth the entire time, sort of true to form. So it looks like a lot of fun. People were saying, like, whoa, there hasn't been a party like this in L.A. for a while, which I was surprised, because if you look at Miles Hendrix's Instagram, you would think there are only parties like that in L.A.
26:34Mark Ronson:every night is this every night is a party there's one happening right now that's why
26:38Chris Black:our friend harley just said that's why miles is so talented at what he does because he's like i've been at some of the deadest parties ever you look at miles's picture and you're just like
26:50Jason Stewart:crunk um but uh you can make it appear more crunk than it than one would assume so yeah um he's got
26:57Chris Black:a gift uh so i think it was a good time did did your lady have a good time she said she had a
27:04Jason Stewart:good time definitely yeah yeah i mean you know she said the same thing like sometimes when you go to that that the club there at bar marmont you know i've been to a lot of parties that are stiff and they're like let's have these three models dj who have never dj'd before and the party just never gets yeah into a groove or never gets going so i was jealous at the one time this is happening at this place it's full of actual professional djs with vinyl and whatnot jason we were at a
27:33Mark Ronson:great event at a performing arts center in austin texas where we can see i guess i was djing so
27:39Chris Black:that's nothing better than that um that's true it's funny because the the new york party for the book which was the previous week because it was really wonderful but um it was i wouldn't say aging i would just say age appropriate it looked it looked pretty it looked pretty aged i would say it was a little older like hip-hop crowd because i wanted to make sure the only guesses i made was just people that i talked to and invited because to thank them for being in the book so of course that's good you know the age is gonna be a certain thing so it's like new york was an aging hip-hoppers and this one was just like ageless hipsters i was like who are these people coming for but
28:19Mark Ronson:no it was it was it was very nice you contain multitudes you know you contain well yeah i feel like we're catching you you've really been on a tear bro you've really been you've been out here
28:28Chris Black:whoring it out and i'm impressed yeah it's it's i guess if you obviously it's like anything you look at social media just like holy shit i guess i've been i've been working hard i think it would even but that's the fact that people like you who know what the grind is and other people keep telling me like dude you've been out there i guess yes i have been out there and and there's it can also just always look like it's more than it is but do you think selling a book is the hardest thing you've ever tried to sell well i think that it's because it's the first time and it's new and there's maybe something about it that's a little more exciting than yeah yeah pitching a record but there's also not those like you don't have to play live on tv and i mean i've been djing two nights a week so i guess there is some kind of live thing about it but yeah but
29:12Mark Ronson:you're not doing you're not doing k-rock at 6 a.m with an acoustic guitar yeah and and i guess the
29:18Chris Black:only other difference is there's there's some sensitive subjects in the book that like i'd agonize over how to word them like like whatever whether it's trauma anti-semitism puff all these sayings that like for months the big three i'm like i yeah i i don't want to say like suddenly you're caught off guard in interviewing you're like have to answer this same question that you've like written as like most eloquently and uncancellable as you can and then you have to fucking just say it off the thing you're like oh but so okay that's interesting okay that stuff is a little challenging but no other than that i've enjoyed it well we're not gonna get fresh air on
29:59Jason Stewart:you don't worry bro we're not going to talk about domestic abuse or even worse Kanye West yeah what
30:04Mark Ronson:was the one that what was the one that you did where the guy asked you all the serious questions in like a lightning round was that Ari Melberg yeah yeah I had never heard of that I didn't know what that was like this guy is really getting deep yeah wants you to give him like a one-word answer
30:18Chris Black:yeah I was like this is this is hard yeah have you are you not familiar with uh his show on MSNBC, The Beat. He's quite famous for being a really respected great journalist. He's written books on the January 6th report. I think it's the highest rated show on MSNBC, but he is also an unironic, just avid hip-hop fan. So he will have gigs, the Secretary of State, and Mario Carbone on the same thing. And they'll analyze a very provincial English-sounding gigs lyric. You'll have to ask them, like do you think you know what this lyric means you know and like cool it's just funny like it's that is cool he did a he did a whole episode and i know like this could elicit an eye roll of it but it's it's really not that like on analyzing the lyrics to hove did like that last jay-z verse from the caledin and it was like it was almost like a book and and then jay-z actually sampled it and used it in like i don't know some other shit so like he's just like a super hip hopper who just went into the news.
31:23Chris Black:That's funny. That's actually, that's pretty funny. And he was at the after party just like vibing out to Souls of Mischief. I mean at the New York party for sure.
31:32Mark Ronson:And like a suit with a red tie just banging his head in the corner.
31:36Jason Stewart:Sounds like a more, like a more, like if Bill Maher was listening to Soundbombing 2 instead of whatever he was listening to.
31:43Mark Ronson:Yeah. What the hell do you think he was listening to? I was about to say, I don't think Bill Maher's ever listened to music. You know what I mean? Yeah. He seems like one of those guys Or he's like, I just love the Eagles.
31:52Chris Black:I was just about to say it would be the Eagles. It would be something that kind of smacks of money and a little cynicism. Yeah, definitely.
32:02Mark Ronson:But the Eagles do get a really bad rap. And I don't know exactly why beyond just the sort of blatantly obvious stuff. But I feel like they're like the butt of the joke very often.
32:13Chris Black:Well, until recently, they had the number one selling album of all time. So anybody that big. Sure, they're coming for you. They're coming for you.
32:22Jason Stewart:But yeah, you're right. But I think it was... They're the imagined dragons of the 70s, many say.
