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Nu-Mark on hip hop world

Jurassic 5 DJ talks about his musical roots, current projects and changes to turntablism
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Thinking Man DJ and producer, Nu_mark, is hard at work in the studio, but will be taking a break to perform at stops in B.C., including Maxx Fish.

Who: DJ Nu-Mark

When: Tuesday, April 22, 9 p.m.

Where: Maxx Fish

Tickets: First 50 $10, after that, $15

In big hip hop crews, there’s at least one member who can get a bit lost in the shadows of boisterous emcees — the DJ.

But over the years, Mark Potsic, better known as DJ Nu-Mark of Jurassic 5, has found his way to the front of the stage, and has become well known and respected within the global hip hop community for his onstage antics and innovation at the decks. He’s always trying out new tricks on the turntables, whether it be attaching a rubber band to the needle and playing his turntable like an upright bass, tapping on the dust cover to create a bass drum, or incorporating rewired children’s toys into his sets.

He also likes to play around with his sound, experimenting with soul, funk and samba to create seamless, classic beats designed to get the crowd moving.

But aside from his extensive work with Jurassic 5, this DJ also has a lot of independent projects keeping him busy.

He recently released an instrumental album entitled Blend Crafters , and a mix-CD, Hands On , which is a collection of diverse sounds, featuring everything from samples of hip hop from around the world, to comedic skits. And now, he’s working on a new album, featuring Brazilian, afro-beat and classic hip hop tracks with emcee, deejay and producer, J-Live, as well as some performers, like Bumpy Knuckles and NY Oils, that he hasn’t worked with before.

“I’m just kind of following my heart,” Nu-Mark said. “I’m working with emcees I really like to work with and vocalists I really like to work with, and I’m working with all the people that I’m fans of, and that’s how I approach it.”

But he’s soon stepping away from his home studio in Los Angeles to take a quick touring break, and will be coming to Whistler to play his first solo show next week.

“It was one of those things where I kept kind of passing by it every time I was in Canada, so I figured that it was time to go there and make it happen,” he explained, adding that when he had a great time when he performed here with Jurassic 5.

“I like enthusiasm up there — they have the spirit,” he said with a laugh.

Audiences must be inspired by Nu-Mark’s personal passion for music.

“The reason why I’m still doing it is because no one on the planet Earth will ever have every single record manufactured. It’s an endless maze, and I think something about that is very appealing to me, like I know I’ll never be able to conquer the craft,” he explained.

“…There’s so many other types of art that you could technically master… but DJing and collecting records is endless.”

He first started playing the drums at the age of seven, and branched out into DJing in the ’80s after watching a friend’s uncle at the turntables.

“I just thought it was something new and exciting, you know, and this idea of touching the records — you’re always told never to touch the records, never to touch the needle, and just everything you’re not supposed to do, and it was very much against the grain, just as hip hop was at the time,” he said.

Nu-Mark soon began playing house parties on a cheap pair of turntables, which became his “infinite instrument,” enabling him to grab a kick drum, horn stab or flute section from any album to create endless musical combinations.

He also began to amass an impressive record collection, which currently numbers around 35,000, but admits that he had a pretty good head start early on in his career, when he and a friend purchased a library of 20,000 albums at a local swap meet.

“We would go there every Saturday and just pick through records and finally we were like, ‘man, would you ever sell this whole library?’”

They made him an offer, and walked away with the whole collection for $500.

“That’s really what generated a lot of the sounds and textures that I used on the first few J5 records,” he said. “…There were a lot of terrible records in there, too, don’t get me wrong, but there were some really classic breaks up in there.”

He never really counted on making a career out of DJing — at the insistence of family and friends, he was actually studying to become an X-ray technician. But soon after he teamed up with Jurassic 5 his medical career was history.

“About two months or so before I was supposed to graduate, I just dropped out because we were doing so well, and the record went gold overseas, and Europe was really keen to the record — they really understood what we were trying to do, while the States was still sleeping on us.”

While the craft has changed a lot over the years, this old school DJ is adapting, trading his records in for a computer.

“I love records, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that at any given time now when I show up to a gig, I have 8,000 songs ready to go.”

Nu-Mark says even the audiences have changed, especially since turntablism was pushed to the forefront in the ’90s and people became more interested in visual aspects of DJs performances.

“You always have people who really just want to dance, and you always get that set of people in the club that just want to stare at you,” Nu-Mark explained.

At Tuesday’s show, he says the crowd can expect to hear some funky, James Brown-inspired beats, classic hip hop, with some oddball stuff thrown in to keep it interesting.

“This show is just going to be me rocking records and just having a good time with the people and more of a dance thing — people drinking, having fun.”