-Mark Ronson in the house! Welcome, buddy.
I always -- -Congrats.
-Oh. I guess it's no big deal.
It's the first annual -- Yeah.
It's -- Yeah, it's kind of a shock to me.
-May I touch it? -No.
I'd rather you not. -Okay.
-How are you doing, bud? -I'm feel good.
-Isn't that amazing to come out to an audience?
-This is so amazing. It's incredible.
[ Cheers and applause ]
And you look so good. -Oh, stop it.
I've known you for the longest time.
-Yeah. -I -- I just saw in the papers
that you deejayed some event.
Maybe it was a couple weeks ago. It was a Gucci thing.
It was this giant thing. It was your first time out.
How did it feel to be deejaying in front of people again?
It's been a year -- almost two years.
-Yeah, it's crazy, 'cause it's something
I've done my entire life since I was 18.
And I googled, and it said I hadn't deejayed for 510 days.
And I was terrified.
And then I got out, and I was just like, you know --
After three songs of nerves, it was great, and I loved it.
-If all things fail, you can always get up and just perform
because who knew that you were in a band --
I did not know this -- called The Whole Earth Mamas.
-Yeah.
-Yeah, what happened to these guys?
-Whoa! [ Laughs ]
-Quest, did you know this? -No!
-What is -- Mark, I love that you save --
-That's me. -Oh, yeah, I know.
What was -- what was Whole Earth Mamas?
What was their vibe?
-Okay, Whole Earth Mamas was a band.
It was my high-school band.
I didn't particularly like the name,
but we were arguing over it
before our first gig, and our lead singer was like,
"We're gonna get called The Whole Earth Mamas."
I was like, "No, we're not. That's a terrible name."
And then he had the mic, and before our first song,
he was like, "Hey, ladies and gentlemen,
we're The Whole Earth Mamas."
And we just looked at each other like,
"I guess we're The Whole Earth Mamas now."
-What does it mean? What's the meaning behind --
-I --I think it was -- At the time,
it was, like, a vegan, hippie mail-order catalogue.
And I don't know. Like, seriously.
-That does sound like a good name for that.
-Yeah, before there was, like, Whole Foods
and all this trendy stuff, there was, like, this one --
And I think his mom read it,
and we were The Whole Earth Mamas,
and we got booked for a lot of all-female,
like, lineups and festivals
because people thought The Whole Earth Mamas --
I wonder why -- were a group of women.
So...
-You would get booked, and then you'd show up,
and they're like, "What are these dudes doing here?"
-Yeah, like, these kind of, like, super, like amazing,
like, all-feminist band lineups, and we just show up.
We were like 15, so no one was gonna, like,
throw crap at us.
-I want to talk about -- You do so much.
The podcast. "The FADER Uncovered."
-Yes. -This is -- You --
One-on-one conversation with amazing musicians
who happen to be on the cover of "FADER."
-Yes.
-Magazine. But how did you get a chance to do this?
-Well, the "FADER" came to me. I love the "FADER" magazine.
They always have really cool people on the cover.
And they said, "Do you want to do a thing where you talk
to David Byrne, Questlove, Erykah Badu?
All of these great people that have been on
the cover of our magazine."
So, I said, "Of course."
I mean, I make music, but I'm also --
I think I'm more of a fan of music
than somebody who makes it.
So the idea of talking and being a nerd and asking David Byrne
about The Talking Heads and American Utopia
and all these things, it's so exciting to me.
-I saw a trailer for "Watch the Sound with Mark Ronson,"
and you were talking to Dave Grohl
and you were talking to -- talking to Paul McCartney.
-Yes. -Which, I mean --
I've known you forever. I was like --
-I know. -Do you get nervous?
-Of course. I mean, everybody --
You must even still get nervous.
I mean, you've done so many great sketches with him
and all that stuff, but you still get nervous.
-Of course, I'm nervous right now.
-It's Paul McCartney.
-But, yeah, it's Paul McCartney.
-No, I mean with Paul McCartney, not me.
-Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No. Yeah.
I'm just always nervous.
But, no, with Paul, I mean, you get in there.
This is like you're talking about sampling.
You're talking about double-tracking.
-Yeah. -You're talking about things
that we kind of even take for granted when we hear songs.
