Denver-based DJ and producer Marc Mount — better known by his artist name, Mport — has been blowing up in recent years due to his unique, crunchy production, dedication to creativity and unbridled sense of fun. Mport makes music to lose yourself in, to laugh along to as hard as you’re dancing. He’s epitomized this fact with his new project, “Scene Selection EP.” It’s a project that will have those who hear it smiling wide as they headbang along to it, one to rattle the soul and leave it feeling a little lighter.
303 Magazine recently sat down with Mport to discuss the new EP, finding music all around you, striving for creativity in all aspects of life and more.
303 Magazine: How’s it going, man? I usually like to start these out by asking artists about the very early days. How’d you first become interested in music? Do you have any early memories or stories that really stand out to you?
Mport: It’s going good, man! I just celebrated my 30th birthday with a nice, much-needed camping trip.
I grew up with music always playing around the house. My dad is huge into classic rock, blues and music in general. We had my great grandma’s baby grand piano in the house and I always seemed to gravitate towards it. I remember I was so little then that when I stood by the keys, they would be above my head and I would just reach up, mashing on the keys.
I’ll also never forget when my dad showed me what a triad chord was. Playing around with those shapes all over the keys made me realize it could sound better than what I was previously doing. Eventually, around 4th grade, I was put into piano lessons at my grade school. I moved through a handful of teachers and took lessons until about 11th grade.
Also, I got really into the idea of creating my own music with Guitar Hero studio. This was a small part of the legendary video game where you could record your own ideas with all the instruments and share them online. The idea that I could make all the parts separately and add them together was mind-blowing to me.
303: How’d you start getting into EDM music and can you talk a little bit about what the genre means to you?
Mport: It all started with a friend showing me a group called Infected Mushroom in like 2007. He showed me a song called “Becoming Insane” and I fell in love with how it combined so many styles of music and progressed with all these electronic elements into a huge rock anthem by the end of the 7 minutes. I was really into hip-hop and metal at the time. I felt like electronic music held the same energy, immediately sparking my interest.
From there, we found more of the bass-heavy artists like Excision, Rusko, Caspa, Skrillex, and many more. My favorite part of metal was the breakdowns and I felt like this music held that energy for the entire song. I loved that it was filled with sounds that I had never heard before. I loved the bass, it was so intense, in your face and new to me. The car was the absolute best place to show friends what this music was all about. Sharing new sounds/songs I found on YouTube and Limewire was my favorite part. Just being like, “Dude but wait for this part!”. That excitement of sharing something fresh is still what excites me to this day when it comes to DJing or just aux swapping in the car.
Personally, the genre overall represents innovation, creative freedom and sonic exploration. I think it’s so cool that there’s an endless amount of creativity to be had via synths, drums, genres, vocal manipulation, sound design and so on. Also, sharing a feeling. If I feel a certain way, the ability to create something based off that feeling and then share it to hopefully have others feel that same way is beautiful. That’s the idea of music overall, I just didn’t have a band or anything to help me do that, so I chose my computer to be my tool of creative expression. I love how electronic music can be a vehicle for anyone to fully express themselves with little barrier to entry.
303: Can you talk a little bit about your song-crafting process? Do you usually come to it with a fully formed idea in mind or do you have to sort of search for it?
Mport: I’ve made songs both ways many times. Personally, I think the better outcome is when I have an idea going into it and then can get it out quickly. When I do beat challenges with friends, it’s more searching for the idea within a short time frame and having reduced resources. Setting time limits and setting some loose rules can really spark a creative flow state. If I’m just searching for something for hours and hours, I’ll usually never get anywhere. If I tell myself, I only got an hour, I can only use these sounds, I can usually get a pretty solid full track skeleton by the end. These are how I do a lot of my fun little social media sampling videos/beats.
If I’m opening up a blank Ableton session with no ideas, not doing a beat challenge, or having a sample/sound to go off of, I will make a simple drum loop and a piano melody or bassline. I love using the raw piano sound as a starting point because if a melody is good on piano, it’s probably good with most sounds. The “Scene Selection EP” had a theme of keeping that raw piano idea in the song and building it from there. I think every song has a stock Ableton grand piano in there somewhere. In general, I try to get a basic skeleton of the whole track down, then go back in later and polish it up, adding all the glitz and glamour later.
303: I’d love to talk samples. Almost every song on the EP samples something from the comedy world, from Spongebob to cult classic films such as Hot Rod to rather deep-cut comedians like William Montgomery. How do you choose your samples?
