Mark Dynamix Q&A

Mark Dynamix has been around since day, whatever. His maintained a long career within Australia's dance music halls and clubs as long as his been releasing Ministry of Sound's Annuals (longer, actually). His recent production hook-up with Jaytech launched their Mashtronic remix straight to number one and he's about to head overseas for a bit of a club jaunt. We thought email would be the easiest option for someone who's on the road more often than Coles truckies delivering goods. We also assume Dynamix is a truckie of sorts. Anyway, enough about us.

You've been a part of Australia's dance music scene for the better part of two decades now. You've seen fads come and go, the evolution of electronica and the meteoric rise of house and the like brought to a mainstream level. More to the point, you've been at the helm of all of these. What has kept you at the forefront of dance music movements-
It comes down to what I like to listen to really. There's no conscious effort to "pick the next sound" or follow trends. I tend to play the music I'm into at that time, which means that sometimes my style is hot and other times it's out of fashion. I mean, throughout the last decade, I can pretty much chart my music taste and it hasn't always been in line with what is big at the time.

In 1998-2000, I played mainly trance (before it became nasty hardstyle), in 2001-2002 I dabbled in techno at the dance parties whilst playing more progressive styles in clubs. 2003 bought along some interesting (at the time) Swedish house and funkier sounds, then 2004-2005 saw the rise of the new form of electro which I had always played large chunks of in my sets, ever since the early Miss Kitten and Felix Da Housecat style electroclash. After going to Berlin in 2006, and being exposed to their unique form of minimalism, again my tastes changed as I hunted out new material along these lines. So really, techno has never been that big in Australia and minimal is only now starting to get some attention.

To be honest it would probably make my life a whole lot easier if I did just follow the trends and play what the majority of people are familiar with, but I just can't do that...your music taste is almost an extension of yourself and it's on display when you DJ in a club.

I play what I like, simple as that, whether it's underground as fuck or commercially tinged. There's great records in all genres.

You're currently on tour around Australia and New Zealand before you head off to Germany. The audiences are probably very different to one another, so how do you plan to take on the Berlin leg of your overseas jaunt- How long are you heading over there-
It's a three-to-six month stint at first, mainly to do production but also to do some gigs around the EU, starting with shows in Germany, then Monaco, Sweden, Norway, Brussels then hopefully France and the UK.

I'm doing the trip mainly to make contact with people, get things organised for the future, whatever that may bring, and of course to get completely ripped at some of the best clubs in the world :)

The latest 'Annual' is now the highest-selling compilation of all time. Do you think this coincides with the fact dance music has become a major market to a wider audience that was previously happy listening to pop/rock albums-
Yes but pop/rock is still massive - remember the audience that buys the Annual aren't necessary clubbers. There is still a divide between people that listen to "dance" pop on the radio and regular clubbers out there.

Sometimes, though, I wonder what is going on...I'm sure many readers will agree that it can be mighty frustrating to walk into a club which is "apparently" underground and interested in pushing new sound, yet when you walk in, all you hear is the latest top 20 off Nova. What happened to variation throughout the night- Why limit the music on offer to people- Doing this will only make it progressiv Tags

• mark dynamix
• jaytech
• mashtronc
• ministry of sound
• minimal
• electro
• house
• aria club chart