And what goes on in the background
that's so interesting. -Exactly.
This show is about the things and the sounds
and the tools that, like, revolutionize music.
So, you know, you think of a song
like "Pony" by Ginuwine.
It's a great song if you sat with an acoustic guitar,
and you went, "I'm just a bachelor."
Like, it would probably be a good song.
But when you think of "Pony", you think of...
♪ Bwah! Bwah-bwah-bwah! ♪
You know what I mean? Like, that's when sound is great.
Exactly. -It's the greatest.
-You do it. You're better than me.
-No, I'm not better than you. We're equal.
And, uh -- It's just that --
It's not a big deal. They mean nothing.
They mean nothing.
No, but what -- did Paul -- did Paul
like the finished product?
-Well, yes. So, anyway -- Yes.
So, as the show was, like, finishing up, I was --
I knew that Paul was going to see his scenes
to see if he was happy with it.
'Cause he's Paul McCartney. He gets to be like,
"Hey, you better not make me look like an idiot."
-It's tough to do, yeah. -Yeah.
So, I'm sitting at home one day, and I look --
and my phone vibrates, and I look and it says --
Like, whatever dumb thing I have his number saved as
in my phone, like, PMC3000 or something.
-Yeah. -And I like, "What?"
Like, he's never called me.
I shouldn't even really have his number.
So I -- And it's a FaceTime.
And it's 9:00 a.m. It's crazy.
So, I answer, and he's like... [as McCartney] "Hey, Mark."
Like, you know -- You can do the thing.
-[as McCartney] "Hey, Mark. Good morning.
What are you doing? Yeah." -Yeah, yeah.
-And he just looks cool, right?
-He looks like a golden god. -Yeah, of course.
-His, like, hair is blowing around.
And I'm just like, "Oh, God, he's going to call
and tell me that, like, he hates the show.
We're going to have to edit it out.
The show is ruined." Like, you know, whatever.
And he was like, "So, I saw the show."
And I'm like, yeah, wait for it. This is going to be terrible.
And he's like, "It's pretty cool."
I was like, "Ah! Maybe it's not going to
be, like, as bad as I think." He was like,
"Yeah, I really love what you said about me and sampling
and how you linked me to Public Enemy and this and that."
And I was like -- Wow. -He watched it.
-Yeah, and it was just cool that he dug it.
And then he was like -- We stopped talking about the show.
And he was like, "So what are you doing today?"
And I was like, "Whoa." And now I'm just shooting the --
-Yeah. -With Paul McCartney.
-Wow! -And then --
-What'd you talk about? -Well, I said,
"I'm going to the studio." I didn't know what to say.
So he was like "How's that going?"
I'm like, "You know, I'm kind of in love and I'm happy.
So I've never written music like that,
you know, when you're happy."
And he's like, "Why don't you write that. then?"
You know? And I was like, "What?"
He's like, "I'm in love and I'm happy."
So I'm, like, scribbling the notes.
Yeah, Paul McCartney said write this song.
-Paul McCartney wrote -- -"Any other lines?" You know?
-Yeah, exactly.
-And so I -- so I went, and I jumped in the shower.
I hope I don't get in trouble for telling this story.
And I look at my phone, and there's, like, a little
voice recording on my phone from Paul McCartney.
And he sung a little bit of this song to tell me
to go make the song -- "I'm in love and I'm happy."
-Oh, my gosh! Dude, that is the greatest story I've ever heard.
That's unbelievable! -It's crazy.
So, I'm dropping it on Spotify Friday.
I mean, Apple Music. -That is -- Yeah, exactly.
I want to show a clip. Everyone should check this out.
Here is Mark Ronson and Paul McCartney in "Watch the Sound."
Take a look.
-When you went into the studio, the early Beatles stuff,
you're just there to be the best band you can be.
And then when you start to discover
making the studio an instrument
and then become as involved with the tech stuff
as you were with the songwriting and playing of the instruments.
-Yeah.
When we arrived at Abbey Road, it was post-war.
So the engineers would have lab coats.
We were kids.
We couldn't even come in the main entrance.
-Really?
-We came in the tradesman's entrance.
-To hear all those stories? -Yeah.
-Mark Ronson, everybody!
"Watch the Sound with Mark Ronson"
comes to Apple TV+ on July 30th.