Marc JB

At the Miami Winter Music Conference 2011

2011-03-21T16:14:00.000-07:00

This has been the best year for business and crazy partying, this is also the year with the controversial split between the conference and the Ultra festival.

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I traveled in with digital PR guru Sally J Freeman (Love Live Music), the other half of Bimbo Jones remix and production, Lee Dagger, manager Al, ultra diva Katherine Ellis, her manager Stewie and DJ Matt Vinyl.

Our plane was called the 'Soul Sister' which was a great start to proceedings

This year we got the accommodation just right as we stayed at the heart of South Beach in the Shellbourne where they have some of the best and most hedonistic pool parties, most events are short walking distance from the Shellbourne.

One of my favorite parts of WMC is the panels, they are great places to network with producers and also speak to people who rate your work and have come to pick your brains. The first panel was DJ and Production technology moderated by Joe Abbati from the University of Miami, also on the panel were Lee Dagger, DJ Lars, Darude, B Side and Claude Zdanow. The second panel was moderated by house legend Eric Kupper with Lee, Stonebridge and Matt Darey. It took about 30mins to walk out of those rooms as everyone wants to say hello and swap ideas.

Early on we had great meetings with several people including BMI and Diva Kristine W (pictured)

And just when I thought that the Miami sun was going to burn my skin to a lovely purple hue, dark grey clouds rolled in and 15 mins later a monsoon deluge had completely flooded the streets, amazingly all the floods had evaporated within 30mins as if it had never rained!

One of the most amazing nights was the International Dance Awards where Lee and I were up for best remixer (for the 4th year!). This was held in Dolce club, in the queue I ended up talking with DJ Junior Sanchez, one of pinoneer's designers, I also hooked up with a couple of record companies and spoke with Chris Willet's manager Gary Saltzman. One good thing about remixing everybody under the sun, you can strike up a conversation with almost anyone and there is something to talk about.

Inside the IDMAs I had a great chat with the wonderful Swede Stonebridge, who has been supporting my track 'Marc JB feat Angie Brown-Free UR Soul' on the Max Jackson mix, I also met Mike Burns and Mark Lewis from 'Interstate', they were hosting an amazing mixology party on Nikki Beach on the Saturday. Lee played a great DJ set and the show got under way.

The best remixer catogary was being announced, bizarrely I was chatting with Dave Aude who was also up for the award, Afrojack pipped us to the post this year but hey, we have been in the top 5 world remixers for 4 years in a row, not bad going!

One of the highlights was the Katherine Ellis gig at Mynt Lounge on the Friday, she rocked the club, It was lovely to meet and give my singles to Tom Novy who was DJing and we were treated like royalty by the manager Bob Jones. When the club had been shut to the public at 5.30, Katherine performed for a second time to the hardcore partypeople and belted out our Bimbo Jones song-And I Try. We then ended up going to the 'W' for an amazing breakfast with Katherine, DJ and manager Stewart Eldrige, Bob and the amazing Lainie Copicotto from the Aurelia Group.

With all these amazing events going on, the Shelbourne really is the place to stay, not only is it in the heart of WMC but we got free entry as guests into the parties which are $60-100 per ticket, here I am with the Bimbo Jones remix/production team, co-producer Lee Dagger and manager Al.

After a wonderful chat with Crystal Waters at the Mova lounge - an amazing night run by DJ Ron with Katherine and Kristine W doing live PA's,

a stunning sushi and champagne meal at Sushi Samba with manager Al

and a great interview with dance music journalist Mickey Weems, I packed my bags, did a photo shoot and headed back for UK shores.

Thank you so much to everyone I came to Miami with, Sal, Lee, Al, Katherine, Matt, Carlos, Terisa, Mattie, Neil, Caroline, Angela, Sarah, Adam and Michael and also to everyone I met there, you guys are awesome!!

Press release: Marc JB feat Angie Brown - Free UR Soul - Promotion by Concrete

2011-02-15T09:19:00.000-08:00

Marc JB feat Angie Brown - Free UR Soul huge dance floor anthem already drumming up support from a whole host of worldwide tastemakers. Remixes from Van Hej & Ku Ka Chu and Max Jackson.

Max Jackson Pushes the Nu Disco to the limit with an amazing breakdown ascending into a dirty funk groove.
Van Hej combines soft melodies with Angie's vocal before exploding into the breakdown with stadium size synths and a powerful drop. L.A based producer Ku Ka Chu provides an industrial, electronic bomb, working the LFO's on the synths whilst the beats stay crisp and punchy.

UK producer, Marc JB teams up with Angie Brown to power up the new house floorfiller, 'Free UR Soul'.

Marc has enjoyed worldwide success as half of remix outfit 'Bimbo Jones' (alongside Lee Dagger) and is now readying an album for 2011 as well as releasing new tracks on Sainted Records & White Label.

Angie Brown is one of the UK's best-loved female singers. Angie's vocals lit up the Bizarre Inc anthem "I'm Gonna Get You" selling over 2 million copies worldwide. Most recently Angie has worked with Dutch DJ/producer, Peter Gelderblom, and Mark Trophy on 'You Are The One'.

