DJ Marky is one of Brazil’s best exports since nuts and waxes. He was discovered after fellow Brazilian Patife called the UK promoters of the Movement shows to see if he could use the name in Brazil. V- Recordings head honcho Bryan Gee flew to Brazil with Edo Van Duyn to see a scene they weren’t really aware of, and caught Marky playing at the now legendary Love Club. “Incredible, for here was a DJ who hardly spoke any English, lived 5,000 miles from the drum and bass Mecca [of London] and still managed to inject more energy, enthusiasm, originality and creativity into mixing drum and bass than anyone we’d seen before,” said Edo in a recent interview.

Marky gained his music knowledge in the way many DJs do – through family and working in a record store. “There was a really cool radio station that I used to listen to when I was a kid, that used to play old funk and proper hip hop tunes,” he says, “but mostly I got my musical influence from my Dad and his vinyl collection.” The vinyl bug must of rubbed off, as Marky worked in the Up Dance record store, which was vital in determining his tastes. “When you are working in the record store you have a lot of tunes from different genre that work for you. Maybe a techno track or a house track, something like that. But I remember when the first set of Jungle records came in and I was hooked!”

It’s clear from talking to Marky that he loves Brazil. Although at first his meteoric rise did cause some little problems. “At first, I won’t lie, it was hard,” he says of learning English. “I hadn’t had to speak it all the time like this before so I had to learn and learn fast, but having management there to support me and help me out was great and it helped me get to terms with it much quicker.” He also likes the fact that although he rose quickly, he’s still grounded in Brazil. “Yeah I got quite big in UK and Europe but I spend most of my time in Brazil so I can escape, and that time is golden to me.”

First time Marky played in Adelaide, he blew people away. His energy, his skills, and his scratching – a skill not too often seen at dnb shows – all shattered preconcieved notions of how dnb is played. However, on his last visit, on the back of a long festival tour, his performance wasn’t so spectacular, as there was only a little bit of scratching. But Marky realises that expectation and anticipation has it’s toll. “It is hard because everyone expects you to play the best set you have ever played, and honestly I try and do that every time I play,” he stresses. He also says the lack of scratching was simply an equipment thing. “Most DnB raves now will use an Allen & Heath mixer because a lot of people use it and it has effects but they are very hard to scratch on. It can lead to disappointment which is why I have got some new tricks in my sleeve to make sure everyone remembers this tour!”

Marky’s production is just as well respected as his DJing. He makes tracks with XRS, and I was wondering how it works. “We shared the work when we were producing together. I used to bring a lot of the samples to the studio and XRS would be really good at laying it out then we would both build the tune together. It was a really good partnership,” he says. More recently, he’s been colaborating with Bungle who he reckons is “gonna be massive next year! He is young but so talented it is unreal! Also,” he adds “I have done a few new tracks with Makoto and Total Science. In the future it might be nice to collaborate with someone like NuTone or Logistics for something a lttle bit different.” Those should get the dnb juices flowing!

Finally, whenever Marky is asked which is his favourite place to DJ, he immediately answers Australia. “The people are mad for it!” He exclaims. “Whenever I play in Australia I get a wicked reception and they just love the music. That is what I like when I visit somewhere is seeing people who are purely music lovers. Yeah it helps that there is a DJ there that they know, but really, they just want a good night out and want to listen to quality tunes. My kind of people!”