Mark Ronson is an English record producer, musician , singer, former DJ to puff daddy and the step son of English guitarist, song writer and Producer, Mick Jones, from the band “Foreigner” not the Clash (which also had a Mick Jones in their band)!

Mark was born in London and then moved to NY around 10 years old. Hip hop was big during that time and he picked up the scene-y street sound and DJ’d a lot of big events for artists like puff daddy and biggie.

He went on to do magic when he produced, one of my all time favorite albums, “Back to Black”, with the legendary Amy Winehouse.

His new song that he played with Bruno Mars,”Uptown Funk you up”, hit the top of the music charts and is on his new album, where he has collaborated with many different popular artists.

Check out his interview on NPR, click the link below to hear his story.

NPR – Mark Ronson Interview

So you’re in your car driving and you turn on the radio. Suddenly amongst all of the noise, a song comes on that completely rocks your inner core! You might be thinking, wow I wish I was able to make music like this singer! Little do you know that the singer not only didn’t create the lyrics or the instrumental but they definitely didn’t create the melody & style it was sang in either! In this case, the singer is really just someone who is a good performer with very rarely a good voice to go along with it. They are usually looking for fame and don’t have the creative edge to make their own music but they might have the vocals and ambition to carry them to stardom. These singers need a song writer as well as someone to lead them through the harmony. This is where Sia comes in. She is apart of the “behind the scenes”, music world working on the songs that you love, sang by people other than the creator herself!

Sia is a singer songwriter (a real one) who hid from the spotlight for decades. Her career took off when she sang in the band Zero 7 on their 2006 album, “The Garden”. Her last unforgettable hit Breathe Me played at the end of the show “Six feet under” and she has only recently come to the surface since with her latest song Chandelier, which made it to the top of the international music charts. This song is much more than just another “Pop” song on the radio. Sia wrote this song originally to sell to Rhianna or other pop artists that she usually writes for but she decided that it was much too personal to give it up and kept it for herself. After-all, it’s her song and it’s about her! In the video, “Chandelier”, an 11 year old dancer Maddie Ziegler performed an out of this world performance. Sia helped choreograph the dance. The scene takes place in a sad crumby apartment with dull colors and depressing kid drawings on the wall, while Maggie plays out the songs darkness with her upbeat beautiful ballet, modern and contemporary hip hop dance steps that can come off pretty creepy at times. It is really a genius piece of work! 

Sia’s story is pretty remarkable and you can find her talking about it on the Howard Stern Show. It’s an hour long but if you’re into the back story of all of your favorite pop songs, you will be shocked to know that Sia is behind them. She wrote “Diamonds in the Sky” sang by Rhianna, as well as “Titanium” and so many others that you will find a whole new level of respect for this talented woman!

I have been a die hard fan of “Arcade Fire” ever since they came out with their album, “Funeral” in 2004. Ten years later, they are still on the scene since in 2011 they won a Grammy and have blown up surpassing any mediocre one hit wonder, trendy indie rock band and have been certifiably recognized for their true indie rock talent.  I have to say though, they were going strong for a while with SOLID albums like; “Funeral, “Neon Bible” and “the Suburbs” but this last album “Reflektor”, has only about a few good songs while the others are just fillers for the abum. It’s not solid and although it breaks my heart that they weren’t able to meet my expectations of their genius musically gifted past, they were still able to put on a badass show!

Seeing them play live yet again was worth all of those surcharges on ticketmaster as well as rip-off stubhub. It’s a BIG band of people, with two drummers (one’s the lead singers wife) and various instruments that keep you going. This tour specifically had a cool mirrored man reflecting light off of him and back onto the crowd. There was also a DJ playing on the sound stage across from the band and during the show Regine Chassagne (Win Butler’s wife) surprised the crowd appearing on the small stage giving people who have crappy seats a chance to see the performance up close.

It turned into a huge dance party that continued past Arcade Fire’s performance.