Report: Whatever inspires me at that moment, honestly. For example, I was doom scrolling Instagram when that clip of Patrick and SpongeBob came up talking about “Wumbo.” Patrick said the “‘M’ stands for ‘mini'” and I had the thought, “What if I could have him say ‘M for Mport’?” I put down my phone and made that first 32 bars in like 15 minutes with the steel guitar sounds and fed off the fun energy of Spongebob.
Hot Rod was the first PG13 movie I saw in theaters on my 13th birthday and the “cool beans” scene had me in tears. I rewatched it last year and the entire movie was even funnier. I, again, turned off the TV and opened my laptop real quick after it was over. I really tried to capture the energy of the scene/movie into the song. “Hot Rod” is more of a jam, dance party track cause I’m using the “I like to party” lines.
I’ve been wanting to sample Kill Tony for a long time but there’s SO much to pull from so I decided to focus on one of my favorite comedians, William Montgomery, who ends every episode. I used his first-ever appearance to start off the song and one of his latest arena performances near the end. “Kill Will” was so fun to make because I wanted to create a story with all the clips and not just have them randomly added in. If anyone who knows the show listens closely, they’ll hear the little story going on between William and Tony’s dialogue. “So Likable” is another one where the music progression follows the idea of the sample, getting more and more likable as the song goes on. But yeah, overall, I love laughing while making music, and so if I can make the samples tell a story with the music AND be funny, I’m all about it.
PS: I love making emotional music too, like more serious music, and I have a lot of that to share eventually. But this EP was most definitely a comedy-driven project for fun.
303: To follow up on that, how do you view the melding of comedy and music? How do you find they complement each other?
Mport: I grew up on a lot of Weird Al, Lonely Island, Tenacious D, Bo Burnham, Lil Dicky and stuff like that. I think the music has to be good, first of all. Funny music that’s annoying or bad is not funny in the same way, at least. There’s a special feeling when you’re jamming out to an awesome song but then it’s also making you giggle here and there. I think it’s a great way to lift people’s spirits.
When it comes to sharing music, I think stuff with a comedic or nostalgic edge has a lot of power, too. It can connect people on multiple levels at once. Like, “Oh you like Beavis and Butthead and Dubstep? Check this out, haha.” They complement each other by subverting expectations. Both comedy and music can make you go “OHHH” by making you think one thing is about to happen and then something else happens. They both can also speak on topics that maybe aren’t the easiest to talk about. This is what can connect people while they listen to either.
303: Besides comedy, what else inspires you in your music? What kind of messages do you hope to get across?
Mport: For me, I love taking people on a journey and giving them an experience, a sonic rollercoaster, if you will. I love doing this with my DJ sets but I also try to accomplish this in certain songs. My official remixes for Sully and LSDREAM are both great examples of this concept. If you put on headphones, close your eyes, and play the full track, I hope at the end, the listener can open their eyes, take a deep breath, and feel like they just went on a ride. At the end of a set I would hope for the same feeling to get across. I know I feel that way when I’m done playing, at least.
As far as a message, it’s totally song-dependent. But overall, for the Mport project, I’d say the message is that it’s ok to be yourself, be silly and don’t take yourself too seriously. Let your creative side shine, look for the beautiful in the mundane. There’s music all around us and anything can be music. Kinda like when we see faces in trees or fences, I hear music in the little squeaks of a chair or the stutter of an engine. I love to inspire others to create and find what it is that makes them smile.
303: This is a broad question that I like to ask artists. Feel free to answer any way you see fit. Do you have a philosophy when it comes to creation?
Mport: My creation philosophy would be centered around doing whatever feels right in the moment. That could be reactive creation, like pressing random buttons and turning knobs on a synth until something sparks your brain’s interest. It could be more intentional, like you hear a melody in your head and you gotta get it down ASAP. I am a big fan of happy accidents where you kinda combine those two things and let whatever happens happen. Maybe you hit the wrong note in your piano roll, but before you undo, maybe play it back and if it feels right, keep the “wrong” note in.
Art isn’t the only way to be creative. You can be creative in your problem-solving, in your time management, in the way you arrange your pictures on the wall, in the way you fix your uneven table. The list goes on forever but at the end of the day, humans are creators and thinking outside the box is what pushes us to experience new ideas and keep life exciting. So go be creative. Go do what you think is fun and cool.
303: Finally, you’re embarking on a huge tour very soon, supporting TVBOO. Where all are you going and what can fans expect from your sets?
Mport: You can expect a fun dance party that builds energy as the set progresses. I’ll be opening up every show, so every night will be a little different for sure. There may not be a lomanyple for one night or a packed-out another. I’ll be leaning into the vibe of the room and having fun with everyone and anyone who shows up early to catch the set! I can’t wait for this huge adventure alongside some of my favorite artists.
Listen to “Scene Selection EP” here!