32:27Mark Ronson:21 pilots of the 70s.
32:29Chris Black:Can you imagine? But I think that there was so much famous infighting and they were so rich and there was the cocaine that just from the outside, we would have started to just be like, come on, like maybe. But I love Don Henley's solo records. Like when I was like 12, it was my shit.
32:48Mark Ronson:I mean, they have hits. That's the thing. but you're right I guess if you're at the top somebody's going to come for the crown no matter what your attitude wait what's number one now Taylor Swift I think maybe
32:57Chris Black:Michael Jackson overtook it at some point I think they were always neck and neck and then it was like and then it might be ACDC back and by it's always like those three or four nothing from this era it's Michael Jackson thriller
33:10Mark Ronson:that's surprising to me that nothing from this era as much as we're forced to hear about numbers now none of it means anything
33:18Chris Black:I don't think Taylor Swift is even a clips back to black. Because of the way the nature, even if she is just the biggest giant ever, no one will ever buy records at that thing. And the way that because the streaming consumption works, it will never equal those pure sales. Like the math won't work the same way. There's just no way.
33:37Jason Stewart:It had to happen at that certain time frame in history.
33:40Chris Black:When James Blunt went diamond, I love saying that. When James Blunt went diamond, everybody was like, everyone was like that'll be the last 10 million for sure and then i think that they think amy did 12 somebody else did something but that's a yeah james james blunt has never worked again right he just lives in ibiza and like gets made fun of and but just is also just so amazing at like like he's so fun yeah so like yeah i don't think he's he might do shows yeah why why not i mean
34:11Mark Ronson:that's the thing everybody can do shows now it's like you can just go play and somebody's gonna buy
34:16Jason Stewart:the ticket it's it's a wild time okay well speaking of of wild times and playing shows what do you think about bad bunny at the super bowl i've heard a lot of takes on both sides of the corn there's the white guy take and then everyone else what do you think i think
34:35Chris Black:say mal hast du bei der steuer auch diesen schul flashback einfach irgendwas raten und then hope that it's true?
34:41Jason Stewart:No, not at all. Wieso Steuer is my safe space.
34:45Chris Black:You mean, everything is safe? Yes, exactly. Wieso Steuer is the app that understands you. No matter whether it's a job, job or a job. That's right, crazy. It doesn't look like Steuern. Steuern completed? Safe. With Wieso Steuer. I think as a DJ, absolutely nobody who's been more important like to and even in the fact that i'm not super in the clubs i am but just for the first five years like nobody has been bigger and then the fact that he just like changed the game by making a salsa record and that's even bigger than the shit before it like he's arguably the most he's the he's the biggest artist in america maybe the world like just by numbers so i think the world probably anything else just sounds like fucking stupid bullshit um don't come for carol g like that
35:39Jason Stewart:my i said don't come for carol g like that mark come on yeah yeah no i think it's i think it's
35:45Mark Ronson:just an interesting choice i i don't understand bad money like i don't i can't listen to music
35:51Chris Black:like that like i just don't it's not for me the new album too with the more like classics also no dude i've tried and i'm just like when would i ever put this on when would when would be the
36:01Mark Ronson:appropriate time to listen to this because chris is a jangly guitar guy at the end of the day yeah i want to hear a guitar i'm not gonna lie but but i do think it's this it's an interesting move for the like whitest most normal sport to do this because it feels like a real like we're trying thing and i wonder if it will work or backfire as far as public perception yes i think
36:22Chris Black:it's the also the rub of the fox which is obvious i mean the nfl which is obviously tries to be like nothing but i'm sure roger goodall and everybody is we i know i have a feeling which way they're voting and then you have this sort of rub with the fact that actually though jay-z and rock
36:43Jason Stewart:whatever the fucking what are they called rock nation rock nation produced the super bowl halftime
36:49Chris Black:show i'm sure also you know it was a pretty well publicized that taylor swift and adele were also ass like maybe bad bunny was not the absolute first choice but he i i think he's i don't want to just like parrot a clay facena op-ed piece but like i do think he's the most important artist like from my vantage point as fan dj someone in it of the past five years and the fact that he made the salsa record that is just so because he was gonna play i was producing that snl 50th anniversary concert and he agreed to play but his whole camp was like but we have this new album coming so he's we're gonna bring the grand combo to puerto rico like it's his band and i was like oh this is gonna be interesting i wonder if it's gonna work and then you're just like oh my god this dude is just like now hector leveau like anyway yeah he shows up with 50 guys well i i
37:46Jason Stewart:think chris you're the idea that the nfl and the super bowl is the most white shit going right now it feels a little antiquated i feel like it's a real multicultural multi-ethnic thing it's just it's like it's it's transcended race oh i don't look at look at the look at the numbers and i
38:04Mark Ronson:guarantee you that will be proven wrong overall because it's not because the nfl yeah okay okay because the nfl is not global in the same way that other things are like it like it's obviously the brand is global but i'm saying like people in in europe don't care right they're very few
38:21Chris Black:and far between for all the obvious people that didn't like this that would align with the people didn't like hendrick not like us and there were giant songs that would have reached even the most like sort of red state i just don't i mean that whole production because the whole thing is that
38:36Mark Ronson:people lose the people the performer and the label lose or spend millions of dollars of their own money to produce the show right which i feel like i i feel like you get that lick back easily though I don't know if you do.
