Despite the confusing alias Meat Katie is actually a man, and in particular a man named Mark Pember from Kingston (Surrey, UK). He also happens to be one the most influential DJs and producers of the last ten years when it comes to dance music.

Heavily immersed in hip hop and b-boy culture as a youngster (a teenage Pember was an accomplished graffiti artist) his passion for deconstructing music and examining it’s core elements is something that has built his career from the ground up. The deconstruction of Hip Hop’s sample based productions led to a fascination with funk, soul and jazz which in turn ignited a passion to learn to play an instrument. The appeal of the bass guitar won through and by the age of 17 he was playing in his first band, Trafalgar.

His first experience of heavy touring (something which has stood him in good stead for his current schedule) was with Sandladder, a band which was signed to Iggy Pop’s Kill City imprint, but while doing this the draw of the burgeoning acid house scene was exerting it’s influence on Mark.

When Sandladder split Pember and a friend of his who owned a sampler started sampling breaks from his now large funk collection which led to the creation of a new band, Ceasefire. Comprising Pember, Derek Dahlarge and Jason O’Brian (who Mark subsequently did an album with for R&S) Ceasefire signed to Wall Of Sound and had a hit with “Trickshot” at the height of the big-beat explosion. Pember, however, left the band afterwards and created his Meat Katie alias.

The first of the Meat Katie output was released on Kingsize and was (and still is) the perfect combination of Pember’s dual loves, house and breakbeat. His house music contains the rough, gritty elements of breakbeat while his breakbeat takes the grooves and hypnotic vibe of house music. It doesn’t stop there, though, with Mark also taking cues from electro and techno too.

With two albums (“Off The Bone” and “Long To Belong”) and over 11 singles on Kingsize as well as releases on Mantra, Saw and Bedrock receiving plaudits from DJs, Press and fans whatever their genre bias, Pember has been credited with opening up the previously insular breaks scene with his unique brand of “tech-funk”.

A love of collaborative work has seen Pember work with Arthur Baker, Justin Drake (Peace Division), Dylan Rhymes, Elite Force, Roland Clarke, Aquasky, Holly Golightly and Kurt Wagner among others while his magical touch with remixes has graced the likes of Deep Dish, Stefan K, Unkle, Serge Santiago and Phil Kieran over the years.

Clearly not one for slacking, Mark also ran the hugely successful (and again, genre bending) Whole 9 Yards imprint before leaving to start his Lot49 label in 2004 – no mean feat considering he DJs the world over each and every weekend of the year.

Pember is currently working on his third studio album for release on Adrift Records in 2006.