Constantly innovating, Mark EG has been at the forefront of every type of hard dance over the past 15 years. Treasured in the hardcore scene, smashing the techno scene, leading the harder trance movement and adopted with loving arms into the hard house arena – Mark is a man adorned the world over.

In advance of another killer set at Storm vs Tidy, Daley catches up wth Mark EG to find the man behind the madness…

Storm was pretty much the first clubs to bring you to the ‘traditional’ hard house masses 7 or so years ago. How does the crowd at Storm rate against those you experience when you’re touring the world?

The Emporium is such an incredible club, but it's the 'family' atmosphere in the shape of the Storm crowd, that really puts the cat amongst the pigeons here. What you tend to find is the best places to party wherever you go, apart from a great music policy, are the ones where everyone knows each other. Although you see the same ugly mutts on the dancefloor month in, month out, you feel part of something so special, something bigger than the club itself. Storm is one of those places and I absolutely love it.

You cut your teeth at legendary promotions across the UK, such as Helter Skelter’s Technodrome and Uprising. How important were those days to you as a DJ, and how do they compare to the sounds and events you smash in 2009?

Well, music always moves on, that's what's so great about it all and its that very reason why I still get so excited about playing out each week. But yeah, back then was very special. I used to spend hours in record shops searching for the latest stuff, chatting absolute crap to the guy behind the counter - to the point where all my money was going on plastic. I still spend hours and hours searching, thinking, playing and analyzing tracks in my head - just like I did back then - but the game and the music has definitely changed. It's really great being able to find stuff in the comfort of your own living room and it's even better still being involved in it after all these years.

If you were moving to a desert island for the rest of your life, and you could only take your techno records or your hard trance/hardstyle collection, which would you take?

If someone told me I could only take one genre I would cancel the trip and go live a reclusive life in an Igloo in Alaska. No seriously, there's no way I could live with only one style of music, it would drive me nuts, my head wouldn't be able to handle it. That's just what music is all about for me - hearing new things, learning new sounds, genre's, styles and forcing yourself to understand what is good about it. It took me quite a few years to understand this (I used to eat breathe, sleep and shit ONLY Chicago house music in the early 80's), but I feel so much of a more complete person because of it. It's a wonderful challenge and it's what keeps me going.

You’ve got cult like status in eastern Europe – with radio shows in Russia and the Ukraine as well as huge followings in Croatia and Serbia. Is it strange to be so massively accepted into the mainstream dance culture on the continent, when in your home country you’re still such an underground hero?

Well the gigs I play in Eastern Europe are, in someways more 'underground' than anything over here. They have no commercial press supporting the music whatsover (even the national radio is dodgy haha) and the gigs are usually in abandoned warehouses or larger spaces, not the commercial clubs. It just so happens that a hell of a lot of the young people love the sound and follow it with a total devotion. You know, the great thing about music is that it crosses so many different cultures and countries. I've partied with so many different types of people over the years. People with nothing, people with everything. People young, people old. Music knows no limits or boundaries and if that was a strange thing for me, well I shouldn't be doing it!

With recent success at the Hard Dance Awards, as well as a few big wins in Hardcore Heaven awards in years gone by, you’ve had your fair share of accolades. How important is it you to be recognised in these kind of ways?

This is a weird question for me, that not surprisingly deserves a weird answer: Of course you care that people like what you play. Having the crowd chant your name and shake your hand is an amazing feeling and when you're sat at home during the week it really does spur you on to do better, learn your records harder and improve what you do. But if you're gonna ask me do awards matter to me? Really? No. Obviously it's great to be nominated and such a great feeling when you receive one, but the music is the main thing, not awards. And that's probably why you never see emails from me begging for votes. There's more important music shit to get on with!

Most of the Storm clubbers will have seen you do your thing at The Emporium before. But if they haven’t, how would you sell them the Mark EG experience at Tidy vs Storm?

I'm bloody useless at self promotion. BUT OK let's have a go! Bring ya dancing shoes, keep an open mind and wear a suitable pair of underpants! Come and join the party baby, because there's no better place to mess yourself on Saturday night. Is that OK for ya? hehe
Having seen it and done it all during your long-standing career, what’s left for Mark EG? What does the future hold?

Seen it, done it all??? I HOPE NOT!!! YOU'VE NOT SEEN THE LAST OF ME FOR YEARS YET!!! You know, I've got so much more I want to do in music, especially in the studio. To me, music is a never ending learning process. It's constantly evolving, changing and I for one will be evolving and changing along with it. In that respect, I really can't see my self doing anything else in my life. I'm afraid you're stuck with me whether you like it or not :)

Catch Mark EG @ Storm v Tidy . Saturday 21st March 2009 @ The Emporium

Going List: STORM vs TIDY @ The Emporium - Sat 21st March

Interview by Daley . Photographs copyright of their respective owners.