Supported by Stonebridge (Worldwide)
Mousse T (Worldwide)
Peter Gelderblom (Various/ Worldwide)
Gary Dedman (Hoxton Whores)
Robert Owens (Worldwide)
Sergio Flores (Worldwide/ Defected)
Graham Sahara (Pacha/ Defected/ KM5/Various)
Jack Mccord (Hed Kandi)
Andy Daniels (Hed Kandi)

I loved recording this tune and am very proud of Free UR Soul with the totally amazing Angie Brown. I think her vocal on this makes it. Have a great 2011 Angie - you are the best! What a privilege to work with you.

Marc JB
www.twitter.com/MarcJB
www.MarcJB.com

What I've learnt so far and how to make inroads into the music business

2010-11-23T04:20:00.000-08:00

I’m currently in Ireland on a DJ gig looking out the hotel window over a lake, a great place to contemplate my experiences in the music industry.

I have been producing tunes, songwriting and gigging for 21 years now, I have learnt a few invaluable lessons along the way and still have many to learn. I want to share a few of these useful pointers with you to help you get ahead.

Collaboration is key, it’s all to easy to shut everyone out and do your music solo, that works to some extent but will take you a limited distance. Work with other people and you will soak up their ideas and skills like a sponge! From Lee (Other half of Bimbo Jones production) I have learnt many things and of course we figured many things out together, how to work a crowd, tension and release in a track, how to make each element of a track amazing. Cyndi Lauper recently gave us a master class in lyric writing and she also showed me 80s synth production and dynamics techniques for processing a voice. Over the years I have learnt so much from working with people, I highly recommend doing the same.

Don’t be a tight arse with splits!! If you get upset about splits (publishing, management etc…) when working with someone, it could be enough to grind the project to a halt before it has had a chance to get off the ground. Be fair with splits, put yourself in the other people’s shoes and think what they would expect. If you are giving a manager a split, consider that they have to live off that small part of your income. When you are progressing up the credibility ranks, be flexible with splits but don’t go giving away everything. As they say 100% of nothing, is NOTHING!

Find ways of getting your product out there. I spent years working away only to have doors slammed in my face with no audience for my work, it was very frustrating. My breakthrough was when I met Lee, finally we could produce a song and he would DJ it out front of 3000 people that very night. For getting an audience, the only person you can rely upon to make it happen is yourself. Get email addresses of friends and family (your first fanbase) and collect some more, send out regular updates on what you are doing. Give away some free songs to download to keep everyone excited. Build up a loyal following and when you come to release your first record (look at www.cdbaby.com) your fans will buy. Find ways of getting out to perform, you could start by doing sets at friend’s parties or even in front of your family at home. Keep going and it will snowball.

It does not come all at once! We are used to artists being made over night on X Factor, it can happen but this is a dream made true for just a few. To be successful, you first need to think of where you want to be and then you need to figure out the path to get there. Then there is the process of making the small steps along your path to success (writing songs, gigs, mail outs etc..). Just make sure you don’t change your mind too much or you will end up taking a few turns and ending back at where you started. In my experience, even the big successes along the way only advance you another small step along the way so be patient! And don’t forget, it is the journey that is the fun bit.

The music industry can be the most exciting but frustrating place to work in. Most of the people at the top who get all the work are the ones that are fun and pleasant to work with (and super talented!). If you are bright, positive and creative and seek out the opportunities along the way, nothing can stop you from getting to the top.

Website: www.MarcJB.com Please come and visit, here my latest tunes and sign up to my newsletter

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I would love to see you on any of the above, come and talk to me, I will try and respond to all. Good luck with all your musical endeavours, Marc JB

The First Gig

2010-09-29T05:06:00.001-07:00

Hi Marc JB here and welcome to the start of my blog, I’m sure that I shall be discussing many things here, mostly related to music and it’s inner workings, I will probably be talking about some random things as well because I have too many ideas for my own good. I may even let out a couple of production secrets as well, who knows!

Well, it has now been 21 years man and boy sitting in a studio making tunes, also 21 years of standing on stage and playing tunes to drunk and captivated audiences.

This takes me back to one of the best gigs of my life, When I was at school some friends and I ran a Jam night in the school hall, I was at a posh boarding school, it was so exciting because word had got around about our musical ramblings and the best musicians turned up from all the surrounding schools.

A group of us split off and became the band ‘Vivid’, myself on rhythm guitar, Simon on vocals, Dave on lead guitar, Jez on bass and Carl on drums. Our first practice ended up paralytic on the floor as one would expect for a group of 15 year olds in a thrash metal band.

Simon and Dave got us our first gig at Hemel School as a support band, we made up the tunes, rehearsed and we were ready to go. Unfortunately, this clashed with my boarding school homework time so I had to escape through a window to get there.

There we were standing on the stage behind the closed curtain, the roar of the crowd beckoned. I had never felt so nervous in my life. The curtain was pulled back to reveal 300 metal heads looking expectantly at us. We broke into our first number, immediately the audience turned into a wave of moshing hair coming towards us, the lights scanned over them and the music was earsplittingly loud. It was amazing, we were electrified by being in the present moment having this monster reaction to our music, our original music. As we got into the flow, we started giving the stagedivers a helpful kick off the stage into the mosh pit, it was outrageous.

After that gig, my life changed and I would never be able to do a normal job, I would always be driven down the road of music and performance. And here I am without the normal job still driving down the same road.