Mark Ronson is a "purely collaborative" artist.
The 43-year-old musician and producer is known for working on hits such as ‘Uptown Funk’ with Bruno Mars, and has said his process for creating tracks is always a collaborative effort, as he likes to "bounce" ideas off of them, rather than sitting down to write by himself.
He said: "My thing is basically purely collaborative because I rarely sit down and write by myself at the piano. Usually I’m producing an artist and sometimes you’re there to give a lot of the song, sometimes you’re there just to help with a few lyrics, be a bouncing board, give a few chords, help finish the next line. I only know that side of it."
Mark – who has also produced entire albums, including Lady Gaga’s 2016 album ‘Joanne’ and the late Amy Winehouse’s ‘Back to Black’ – insists the "best songs" come from "trying times", and says he thinks it’s "lucky" that life always has something in store, because it means there’s always something to write about.
He added: "For better or for worse, the best songs come when you’re going through a trying time. That’s what I find. And luckily, life will always find a way to deal you a s**t hand now and then. That’s the good thing – the well won’t run dry."
The ‘Stop Me’ hitmaker then lamented living through other artists’ "horrible, tragic life experiences" as he works with them, especially in the case of Amy Winehouse, who died of alcohol poisoning in 2011.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter for the Songwriter’s Roundtable, he said: "And in that place, whether it’s an Amy Winehouse or whoever it is, I get to sort of tap into their well of giant emotion for a little while. And sometimes it’s not even fair because I’m going along for the ride on their horrible, tragic life experiences.
"Every new project just rejuvenates me. I’m always getting into someone else’s life experience and seeing how that matches up with my own."