Music Producer Mark Ronson on Uptown Funk ft. Bruno Mars

Music producer Mark Ronson talks about the making of “Uptown Funk” ft. Bruno Mars and the process that went into creating the song.

Introduction

Mark Ronson is a British multimillionaire DJ, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his work with artists like Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, Adele, and Bruno Mars. He has won several Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year in 2016.

Ronson’s latest project is “Uptown Funk,” a collaboration with Bruno Mars that has become one of the biggest hits of the past year. The song has been praised for its funky retro sound and catchy hook. In this interview, Ronson discusses how he created the song, his work with Mars, and what it’s like to be a successful music producer.

Early life and musical influences

Mark Ronson was born on September 4, 1975, in London, England, to Jewish socialite Ann Dexter-Jones and one-time music magazine editor Laurence Ronson. He has six siblings—five half-siblings and one full sister, Samantha Ronson, who is also a musician and DJ. Ronson’s mother is related to British Conservative politicians Sir Peter Tapsell and Dame Shirley Porter.

Ronson’s paternal grandfather, Reuben Ronson, was an immigrant from Poland and flee the Nazis during World War II; his paternal grandmother was born in England to Polish parents. Through his “bloodline,” Ronson is the third cousin of businessman Gerald Ronson. His family name was originally Aaronson, but his grandfather Reuben changed it to “Ronson” in the 1950s.

Ronson was educated at Manor Mount Secondary School in Mill Hill at The Bridge School in Haslemere, Surrey. He grew up listening to a wide variety of music genres including soul (’70s Being There-era Chicago and Al Green), psychedelic pop (David Bowie and Pink Floyd), classic rock (Jimi Hendrix Experience and Led Zeppelin IV) as well as hip hop (Run DMC).

Career

Mark Ronson is a music producer, songwriter, and DJ who has worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry. He is best known for his work on the album “Uptown Special”, which won him a Grammy Award for Best Producer. Ronson has also been nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA.

Uptown Funk

“Uptown Funk” is a song by British record producer Mark Ronson featuring American singer and songwriter Bruno Mars, released as the lead single from Ronson’s fourth studio album, Uptown Special (2015). on 7 November 2014. The song was written by Ronson, Mars, Jeff Bhasker, and Philip Lawrence. The song went through many incarnations before being completed. Ronson and Mars recorded it in 2013 at Lawrence’s studio in Los Angeles; the tracks were mixed by disparity engineer Dylan Dresdow. American hip hop duo Theophilus London and singer Tame Impala were invited to contribute vocals for an early version that was scrapped in favor of the final version. “Uptown Funk” is a disco-influenced brass funk track; accordingly has been described as modernized classic funk, new jack swing and Sections of G-funk have been noted to have interpolated the melody throughout.”

The composition of “Uptown Funk” began during a freestyle session when Jeff Bhasker was experimenting with chord progressions for Mars’ then-upcoming second studio album, Unorthodox Jukebox (2012). Programme director Rose Mann-Cherney told HitQuarters that the session did not gel immediately, as they felt Bruno’s vocals were not powerful enough to carry such a heavy composition. However, after hearing his display during subsequent freestyle sessions in which he would rap over tracks like Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back”, they decided he could handle it. The idea for “Uptown Funk” came about soon afterwards when Bhasker was playing one of these Jackson 5 tracks at Mars’ house; both started dancing to it. Vulture magazine described this as shoplifting Usher’s 1997 hit “Yeah!”

In an interview with Digital Spy published on 7 November 2014, Ronson revealed that he originally intended this track to be used on Mars’ follow-up album to Unorthodox Jukebox:
I had this idea of doing a mutated kind of what they used to call new jackswing thing – but kind of dirtying up that sound a bit… Originally I had written that as almost like a jokey throwback song because you hear so many songs coming out now where people are doing ’90s house or whatever – but kind of making them sound cleaned up for 2015. And I just felt like there wasn’t really anything else dirty enough out there… And then when we got down into Jeff’s basement studio in Venice Beach and started working really hard on trying to capture that raw feeling from the demos… It’s through working hard and spending time with somebody – you get trust points where suddenly you’re like ‘ actually let me try this’ or ‘ I think you should do an ad lib here.’ You start being more experimental because you’re both on the same page musically.”

Other notable productions

In addition to “Uptown Funk”, Ronson has produced or co-produced three other songs that have peaked at number one in the UK and US: “Valerie” by Amy Winehouse, “Boom Boom Pow” by The Black Eyed Peas, and “Have It All” by Jason Mraz. He has also won Grammy Awards for his work on Winehouse’s Back to Black album, Mraz’s We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. album, and Adele’s record-breaking single “Rolling in the Deep”.

Discography

Ronson’s first recordings were with Zoot Woman in 2002; he co-wrote and produced two tracks on their second album, “Living in a Magazine”. Ronson worked with Bristol grindcore band Righteous Fathers on two tracks for their first EP, “I Found This Record at My Friends House”, including the song “Antique Progression”. Ronson also produced both tracks on The Datsuns’ 2002 debut single as well as tracks on both of their studio albums. In 2003 Ronson joined Robbie Williams as part of his band for his world tour to promote the album Sing When You’re Winning and appeared in the accompanying tour DVD.

Ronson’s fourth record was 2007’s Version; the album featured reworkings of existing songs by other artists including Jamie T, Lily Allen, Sean Paul, Katy B and Ghostface Killah. The success of Version pave the way forValerie to be reissued as a single in late 2007, charting at number 9 in the UK after initially only being available as a digital download. Alongside these releases, Ronson collaborated with Duran Duran on their 13th studio album Red Carpet Massacre; he co-wrote and produced four tracks on the album including ‘Skin Trade’ which featured guest vocals from Justin Timberlake.

Awards and nominations

Ronson has earned multiple awards and nominations for his work as a producer, including Grammys, Golden Globes and an Academy Award. He has also been nominated for Brit Awards and MTV Video Music Awards.

In 2014, Ronson won two Brit Awards for Best Male Solo Artist and Best British Single for “Uptown Funk”, and the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Producer of the Year, Non-Classical. In 2016, he won a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for co-writing “The Way You Look Tonight” from the film soundtrack of Amy. In 2019, he won two Ivor Novello Awards for Songwriter of the Year and PRS for Music Special International Award.