Frenzy interview hard trance and hardstyle legend Mark EG before Keep Bournemouth Tidy at the Opera House25th November 2008 - interview copyright of Frenzy Mark EG is possibly the craziest and most entertaining act you will ever see behind the decks, but far from being a novelty he is one of the most respected hardstyle and hard trance DJs in the UK and world. Find out more about his mad DJ'ing antics and travels including trips to war-torn Serbia in this interview.
1. Hello Mark EG, you’re from the north but seem to have the south coast as a second home considering the amount of followers you have down here. What have you got in store for the Opera House clubbers on November the 28th? The south coast has an incredible music scene and yeah, I do class it as a second home I suppose. The Opera House is one of the best venues too so this weekend I really need to step-up and get the place rocking. I just hope everyone else does the same! 2. In previous interviews you’ve made people very aware that you’re into a variety of music. Is there anything doing it for you at the moment that you could tell us about? I’ve been getting a lot of stuff on the Planet Mu label which is a label that falls into the whole Rephlex/Warp category. There are two new albums on there I’m really into. The first is a new dub-step album by Neil Landstrumm (who is a legendary techno artist) and then an absolutely insane electro album by Squarepusher under a pseudonym called Last Step. Brilliant stuff.
3. I tried to describe your stage performance to a friend last week, and ended up saying that a Mark EG DJ set is a bit like going to a Black Sabbath or Guns n Roses gig. There’s the aggressive music, with then a bit of a romantic breakdown (ha ha), and of course an unrivalled stage presence? Do you think that’s a fair assessment? Well I can promise you no-one has ever said that to me LOL!!! But yeah, I think that’s pretty cool! I play a lot of different music at a lot of different types of places… but I always try to play music that has attitude and is going forward no matter what genre it is. It’s a sort of punk-rock ethos I suppose?! 4. We’ve recently asked the Organ Donors what body parts they would use if making a Franken-DJ. If you were to make a DJ using body parts from your peers, whose bits and why would you use to make the ultimate Disc Jockey. I’ll Photoshop the resulting abomination if you like for illustrative purposes. You know what? Someone did one of me recently and I thought it was so good, I saved it to my desktop. Check this out:
5. We’ve run a competition to promote this event where the winner gets to cheat death whilst strapped to one of our resident DJs and get thrown out of a plane. That’s quite hardcore. What’s the bravest, scariest, or most stupid thing you’ve ever done? I’ve always been quite hardcore ha ha! The stupidest… broken my nose with my knee whilst DJ’ing. The scariest (for my girlfriend ha ha ha) was splitting my head open on a boat in Newcastle and then spending the night in A+E. The bravest was entering the boot of a car during the time of the NATO/Serbian war and crossing the border illegally to play a set in Belgrade. 6. Could you tell us something we might not have previously known about Mark EG? Well I could tell you about what’s just happened to me! Last weekend I was in Russia in a place called Yekaterinburg where the Russia Csar was killed. Due to a load of cancelled flights I had one of the most insane missions to get to the party, which included a Mafia trip across Moscow and then one of the scariest flights of my life on an old Russian military warplane. In the end found myself arriving at the party with only minutes to spare until I was on,m which meant stripping down to my boxers and getting changed underneath the stage whilst shaking hands with the Rusky Ravers. I hope no-one took any pictures ha ha ha!!
7. You’ve been into this crazy music since the early 1980s which is a long old stretch. During that time have you ever had time to have any regrets about your time in music or has it been all plain and successful sailing? I have no regrets whatsoever - life’s way to short to have regrets. The best decision I ever made was to follow my heart and make my life music. I wouldn’t say it’s been plain and successful sailing. The things that piss you off are things that have nothing to do with the music… but I simply can’t complain when I think about the life I was ‘supposed’ to have had! 8. In the name of kitsch entertainment, if you could put one person into Noel Edmond’s Gunge Tank, who would it be and why? There’s actually thousands of people I’d like to put into grunge tanks! They’re usually dressed in suits, calling themselves politicians and telling us how to run our lives.
9. Finally, it’s nearly the end of 2008, so looking forward with our magic ball what do you guys have in store for 2009 that you can tell the clubbers about? I don’t think anyone can predict the future and my planning skills are none existent so I’ve just got keep what I’ve been doing for the last twenty years… playing the new music I like to anyone who appreciates it. I really don’t want to get a proper job, I’d be screwed!!! Mark EG will be DJ'ing with the Tidy Boys, Organ Donors, Tidy DJs. and Kym Ayres at Keep Bournemouth Tidy on the 28th of November. Check our forthcoming events for details. Photos credits unknown - if we've used your work please get in touch so we can credit you appropriately |
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