DJ Ron Slomowicz: So you have
the official closing party of the Winter Music Conference, and it
looks like it's going big time. How did you plan this?
Mark Lewis: Well, we started it six years ago, a friend of mine was
in marketing and he was doing a bunch of events at the Mariott Hotel,
poolside, and he said 'why don't you call some of your friends like
Carl Cox and Seb Fontaine and ask them will they be up for playing one
of your parties.' So Nikki Beach was really supportive on doing the
after party after we did Diwali and we really liked the fit of the
venue and what this beach was all about, because they had a
relationship with the owner, Eric Moyers, from coming to the
Conference over the last fourteen years. And he said 'yes, we'd love
to get involved with your event,' and after a couple of years we found
out that this was the right spot, people didn't want to go back to
another club, they'd been clubbed-out for the last four or five days
and it was a nice way to wind down and do some last minute meetings,
meet some people that you hadn't seen and put some DJs on in a smaller
environment that makes it a little bit more intimate for the closing.
So, six years later on we feel like we've evolved, we've added some
new talents to the lineup and then decided to do this seventeen-hour
marathon here. It's been a little bit slower than expected, but we're
back up to speed. Because Mixology is really a 9 to 5 a.m. party, so…
RS: OK. One thing that's really cool about Nikki Beach is that
even when the weather's bad, it's still a good party. What about
Nikki Beach, do you think, makes it such a good vibe?
Mark Lewis: Well I think that people can come here and they can have
lunch and they can sunbathe and they can go home, and then they can
come back and they can still lounge around, it's got that whole GQ
lifestyle thing attached to it. And, you know, we're sitting in a
teepee doing this interview, it just makes it really cool.
RS: How do you find the up-and-coming talents?
Mark Lewis: Well, I was out last night at a club called Angel, John
Digweed's club, and I was playing and this DJ from the Netherlands was
playing, he was like twenty-three or twenty-eight and he was seriously
laying down some grooves. And I was like 'yes, when you're young and
you're hungry, you want to prove a point and have a definitive sound.
And I love it that the young guys are committed. I listen to the tunes
that they're playing and they're really on it.
RS: I also noticed you have your next day out here as a charity
event, what about that makes you like support that event?
Mark Lewis: Well we always like to support charities because it's
just good karma, and the people that created Next Aid are Craig Keys
and his wife, and they've been really diligent on bringing attention
to what's happening with kids having AIDS in Africa, and raising money
and bringing the music industry in. I've worked with Life Beat before
for a number of parties for Mixology, you do what you can. You try to
get involved, and every little bit counts.
RS: And Mixology is also a record label, correct?
Mark Lewis: Yes, it started off as a record label, I had a P and D
deal in the Year 2000 and it was really more vinyl-based, and our
first single we licensed to Global Underground, to Steve Lawlow, and
then to Ministry of Sound. And then from there we kind of signed more
stuff that was more vinyl-based. And then I stepped back after I lost
the deal and I thought to myself, 'well, what is Mixology,' and I
thought to myself 'it's a little bit more attached to a cutting edge
lifestyle.' So once I started getting back into the studio and
started producing music, and we did our single I Found You on the
Interstate, I gave it to Oakenfold and he licensed it for Queen
Fields. We decided to create Mixology Recordings as more of a
production company where we could, you know, sign artists or sign
content and just do licensing deals. So that kind of like put us back
into full throttle with being involved with the label side of things
and then doing the Mixology events. And then realizing that the
events cost a lot of money to put on, we had a marketing division that
goes out and seeks out sponsorships that raise money to put on the
events.
