MARK RALPH
What magic potion is needed to transform a song into a chart topper in 2019? If anyone has the recipe, then it’s the brilliant producer, songwriter and musical alchemist Mark Ralph. From Hot Chip and Franz Ferdinand to Tom Walker and Jax Jones via Clean Bandit and Years & Years, Mark has had his fingers wrapped around the pulse of contemporary pop, teasing and tickling the sonics of emerging new talents into new and more exciting shapes. For him, what makes a song a success?
“Even if you’re writing music that stylistically is very contemporary, what makes a song work is a lyric, vocal melody and chord sequence,” Mark says. “That’s never changed, despite all the technological innovations around how we make and listen to music.”
It’s from Club Ralph, his Queen’s Park studio in West London, where he not only sets the charts racing but also houses talents such as UK dance producers Redlight and Mella Dee. He’s been in the area for more than 20 years and though he’s remained stationary geographically, the successes of his career has seen his star rise very high indeed.
“I moved to London to join a band and they had a studio in this part of the capital. I’ve been here ever since. The first studio I was in is opposite to where I record now, so I haven’t moved very far.”
THE HITMAKER
Beginning his music career as a session guitarist, Mark’s breakthrough moment was playing on a re-issue of Sister Sledge’s in the early 90s. “I was