38:48Chris Black:I don't know if you do. I heard Jon Hamm went multiple times to Puerto Rico. He just loves Bad Bunny. And I remember just reading an article just saying like.
38:56Jason Stewart:I think he likes Bad Bunny fans, but yeah.
38:58Chris Black:All the American like quote unquote A-listers and like Hollywood royalty and people that like went down to that show. I was like, fuck, I should have gone. I could have got some autographs. No, but I was like, why didn't I go? It looks like a fun show. Have you been before in New York? No. But I really love this. I love this new album. So that would have been more the reason.
39:20Jason Stewart:I'm going to have to give it another shot. I've come around. At first, I was like, I do not understand Bad Bunny. It's the same beat over and over again. And I can't understand all the lyrics because I don't speak the language. But I'm assuming that they're not super dark or super deep.
39:37Chris Black:I love, like, I'll just occasionally, if there's one that I play a lot, I will go and, like, read what the lyrics are. But, like, T.T. I won't even try it. I don't know how to speak Spanish. My pronunciation is terrible. He's just telling his auntie about all these girls that want to get with him, but in this very tongue-in-cheek way. And I was like, I love this song even more now. I liked it before. Wait, hold on.
40:01Mark Ronson:I'm coming around on that. Him telling his aunt about how many chicks it's at.
40:05Chris Black:He's telling his auntie, auntie, I got this girl and this girl. You got to understand about these girls that are after me. It sounds in a very sweet way. I don't know
40:17Jason Stewart:it's a good angle because usually you would hear a hip hop song you're talking to your friends you know in the barbershop about all the shorties that you're pursuing sexually and he's saying I'm gonna have the same talk but with my aunt so everyone's gonna be like oh imagine he has a great
40:31Chris Black:relationship with his family if Tupac had made dear auntie instead of dear mama we'd be in a different world we'd be living on a different planet we can use
40:41Jason Stewart:AI technology to make that happen in about 7 minutes Mark
40:44Mark Ronson:yeah that's true shit I wanna talk to you about the snl 50 thing because i it sounds like it took up a lot of time oh yeah an effort oh yeah because you mentioned it to me the other day you were like it was a it was a lot and i i went like will welch and i went to the concert and it was such an there was just the production was just so i don't know how to wrangle that many people like i just don't understand from a scheduling perspective are you making calls is lauren making calls is it like all hands on deck it was it was
41:15Chris Black:18 months I was like when he asked me in like October of 2023 and I was like it's I was so flattered I was like I know this is going to be a headache but I cannot say no to this man and how big SNL is just like lorded you know the over my life since I was a teenager so um I said yes but I was thinking like it is crazy that we're talking about this this far out but then I started to understand and then it it was a it was a lot of work a lot of ranking there was stuff that lord's gonna call paul sideman of course but like then the second call to be like could you tell paul like him to do this i was like he's your best friend do you want to call him but uh so there was a little bit of that there was there was uh people that i called there were people listen there was aaron david all these incredible people of broadway video that were dealing with shit too But I was waking up like more than any other project I've ever worked on, like just in like a cold sweater, falling asleep, going like we don't have an opener.
42:16Chris Black:We don't have a closer. Like I hadn't managed to convince Jack White to play Seven Nation Army. And he didn't he doesn't play that song on TV. Like we didn't all these things that everybody there is used to working on the show. So everything is 11th hour. And it's like I think they just operate under like a natural coating of Xanax that keeps them from just like losing their minds. And I don't.
42:37Jason Stewart:Everything's going to be fine. Everything's going to be fine.
42:40Chris Black:Yeah. Or they're just so like sort of PTSD from it. It's just it doesn't affect.
42:45Mark Ronson:So you're saying you have to – Jack White, who's somebody I'm sure you have met over the years but you don't have like a relationship with. And you're like, I need you to do Seven Nation Army. And he's saying, I don't really do that. Yeah, I don't know.
42:58Chris Black:So we're at it. I don't ever – I would never open a show with that, right? So then it's like, okay, well, then we restructure the show so you could close. and still it's like he's turned down doing it at every Super Bowl World Cup event ever. And you're like, what if you do it with Sabrina Carpenter?
43:12Jason Stewart:Does that sweeten the deal, Jack?
43:15Chris Black:We got options. And just like, yeah, it was just like convincing these icons that you just turn into, I'm not above being like a nag or like being a, you know, I was not a thorn in anyone's eye, but having to be that role for this kind of thing, but it just fucking wore on me. And also, to be honest, I sat home watching the 40th anniversary 10 years ago, and that's when I first saw Miley Cyrus sing 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover and just completely became obsessed with her voice and then chased her until we did Nothing Breaks Like a Heart. but I remember seeing all those people in their tuxedos and the thing like wow that would be so cool to be invited to that so when Lauren asked me the next thing that flashed my mind is well at least we'll get invited and me and my lady will get in our tuxes and we'll go on the to the to the show thing you'll probably get good seats if you're yeah producing the entire show like Lauren
44:17Mark Ronson:is there any way for me to go without working is that possible or are we not okay so I have to do
44:22Chris Black:something and then four months later my wife becomes pregnant and her due date is literally like the day before the 50th concert so like i've done all this thing to go with my lady this thing she probably won't be able to go she did actually come to the sunday anyway but yes i she gave birth on tuesday i and then i was going to like i was like i told them i was like i might not be able to come to rehearsals or anything and then the second day my wife was like feeling good she's like just go to fucking rehearsals. So it was like a really... I love you, babe. I love you. She's like, I knew who I married, this motherfucker going to rehearsals.
