Mark E hits Shoreditch this weekend, where you can catch him playing an extended 3 Hour set for the Horse & Grooms Winter special. We caught up with Mark ahead of his gig for a quick few words!

Introducing DJ, Producer & Label Boss Mark E whose steady ascension to his current status in house music has seen him become of the genre’s most natural talents. Reared in Wolverhampton when a rave culture was sweeping Britain and when the music scene in Manchester was known as ‘Madchester’, with the likes of The Stone Roses, Inspiral Carpets & Happy Mondays at the forefront. A new era had broken; a new music scene was rising. At a time when the Hacienda known for its stand out musical ethos, had been quoted as the worlds most famous club and Steve Silk Hurley’s Jack Your Body had reached number one in the UK Charts. This was the ‘second summer of love’.

Since then, Mark has gone on to make copious amounts of edits which have been described as warm, understated, and interestingly mellow, with tempos hovering somewhere between 105 and 115 BPM. He soon went beyond his edits and into his own original productions, starting his own label, MERC, and honing a sound that was simply setting the mark!

So Mark, how did you first get introduced to house music and what was it about it that inspired you?

“I just remember being about 16, dance music was all over the top 40, KLF was on top the pops, Dance energy was on the TV while my mom cooked the tea, and all my mates were swopping sasha mix tapes in the playground, it couldn’t have turned out any differently, it was inevitable.”

These days you can set up a home studio with just a computer and some software all at a reasonable cost. There are lots of courses and YouTube tutorials at hand to help you get started but at what point did you decided to begin producing and how did it all happen?

“My brothers friend gave us a CD full of cracked software, so we would use my dads computer in his office and sample disco loops and then sequence them, at this time i’d just bought dj sneaks Moondoggy ep which does just this, so we tried to copy him, nothing has changed really.”

What has been your take on dance music in 2012?

“Whilst I really dont like all this celebrity dj rubbish which seems to have blown up this year I still think there is a healthy underground scene for proper music lovers, all the genre hoppers will move ono the next thing and the good stuff will stay strong, im sure of that.”

This Saturday you’ll be playing an extended 3hour set. Do you like to have some structure to what you play or do you tend to fix up and just see where the night takes you?

“Yes pretty much that, lets see what happens. I think the H&G is a perfect venue for that ethos, let’s just go with it. Im sure there will be lots of house and lots of techno though.”

A common question that crops up is the ‘what was the first record you ever bought’ however do you remember the first mp3 purchase?

‘I truthfully can’t remember this. it would have been a wav anyway not an mp3, ha!”

What are Mark E’s top 5 winter warmers?

“all these 5 big in my box this year”

PROJECT E – MOZAIC

EDWARDS DEAD – Counterfeit Paradise

GENIUS OF TIME – LOVE THANG EDIT

WAZE ODYSSEY – LOVE ATTACK MARK E REMIX
[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/64600752" iframe="true" /]

SCHATRAX – SUNSHINE

Is there anything exciting coming up in 2013 that we should know about?

“Hopefully more stuff with the SPECTRAL guys, and we will be starting work on the PROJECT E LP.Also a remix ive done for the label ADULT CONTEMPORARY which is serious. ”

According to the Mayan’s, it’s coming up to Armageddon on the 21st December 2012, so what would Mark E’s secret ingredients be to his closing party? Who’d be on the line up and what three people would have priority guest list and why? (Dead or alive)

“DJ’s would be John Kelly, Tony Humphries, Theo Parrish & Sandwell District. Keith Haring would design the flyers, Bez would do the lights, Kelly Brooke and all her mates can get in free, and Boba fett would do the door.”

You can catch Mark E at the Horse & Groom Saturday 1st December – tickets here £4 www.residentadvisor.net/event.aspx?392156

You could n’t meet a nicer guy! DJ and Producer ‘Alex Egan’. Alex is no stranger to My Heroes Killed Cowboys, having previously played for us under the former guise of Skull Juice with Benedict Bull he has since gone on to establish a few different alter egos such as Astronomer, with remixes for Joakim, Metronomy, The XX, Glasser, Jori Hulkkonen and Zombi to name but a few. His most recent work ‘Geschmacklos’ is recorded as ‘The Draughtsman’ and is out now on Tim Paris’ record label ‘Marketing Music’. ‘Geschmacklos’ is gaining a lot attention from the likes of Erol Alkan, Ivan Smagghe, Trevor Jackson, Roman Flugel & Ewan Pearson… just slightly impressive then! I caught up with Alex at his gig at My Heroes Killed Cowboys to talk about production, the German language and Dungeons & Dragons…..

