Part II: 1975-1996

off 12 inches, live on the show, like 9-11 O’clock. It was the first time I’d actually heard dance music ‘mixed’ together, but he was also playing stuff that was massive at the time and also things that were really underground. Things like ‘Jack to the Sound of the Underground’, all the acid house remixes of pop stuff, you know like Shep Pettibone remixes. So I’d listen to and tape that and then go and find all the records at Disco City in Parramatta. Obviously, that shop doesn’t exist anymore. Then HMV opened up in Parramatta and that had everything. It was like a kid in a candy store pretty much and that’s when I really started buying that sort of music.

I remember seeing the opening of HMV actually which had Indecent Obsession and Collette live, or ‘live’ in inverted commas, playing on the top of HMV in Parramatta. That was hilarious! But also there was a DJ there. I think it was Stephen Allkins and he was playing hip-hop at the time which was like Young MC mixed with De La Soul and he was mixing it. I was thinking ‘faaark’ this is really cool, how is he doing that!? So that was the first introduction to Technics 1200s, mixing records and laying them over the top of each other.

BEN: So being from England do you think it has swayed you towards House a bit more? Because for me having that experience with the English guys in Byron Bay that’s what put me onto House.

MARK: I wouldn’t say that, no. Not for me because my biggest influences are still to this day from ‘83-‘88.

BEN: Retro

MARK: Yes retro, but quality electronic UK pop and coming from England, because pop music was such a massive thing, more so then.

Photo: Mark "admiring two of Pee Wee Ferris’ finer moments."

I think most sets that I do whether I’m playing Techno, Trance or House there’s always that element of melody over the top. Keeping people interested, keeping some sort of emotion in the music, and I think that’s where it stems from.

A lot of the UK Pop was very dramatic.

BEN: Who for example?

MARK: Depeche Mode. Stripped. Their Violator album ‘Enjoy The Silence’ was really dramatic and I think that sort of sense of melody, tone and emotion is still in my sets these days. Even though I still like playing down and dirty, still crusty techno, I like every now and again to throw in one that brings it all back to something more uplifting.

BEN: Did your family have any influence on your music?

MARK: Yes, this is my Dad here. (Shows me a picture of an elder gent playing a 60s jazz guitar). He was a guitarist on either the QE2 or the Queen Mary in the 60s playing jazz in a band. I used to go out with Mum and see him play (in the 80’s). So in a weird way; what he used to do for a living, I’ve just taken on board in a more modern form. I’m DJing every weekend, whereas he would be out on a boat or a jazz club every weekend. It’s pretty much the same thing, but in saying that - at home we would clash all the time about what music was being played in the house. (Both laugh) Cause I didn’t like the jazz, although I can appreciate it now. Although when I was young he couldn’t stand the pop music I was playing. There were always arguments about that. I guess, that sense of music and being exposed to it at an early age, is the reason I got into it.

BEN: So what motivated you to start DJing?

BEN : So you said you volunteered?

MARK : Yes, I just wrote them a letter, and said “hey, I’m blah, blah, and would like to become involved in the station”. I worded it correctly and they said come on in. I did some work experience there first.

BEN : That shows a lot of initiative?

MARK: Yes, I definitely had a drive to make it happen. It was just because I so interested in it! It was really my life! I didn’t play sport. In England, your activities as a youngster are soccer, computers, music and fashion and that’s about it because it’s so fucking cold. I was just into music and computers so when I came out to Australia as an 11-12 year old it was a complete culture change. And being out west it was all Metallica and Iron Maiden. “Metal up your Arse!” So I didn’t really fit in and it wasn’t until age 16 that I created a radio station at school for recess and lunch. It was 1990.

Basically, I organised a Fun Run and we got some money together to buy turntables and somehow we got approval from the principal to make this radio station happen. I was Director and had my own show. Suddenly, I went from this nerdy guy that nobody would speak to, to Mr Popular (laughs) and then I was voted School Captain! It was like “whoa, fuck I didn’t want that”, but eventually I eased into it. So doing that and then being pushed to do speeches at assembly gave me the drive and initiative to realize actually, I can do this. I realized I don’t have to be that scared little nerdy guy in the corner.

BEN : This is a two part question. What was your first party as a punter and what was your first party as a DJ?

The first rave that I really got a gig at was Prodigy 6 and it was the last set. It happened like this. I was doing the radio show and by ‘93 it had gotten quite a good following. Up there with “Musicquarium” (Nik Fish’s radio show). I was getting all the good promoters to come in and promote their parties whilst also getting the good DJs as well to come in and play a set for free.

No one could really see the DJ, but I could look down and see everyone. There were five to six thousand people at that party. I got to play what I (prefer) to play at that party, so it was like ‘Noom 6’, & that Voodoo record I posted on Sydney Rave History recently. All those sorts of things and then moved into some classics like “Next Is the E”. Yeah, I had my set (3-4am), but the next DJ didn’t show and then the following DJ after him was 30 minutes late so I got two and a half hours up there! Brett came up to me after an hour and said, ‘Mate they haven’t shown, do you want to keep going?’ I’m like, “Fuck yeah! This is awesome.” By two and a half hours I was mentally ripped apart because I’d been concentrating hard to get this right. I thought “this is my big break”. Brett said, “mate that was awesome, I love the music.” From there on I got Field of Dreams 4 (FOD4) and other raves from there.

BEN : Going back to 2RDJ, I should say that Phil Booth mentioned to me that he was working at Macca’s and when they were doing clean up “they’d just fucking crank it!”

