MARK JORDAN DJ Interview

Continuing to explore the development of the underground modern soul scene in the uk.

Mark has become more involved in this via his radio show "The Sounds Of Soul Mixshow" on Starpoint Radio and is now looking to share his talents in some of the rights places starting at Soul Underground in December.His show has evolved into a unique format that has attracted peoples attention as have his mix edits under the guise "SoS"

I caught up with Mark recently

Where were you born?

Walsgrave Hospital, Coventry

When were you born?

20^Th September 1975

Where did you grow up and what were your early musical
influences?

I spent my early years in a small village near Oxford, and then moved to the Midlands. My early musical influences came via my Dad’s record collection, it was very wide ranging but for me it was great to hear some Motown, Atlantic Soul, Philadelphia International etc. He also had some great disco compilations as well as stuff by Earth, Wind & Fire.

Are you a record collector as well as embracing modern technology?

Yeah I have a large vinyl collection I would say several thousand 12”s. I was buying huge amounts of vinyl throughout the 90’s it tailed off a couple of years ago with the advent of digital releases. My penchant for US imports certainly made it an expensive habit.........

My collection is quite varied and includes Original Disco 12’s, Jazz-Funk, Acid Jazz, R&B, and lots of House music.

How did you become a DJ and how long have you been DJ’ing?

One of my earliest recollections was hearing the Deep Heat compilation series I guess that was very late 80’s I was fascinated by the way that they were sequenced/mixed. I became quite adept at pause button mixing and used to compile mixes that way before I had turntables. I also bought a reel to reel tape machine and had a go at splice editing with limited results!

In 1992 my brother was at college and started picking up early vinyl releases from Joey Negro amongst others, it was at that stage that I got together a turntable set-up and a cheap Tandy mixer. The turn tables were both belt-drive and only one had a pitch control!

A couple of years later I graduated to two direct-drive Kam turntables and by this stage my beat mixing was starting to really click into place.

I then moved on to the Industry standard Technics 1210’s which I still have today.

In terms of mixing I am completely self-taught; I got my cues from listening to many hours of different DJ’s via Mix-tapes, more on that later.........

Which clubs have you worked in and with which other DJ’s

Pretty much all of my DJ’ing has been done around the Midlands; the sound that I play probably lends itself better to bars etc. Over the years I guess I must have played at pretty much every pub/bar in Coventry/Leamington Spa/Solihull and some in Birmingham. I have also played sets at many of the regions nightclubs. A lot of my opportunities came via a very good friend Cedric Anderson who has helped me develop and has opened many doors........

Which DJ’s have influenced you?

In terms of mixing and technical stuff, I would say Graeme Park and CJ Mackintosh from the UK. Louie Vega from the US. I developed my style based on their “seamless” mixing, where the emphasis is on smooth transitions between tracks.

Musically, my favourites UK wise are Paul “Trouble” Anderson and Norman Jay. Again thanks to my brother Tim I received regular tapes from PTA’s Kiss show and NJ’s various shows, they provided masses of inspiration throughout the 90’s. I was also sent amazing tapes of Tony Humphries doing his Kiss FM mix-show in New York.

Dave Camacho and Kenny Carpenter also shaped my taste they played only the most soulful house not surprising as their roots were based in disco etc.

What are your favourite record labels and who are
your favourite producers?

Camio Records, Sophisticado, Deep Haven, Unified, Blackstone.

In terms of producers, Jonny Montana, Vick Lavender, DJ Man-X, Mark Grant, Glenn Underground, Groove Assassin, Powdersoul, Jason B, Louis Benedetti, Greg Gauthier.

Do you play any musical instruments yourself? What tech do you use for your edits?

I don’t actually play any instruments (I really wish that I had taken my Mother’s advice and learnt to play the piano). I have been using Sony Acid Pro for producing my Edits. The software allows me to load in an original track then using various EQ techniques I can strip back the drums etc and then add a new drum track. I also layer on some percussion. A nice feature of the software is that when you change tempo it will automatically keep the vocals in key. It still amazes me now that it is possible to Remix/Edit songs in this way and achieve such great sounding results.

