The duo behind 'Mark Norman' are the guys who brought us 'Overkill' and 'Faith'. They have also recently been signed to Blackhole Recordings. In recognition of their outstanding talent, check out their interview here

For those readers who are not quite familiar with who Mark Norman is, could you give us a little bit of background information about yourselves?

Mark de Jong and Norman Lenden.

Mark Norman is a producers and deejay duo from the Netherlands. Both at the age 0f 26 and we’ve been making music since we were young teenagers. We met eachother at high school and became friends cause we shared the same interest. Those years we made music with a minimum of equipment. After sending some demos to several record companies, we joined BPM Dance in 2000. At few weeks ago we signed a contract at Blackhole Recordings where we gonna release some real heavy stuff !!!!

Also we just both graduated University and Mark is now working part time as an engineer. Norman is working part time at his own company 5th Events. He is organising dance events such as Emotionz, Above & Beyond and more. The rest of the week we are working in the studio and deejaying!


How long have you been Producing for and how did you get your first major breakthrough?

We make music since we were 14. We are now at the age of 26 so that`s 12 years from then. When we were young we made a lot of different styles; Break beat, club, hardcore, dance, ballads, that was really fun! Due to our studies we haven’t seen each other for almost three years. After a while we met again and started making music. We started sending some demo’s to several record companies. In December 2000 we joined BPM Dance. And in May 2001 our first release came out ‘Mark Norman’ (Splash / X fader) at the smoke label. Judge Jules picked up X fader at his BBC radio show. Our second release above! At the well-known Jinx label was picked up by Marco V and was in his top 10 for a few months!!! Our breakthrough came with our third release ‘Overkill’ the Silver Premium label. This was a huge club hit in the Netherlands and almost every deejay was spinning this record!! Marco V and Tiesto canned overkill for quite a while and we were really surprised that this record had so much impact on the dancefloor!!


Tell us more about your producing and what you have worked on in the past.

The first three releases were made with a minimum of equipment. Cubase 3.0, 8 channel mixer, Akai 3000 sampler and a Roland mc 505. With the money we earned we invested in new equipment and now we have a nice studio were we can work easily! At the moment we made seven releases, which came out at the labels Jinx, Silver Premium and Smoke! Also we made remixes for the Shrink, Signum and now we are working at a remix for someone who has performed at New Year’s Milleniumdome. This will be a massive one!


Over the years, what has been your most memorable DJ'ing / Producing experience and why?

I think the most memorable thing is that we now have our own music on vinyl and that a lot of people like the music we make! We are really proud of what we have achieved. This and we hope to make music for a long long time! Another memorable thing was when Tiesto played Overkill in the Heineken Music Hall in front of 6000 people! Almost everyone was screaming, the hall was almost exploding when the kick came in! Wow…. Since then we know it for sure, that is why we make music!


Is there anywhere that you would like to DJ at but have yet to have the chance? Have you had any thoughts about coming over to play at some of the top clubs in the UK?

We have so many places we would like to perform but not specially one place. We really want to perform in the UK cause we heard really good things about it. Our colleague and friend Pascal Minnaard (a.k.a Signum) told us that the atmosphere and clubbers are fantastic!


Overkill and Faith are two fantastic productions in my opinion. Do you have any plans for similar releases in the upcoming months?

And we’re going to release some real cool stuff over there! We cannot say a lot about it, but that it will be massive… that’s for sure!!!!!!!! We are really proud and honoured that we now joined one of the best record companies in the world, Hopefully it will be a great succes!!


If you could pick absolutely anyone... Who would you love to play alongside with for the night?

That’s a difficult one! There are many artists who we would like to play alongside. But there are two artists we would like to play alongside. Carl Cox & Tiesto. I have seen Carl Cox a few times in the Netherlands and I have enjoyed it. That man has an enormous mixtechnique and charism. He is really playing with the audience and that is what we like. Tiesto is also such an artist who has a superb interaction with the audience! Also his choice of records is amazing.


What equipment do you use for producing?

Computer: PC Pentium IIII, running Cubase SX, 2 flat screen 19 “inc”monitors
Software: Cubase SX, Wavelab, VST plugings, Direct X plugins, Recycle, Rebirth
2.0
Hardware: Akai 3000 Sampler, Novation Supernova 2, Acces Virus, Roland mc 303, Roland mc 505, Roland JD 990,
Efx: Lexicon PCM 91, Lexicon MPX 1, audio compressor
Monitoring: 2x mackie HR 824
Recording: Philps CDR cd recorder, Sony minidisc player, internal CDR recorder
Mixer: mackie 32 channel mixer


Do you have any tips or advice for amateur producers?

Make music that you like and don’t hammer too long at one production. When you don’t have any inspiration, make music but go out and make fun! Also believe in what you do and let everyone listen to your music cause it can really help you.


Are there any DJ's or Producers that you would love to work with one day?

There are a few producers which I really loved to work with; Katana, Push and Signum. These guys make music, which is amazing! We already worked together with Katana. Mark Norman vs Katana (Dulce Vita) and this was a big club anthem! We think that it is always good to make music with someone else cause you can inspire eachother!


They have been the topic of many organisations DJ's and Producers like you... What is your opinion on MP3's and their impact on the music industry? Do you see a good side to these MP3's at all?

Everything has a good and a bad thing. That is also for MP3. The good thing is that you can share your music with everyone in the world. This is without any costs so a lot of people use this kind of music ‘sharing’. It is also good for a lot of talented producers, which make really good music, but they have less chance at record companies. The bad site is that there are people who abuse downloads and try to make money out of it. It is really sad for the whole music industry. Cause the profits decline due to downloading and burning illegal copies. They record companies (especially the small ones) make less, less money than before and can’t pay their bills and the artist royalties etc, etc.


And finally, is there anything else you would like to add for [i:vibes] viewers to read?

Hope to see you somewhere, sometime and keep up doing the good things

Grtz,

Mark Norman

For info regarding bookings and remixes please contact: info@5th-events.com





A big thanks to Mark Norman for taking the time for this interview as they have been really busy recently

-=Sygnus=-