MARK : Oh Good! I still get people (mentioning 2RDJ) now, and it’s what 2014?, and that show was really popular from 1994 to 2000. It 20-25 years on and people still remember it. Probably, one (person) per month will still come up to me and say “man I used to listen to 2RDJ and that’s what got me into dance music!” That’s really humbling and a really nice thing to hear because that is exactly what happened to me! You know, if I could meet the guy - whoever he is - that was doing that 2GLF show, I’d go up to him and say ‘mate, you are the reason I play music the music that I play. I heard your set on 2GLF, a tiny little radio station in Liverpool back in the day and it’s pretty much what set the tone for me.’

Not cheque, cash only to a PO box in Newtown and in return I would send them a mixed tape. One per month. It only lasted a little while, but because of that I had an abundance of mixed tapes of all different styles.

was just a bit of a machine I guess and I found the time to practice. Whenever I could I ran the DAT player and would record a set. I’ve got 150-200 mixes from that period all the way through to 2001-2002. There are some really quality mixes there. I would just basically get all the latest records I had just bought from Central Station Records, spending $200-$300 a week on records, and just do a mix of what I had (bought) at the end of the week. Then I’d listen back to it in the car and see what worked with each other. Then use that to plan my sets. I used to do a lot of work and preparation into it back then. It was like a labour of love. It was not a chore or anything. Whenever I would have time I’d play.

BEN : You mentioned Central Station Records. So where did you access your vinyl back then? You also mentioned HMV at Parramatta?

MARK : Well a lot of those shops out west closed down because they weren’t popular enough. I moved to Chatswood in 1993 so I didn’t need to worry about the Western Suburbs’ record shops anymore. So from 1993 on it was all Oxford Street and Pitt Street. Central Station was a big seller of records to me. I met Jo and Morgan (owners of Central Station records) and Tim McGee (later, director of Ministry Of Sound Australia). Tim was a bit later on at Central Station Records (on Oxford St).

Cleptomaniacs; went into some Trancey acid stuff and finished up on Italo House. I mean, god knows how that all fits into an hour and fifteen minutes, but somehow it kinda worked. So that’s exactly what I did ‘back in the day’ with records. I would start off with something mellow like “Power of American Natives” - Dance 2 Trance and then finish up with “Mandala” - Noom Records 10 or something like that. You’d often see me touching the pitch controller, and flicking it up a little bit, because I needed to get just a few extra BPMs (Beats Per Minute) so that I could finish where I wanted to and with the kind of style I wanted to.

BEN : Well I noticed that when we first met. You went through my bag of classic house records and played them at a pitch that I did not expect. I was like ‘wow’ I did not expect that. It was more like hyper house. It seemed like you always like to play it a bit faster?

MARK : I used to play a lot faster, but the only reason I think I did that on the day (recovery party after 20 Years Later) was, we were kinda going back to back and once the tempo is set you kinda don’t want to go slower. You can always go faster, but going slower sounds a bit ‘urrrrrrgh’.

BEN : So was it Prodigy 6 you said you had a panic attack before you went on? Do you ever freeze up?

MARK : I’m probably over stating it. I was actually more confident I think back then than I am now because back then I had nothing to lose. But, it’s good to be nervous because it means you care about what you are doing. You want to do it well. It wasn’t until later on I started getting panic attacks about playing, getting really anxious about playing. In around the mid naughties, 2005-2006. I think it was just down to be being burnt out. I was playing so much for the Ministry of Sound CDs, touring all around the country, not getting enough sleep and not having to time to prepare. This is what it really came down to: not having time to really prepare, (convincing myself) that “no I’m really not going to do that well” and just having to wing it. Usually, it would turn out alright, but it was just anxiety. It’s a bitch of a thing.

MARK : I remember a distinct moment at “Graffiti Hall of Fame” and I think it was 1996. Things had been going downhill in terms of parties getting shut down, cops shutting everything down in South Sydney. All the North side parties and the beaches had been shut down and it was just becoming really difficult to go to outdoor parties. I remember being outside the “Graffiti Hall of Fame” and the cops had just shut down the party at about 1 am.

I’d start off on House and play all the records of the time like Slacker – “Scared”, Space Brothers, Bonzai, Black Master and get a little bit trance, then a little bit deep, then come out a little bit vocal. I remember when Breaks started happening in 1999 - I was playing them as well. That was really when people said, ‘Oh, who is this guy?’ And things really started happening. They’d follow me from Sublime to Pavillion and I’d do the recovery there from 6am till 9pm. So it was pretty much DJing straight from 3am to 9pm! These were Saturday mornings, but I’d also do Sunday mornings.

BEN : Just going back in time a bit. There is a newspaper clipping and photo of you when you were 15. Can you describe that?

MARK : It goes back to what I said before about doing volunteer work at 2RDJ. The photo is not at 2RDJ, it is in my bedroom (in 1989). So 2RDJ said “Tony G is leaving, do you want the radio show” and I said “yes”. Because of that, two newspapers called up and said “do you want to do an interview and photo shoot?” I said “yes” and they came around to the house and took photos of me in front of my Commodore 64, ghetto blaster and just-new CD player! Huge news that was! (laughs)”

BEN : Well, we can leave it there.

MARK : Lovely, thanks a lot. [END]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Mark Dynamix interviewed and written for by Benjamin Sullivan of Sydney Rave History Press
• Photos courtesy of Mark Dynamix, Benjamin Sullivan and Paul Blamire of Full Flight Racing Photography
• You Tube presentation by Phil Booth of Sydney Rave History
• 3D World and In The Mix articles and photos of Mark Dynamix were provided by himself.