Paul Oakenfold
Paul Mark Oakenfold, formerly known mononymously as Oakenfold, is an English record producer, remixer, and electronic music DJ. He has created over 100 remixes for over 100 artists including U2, Moby, Madonna, Britney Spears, Massive Attack, The Cure, New Order, The Rolling Stones, The Stone Roses and Michael Jackson. Oakenfold was voted the No. 1 DJ in the World twice in 1998 and 1999 by DJ Magazine.
Biography
Early life
Oakenfold was born on 30 August 1963 at Mile End Hospital. His father delivered the London Evening News. He lived in Highbury, Greenhithe, then Croydon, attending Archbishop Lanfranc School, then studied to be a chef for four years and worked at the Army and Navy Club.Early career: 1980–1984
Paul Oakenfold describes his early life as a "bedroom DJ" in a podcasted interview with Vancouver's 24 Hours, stating he grew up listening to the Beatles.Oakenfold's musical career began in the late 1970s, when he met Trevor Fung and began helping him DJ soul music in a Covent Garden wine bar. Here in London, he also met Rumours where he played Earth, Wind and Fire and popular British bands.
In 1981, 18-year-old Oakenfold and his friend Ian Paul moved to New York City. Oakenfold worked as a courier in West Harlem. During this time, hip-hop was overtaking dance music as the most popular sound in the area. Oakenfold and Fung used fake identification to sneak into various dance clubs, like Studio 54, where they met members of the band Maze, Bobby Womack and Bob Marley, whom they also interviewed, claiming to be NME and Melody Maker journalists.
Returning to London, Oakenfold began breaking into the mainstream, as an A&R man for Champion Records. At that time, he signed DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, as well as Salt-n-Pepa. Oakenfold appeared on the Blue Peter BBC programme for children with a breakdancing crew. He became a promoter and British agent for the Beastie Boys and Run-D.M.C. Since then, he appeared at The Project in Streatham playing soul and jazz music.
Perfecto Records and fame: 1985–1991
In 1987, Oakenfold travelled to the island of Ibiza for a week to celebrate his birthday. Trevor Fung, Nicky Holloway, Ian Saint Paul, Danny Rampling and Johnny Walker accompanied him. Oakenfold convinced the owner of a venue in England to host an "Ibiza Reunion" party after-hours. He had previously made an attempt, but it failed as the crowd was not prepared for the acid house style until 1987 when the party was successful. After that, the night became a classic and became one of the UK's major acid house nights, known as Spectrum at Heaven in Charing Cross. The party was best known for the "Theatre of Madness", as more than 1,500 people were present on Monday nights, until it went down; with the financial issues it changed its name to the "Land of Oz". Artists like Alex Paterson DJ'd in the VIP chillout area known as the "White Room", which gave Oakenfold more free time, and then he began producing music under the alias "Electra" in 1988. Members included Nick Divaris, John "Johnny" Rocca and Micky. As they continued releasing only four singles as the Balearic beat band Electra, in Full Frequency Range Recordings founded and run by Radio 1's Pete Tong, the duo created a new alias under the name Perfecto. Also in 1988 he decided to create a place where new artists could develop their careers. At that moment, Perfecto Records was born.He collaborated with his friend Steve Osborne on various projects. In 1990, he worked with Terry Farley, Andrew Weatherall and Osborne on two remixes for Happy Mondays. The remixes of "Rave On" and "Hallelujah" were released on the Madchester Rave On EP, as well as "Step On", a cover version adapted from John Kongos' 1971 hit "He's Gonna Step on You". The song reached the top 5 position in the UK. He was invited as a guest DJ to Spike Island, a gig with the Stone Roses. Pleased with the last single, the Happy Mondays gave Oakenfold and Osborne the opportunity to produce their third studio album, Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches. The album entered the UK charts at number one with pre-sales of 150,000. The album was named NMEs 1990 Album of the Year, and both Oakenfold and Osborne won the 1991 Brit Award for Best Producer.
In 1991, they remixed Massive Attack's "Safe from Harm" as well as many others.
