In 2011, Future Music Festival is sporting its largest live contingent yet. At the top of the list is of course The Chemical Brothers, but another act sure to be stirring excitement is dapper super-producer Mark Ronson and his new band The Business International.

We know to expect good things after Ronson’s debut Australian tour in 2008 for the Global Gathering festival. With his covers album Version then doing big business, he lit up the stage with a rotating cast of vocalists and a whole lot of good vibes.

This time round, Ronson is showing off his new album of originals, Record Collection, which sees the studio whiz finding his singing voice alongside distinguished guests like Q-Tip, Ghostface Killah and Andrew Wyatt from Miike Snow. So, how have the new songs changed the live show? We got on the phone to Ronson to find out…

“The thing about the Version tour is that it was really more of a revue,” he told us down the line from London. “You know, big band with percussion and horns and guests leaping on and off stage.

“The difference with this project is that the main vocalists on the album are [ Phantom Planet frontman] Alex Greenwald, MNDR and a few others, but they’re also playing instruments the whole time. It really is more of a band situation…that to me is really exciting, rather than a backing band a bunch of cool singers running about.”

Ronson also reckons DJing has taught him how to hold a festival crowd. “Coming from background as a DJ, you’re just there to make a whole load of people have a really good time,” he continued. “I never really got into it so I could say, ‘Alright, now I’m going to subject people to an hour and a half of my experimental noise set’. So I bring that sensibility to the show, but I don’t want to be a jukebox either.”

According to a Twitter post from Ronson himself last month, the touring party for his FMF tour will also include Record Collection players Spank Rock, Rose Elinor Dougall, Stuart Zender and more. Sounds like a party.

Stay tuned to inthemix for the full interview with Mark Ronson. Have you added yourself to the Future Music Festival roll-call?