If the name Paul Oakenfold doesn't ring a bell, some of the artists he's worked with should. U2, The Cure, INXS and even Snoop Doggy Dogg are among the many acts for whom Oakenfold has twisted the knobs, remixing their songs into swirling masterpieces of aural art.
On last year's double-CD "Perfecto Presents Another World," Oakenfold and longtime collaborator Steve Osbourne took tunes from strange bedfellows like Led Zeppelin, Jon Vangelis and Dead Can Dance and ran them through the sonic blender, creating a trance-like soundscape of house beats and dreamy vocals.
DJ Paul Oakenfold is one of England's most sought after mixers.
Ever-busy, the world's most famous DJ rings on a recent afternoon for a brief chat about house music, ecstasy and block-rockin' beats. As he talks, the cacophonic din of Hollywood clatters in the background. Oakenfold is living in Los Angeles and composing a score for the upcoming John Travolta flick, "Swordfish." Though his reputation as a producer and re-mixer proceeds him, Oakenfold's been concentrating more and more on creating original music, rather than merely retooling tracks for others.
"I want to work on my own stuff to be honest with you," he says. "I don't want to keep working with other people at the moment. I'd like to just try to do it myself. Still, I don't want it to become too electronic. What I want is a balance so that it feels a little bit more loose than something's that's electronic."
The house that house built
Born in 1963, Oakenfold began DJ-ing at 16, soon becoming a well-known face on London's burgeoning house scene. For him, the combination of creativity and autonomy were a perfect mix: no heavy equipment to haul and no endless searches for a reliable rhythm section.
"I'd always wanted to play music, but I didn't want to be in a band," Oakenfold explains. "I liked the idea of being able to play my own music but other people's as well. I felt that being in a band would be too much aggro really, and I liked the whole idea of playing records. So I bought the equipment, practiced in my room, learned the technical side of it, learned the arrangement of music. I did a lot of groundwork and learned the trade before I got into it."
House music broke big in England in the mid-to-late '80s, and Oakenfold-run clubs like The Project, Future and Spectrum became the hottest of hot spots. Ecstasy was a ubiquitous part of this scene, fueling all-night dance parties and quickly becoming the raver's drug of choice. Though ecstasy-laden raves are now found in every corner of the world, Oakenfold denounces those who point the finger at the music.
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"I think anything's problematic if you take it in large doses," he says. "As a DJ, I focus on music and finding new tracks, so I don't really ponder that area. Drugs are society's problem. I think it's unfair to point a finger at any individuals. America seems to have a problem with drugs, from what I see on television and reading the newspaper. It's prevalent everywhere, but in America you have major problems with crack houses, and we don't really have that problem in the U.K."
Ecstasy aside, Oakenfold's club success was creating an industry buzz and the DJ was being inundated with production requests from all sides. Eventually, he signed on to produce a single, "W.F.L. (Wrote For Luck)," for Happy Mondays. The song was a smash success and Oakenfold was tapped to co-produce the band's next release.
Notorious for their appetite for drug destruction, The Mondays barely made it out alive from the sessions that begat "Pills 'n' Thrills 'n' Bellyaches," the band's breakthrough album. "Pills" spawned huge hits like "Step On" and "Kinky Afro," quickly making Oakenfold dance music's most coveted producer.
"It was a good experience," he says of his work with the Mondays. "There was a vibe there. I think what made 'Pills Thrills' work was we had a wonderful vibe and it worked. I just felt they could've been bigger than they were really. It's a shame."
Zoology 101
In the wake of the Mondays' success, Oakenfold went global, touring as an opener on U2's "Zoo TV" tour and doing production work for a cavalcade of artists. Interestingly he found few similarities between studio and stage craft.
"When I go on-stage and I'm performing, there's a lot more going on," he says. "So it's more locking in with an audience and getting into that character as a DJ, rather than being in a studio just working on parts."
Though house music has gone mainstream in other parts of the world, America's reaction to electronica has been relatively tepid. Bands like Prodigy were heavily hyped for a time, but its efforts to score big in the United States were met with limited results. For Oakenfold, that's one of the reasons to work here.
"Dance music is massive in England," he explains. "It dominates the commercial charts, dominates the airwaves. It's become hugely popular. In America, it's more underground at the moment. In England it's a lot bigger, but I think in America it's a lot fresher and I like it here. America made dance music. It came from here, really. Then it came to England and we gave it a little twist."
Living in Los Angels has given Oakenfold the opportunity to get involved with the vibrant Southern California DJ scene, where he is viewed as one of the genre's founding fathers. As a result, the DJ is able to stay current and relevant, ever exploring the outer limits of new music.
"It's good to be involved in a young scene that's developing," he says. "I'm always checking things out. I like to find new, young American producers and DJs. I found a DJ in Austin and he's my opening act on the tour. So I think it's important to find young talent because there's so many good people here making music."
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