Mark Ronson admits he feels 'terrified' before working with new artists

'It's like a mix of a blind date and the first day at school times a million'

Mark Ronson’s ‘Uptown Funk’ single was played 45 million times on audio streaming services (Florent Dechard)

Mark Ronson may have produced one of the UK's best selling singles of all time when he brought out Uptown Funk featuring Bruno Mars, but he still suffers from imposter syndrome.

The DJ and producer told an audience at the Cannes Lions advertising festival that despite his success, he feels terrified before working with a new artist.

“Every time, the night before I'm about to start a new record with a new person its the most terrifying – I can't go to sleep, I'm like, 'this is the one where they're going to find out I'm a fraud and I've been making it up the whole time',” he admitted. “It's like this horrible mix of a blind date and the first day at school and something else times a million.”

But his feeling of terror and trepidation come from having no idea what he's going to make before he gets into the studio, he said, though this inevitably disappears due to the trust and musical rapport that develops between himself and the artist he's working with.

Asked whether he knows when something is going to be a hit, the Back to Black producer said he's “always surprised” when one of his records is a big success, and that he doubts any of his heroes know when they've created a hit either: “I don't picture Radiohead all high-fiving when they wrote Creep,” he said.

“You make it and it feels good, and then if its a hit or not is really up for everybody else to decide,” he said.

Mr Ronson, who has been working on Lady GaGa's upcoming album, said that as a producer, his role is to bring out the best in the artist he's working with in whatever way he can. “You're like a part therapist, part school teacher, you're a cheerleader, you're there to make that person feel that they have super-human powers and a lot of the time I think that if you've got a voice like Adele or Amy Winehouse, there is something that makes them almost supernaturally special,” he said.

But there's a fine line between bringing out a person's confidence and pushing them too far, he said, referencing stories of producers such as Ross Robinson who allegedly pushed members of the band Korn to the point of tears in the recording studio. The aim is not to shatter their confidence, he said, but to use “whatever it takes just to make that person feel like they can do anything, is what you want”.