He’s received seven Grammys, two Brits and an Oscar. He’s one of the profitable report producers of all time – counting hits with Girl Gaga, Adele and Paul McCartney in his discography. He’s performed the Tremendous Bowl. Amy Winehouse was his muse. Meryl Streep is his mother-in-law. However at 4am, unable to sleep, Mark Ronson was nervously checking his cellphone to see if he’d written a ok demo to make it onto the Barbie soundtrack.

“I wished to get the job, however I additionally didn’t wish to simply give them some generic dance shit. I wished to do one thing I’ve by no means finished earlier than.” Speaking by way of Zoom from his New York residence, recent from Cannes, Ronson nonetheless appears in awe of Barbie director Greta Gerwig – and from getting the chance to work on the largest film of the yr.

“The minute I knew Greta Gerwig was directing… I signed up”

“The minute I knew Greta was directing the movie, that she was writing it together with her associate Noah [Baumbach], and that it was Barbie… I signed up. I imply, I did learn the script. And the script was unbelievable. However truthfully, if it had been dangerous I nonetheless would have mentioned sure.”

Requested to write down one thing fast for Barbie’s first huge musical quantity (a glittery dance social gathering within the disco-fied Dreamhouse), Ronson solely had every week earlier than choreography started to give you one thing to suit the scene. “It felt like if I did a superb job on that observe there could be an opportunity to do extra,” he remembers. “Nevertheless it was getting near the deadline and I didn’t have something. Lastly, on the final minute, I had this observe that I preferred. I named it ‘Tastes Like Barbie’ and despatched it in in a single day. I knew it was already mid-morning in England, the place they had been filming. I all the time flip my cellphone off earlier than I’m going to mattress however I wakened in the course of the evening and couldn’t resist checking my e-mail. Greta liked it. She mentioned she’d already listened to it 100 instances on the best way to set. It felt like I may breathe once more.”

Later, he requested Dua Lipa to work on the vocals (“I all the time felt prefer it had a Future Nostalgia really feel to it”), and the observe developed into ‘Dance The Night time’. Ronson’s single contribution to Barbie had grown into one of the bold tasks he’d ever labored on. Lizzo adopted. As did Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice, Charli XCX, Sam Smith, Billie Eilish, Haim, PinkPantheress, Karol G and FIFTY FIFTY. Assembling 17 unique tracks with each one of many largest names in pop, Ronson turned a film soundtrack into the most well liked album of 2023.

“You realize, I’ve been requested to do songs for motion pictures earlier than,” he says, speaking slowly in a transatlantic slur, hanging each sentence off an extended pause and the phrase “like”. “And so they simply say, like, ‘hey, we’re doing a Ghostbusters reboot! Simply make a music!’ Like, positive, you may go make a music however your mind goes 1000 alternative ways. No offence to the Ghostbusters reboot, however they ended up with, like, 11 interpolations of the unique Ghostbusters music on that film…”

Ah sure, the Ghostbusters reboot (not that one, the different one, with Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, in 2016…). Ronson’s ‘Get Ghost’, with Ardour Pit and A$AP Ferg, marked a turning level in his work on movie. By then, he’d already contributed tracks to a dozen motion pictures – however they’d principally been songs he’d already launched elsewhere.

“My first single, [2003 funk hip-hop mash-up] ‘Ooh Wee’, did fairly effectively in England when it got here out, however the principle purpose individuals comprehend it in America is as a result of it was within the [2003 Jessica Alba romcom] Honey, proper within the opening scene,” he says, nonetheless barely bemused by the truth that his largest hits have had such a shelf-life on adverts, end-credits and cartoon chipmunk dances. “Though plenty of my solo information haven’t finished so nice, for some purpose filmmakers appear to love them. And so they nonetheless use ‘Ooh Wee’ because the bumper for insurance coverage advertisements. I’m like, ‘why the fuck didn’t you guys play it when it was really out?!”

Digging additional into his early inspirations, Ronson names Footloose and High Gun because the soundtracks that first made an impression when his mum moved him from London to New York as an eight-year-old. “Within the ‘80s, they had been the information you simply noticed in all places. Each child had ‘Thriller’, and each child had these two film soundtracks.”

Waxing about his love for Giorgio Moroder’s ‘Hazard Zone’ and Steve Steven’s guitar riff (and the time he slipped the High Gun theme right into a DJ set at Tom Cruise’s wedding ceremony, getting him to shoot finger weapons on the dance ground), Ronson talks about soundtracks the best way he talks about all music. As obsessive about Carter Burwell’s Fargo rating as he’s with Eric B. & Rakim’s ‘Know The Ledge’ on Tupac’s basic Juice hip hop compilation, his personal first film credit score is tougher to put.

“Generally with film music, you simply must get the fuck out of the best way”

“I feel I did a music for Zoolander?”, he asks, after a pause. “They had been simply having individuals cowl songs, and I did ‘Name Me’ by Blondie with Nikka Costa. However the first time I used to be requested to truly write music for a movie was Mortdecai, with Johnny Depp.” The 2015 flop isn’t remembered that fondly, if in any respect, and Ronson has his personal points together with his retro jazz rating. “I hate to say it now, however… I didn’t know as a lot then. And I didn’t take into consideration issues like serving the image. After I watch that movie, the music is much too funky, the entire time. I feel that’s one thing I used to be positively fighting round that point too, after [his second album] ‘Model’. Like, ‘oh is that what individuals need from me?’

“The factor I discovered very, in a short time doing the rating for Barbie is that you simply’re all the time serving the image. You’re all the time serving the emotion. It’s a must to flip off all of the issues you realize about making pop and rock and soul music for the final 30 years. Sure, it must be lovely, however generally you simply must get the fuck out the best way.”