45:01Chris Black:Right, right, right. But there was something about like sleeping on a hospital couch and going straight to Radio City, which supplied some fantasy of who I believe myself as in my brain or something.
45:12Jason Stewart:I mean, that's book number two getting written right there, brother. And also, I guess while all of this is going on, you're on deadline to write this book that you're promoting as well, I'm assuming.
45:20Chris Black:That was crazy.
45:21Jason Stewart:that was absolutely put that on the back burner for a few months yeah i handed in the book in
45:26Chris Black:january but i just didn't have the feeling that it was done i was like guys my publisher was was like yeah let's go and i was like why do i not feel like popping the champagne or whatever the fuck and then i showed it to my my wife's cousin this brilliant writer journalist named abe street who writes for like the new republic and the new yorker and pro publica and all this shit and he read it and he was like it's good but i think it could be a lot better um and do a word search for the word cool because i lost count at 77 times so he helped me for three months and put me with his features editor for the new yorker so like i was in the most intense rewriting period of the book as well at the same time i was doing all this shit so yeah i i was glad when all the
46:13Jason Stewart:shit was over did you come up with any other words to use in place of cool no i just realized
46:20Chris Black:that's being just lazy i think it was like 78 times or something which that's look that that
46:25Mark Ronson:feels i'm sure that i would suffer the same fate i think i think it's there's two types of people
46:31Jason Stewart:people who say like oh you know that's cool and then it's just normal and then there's other people who are like but what does that mean you know like it really gets in their head like what's
46:41Chris Black:I thought you were about to be like, there's two types of people. People who are cool, people who are.
46:46Mark Ronson:There's people who are cool with saying the word cool. We could get philosophical with it. It's not a problem. It's not a problem. I mean, I think that having that help. Did you know you were going to call him or did that sort of come up?
46:59Chris Black:I was so lucky. I ran into him at Christmas at my wife's family's place. And he was like, oh, you wrote a book? And I was like, yeah, it's about DJing in New York in the 90s and stuff. was like i'll read it and i was like i can't first of all he really is like he really is like an esteemed like yeah yeah journalist and i was like i don't want him to fucking read my book i don't
47:20Mark Ronson:know i felt beneath him mark what's smith and wesson i don't i'm not familiar with that he was
47:25Chris Black:just like he was just like no i'll read it so he texted me like that night like hey i'm i'm into it and i really it's good and i wouldn't tell you if like it was and then like two days go by three days go by four days got nothing and then i see my phone it rings it says abe street and i pick up and the first thing he says is uh there's a permanence to books and i was like oh god give it to me give it to me straight dog how long do i need what a great opener he's like it's i'd say six months and i was like i called my editor i was like i got three and he started to edit it because he's also like a professor and then he had to go cover the wildfires in california and so he put me with his features editor hannah willence at the new yorker and she just like fucking helps me in this way that just was i can't i mean i would have been canceled five times with the old book it makes me it makes me terrified even just to think like that that that original
48:23Jason Stewart:version might have seen a lot of day the power of a good editor and it's really cool that you have this book that's about you know going to the club and and doing drugs and you know obviously a lot of great crazy historical things that happen but you know in your mind it could be concerned considered a little trivial compared to somebody who's writing these crazy essays and he's a professor of whatever he's doing and it's great to have that yeah you know those eyes on this subject matter yeah just turns it into something that has never existed before you know what i Which is the power of your connections, I guess.
48:58Chris Black:Yeah. Yeah. No, I was just super, super grateful for that.
49:03Jason Stewart:Okay. So does that mean we are thinking about book number two already? No.
49:08Chris Black:This book took so much out of me, so much longer than I thought it was going to take. I had to sacrifice. You did a lot in the 2000s though, Mark. A lot of work. Well, yeah, that would be.
49:19Mark Ronson:You did also. Also, you cut it off. Don't play with us. You cut that shit off. You knew exactly what you were doing. And you stopped and you got at least two more phases of your life.
49:28Chris Black:Well, I know that if I do write a book, like another one, I'll have the slightly inbuilt advantage of it being about the shit that anybody knows or cares about when it comes to my career. But yeah, I would just like to take a little while to do all this shit.
49:46Mark Ronson:Because it reminded me of Moby's books, which are low-key incredible. he stops before play comes out and then the second one is like post play and it really it felt like an entire book was a cliffhanger and it paid off
50:02Jason Stewart:why not tie it all up with a bow you never know if it's going to get the sequel treatment you know that's how I always feel about movies
50:08Chris Black:yeah yeah I well I did really just think like this was going to be a book about I know it's going to be about the 90s well I knew I wanted to make it about the life of a gigging DJ and I could only do that in the 90s because after that I was famous or whatever. So now you're not living that life. And then I also, and it has like, I guess in some ways it's not just like Mark Ronson's life up to 1999. It's like a thing that has its own sort of inner linking concept about going out at night and this thing. So if I could find something for the second book that wasn't just like, and now here's 2000 to 2020 or whatever.
50:48Chris Black:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
50:49Mark Ronson:I like that you, I saw you did the thing with Nikki where you went through all of, he kind of picked out some of your looks from over the years and then made you comment on them. And I feel like as humbling as that might've been for you, I feel like that's really a testament to staying power and how many phases you've been through. And I was like, damn, I remember a lot of this. There were some fucking looks. Yeah.
