RS: One of my favorite tracks of yours is "Insatiable." Where
did the idea for that song come from?
Mark Knight: At the time when we did it, there was a lot of that
straight drum with that kind of ripping bass sound. A lot of people
were doing that, but no one had fused the idea of doing a vocal as
well, and Katherine Ellis is is someone I'd wanted to work with for a
while. I started this demo and got the loop going and she was really
feeling it. It kind of wrote itself, that one, it came together
really easily.
RS: What do you have in store for new original productions?
Mark Knight: I've just been in Sweden all week working with Steve
Angello & Sebastian Ingrosso and we just finished a new track called
Go. I'm working on a solo EP myself, plus my own album- it's very
different, a cross of Metro and Crazy Penis. As far as original
productions are concerned, that's my focus at the moment alongside all
the other mixes and things that I do.
RS: In addition to stuff on Toolroom, you also did some stuff
with Sander Kleinenberg's label Little Mountain?
Mark Knight: That's right. Sander is a good friend and I had a
track that he was really feeling and he supported since day one, so he
just seemed like the obvious choice at the time. I had so much stuff
on my own label it was just the kind of thing I did in between mates
really.
RS: There's a Toolroom Records and a Toolroom Tracks, are those
separate labels?
Mark Knight: Toolroom Tracks is very much more underground music,
and Toolroom Records is kind of bigger productions with vocals and
things, that have more potential to crossover. It's not a commercial
label but it's Toolroom Tracks is mostly underground, Toolroom Records
is slightly more mainstream.
RS: Toolroom is for established DJs up alongside the up and
coming talent, where do you find the up and coming talent?
Mark Knight: Through demos and just having your ear to the ground.
I'm traveling the world constantly, I get sent things and I meet
people. It's a case of staying on top of the demos and things that
you're receiving and spotting the talent. Then fine-tuning and honing
their work for what we're trying to achieve.
RS: If I was a new producer or DJ and wanted to get your
attention, what would it take?
Mark Knight: Write a good record, send it to me, and if I can hear
its good production, good ideas, then we're very receptive to that.
That was the initial ethos of what we're trying to do, break new
talent and be leaders of the new school. We didn't want to just rely
on old names to start our label as we were looking for the next new
thing and we still strive to do that all the time. We've nurtured
people like Dave Spoon and Richard Dinsdale from pretty much obscurity
and we're working with the new talent, which we hope to do the same
thing with.
RS: When you DJ out live are you using vinyl, CDs, laptop?
Mark Knight: CDs. I toyed with the idea of playing on Ableton but I
just find it lacks the interaction. To a certain extent, it's
non-musical as far as what you actually do, but people enjoy that
reaction of seeing you do something. I've seen a lot of people play
on Ableton and it lacks vibe, so I'm sticking with CDs for the minute.
RS: I saw on the your MySpace page that you have a big ad to
vote for you in the DJ Mag awards. How important do you think award is
or that list is?
Mark Knight: It definitely influences your fee when you're DJing
worldwide and people do look at that as a point of reference. It's
not the be all and end all, and to a certain extent it can be
manipulated by people who really will go to great extremes to do so.
It's just become kind of an annual, yearly thing that people look at
to see who's doing well, who's going up, who's going down. So I think
it has an importance, it has a relevance to what we're doing.
RS: What would you like to say to all your fans out there?
Mark Knight: Thanks for all the support to date and keep an eye on
what we're doing here at the label via the website and MySpace. We
have some amazing tunes to come for the rest of the year, so watch
this space, I think would be the best thing to say.
Posted August 28, 2007