Talk a little about the world of edits and how you got involved and who you respect in this field?

I have been a big fan of what people like Powdersoul, Jason B, Groove Assassin etc have been doing in terms of taking Soul/R&B tracks that wouldn’t be remixed at House tempo normally and giving them a dance floor makeover. As I have gained more exposure to Independent Soul music I have been coming across lots of tracks that seemed perfect for reworking gently with a more up tempo beat. Fortunately for me Powdersoul is a friend and he gave me some insight into what he did and I started having a go myself. I have been working on stuff for around 5 months now so I realise I still have a lot to learn. What I will say is that I have been very lucky to have the support of many key players in the UK Soul scene in terms of playing my tracks out at venues and on the radio as well as giving a great amount of encouragement.

You now have your own radio show on Starpoint
The Sounds Of Soul Mix Show, Have you done radio before? Where would you like to take this given the chance?

I realised a dream in March 2008 when I started my own weekly show “Renditions Of Soul” on Futurebeat Radio. It was great to have a vehicle to share my love of music. A couple of months into doing the show I featured a guest Soul mix from Paul Goldsmith which blew me away, shortly afterwards I was delighted when Paul agreed to become a joint presenter on the show. With us both working on the show it gained popularity until we decided to call time on the show for various reasons after exactly a year of broadcasting.

Both Paul and I were very fortunate that shortly after we finished we were approached by Starpoint who offered us both individual shows.

Paul now presents “Select Soul” on a weekly basis and I have “The Sounds Of Soul Mixshow” which is a great testing ground for my own stuff along with playing the best soulful house releases. I also take some time out with a couple of “Soul Interludes” in each show. My show has been on air for six months and I am pretty pleased with how things have gone so far in terms of reaction and listening figures.

I would love for the show to reach a wider audience but so many shows have failed to stay on air nationally based on Soul and House music, I fear that opportunities to grow above this point may be limited

How much preparation do you do for one show?

This will depend on a couple of things. Firstly how much time I have been able to spend working on new Edits/Remixes and secondly how many new releases the prior week has seen. If these methods have contributed several tracks then it is a fairly quick job compiling the show, if not it will take much longer to select music to share. All in all between 6-12 hours.

Name 10 records that have influenced you over the years?

Sounds of Blackness – Optimistic

George Duke – I Want You For Myself

Jean Carne – Don’t Let It Go To Your Head

Johnny Hammond – Los Conquistadores Chocolates

Bobby Womack – How Can You Break My Heart

TS Monk – Candidate For Love

Melba Moore – Pick Me Up I’ll Dance

Eleanor Mills – Be Here

Al Hudson & The Partners – Spread Love

Black Science Orchestra – Altered States EP

What are your current favourite top ten tunes?

Danny Clark & Jay Beham Ft Dawn Tallman – Conqueror

Melchyor & MJ White – The Real Thing (Louis Benedetti Mix)

Groove Assassin & Stephanie Cooke – This Time

Vick Lavender Ft Michelle Thomas – Superwoman

Anto Vitale Ft Tamara Wellons – Out Of This World (DJ Spinna Mix)

Kevin Whalum Ft Lynne Fiddmont – Why (SOS Mix)

Danielle Haynes - I Want To Be Close To You

Tracy Hamlin – Free

Jeff Majors Ft Shirley Murdock – My Body

Sterling Ensemble Ft Carlene Graham – Push It

Noel McKoy – Brighter Day (Jonny Montana Mix)

How do you feel about the current music environment now the record companies play a different role and downloads are the new format?

At first I was determined to remain a vinyl purist, but I soon realised that you have to embrace change and move with the times. A big difference is that where I used to play many vinyl promos/white labels/bootlegs I now play CDRs from things I get sent or produce myself. All types of music are much more accessible so it means you can get things quickly and more importantly gain exposure to many different types of music through sound clips on the internet.

The main thing that has changed with record companies is that even some of the big players have switched to download only through the sites like Traxsource so if you want their product you have no choice in format.