51:16Chris Black:Yeah, it was funny. And I was already a fan of the videos he was doing, but I didn't know much about him. And he DM'd me and was like, you should come to my show. And I was sort of like instantly, yes, and went on. And then just at the end of it, I was like, actually, do you want to just style me? Do you ever do any styling? And he was like, yeah, sure. Because I'm not such an idiot. I can't pick out my own clothes, but I don't really, I'm not in the mix the way I was 10 years ago. I'm not at shows. I don't know who the fucking cool designers are, all that kind of stuff. And I just, we just got on well.
51:54Chris Black:So ever since that, he's been putting me in thigh high leather YSL boots and just like been hanging.
52:00Mark Ronson:I was going to ask about that specifically. I did that. It feels like you wanted to, it didn't even feel like an arm twist in that instance.
52:07Chris Black:He showed me the outfit and I was like, oh, that's nice. you know the nice turtleneck kind of like a wide you know blazer like you don't you have to wear the boots so i'm not letting you wear it unless you wear the boots and i was like i just i had
52:19Jason Stewart:i would never assume that you and sam smith were the same size it's cool that you were able to just
52:24Chris Black:interchange those oh i didn't know has sam worn those same boots or is it just similar to something
52:29Jason Stewart:sam's for it just seems like something you know i hear thigh high isl leather boots you know the
52:35Mark Ronson:only person i think the only person that i've actually seen wear them off the runway was alexander skarsgard wore them like a late night show that's right that's right or maybe he wore
52:42Chris Black:them to the actual show either way well the thing is you're wearing leather thigh high boots over leather trousers so at some point it's you know it's it's they've sort of they camouflage where does one start and where does the other begin i had never worn leather pants ever like leather trousers in my life before and i've like always just thought they were just only for lenny kravitz and I was like, these actually don't look that bad. Like, I understand everybody's wearing leather pants and it's Travis and Rocky and things for the last. But I was like, I don't know if I wear them all the time, but it's interesting, as you know, to try things.
53:21Jason Stewart:How's the comfort level on those leather pants?
53:23Chris Black:Incredible.
53:24Jason Stewart:Really? Okay. At that level.
53:26Chris Black:Like aloe jogging pants.
53:28Jason Stewart:Okay, so as breathable as a nice set of aloe leggings. That's good to know.
53:32Mark Ronson:That level of leather pant, I think for that price, they have to be comfortable. They can't be restrictive.
53:40Jason Stewart:We ain't talking about the Miris. We're talking about real shit.
53:43Mark Ronson:Yeah, it's real shit.
53:45Jason Stewart:So, Adapt. I want to talk about Black Rabbit, if you've seen that, as well as the adaptation of your book.
53:53Mark Ronson:You already sold your shit.
53:54Chris Black:Brandon Creed going to work. Yeah. I have seen the first two episodes of Black Rabbit. How does that figure? and did I miss a step?
54:04Jason Stewart:Basically, I mean, many people say it's sort of like, you know, the spotted pig.
54:09Chris Black:Oh, New York is supposed to be a New York thing. Yeah, well, it sounds exactly like the fat radish when I was like looking. I was like, oh, is that?
54:17Mark Ronson:It's very clearly based on spotted pig. Like there's like an upstairs, you know, it's like the whole. Oh, right, right, right. Yeah, there's a sexual assault
54:27Jason Stewart:that is covered up by the management and backdoor money deals and all that kind of stuff. Got it, got it. So basically, for your book adaptation, do you feel like whoever is going to produce it and put it out, they're going to want to add some little more salacious drama like that to it, more so than normal?
54:49Mark Ronson:Yeah. Because I have to say, and I appreciate your restraint because you're married with children, but there wasn't a lot of mention of women in the book. Right. Did you not have sex in the 90s? And I was like, based on the other stuff here, I feel like maybe -
55:04Jason Stewart:I became great friends with Aaliyah, and we just hung out, and that was all.
55:07Mark Ronson:There's several parts here that I feel like he left out smartly that weren't necessarily part of the story, only would be fun to read. Yes, of course. It's not necessary. But that felt like a decision, I'll say. Yeah.
55:21Chris Black:Yes, absolutely. And, you know, I think it's just going to be up to the filmmaker whether, like, this is loosely based on it. And the protagonist is not Mark Ronson or whoever. Like, I'm down. Clamby and Dee Dee Garner and Jeremy Kleiner, who I actually know from growing up in New York. And we used to, like, share custody of a fair joke, a set single of Flojo. Like, he is from, like, the era and understands it. So I fully trust him. I'm like, of course, there's something about my weird like hangups and stuff that would be so excited for them to no longer be Mark Ronson, but loosely based the scene.
56:02Chris Black:But I absolutely leave it in their hands. I think I was so excited that they had the reaction they did to the book and wanted to option it. And so I was just like, I just leave it in the hands of the grownups.
56:13Jason Stewart:Yeah, I mean, it's really come around to enough nostalgia time has built up to where this era, which, you know, we can think warmly of and negatively of, you know, like a lot of dumb shit was happening back then as well. But, you know, we're old enough now to where young kids are really immortalizing that time as like truly legendary the way, you know, we would with, you know, you would with collecting like 70s records or whatever.