So Alex….how long have you been producing now?

I’ve been messing around with recording since my early-teens. My dad’s a musician so there were always instruments lying around and music blaring out, which sparked my interest at a young age I guess. At first I’d simply use a four-track and just jack any sound source within reach into it and hit record. So you could take some samples from vinyl, loop them up manually by pausing then put live instruments or whatever over the top. Basic but fun. Next I pretty much did the same thing on painfully slow computer, but of course then I also had the ability to cut, copy, splice which was incredible. I’ve only been producing properly for the past 3 or so years though. Nowadays the possibilities are endless, which in itself can be a problem. Limitations actually help.

I recall when you first started producing and you were listening to tracks over and over breaking them down, to see how they were structured. Have you always been self taught when it comes to production?

Oh yeah, I’ve definitely examined a few tracks in detail – just to figure out how certain parts were created – though now after years of consuming music (either on the dancefloor or just listening to tracks all the time) a lot of it has sunk in. I don’t find myself over-analysing absolutely everything as much as I used to. It’s useful to know certain techniques and practices but going too far is distracting, I’d rather just enjoy myself. For example, knowing what kind of length intro/outro is better for DJing with is second nature, but it’s hard to ‘unlearn’ such rigid formulas. It’s quite fun throwing those ideas out the window.

I learned the basics of recording during a Music Technology course when I was 18, though to be honest I spent most of the time making a complete racket on the studio’s drumkit and Juno 60. Apart from that I’m self-taught.

Do you find you’re spending more time in the studio than dj’ing now?

Definitely, which is funny as I’ve always been a DJ first and foremost. Back when I was playing out regularly – between 2006-2009 – I really wanted to focus on making more music. Of course, now that I am making music all the time I want to DJ more!

What’s your studio consisting of these days?

Unfortunately it’s a bad time to ask that question! I recently sold a lot of equipment so I wouldn’t even call it a studio at the moment. The projects I’m working on right now are all being made on just my Macbook Pro. If I do need sounds from anything else I’ll plug it in though. It’s a super simple set-up, but it works.

How did you find the transition from Skull Juice to then Astronomer & The Draughtsman?

It all happened by accident really. The first Astronomer remix was commissioned as a Skull Juice one, but I ended up making it alone as Ben was busy and I had time on my hands. I really enjoyed it so just carried on from remix to remix. Skull Juice was still my main priority. After a few more of my remixes came out I moved to Brighton which made it difficult for us to work together regularly. That’s when I really began working on my own material. We were still DJing back to back right up until Summer 2011 but by that point we were both more focused on our own projects so it seemed natural to end the collaboration. Our club Walk The Night still crawls on though, even if the events are ridulously irregular.

Astromomer & The Draughtsman sound like characters from the fantasy role playing game dungeons & dragons.. were you ever a fan?

Haha no, though I have a soft spot for Fantasy and Sci-Fi. I’d probably love it.

Geschmacklos is your most recent work as The Draughtsman and we’ve had it on repeat over the past month and lovin it. Are we right in saying Geschmacklos is a German word? what does it translate to and do you speak German?

Thanks, I’m glad you like it. You’re right the title is German and it roughly translates as ‘tasteless’. There is a concept behind ‘Geschmacklos’ (and the entire upcoming ’1694 EP’) which all the track titles, artwork and hidden samples allude to, but it’s far more interesting if people discover those connections themselves. It’s fairly obvious, but let’s try and retain a little mystery!

You left London to live in Brighton for a while but now you’re back, how was your time away from London?

Most of the time it was great. I moved with my girlfriend while she was studying for her MA down there. Neither of us knew anyone initially which was actually quite useful as I ended up making a lot of music! Back then I was a bit sick of London so it seemed like perfect timing. After a couple of years though we’d had enough and decided to move back. Most of our friends are London-based and there’s just so much more happening all the time. We were travelling back and forth every other weekend. I do miss living by the sea though.

