Mark Ronson thinks his new album is “a grown-man record”.
The British DJ and music producer released his fourth studio album Uptown Special last month. The record has been well received on both sides of the Atlantic, which is a relief to the 39-year-old as he was keen to take a different approach to his previous work.
“Uptown Special is like a grown-man record. It’s maybe the first time where I decided to divorce the DJ element from my name and just make a record I’d want to listen to, and worry later about how people might categorise it,” he explained to British newspaper Metro.
It’s been five years since Mark’s last album, Record Collection, and he admits he was acutely aware of how much music can change in a short space of time. It left him wondering if there would even be any demand for his music any more, despite his past successes.
“It had been a while since my last record and people’s tastes change even quicker now, so I was looking around and thinking, what kind of record am I supposed to make? Do people even care if I make a record?” he said. “It took me a long time to figure out what it is I do that maybe other people don’t. And when you’re a DJ making a record, you sometimes make the mistake of thinking every song is for the dance floor, but with my favourite albums, that’s not the case.”
Despite this, Uptown Special’s first single Uptown Funk, which features vocals by Bruno Mars, has been a huge hit in bars and clubs around the world and had to be rush released because of demand. For Mark, he is just thrilled to be doing what he has always loved.
“This success now is really beyond anything I could have expected in my wildest dreams,” he added.