He’s worked with everyone from Beyoncé to Elton John and from Rihanna to Celine Dion but US DJ Marc Kinchen says he turned down a chance to do a remix for Taylor Swift.
The 54-year-old Detroit native, who is better known as MK, has been putting his own spin on major acts, dance-adjacent or not, since the early nineties – an era when a bonus track dance remix from a name DJ was a must, back when the humble CD single ruled the charts.
However, radical changes in how people listen to music and how music is actually produced mean MK no longer sees the allure of big bucks offers to work with big name rock and pop stars.
“I said no to a Taylor Swift remix. Hahaha,” he laughs. “When you’re doing dance remixes, you don’t want to make the wrong turn and have some diehards who are into the underground dance music scene, stuff that is so anti-pop music, moan about it.
“In my younger days I would have jumped at doing a remix for Taylor Swift but I just thought it wasn’t the right career move to take Taylor Swift, the ultimate pop artist, and try to make a cool dance record with one of her songs. It just didn’t feel right, it just didn’t feel right. That stuff definitely worked in the nineties.”
Of course, it was a different world back then and MK has seen styles and trends come and go.
So laidback he could be levitating, he may not have the name recognition of many of his EDM peers but he has been around the block more than once and is a fixture at every major dance festival.
Kinchen: “I used to be a party animal. Most DJs go through a phase of partying but after a while you realise, ‘ok, I’m not supposed to be partying.”
“Dance music was quite new in the nineties so everybody jumped at a chance to hear a remix of a big artist’s songs,” he says. “It was exciting but now I think it’s kind of predictable – people can remix any artist without the permission of the artist and release it on Soundcloud. Remixing a big pop artist has been done and now it’s easily done.”
Right now, he’s concentrating on the future. As well as his new album, In The Night Again, he’s also got another worldwide tour in the offing.
After he makes his regular appearances on the party islands like Phuket and Ibiza, he is due back in the rather more chilly but chilled-out Telegraph Building next April for his first Irish gig since he played the 3Arena late last year. He has also played Punchestown, and Longitude.
He did have an album out under his own name in the early nineties but he’s calling In The Night Again his debut album but it’s also a greatest hits collection featuring many of the tracks that made his name over twenty years ago.
“Jazzy is young so she’s probably in one of the best positions she can be as an artist. Everyone respects her and she did something with Calvin Harris last year. You can’t get any bigger than that. She’s doing everything right.”
The album brings together hits from across his career including 17, Dior, Piece Of Me, and Come Find Me alongside five unreleased tracks, featuring vocal talent like Kareen Lomax, Clementine Douglas, Poppy Baskcomb, and Ty Dolla $ign.
“Songs like 17 and Piece of Me were meant to be on my first album,” MK says. “But it was at a time when album sales started to be more singles-driven and then Spotify and Apple Music took over and I wasn’t sure how albums were playing during that period so I kept putting this new album off.
“I have some classics on there and some of those songs were made twenty years ago so yeah, it’s a kind of greatest hits but it’s also a headphones album, a pre-party album and a pre-workout album.”
Jazzy: MK has worked on several tracks with the rising Crumlin star
Asked if he still sees boundaries between musical genres, he half laughs and says, “Now that I’m older, I do. You see a lot of kids having success because they don’t see boundaries.
“There’s a box for what I do but some kids don’t know there’s a box so these kids come out with ideas and I go ‘why didn’t I think of that?!’
“It’s very seldom you find an older producer, so far, that’s come out of the box and you go ‘oh my god, I can’t believe they did that.’ Every once in a while someone slips through and hopefully I can do that but most of the time it’s a young kid who does it.”
Speaking of young, upcoming acts, he is more than familiar with rising Dublin star Jazzy. He is an ongoing collaborator with the Crumlin singer and DJ, who recently released her debut studio album Peace and Patience and who played the 3Arena last weekend.
Jazzy and MK
“I’ve heard everything she’s done and she has a bright future coming,” MK says. “She’s very talented and the fact that she can sing and DJ is a double weapon so she’s in a great position right now.
“She’s young so she’s probably in one of the best positions she can be as an artist. Everyone respects her and she did something with Calvin Harris last year. You can’t get any bigger than that. She’s doing everything right.”
Tracks from In The Night Again are likely to feature on his upcoming tour and as a veteran of Coachella, Glastonbury, Tomorrowland and Creamfields, as well as his flagship Ibiza residency at Ushuaïa with Calvin Harris, MK now has a more grown-up approach to playing festivals.
“I used to be a party animal,” he says. “Most DJs go through a phase of partying but after a while you realise, ‘ok, I’m not supposed to be partying’. I am the party but I’m the one who is not meant to be partying. You want everyone else to party.”
In The Night Again is out now