A BIG NIGHT OUT IN MARK RONSON'S OLD NEW YORK

BEFORE HE WAS POP MUSIC'S HITMAKER, MARK RONSON WAS AN UNDERAGE DJ WORKING THE WILDEST ROOMS IN MANHATTAN'S LAST GREAT ERA OF NIGHTLIFE. HIS NEW MEMOIR-AND SOME OF HIS OLDEST FRIENDS-TELLS THE STORY.

- CHRIS HEATH

WHEN I MEET Mark Ronson one afternoon in his New York City recording studio, Ronson—these days both a celebrated producer (Amy Winehouse, Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa) and recording artist (“Uptown Funk,” “Valerie,” “Nothing Breaks Like a Heart”)—is just back from Shanghai. He was DJ'ing at a corporate black-tie event for the watch company Audemars Piguet, with which Ronson has an ongoing relationship. You might imagine after all his successes he would feel some license to handle an engagement like this on cruise control, but Ronson says no. Wherever he is, and whoever the people outside the DJ booth might be, and whyever they might be there, some of the same fundamental dynamics present themselves every single time. “You're just looking at this room of people,” Ronson tells me, “who are vaguely excited to see you but just standing waiting for you to do something—anything—impressive.”

Ronson's family includes sister and DJ Samantha Ronson, sister and fashion designer Charlotte Ronson, wife and actor Grace Gummer, half-sister and actor Annabelle Dexter-Jones, and mother and jewelry designer Ann Dexter-Jones.

And then you have to actually make it happen.

In Shanghai, Ronson started out by sliding a dub that the Jamaican singer Sean Paul made just for him years ago together with Ronson's Barbie soundtrack Dua Lipa hit “Dance the Night,” then followed with his remix of Sabrina Carpenter's “Espresso.” He had “Uptown Funk” ready to go. Nothing. “Nobody's moving,” he says. “And I'm just like, ‘Fuck.... None of the tricks are going to work.” That's simply how it often is. “Every gig, I still wonder if we're ever going to get there. And if it doesn’t happen right away, you just feel the whole sinking feeling.”