56:38Chris Black:Honest, I was at some Seder here when I first moved to LA in 2017 or something. And this kid just came up to me. It was some young, cool actor kid who was from Brooklyn and living out here. And was just like, you were in New York in the night. The way that he asked and wide eyes and all this thing. I'm not going to lie. That was like 15 % of what was the driver for writing this book. I mean, it was Blue Jams and people who had passed away was wanting to write the thing of the gigging DJ and some other stuff. But it was really like that kid's monologue was in my head a lot of this time. So you're right.
57:20Chris Black:This fascination with it is... Yeah. And it makes sense.
57:23Jason Stewart:Yeah, and we don't get to really have that anymore with today's modern dance culture where you can go and sneak in to the DJ booth and just kind of squat in the corner and watch whoever's playing and listen and look and learn and go get them a drink in exchange for letting you hang out and sort of observe. of now it's just a giant you know football stadium size screen with visuals you know and you never get within a hundred feet of the dj yeah yeah and you and they're not even djing anyway yeah and
57:58Chris Black:there's like so much shit that i also left out like when you said that sneaking in the booth like i remember when no one knew what daft punk looked like and they came to this club that i dj'd on a friday called uh i changed names so many times it's it was called spa or the system or key club or something it was on 13th street they were like hanging in the booth like because they were just like wanted to hang watch and then uh but they were very like you know just like you know just low-key like in the corner and mariah carey just like burst into the booth and like this very mariah carey sound like the door like comes in and like the door like like kind of like like knocks them to the side and it's just like and i'm sure if she knew that was that fun she would have been like bugged out too but like it was just there they're just there and yeah there were i listen i'm sure awkward and silly moments like that happen in diplo's booths all the time but yeah that's what
58:52Mark Ronson:that's yeah that's what i would call awkward and silly in his booth yeah definitely that's what that's awkward and silly i agree at a silly time yeah but that but that's where that's how i came
59:01Jason Stewart:up with with dj am i would sneak into the like the brent bolt house clubs yeah and he would let me just kind of chill there in exchange for you know giving him a sig or yeah you know cracking some jokes or whenever and i would never expect like you would have parts where you would say you would sit there all night in hopes that somebody would say like hey i gotta take a leak you want to hop on for a couple songs and that would be like holy moment i never even considered that when i was reading the book i was like oh yeah thank god he never threw me the cans and said and drop this Led Zeppelin into the fat boys, whatever it was that he was doing because I would have shit myself.
59:41Mark Ronson:The best part about that story in the book also was that because it was pre-internet, you guys were doing something similar, but because it was on different coasts, it was sort of siloed until you physically saw the other one doing it. And I think that's a crazy thing to wrap your head around.
59:59Jason Stewart:You were probably feeling yourself and it was all good
1:00:02Chris Black:until he got lap band and you're like oh hell no damn whoa when when when we were all about the same level when he was still like kind of a dragonfly and stuff and then when he got sober and just spent a year practicing in his room went to another level i was like oh god like this is
1:00:20Jason Stewart:just gonna run away with it yeah and he did i mean he was he really was just the top of the top of the top yeah i think that you know no offense to everyone else i was talking about nightlife
1:00:31Mark Ronson:the other day with when we were in austin and it was it was um with matt who used to do beatrice in yeah and matt creed no no no matt abramchick and and i was just like why why it just doesn't exist anymore that sort of mix of people that partly that's in your book but partly was in jason and life too where it's like especially in new york it's like a it was it used to be a real hodgepodge of people and there would be celebrities there would be fucking skaters it would be a real mix and now you go anywhere and it's just kind of rich guys yeah yeah the graph kids can't get in
1:01:06Jason Stewart:through the door person because they didn't buy a 1400 bottle of because we were at this place
1:01:11Mark Ronson:peoples a couple weeks ago which is like it's cool and i went to a great party there after the met and then i went on a regular night and i had a good time but i was like oh there's no like it doesn't feel glamorous there's no there's no danger there's no like yeah no i don't know i can't it's
1:01:25Jason Stewart:tough to put put into words no like who is that yeah yeah yeah and i feel like you really did that
1:01:31Mark Ronson:for 20 years you know and it's it it has changed completely yeah i yeah it did change with the
1:01:37Chris Black:valve service stuff and i'm sure like the weird thing that made those clubs so cool maybe the graphics of skateboarders like maybe you got a broken it's because now it's like fashion designers mixer da da da da da so there's some kind of mix but i don't know what it is and i haven't seen it
1:01:53Mark Ronson:i can't but yeah i mean i just like it's not the thing is it used to be like downtown manhattan now you have to go to rig you have to go to a warehouse in ridgewood at 3 a.m and you can't get there by car you know it's just like it's too hard yeah it's too difficult yeah yeah not that i'm invited
1:02:09Jason Stewart:if the if you're out of like a shitty downtown warehouse rave and there's some graph kids tagging But if you're in the middle of Hollywood on the Sunset Strip or somewhere in Manhattan in the meatpacking and there's that element of danger, that's what keeps it nice and fun as long as nobody's getting seriously hurt. Shanks, yeah. As long as there's no shanks.
1:02:30Mark Ronson:But you're DJing. You said you're back on your vinyl bullshit. You're just doing it?
1:02:36Chris Black:Yeah. A friend of mine, do you know Caius Paulson, who has this label, Young? He manages the XX. and like he's he's always like when i was starting my last album late night feelings he was like i he just says these ideas that just sound like sort of vague and like ridiculous but they're brilliant like he said i think you should just start djing a bunch of parties where you only play like breakup song the dj for like 15 people and i was like okay because he's just a smart guy and uh the first night i dj'd it and it was at our old studio in sunsets uh sound factory and played a couple songs. The next day came inspired and kind of wrote Nothing Breaks Like a Heart.
