Starting of November's interviews we have none other then Marc Johnson.

If you have bought any hard house in that last 5 years or so, chances are, you own a Marc Johnson record. Marc has been in the frontlines of hard house for quite sometime, co-running the label FlashPoint and more recently bringing the huge label Tripoli Traxx back to life. When he is not releasing amazing tracks, you can catch him out behind the decks destorying dancefloors all over the world.

The Beat Ranch proudly presents, Marc Johnson

Thanks Marc for taking the time out to do this interview and mix.Coming from the UK, where abouts do you reside?

I live in Sydenham which is in South London.

Have you always lived there? and if you didnt live there, where else could you see yourself living?

I haven’t always, I’ve been here for about 8 years, previously I’ve lived in other dives such as Brixton, Crystal Palace, Streatham, Mitcham and Thornton Heath. I’ve promised myself that when my numbers come in I’ll move somewhere fancy like Buckinghamshire or Windsor.

Where has been your favorite place to travel to?

Went to Japan a couple of years ago which was really cool.

What was it that, got you into hard house, over other genres in the scene?

It was all Jay (Equinox’s) fault. I went into his record shop many moons ago after I was looking for another sound and he gave me a few Tinrib’s and DP’s and that was that. It was the energy and aggression that I loved so got hooked fairly quickly.

Whats your most embrassing record in your collection?

It’s a track called “Sunshine for you” by the C – Company. I went on holiday with my girlfriend a couple of years ago and they kept playing a catchy little number in the hotel, went on holiday a year later and the same song kept getting played so I embarrassed myself, plucked up the courage and bought a copy from the Rep as they were selling CDs of it, it’s great and I love it but is as embarrassing as fuck and wouldn’t play it loud in the car (google it, you will love it).

What else do you listen to other then hard house?

Listen to everything really, the radios always on in the morning and MTV or Smash Hits is always on in the background when I’m at home.

For production, do you use an engineer or is it all you?

I go to various engineers that’s why it’s mostly Marc Johnson & ???????? (unless it’s engineered by Parky who don’t want his name on them)

What programs do you use? What advice would you give to someone who is new to producing?

Whatever the guys use, most of them use Logic now. Advice, that’s easy, do what you love and not what you think is going to be accepted by the masses or is in fashion, it always shows (and always changes.)

What producer or producers, has really stood out for you in 2007?

Dom Sweeten stands out every year and again last year he was just unreal. Other producers stepping up and having really good 2007’s have been Nik Denton, Pierce Rooney, Adam M, Karl Davis, Dave Owens, Tom Parr, Richard Toomz, Frank Farrell and Chris Comben

What DJs have stood out for you in 2007? Who is your all time favorite?

Andy Farley was the man last year, heard him quite a few times and he always smashed it. My favourite DJs of all time would have to be Justin Bourne and Slipmatt

With the return of Tripoli Trax, as well as other new labels like Oktane and Iglo, the scene looks to be on the up, what are you thoughts on the scene today?

It’s been struggling for a while now regardless of what anyone says, I think it was only us (flashpoint) Toolbox, Tidy,Spinball, Hardsounds and Vicious that kept up “regular” release schedules last year before Michael James got involved with his empire, now it’s looking a lot healthier as there’s more out there.

The biggest problem I would imagine would be for shops to keep a hard house section going with so very little stuff about, now there seems to be a lot of labels about I’m hoping the shops are going to buy more of it in as makes it worth their while, for the shopper, no one wants to pay shipping for 1 track but if there’s 4 or 5 decent out every few weeks then it’ll encourage more to buy (I hope)

It’s looking promising and I feel with all the good new labels about it’s really a case of “Now or Never” for things to get better and pick up.

With Tripoli back in action, what can we expect from the label in the next year? When will 117 be out?

The TPs for 117 arrived last week so the finished copies should be with Nik at Toolbox sometime next week and out in the shops a week later. Coming up we will be featuring myself, Nick Sentience, Andy Farley, Dom Sweeten, Dave Curtis, Chris Comben, James Nardi and Karl Davis, we are signed up to 120 and all these guys feature on them. It’s gonna be pretty much more of the same as the previous 116 releases, good quality hard House, it’s not going to be a funky hard house label like I keep reading it was as it’s never been that, it’s always released all what’s good about the whole genre and that’s what’s coming.

How about your other label Flashpoint, how are things going with that?

Yeah, all going well thanks, we’ve just mixed the schedule up to give it a fresher look and have got some amazing tracks coming up so really pleased with that. We’ve just spent more on getting a new site as the older one wasn’t up to scratch so just waiting for that to be ready, it looks really cool and is more clubber friendly, we had our own MP3 portal built which was the most important thing.

Do you think that the scene may one day go all digital?

It’s very possible which is why we’ve changed our site for if it happens, the MP3 is here and here to stay, at the moment most of the tracks on digital labels are utter tripe but eventually that will change and it will only work IMO if you can sell the MP3’s direct from your own site cutting out the middle men (host MP3 sites) that way the money goes to the people it should be going to (artist/labels) and not to a host portal.

Once the hosts have their cut there is very little to go round and it’s hard to stay motivated but if there’s more money coming in then everyone stays happy, focused and most importantly financed to do what they love.

When not djing or producing, what do you like to do for fun?

At the moment my main addiction is playing Fantasy Football, I’m in a few leagues (the main one being with the guys and gals of the Tidy board) and have made a few bets so I’m ultra competitive with this and it’s taking up a lot of my time and doing my head in !!!! Other then that, getting pissed and eating loads, that’s my idea of fun. whoo hooo !!!!

Any last words of self promotion or anything?

INSEKT Presents…..One Love Sat 2nd Feb : Scala, Kings Cross Be there or be Square

Defective Audio Justin Bourne Marc Johnson James Nardi MDA + Spherical Olly Perris Chris Comben John BW

Well you did say………..

Click here for Marc's exclusive mix.
Click here for tracklisting.

Past Interviews