Your last two compilation CD’s for MOS have become the highest selling dance compilations in Australia, whilst the MOS Annual 2004 broke all records by going double platinum. What are your expectations for the MOS Annual 2005?
Hopefully it will continue in the same fashion! As with last year’s Annual we’ve bought together the best club tracks from 2004 whilst introducing some fresh new tracks that are just gaining momentum. My disc this year leans more towards the electro sound whilst John’s disc is more house orientated. I’m happy with the result, I think this year’s Annual also reflects what we’re both playing in the clubs much more closely.
The nationwide tour to promote the release of the new MOS Annual often incorporates many smaller, suburban venues. Do you enjoy playing these more intimate venues? What is the crowd response like in comparison to the bigger city nightclubs?
On this tour John and I are covering all four corners of Australia, including many regional cities that we haven’t played in before. We’ll cover places like Launceston, Cairns, Wollongong, Newcastle, Gold Coast plus all the major cities. It’s definitely a different sort of atmosphere at these regional venues, and sometimes it’s actually a good thing to have the pressure lifted a little! The major city’s audiences tend to have an expectation of what a Ministry show should be like, whereas some of the regional venues haven’t had one before, so there’s that sense of anticipation the audience. A lot of the smaller towns don’t have the luxury of national or international guests each week unlike the major cities, so they’re usually very welcoming and really get pumped for the event.
You will be joined by John Course on many of the tour dates. Do you enjoy playing with John and do you find your styles fuse well behind the decks?
Most of the tour we’re doing together, but there are a few dates where he’s doing the show on his own and likewise, same for me. As much as I’ve only had the chance to get to know John this year, I’ve always admired his work behind the decks as he likes to cut it up in a similar way to the way I do. Musically we play fairly different styles of house, but we both like solid production and driving grooves. With John based in Melbourne, we found on the Sessions tour that a lot of the big club tracks from down there hadn’t crossed over up here in Sydney yet, and visa versa, tracks that we are fairly well used to up here are only just kicking in down in Melbourne, so we don’t tend to double up on tracks at all which is great.
Included on the MOS Annual 2005 is one of your original tracks “Identify Me”. Tell me a little about the making of this track and working with Jaytech.
This has been a year long project which started when I met James in a club in Canberra. We realised we both had the same taste in music and were both interested in creating something new that fused all the styles we liked into one project. “Identify Me” is the result. It’s a little bit electro, a bit progressive, a bit techno – but it’s all held together with a driving rock style bassline. It’s our first signing to Hussle/Ministry. We are also slowly gathering together a number of our own productions which head in many different directions. We want to keep the genre boundaries open from the start so that we can feel free to record house, electro, even downtempo chillout tracks all under the same project name, which I guess is similar to my DJing. “Identify Me” is currently getting a remix from a German DJ who is taking it further in the electro direction, so that should see a single release on vinyl with the original early next year if all goes well.
The other week on your sunset program on FBi radio, you played an interesting remix of the new Darren Hayes track “Darkness”. I heard a rumour this may be a remix by yours truly? Will the track be getting a release?
Yeah the idea for a remix for Darren came up really quickly and we completed it in only 2 days – we arranged to have the accapella of his next single “Darkness” sent to us from his publisher whilst I was mixing down the Annual. I really like the direction Darren’s gone with his new set of songs, he’s doing something different, combining a solid pop vocal with elements of electronica which I really like. The original is quite moody and atmospheric, so we decided to speed it up slightly and make it more club friendly with a house rhythm and quirky bassline. We just did it on spec for a challenge, but Darren heard it and said he’s really into it so it’s going to be included on the CD single release when it comes out on Sony in Australia and most likely the rest of the world, at the end of the year. It’s our first remix together of someone else’s work so we’re both chuffed with the outcome, especially considering it was only a total of 4 days from concept to realisation and hearing from Darren with his positive reaction.
Do you have any other productions or remixes out soon that we should keep our ears peeled for?
We have a couple of other songs that are complete, one of which is our first production called “Amplified”. This is available to everyone to download for free, exclusively from my website www.markdynamix.com. It’s much more progressive than “Identify Me” but still has that tech edge which we like. Jaytech has completed quite a staggering number of tracks by himself though, including some great remixes. You can find out more about him at http://jaytech.m6.net. Aside from that, we have a number of unfinished ideas that we’ll work on further and hopefully some more remixes will come our way.
I notice you’re playing alongside one of my all-time favourite DJ’s Norman Jay on NYE! How does it feel to be headlining alongside such a respected name in the dance music industry, especially considering his MBE from the Queen for his contribution to music?
Haha, I didn’t know about that! MBE? Wow, OK, full respect to the man! I’m excited about New Years Eve, it should be a great night at Luna Park – where else will you get such a great view of the fireworks? I saw Norman play at the Notting Hill Festival in the UK a couple of years back and he’s quite amazing to watch perform. Like me I’m sure there’s some eager fans here in Sydney waiting to see him again.
Do you have any plans to continue touring oversees in 2005??
Well I’m really enjoying the traveling, visiting the kind of left-of-centre destinations I played at this year. India and Papua New Guinea were both awesome experiences and I think there are some more gigs on the cards for 2005, maybe even South America. I’m definitely booked for Whistler and Vancouver in Canada in February 2005, but beyond that is anyone’s guess. I think I’ve got enough on my plate for the next six months!
You can catch Mark Dynamix on the remaining dates of the Ministry of Sound 2005 Annual tour:
Fri 3rd Dec – Billboard, Melbourne – John Course & Mark Dynamix
Sat 4th Dec – Family, Brisbane – John Course & Mark Dynamix
Fri 10th Dec – Bustin’ at Cooneys, Wollongong – John Course
Fri 10th Dec – Rolling Rock, Noosa – Mark Dynamix
Sat 11th Dec – King Street Hotel, Newcastle – John Course & Mark Dynamix
Fri 17th Dec – Indulge, Coffs Harbour – John Course
Sat 18th Dec – C-Moog, Byron Bay – Mark Dynamix
The Annual is out now through Ministry of Sound/EMI.