1:03:19Chris Black:So he's always got some cool thing that bears some fruit. So he said he really liked the book. He was like, but it just really feels like you just missed DJing vinyl. Like, go back to playing vinyl for the end of the year. And I was like, oh, God. And this was like March. But I was like, okay, fuck it. I'm going to try it. So I just tracked down all the fucking records I lost. And I saved a lot of records. but I didn't save like yin yang twins the whisper song you know like I saved things that I knew I was going to play at home sure sure sure sure tracking down all those kind of records and then and then I called Eli Escobar and I was like hey like if I wanted to play vinyl again like where should where should I go and he was like well you can play at my spot and I'm like like it's like the most like hip sort of connoisseur dance techno sort of slightly ratchet thing I was like really he's like yeah just play on a wednesday and i played i was you know a little rusty but it was just so i felt so good to actually like yes play a vinyl and you know i'm not fucking a track with the things but just even kids watching this my fucking chaotic ballet of vinyl throwing records on and off and eight bars speed mixing like people were just like what the fuck and then you know records skipped and the fucking shit went wrong but it was just such a good hard reset for all of my djing stuff so i've been doing it since and you know now it's i'm working back in the other shape like digital because it's just it's almost untenable but uh it was the hard reset
1:04:52Jason Stewart:that i kind of needed yeah i mean with leaving the the vinyl at home for so many years and bringing the serato you know it really dulls a lot of your your reflexes and a lot of muscles go
1:05:07Chris Black:you play records way too quick because you can you know it's just like a click and drag like a song like my entire 90s hip-hop r &b set had been reduced to pretty much the same 20-minute mega mix most nights and it's like oh wait i can play four hours of this shit i have mob deep got it twisted that i forgot about i have freeway what we do like all these songs and then songs that would have just you would have pulled out and people maybe people might have danced but it's like a three megabyte things somewhere in a hard drive like the act of like it sounds so fucking over the top but the ceremony of like taking it out you're playing and people subconsciously like this must be important because he carried it from his house like it just subconsciously goes into
1:05:52Jason Stewart:of the night yeah it's like when you bring a bottle of wine to a restaurant and the sommelier makes a whole presentation of it we're respecting it you really care about this and yeah i think also the feeling of when you're playing on a vinyl record with a needle you know since it is literally a small groove of vibrations like when you're when you're cuing that first kick drum like you can hear it in your headphones yeah but you could also feel it like in your finger like very faintly if it's like a big kick drum like you could feel it this is this is sick i can see
1:06:26Mark Ronson:jason getting hard right now talking about it it's very it's very like you know like surfing
1:06:30Jason Stewart:versus you know it's just like when you catch your first wave i've never done it but you know you would imagine you're like oh this is this is it and then you just chase that feeling forever when you first mix two records perfectly same speed same key with vinyl all with just your ears in your brain and no laptop and no screen and no cue points yeah no it's it's mixed in key it's
1:06:55Chris Black:like it's all the it never gets old beautiful psychological things that were perfectly encapsulated in the 2024 zach efron film we are your friends it gets to the heart of no uh well
1:07:08Jason Stewart:and the reason why it does that is because i was the dj uh consultant on that film actually and i taught zach efron how to i was hoping that you knew that how to how to look like a dj i should
1:07:18Chris Black:and you were making a joke i did i did i did know that no i did and i feel terrible now i'm so sorry
1:07:23Jason Stewart:no i'm i'm not offended obviously that that film has has been a little bit of a punching bag but now it's become a bit of a cult classic and young people truly love it and enjoy it in the way that
1:07:36Chris Black:we would watch entourage you know yeah yeah i don't even i didn't even mind the movie it's just such a different kind of dj obviously because the whole thing is modern dj so it didn't even it even a good analogy no no it was funny but i think that yeah i had when was the last time that you
1:07:50Jason Stewart:played vinyl have you played it a little bit i've all mixed a couple songs here and there and just like at a you know at a record store or like a you know if someone's having like a party yeah somewhere and there's some vinyl and like a rotary mixer i'll get in there but in front of a crowd
1:08:08Chris Black:like a proper set for a couple hours yeah i mean that's the other so that's the other thing and sorry chris we're getting so nerdy but that i'm used to it it's okay chris loves this shit all the places have rotary mixes now too because that's now like the high five shit so that is also there's this like fried chicken restaurant up in the berkshire's called high's fried that i've been playing sets that i love but it's like it's like yeah like what happened when did we lose the crossfader that's what i want to know i want to know that well i think when we stopped listening
1:08:41Jason Stewart:to hip-hop in the club anywhere but yeah i mean i don't like truly like nobody like you can't have a hip-hop party yeah they just don't exist yeah for a multitude of reasons so the idea i mean yeah whenever i'm in the club and they have a rotary mixer i'm like god damn it here we go again yeah yeah especially if you're playing songs that are not you know you know with just a drum a drum loop recorded in the 70s by a white guy with coke and an afro and you know that shit's not quantized and you know it's you're gonna be riding yeah you're gonna be you're gonna be twisting this needle and riding that knob and i feel like when i first found out what a rotary
1:09:20Mark Ronson:mixer was and you explained it to me i was just sort of like that seems unnecessarily difficult yeah and and you were kind of like yeah i mean now that i said all that you're absolutely right it is difficult that's kind of the whole point um should we talk about something other than rotary
1:09:36Jason Stewart:mixes just because i just i can see your just a few more questions about the rotary really quick no i've i've always dj'd where i bring the volume up with the the slider yeah the fader yeah but then i grab the trim knob at the top to have more control as i mix the song out you dj you dj with
1:10:01Chris Black:the trim knob but that affects your pre-fader level hold on you guys are gonna do this without
1:10:05Mark Ronson:me let you not bring up my pre-fader level mark if if i can't make a trim knob joke i think this
1:10:11Jason Stewart:is all a waste of time i like the control because because when i'm when i'm sliding that slider down it's not buttery and you could yeah somebody could bump your elbow and it's all fucked up i needed to a smooth fade out what one thing sorry again chris one thing that has definitely happened
1:10:26Chris Black:as I started DJing again, is that my tinnitus has been so fucking bad. Like I somehow managed for 30 years to dodge the bullet of that, or like it was a little bad or be bad at points. But now it's just here to stay. It's crazy. I remember AM having to sleep with a hairdryer next to his bed. I guess that was like before white noise machines were all the rage, but it's kind of scary. So I've actually had to start wearing this crazy ear protection, which also makes you feel like you're in a bubble and it's like you lose the connection to the crowd. If you're mixing in a part of the song where it gets super quiet too, that's terrifying because you start to not be able to hear it.
