British stalwart Mark Knight has been at the top of his game for as long as we can remember. Besides being one of the most essential names in the house and techno scene, Knight is also the brains behind Toolroom Records, one of the leading imprints in the world of dance music. Being a part of The Exchange‘s showcase, we had a chance to catch up with Mark Knight on his opinions on the growing dance music scene in India, the importance of music conferences and much more. Read on!
TBB: How according to you are music conferences like The Exchange essential in developing dance music as a whole around the world?
Mark Knight: I think dance music has become, and I think music in general, so connected, and through the medium of the Internet, I think face to face business is always going to people who can constantly communicate but there’s nothing better than people getting together, and it really generates a lot of business. I think these music conferences are fantastic and we all need to be a part of it and I hope more of them are emerging as there’s new markets emerging around the world. These things are happening, and we would be very keen next year to bring our Toolroom Academy, which we’ve just launched. It’s an amazing opportunity to pass on the skills we’ve acquired over the past 12 years, and I think all these conferences are fantastic. They give opportunities to up and coming artists to meet labels and breakthrough, so they’re great.
TBB: You said something about Toolroom Academy. Would you mind elaborating on that a little bit?
Mark Knight: Certainly. We just launched it last week, and it kinda felt that having spent 12 years doing what we do, we could change that into courses to help people and get into the English treasure. And with kids we’re keeping the approach where we’re actually teaching kids by people who’ve actually had success, people like Funkagenda, Harry Romero, Prok & Fitch, people who’ve actually made success out of their career, you know. Not just music, I’m being very specific about what the course covers and what we stand for musically. It’s not just about teaching the kids tech house techniques. If they wanna make a track, our course is very much orientated around what we do and what we stand for, and as I said, we launched last week, and we’ve had incredible feedback, so it’s very much an important plan for 2016 and opportunities like The Exchange give us great ways of meeting new producers and kids and hopefully finding the future superstars of Toolroom, you know, so it kinda works on many levels.
TBB: Speaking about up and coming producers, there have been a lot of upcoming producers from India as well. Do you think India as a whole has that kind of standard that could work on the global market? Do you think an Indian producer could see a release on Toolroom?
Mark Knight: Of course. Absolutely. There are no boundaries. There are no rules. The only rule is good music, so it doesn’t matter where you come from. It doesn’t mean anything to us. It’s the kind of quality of music. So we would love to see people from India and Asia get prominent on Toolroom, and it’s something we’re keen on encouraging through these conferences, since we really get to meet people face to face and chat to them and talk about, you know, the process of getting in into the industry and what we’re looking forward and that kind of thing, so yes we’re looking forward to see some great new producers coming out of India.
TBB: You’ve played in India quite a few times before. How have you seen the country’s dance music scene evolve over the past few years?
Mark Knight: You can definitely feel it. I mean the last few times I’ve come over and played at the festivals, and I always played on the underground stage, and you can see from 2-3 years how much that’s growing in terms of popularity and people’s understanding of it and you could really see people’s appreciation of it and their knowledge about the music, you know and very keen to learn more. It’s quite inspiring how much I’ve seen the whole scene progress within such a short period of time, and it continues to grow. The people naturally gravitate, I mean, EDM would be the largest music genre right now, I suppose. It’s more entry level music but as people’s taste becomes more sophisticated and they understand the music, they diversify and you can really see that happen in the space of time that I’ve been coming.
TBB: Speaking about techno and underground music becoming more and more well known and let’s say more and more focused, how do you think you as a DJ or your label Toolroom, and the sound on Toolroom or your sound individually would change or adapt to something newer something that people are not yet aware of?
Mark Knight: I think one thing we’ve got so caught up on is two words: Underground and commercial, and that’s not where it should get. You know, it’s like one man’s underground is another man’s commercial, so I think we shouldn’t be bothered about those two terms. What’s important is to be credible, and do whatever you do, within whatever genre, you do it very well, and leave a legacy, and I think every time you switch the computer on, you have a responsibility to leave something behind. It’s a shame people don’t put enough effort into it, so I don’t think it’s about following trends or be on trends or do something in line with what’s going on. It’s about doing just whatever we do, very well.
TBB: Do you have any particular message for your fans in India?
Mark Knight: Thank you very much for your continuous support. I don’t get to come to India as much as I’d want to. I’m honoured that people appreciate what I do, and hopefully I’ll come over and we’ll have a great night and hopefully this relation would continue and grow and we can look forward to see more Mark Knight in India. Thank you for the support so far.
Interview by: Shule Puri
Edited b: Pranav Gupta
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