A lot of people are looking forward to you playing at the MHKC event on the 24th, what have you got in store?

Lots of new music, even more old music and a couple of exclusives! There’s one record in particular that I can’t wait to play out and hear loud…

Casino Times are Nick Church & Joseph Spencer and trying to pin them down for an interview proved somewhat difficult due to their busy DJ Schedule, which has encompassed dates in Berlin and UK festivals & Clubs with the likes of Dimitri from Paris, Todd Terje and none other than House legend Frankie Knuckles. I caught up with them to find out about Oxford sauce, Their fear of the Janner and generally what makes them tick…

So…. how did the whole Casino Times thing come about?

We both studied audio engineering at university together. Sharing music, a bit of banter and some failed electronics experiments and the rest is history.

What would you say it was that first started to get you noticed, your music or Nick’s drunken behaviour?

Nicks antics are certainly a key ingredient to the Casino Times cocktail. But we’d like to believe putting out music that we love on a musical and personal level helps.

You appear to be putting some real thought and effort into the direction you want to be taking and i understand you’ve turned down some fairly good offers which most people would of jumped at. Tell us more about this and the direction in which you want to see Casino Times take.

We both understand that we haven’t been doing this for a long time and that there’s still so much to learn in how we work as producers and DJs. We’re adamant of progressing with each release, whether it’s the sounds we’re creating or the way in which we’re actually using them. We’ve scrapped lots of track before knowing that they’re not showing the development we want, which we think is important in keeping people listening. We don’t want to keep rehashing the same ideas just to achieve quick success.

When deciding whether to take remix offers admittedly we can be quite picky for a few reasons. If we can’t hear anything in the track that initially excites us then it probably means we won’t be able to bring anything to the release or do it any justice. Another reason is if we were to knock out every remix we get offered there would be no down time between producing which we think is when you most develop as an artist, giving you the time to reflect on your own music, develop your skills and more importantly digest new music and influences needed to move forward. A side note to this would to say that it is important that you work with labels that you as an artist feel comfortable with. In our opinion a good label should be able to balance out the right amount of artistic freedom with an equal measure constructive criticism and not just want to use your name to make more money off their next release.

You’ve been playing outside the UK quite a bit this year, How have the gigs been?

Getting on a easy jet plane and playing outside of the UK is neato. Crowds are always so different wherever you go and it’s great for us as DJs to experience that variation and take influence from our experiences.

What’s been the best Casino Times gig to date?

We’ve been loving the festivals this year. Gottwood was a definite highlight. It took a little longer for the act after us to set up in so we snuck in an extra half-hour of disco. Our show at The Nest for Future Disco a few months back was great as well, we had a lot of freedom to just play what we wanted to and people really responded well to it.

we’re really loving your production which you’ve obviously invested a lot of time and effort into. Yet you live quite far apart from each other how does that work when you want to write some new material, Pyjama Party?

Thanks! Pyjama parties are an important process for us. The main constraint of living so far apart is getting the time we want to devote to production. Tracks tend to take a lot longer because we won’t risk rushing something just to get it out. There’s plans to get living together later in the year… Should be an interesting time – maybe a ‘Casino Time’?

What’s in the pipeline for the rest of 2012 can we expect any new tracks?

We’ve got an EP lined up for the lovely chaps at Needwant. We’ve finished the bulk of the EP now so just a little more polishing / mastering and you should hear a little more soon. These will be our first proper original tracks since ‘That’s The Truth’, which was a whole year ago now. We are also working on stuff for our chums at Wolf Music, but right now we are in no rush to get anything out until we are happy with it.

Seeing we’re originally a Cornish Club night If you were to go on Holiday to Cornwall what 5 things would you take with you?

1. Speedos
2. Janner Repellent
3. A lock of Stevie Wonders hair
4. Oxford Sauce (check it out)
5. Matt Hesselworth

And lastly ……If you were an Olympian what sport would be partaking in and why?

Is there a 2 man synchronised swimming? Nicholas looks simply majestic in the water. So elegant and peaceful – like he was once a mermaid in a past life.

You can catch Casino Times at My Heroes Killed Cowboys on 24th August @ The Horse & Groom, Shoreditch, London alongside Alex Egan 9pm – 4am £4/£5