1:11:06Chris Black:So I'm just trying to figure out that like, did I write this book about DJing that weirdly has now like, because of DJing since the book came out, I might have to stop DJing altogether. Is there some like weird poetry in that? I don't fucking know, but it's been bad.
1:11:21Jason Stewart:Yeah, and even I'm sure when you were 19 in the club, you did not have good monitor volume discipline. No. When you're on your third 40 and your second bag, you're not making sure to bring the volume down in between mixes. Yeah. And I never did.
1:11:39Mark Ronson:I also want to give you a – there's a lot of respect for the vodka cranberry in the book, and I think that's important representation because that was my drink of choice during that time period too, and I feel like the vodka cranberry has died a slow and pathetic death. And it was a great drink. It was good for your urinary tract was getting healthy and you were getting drunk. That's it.
1:12:01Jason Stewart:I think we need to bring back more of an artisanal cranberry because I think everyone is, I want a skinny margarita. This, you know, sugar free, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. Even though the cranberry is bitter, it had a fuckload of sugar in it and red 40 and all that stuff.
1:12:15Chris Black:It was, especially in the club because it was just like concentrate, like whatever came out of the fucking spray gun.
1:12:22Jason Stewart:just Rikers Island quality only the cranberry juice from a gun into your with a little sky vodka that has pop off poured inside of it you know sometimes I think about
1:12:32Chris Black:like the times where I'm like did I really like alcohol or was I just like was it my sucrose addiction like what was it like all those things it's so much fucking sugar tied up in there
1:12:44Jason Stewart:yeah do you like the Red Bull or do you like the
1:12:46Mark Ronson:vodka yeah it's tough it's tough it's really tough well Mark
1:12:50Jason Stewart:Thank you for taking the time to chat with us this morning. Congrats on all the success of the book. Thanks so much, guys. I remember the last time we spoke to you, you talked to us about how you started it. Yeah, you're like, yeah, we're going to write this book about it. And Chris and I are like, well, good luck, buddy. But look at you now. No, I'm just kidding. Look at you now. You did it.
1:13:08Mark Ronson:Are you in the studio? Are you doing anything musically right now, like production-wise? Are you back at it?
1:13:12Chris Black:Yeah, I was with our guy Andrew Wyatt today working on some movie stuff. and and i did intend the other reason i wrote this book really was just to justify an album because i was like this is my sixth album who the fuck is gonna care i want to do some stuff like with this like touches on the 90s and i'll write a whole book to go with it and then and then no companion no one will be able to like say anything oh why are you fucking covering a leah it's like well this is chapter the context here's our friendship and then i just never made that album but I do have a lot of music that I love that I just have to find what that place is because I was you know there's a lot of shit I was working on while I was doing the book but I just the book just took all the time but yeah so hopefully that soon too.
1:13:58Chris Black:Alright great.
1:13:59Jason Stewart:Okay and also when you said you and Andrew are working on some movie stuff are you working on some movie stuff or are you doing the score and soundtrack for the biggest film next year?
1:14:08Chris Black:We're just I'm not allowed to say but But you guys are the best. Hey, man, thank you for joining us. We love you, Mark. Thank you so much. Always good to see you, bro. All right. Have a good trip to LA. Thank you, guys. Okay, bye.
1:14:23Jason Stewart:Bye.
From the publisher
Mark Ronson is a DJ, producer, and author of his new book, Night People, which has recently been picked up for television adaptation. We chat about a recent home improvement at TJ's house, sensitive listeners, waking up with his bed on fire, his history with the Chateau Marmont over the years, when James Blunt went diamond, bad bunny at the Super Bowl, directing the Music for SNL's 50th anniversary show, he found his editor at Thanksgiving dinner, his thigh-high leather YSL boots, Gen Z's 90s nostalgia, what is wrong with "the club" nowadays, oh, he started playing vinyl again, Daft Punk in the booth back in the day, and our old man hearing problems.
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