By 2016, Ronson was beginning to realise precisely what that meant. First there was the observe on the Ghostbusters reboot, then work on Scarlett Johannsson’s singing snake solo in The Jungle Guide and a music with Queens rapper Motion Bronson for Suicide Squad. “This was proper when ‘Uptown Funk’ was nonetheless type of loopy,” he says. “Though it’d been out for over a yr, we had been rehearsing for the Tremendous Bowl, and we had all these items occurring, I began getting drawn to those totally different tasks. Swingers is considered one of my favorite motion pictures of all time, so once I bumped into [director] Jon Favreau and he requested me about The Jungle Guide I mentioned I’d like to do it. I used to be there within the studio with Homer [Steinweiss] and Tommy [Elmhirst] and all these superb musicians that I’ve labored with since [Amy Winehouse’s classic 2006 album] Again To Black, and we had two hours with Scarlett, who had this nice, loopy, super-throaty New York rasp. She was nice.”

Discovering his means in direction of extra mature movie writing, the following largest milestone got here in 2018 with A Star Is Born – and with that, an Oscar.

“We had been engaged on Gaga’s album ‘Joanne’ and Bradley Cooper stopped by the studio one afternoon. I like his movies. He confirmed up trying like a film star. So we frolicked,” Ronson smiles. “He was actually candy, speaking about this new script that they had been each doing. I performed him the music referred to as ‘Joanne’ and he’s like, ‘that’s nice, can I’ve it?’. I do know he’s an enormous star and every part, however I actually preferred that music. And I type of wanted it for Gaga’s report.”

Agreeing to take a while out of the schedule to work on one thing new for the movie with Gaga, Ronson remembers the precise second ‘Shallow’ clicked – after days spent attempting to nail the refrain. “We had been working on this unbelievable studio in Malibu, [Los Angeles] – Rick Rubin’s studio, Shangri La – and it had this actually lengthy echoey hallway. I’ve this very distinct reminiscence of Gaga’s voice coming from 30 toes away, sounding so enthusiastic about one thing as she got here in. She sat down on the piano and began singing ‘I’m off the deep finish…’”

“The place else am I going to search out somebody to sing ‘I’m Simply Ken’?”

Noticing that one thing had modified after A Star Is Born – and now including an Academy Award to his mantlepiece – extra film tasks began turning up, however none of them felt like Ronson was throwing every part he had on the display screen. “I feel it was enjoyable to simply make some feel-good shit round then,” he says, trying again on the tracks he made with Anderson. Paak and DJ Shadow for cartoon pigeon comedy Spies In Disguise. “That was coming off the again of ‘Late Night time Emotions’, which was simply an immensely private report and slightly bit extra melancholic, so it was good to have some licence to make one thing completely totally different.”

All of which led to Barbie. As a lot enjoyable as Ronson had with the movie (“I may be as severe as I must be sitting in a studio with Miley Cyrus engaged on a observe… however [Barbie is the only place] I’m going to search out somebody to sing ‘I’m Simply Ken’), the soundtrack was additionally an opportunity to hone the movie abilities he’d been engaged on all through his complete profession. This was going to be a compilation report – his largest but – however one which was all the time solely there to serve the story.

“There have been some nice songs that simply didn’t really feel tonally proper on the finish of the day, in order that they didn’t find yourself within the movie,” he says, not naming any names. “Every part needed to serve the film. It needed to push the image. There was by no means any thought of simply placing in a ‘sizzling observe’, as they name it, or a ‘needle drop’.”

Feeling like a snapshot of pop’s international attain in 2023, in addition to of how assorted its sub-genres actually are, the album discovered its sound accidentally. Ronson and Gerwig determined to strategy their favorite artists and see who was eager to become involved. To their shock, everybody was.

“All people is the very best of their lane. And we went after all of them,” he says. “I’d have been over the moon to have gotten 1 / 4 of those artists, however all of them simply saved coming again saying sure. We confirmed [Colombian superstar] KAROL G the scene on Venice Seaside Boardwalk, and Charli XCX obtained the chase sequence. Everybody was identical to, ‘I obtained it. Let me ship you one thing in every week.’”

Dua Lipa turned in a summer season anthem. Lizzo wrote the opening quantity like she was on Broadway (“Greta liked it a lot that she ran out of the room and performed it for Margot over the cellphone”). Billie Eilish obtained a “secret” observe. Haim nailed the massive retro tearjerker. Ryan Gosling smashed a Meat Loaf-inspired ballad that’s the spotlight of the entire movie.

“I used to be by no means an enormous musical theatre buff rising up, and that’s not ever one thing I felt like I’d go into,” says Ronson. “However as I’ve gotten older, I really like [musical theatre legend] Stephen Sondheim and I recognize all of it. Barbie’s actually given me licence to make stuff I’ll by no means get to make. I imply, somebody like Johnny Marr is my musical hero, however to work with individuals who come from this different artwork kind feels extra magical to me. Movies have extra fairy mud. I don’t know, it was simply very… gratifying to be part of this.”

Clearly nonetheless barely star-struck, Ronson appears extra at residence speaking about Barbie than he does anything he’s ever labored on. He’s proud. And he’s clearly additionally the place he desires to be – discovering a solution to mesh his abilities making super-singles together with his ardour for motion pictures in a means that lastly is smart. A means that turns pop soundtracks into one thing genuinely new and thrilling.

“Hear, my instincts aren’t all the time proper. They’ve positively been fallacious earlier than. I don’t wish to use any, like, trite adjectives, however this one actually did really feel… particular.”

‘Barbie The Album’, government produced by Mark Ronson, is out now on Atlantic Data