Mark Ronson on Raye collab 'Suzanne' and Amy Winehouse comparisons

Mark Ronson is a certified hit machine. And he has multiple awards, millions of streams and, crucially, the respect of his peers to prove it.

He's the brains behind Bruno Mars-fronted mega-hit 'Uptown Funk', co-wrote the Golden Globe and Oscar-winning 'Shallow' with Lady Gaga, and collaborated with everyone from rappers Ghostface Killah and Sean Paul to vocal icons Adele and Miley Cyrus.

Before the accolades, and a catalogue that cemented him as a taste-making super-producer to the stars, Ronson was an amateur DJ. For his 19th birthday, he received a pair of turntables and began scratching his way around New York City, gigging his way up from East Side clubs to high-fashion events.

Now 49, Ronson has spent the past few years reflecting on his youth, writing a memoir called Night People, coming out in September.

"The book is about 90s hip hop nightclubs in New York and me coming up as a DJ as a teenager playing for Biggie [Smalls] and Jay-Z and all these people," he tells Double J's Dylan Lewis.

That nascent era has also reignited Ronson's creativity as he continues work on the follow-up to the Barbie soundtrack and his 2019 divorce album of "sad bangers", Late Night Feelings.

"I've just been obsessing over the sound of it. And then I just met Raye, and we made this song just like that."

The song in question is 'Suzanne', a delightfully smooth slice of soul played with a flesh-and-blood band, burnished with Ronson's signature classy, vintage polish.

The timeless production is a natural fit for Raye, the breakout London star whose vocal and visual styling have regularly invited comparisons to the late, great Amy Winehouse.

Initially, the 27-year-old Raye was reluctant to work with Ronson, who worked closely on Winehouse's 2006 blockbuster Back To Black, concerned people would double down on the similarities.

"I actually was quite nervous and scared," she revealed in a People interview. "I know I can never, ever, ever, ever, ever attempt to replace or imitate Amy. I'm in awe of her. We all are, and we miss her."

A bona fide Raye fan

For the uninitiated: Raye, real name Rachel Agatha Keen, was slumming it in a bad record deal for years with Polydor, who failed to cultivate her talents. Instead, they shelved her music and had her writing songs for others, including Beyoncé and John Legend.

After leaving Polydor in 2021, she channelled her frustrations into new songs — a difficult-to-categorise bridging of old-school jazz and R&B with contemporary pop, hip hop and electronic music — including her chart-topping global hit, 'Escapism' (featuring 070 Shake).

Her 2023 independent debut album, My 21st Century Blues, was a runaway hit that saw Raye make history at last year's Brit Awards, winning six of her seven nominations and breaking Blur, Adele and Harry Styles' record four wins at a single Brits ceremony. 

Needless to say, Ronson has been a Raye admirer for some time.

"Even though I've lived in America since I was eight, and I speak with a ridiculous accent, I am English," he explains.

"So, when I see another English artist really come up through the ranks and start to take over — like how she's made a splash in Australia and America; killing it at the Oscars and the Grammys — I've just been cheering her on as a fan."

Ronson has mentored plenty of emerging talent in his time, such as young Brooklyn artist King Princess and big-voiced gospel-pop singer Yebba, and often works in services of his artists' influences and tastes. That approach was no different with Raye.

"She's a really soulful singer, she has jazz influences. I might have guessed she was a fan of Amy, but I didn't know she was a super fan of mine. And she played it very cool."

There's another strange connection between the two, with a 19-year-old Raye working out of Ronson's former London studio when he relocated once more to the US in 2016.

"I left the studio there and I think she then took it over [as part of] a crew of people. It was her, Fred Again… a few other people that took this studio over."

'Suzanne' sees Ronson embracing the retro-facing sound that skyrocketed his career in the mid-2000s after the breakout success of Back To Black. So how does he feel about the Winehouse comparisons?

"I'm not gonna lie; I guess when I first came out, people were like, 'Oh, the retro guy. Of course!' 

"I think because Amy was the first thing that I ever really had success with, for a little while … everything I did sounded like that, for about three or four years.

"Then, by the time I made [2010 album] Record Collection with 'Bang Bang Bang' [featuring A Tribe Called Quest's Q-Tip and electro-pop artist MNDR], I was sort of ready to move on.

"But it's funny now, there's a new generation of kids — there's Jalen Ngonda and Thee Sacred Souls — going back to that. Kids who are hearing it for the first time.

"So, I always have to be in the studio with a younger artist like a Raye who'll be like, 'No. Do that shit. We love that!' I'm like, 'Really? But I did that before.' And they're like, 'No, no. It's cool.'

"So, I mean, it's fun to get back together with so many musicians that I did that [sound with] because Raye feels like an artist sort of worthy of that sound."

Writing a timeless song

'Suzanne' saw Ronson reuniting with guitarist and producer Thomas Brenneck. A member of instrumental ensembles Menahan Street Band, Budos Band and El Michels Affair, Brenneck's expansive credits include albums for funk and soul greats Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. 

He also played on Back to Back, and perfectly represents the kind of prolific, old-fashioned, behind-the-stardom muso that Ronson loves filling out his key personnel with.

"But you know I I'm always trying to make something that still sounds fresh, I guess."

After co-writing the music with Brenneck, the rest "just came so easy," Ronson continues. "I just left the room for a second and Raye said, 'I think this song's supposed to be called Suzanne.' It sounded very random … But I was like, 'Cool!'"

Between smooth bottom-end, gentle guitar strokes and warm brass, Raye uses vivid details to paint a lush lyrical portrait of a female crush.

"Grey skies out the window, but she's a summer breeze," she sings. "You can't tell if she's into you, she's a winding road/That I've been running on down since I was seven years old."

Ronson didn't tell Raye at the time, "because I wanted her to have her own Suzanne. But there was a woman growing up [who] helped raise me and my family," he explained to triple j. "She had just passed away, like two weeks before [recording]. She was from Southampton in England; it was all these coincidences."

He tells Double J: "It was such a lovely, cathartic release. We didn't really make it for either one of our albums. We just liked it. We were like, 'Let's just put it out.'"

Raye and Ronson have already knocked out a second collaboration, 'Grandma Calls The Boy Bad News', which Ronson describes as having a "Memphis Atlantic record, kind of 60s feeling", and released as part of the soundtrack to the Brad Pitt-starring F1 movie.

Plus, there's hope that the partnership can continue.

"We have such a great energy. You never know, but I do hope so," Ronson concludes.

"Because I love Raye and her energy and I love how free ['Suzanne'] was and it just came out of us. That's why I'm very grateful for the gift of this song. I know that sounds a little over the top but I mean it."