Please talk a little about mixing and technology

I subscribe to the view that the music always comes first and if that means minimal beat mixing then so be it, however if you are playing mainly house really it is a little lazy not to mix the tunes together.

With soul tunes it is a little more difficult as the tunes are often made with short beat- less intros and they often fade at the end. My stuff is always done with DJ’s in mind and therefore I use beat intro/outros so you can actually beat mix them.

In terms of technology we now have excellent CD players that offer many different effects etc that you couldn’t previously do with turntables. Using today’s software people can mix perfectly within hours thanks to the ability of auto synchronisation etc, there is also software that makes sure you can mix in the correct key at all times. I find some of it useful but never do things that I couldn’t replicate myself in a club environment. Time saving is the main benefit.

Touch on the 90's club phenomena and what you feel came out of that and maybe contrast it with the modern soul scene that developed in the nineties and offers a different slant !

The mid 90’s were great and Soulful House was very prevalent in the big clubs like Hard Times and Ministry Of Sound, the big names from the US were in the UK very frequently. As the decade wore on the popularity decreased as peoples music preferences changed, DJ’s like Roger Sanchez and Dennis Ferrer started producing harder almost progressive records and the impact was also felt in the smaller venues, for people like me it was harder to fit in when you still stuck to your guns in championing a more soulful sound. I was still managing to play sets but usually alongside DJ’s who were playing “UK garage” which mainly featured big bass-lines and chipmunk vocals!

I am actually fairly new to the Modern Soul scene but I have found that the sound that I love is held in a lot higher regard within this movement, I wish I had come to it earlier..........

Here is the impressive list of Mark's "SOS Edit's" so far :-

SOS Remixes/Reworks/Re-Edits Discography 2009: House: Al B Sure - 4 Life Bass X - Baby I'm Ready BSTC Ft Keana Johnson - Fresh Love Chestor Gregory - Dreamin Clenord Ferguson - It's A Beautiful Day DaQuela - So Happy DTTB Ft Roy Ayers - Good To Me Drea Rhenee - Let The Sonshine In Dreamtime - So Long Eric Roberson & Algebra - ILuvU2Much Esperanza Freeze - Nick Of Time George Duke - Right On Time Gianna - One Step Closer Holyboy - By Your Side Howard Hewett - Enough Howard Hewett - Is This True Love Janita - Be Yourself Janita - Firefly Jesse Boykins III - Sunstar JI V ATTS - So Special Joe - Very Special Friend Joe - Worst Case Scenario Kenny Lattimore - Come Down In Time Kevin Whalum Ft Lynn Fiddmont - Why LaDeana Michelle - Believe Lenora Jaye - Silent Prayer Lisa McClendon - Heaven Luther Vandross - Apologize Monday Michiru - Your Eyes Montell Jordan - I Cry Paris Match - Passion8 Groove Peaches & Herb - Any Day Penny Wells - Compared To Loving You Q harper - Must Be My Wife Rachel Brown - Make It Official Satya Project - Bora's Bounce Slique - Finally Sterling Ensemble Ft carlene Graham - Push It Teena Marie Ft Howard Hewett - Lover's lane Thomas Hunter - Step A Little Closer Tina Davis - Let You Go Trish Andrews - Already Vanessa Williams - The Real Thing Vick Lavender Ft David Glenn - Another Girl Wil Key - Satisfy My Soul Wil Key - Superstar Soul: 45 Ft Jimmy Abney - Nothing Feels Better Than You BeBe & CeCe Winans - Close To You Chico DeBarge - Do My Bad Alone Darnell Kendricks - Jones In My Bones Gare Du Nord - You're My Medicin George Benson - Family Reunion James Day - Speak Love Joe - Sensitive Lover Lady A - I'm Moving On Lynne Fiddmont - Stay MLU - Wasn't Here Olivia McClurkin - All I Need Q Harper - Hey You Shaila Prospere - Mistakes TK Soul - Thats How I Feel Trizonna McClendon - My Special Wendy McIntyre - Wastin Time