Tours and nightclubs: 1992–2000
In 1992, when U2 released their song "Even Better Than the Real Thing", the Perfecto remix reached a higher charted position than the original song. In 1993 with the success of his last remix as Perfecto, he was hired by U2 to provide the warm-up sonics to their Zoo TV world tour, and replaced BP Fallon in the 1993 legs of Europe and Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, with more than fifty shows in Zooropa '93 and Zoomerang from 7 May to 10 December of the same year.Also in 1993, Oakenfold and Osborne's project Grace was formed as State of Grace and featuring vocals by Patti Low, though by the time Grace had charted a number of singles in the UK charts, it had become a 'solo fronted project' with jazz singer Dominique Atkins as the lead vocalist. The project was dissolved in 1997 as Oakenfold was touring as a performance DJ more frequently and could not commit to recording, though a remixed version of "Not Over Yet" was issued under the 'Planet Perfecto featuring Grace' name in 1999.
In September 1994 and again in 1998, he teamed up with Steve Osborne and Ben Hillier to remix the Rolling Stones song "You Got Me Rocking" and Duran Duran's "Out of My Mind". He began producing his own tracks as well, continuing to remix songs from popular artists. He began using Goa music, fusing it with similar-sounding European tracks to create his own distinct sound. He took this to the mainstream in 1994 and created a pair of two-hour sets for BBC Radio 1's Essential Mix; the first of these was broadcast in the early hours of Sunday 20 March 1994, with the second being The Goa Mix broadcast on Sunday 18 December 1994. His album Perfecto Fluoro became the No. 1 essential dance collection of Boston Beat during 1996 with Jamiroquai's Travelling Without Moving.
On 9 June 1997, Oakenfold created Global Underground 004: Paul Oakenfold, Live in Oslo which is a double mix CD in the Global Underground series. Compiled and mixed by Oakenfold, it is the first work he created for GU. The mix was recorded live at Cosmopolite Club in Oslo, Norway, as part of the official launch of the Quart Festival. It showcased Oakenfold's eclectic taste in music at the time, as the mix combines various forms of dance music. In 1997, Oakenfold mixed one disc of the double album Fantazia Presents the House Collection 6, a UK house music compilation series. Oakenfold became Cream's resident DJ from 1997 to 1999. During this time, he began to concentrate on the release of Tranceport in 1998.
In 1998 and 1999, Oakenfold took the first place in DJ Mags Top 100 DJs. With the two-year contract as a resident in Liverpool's Cream, it was in 1999 that he released Resident. Two Years of Oakenfold at Cream. on Virgin. Thrive Records, the US distributor for early Global Underground releases had a different numbering scheme for the Global Underground albums; due to this Global Underground 007: Paul Oakenfold, New York was released as in the United States only. The compilation was released on 25 May 1998, with the US release on 19 January 1999. This was the second production from Oakenfold with GU and it contained trance, drum and bass, progressive house, progressive trance, breakbeat and downtempo. This became his last work with GU.
In 1999, he became the first DJ to play on the main stage at the Glastonbury Festival for 90,000 people, which he considers his favorite gig. He became resident DJ for the opening of London superclub Home, a role he performed until May the following year. Also in 1999, he moved to the United States where he went on tour.
In 2000, he created fourteen tracks of jazz, soul, house and Goa based styles with Mitchell Oakenfold. Twenty-four FX and scratches loops and sounds were included too, each consisting of six seconds; the album cover says "Only for DJs and Producers" and was released on Music of Life.
In March 2000, he teamed up with Steve Osborne, Andy Gray and Bruno Ellingham to remix Moby's song "Natural Blues".
Sometime before July 2000, he teamed up with Andy Gray to write and produce the theme for the Channel 4 reality show Big Brother under the name Elementfour. The series started airing on 18 July 2000, with the theme later released as a single. The programme and theme moved over to Channel 5 from 18 August 2011 to 5 November 2018.
In September 2000, he opened the new Digital Radio station Ministry of Sound Radio with a live mix from the famous London club.
Oakenfold appeared in the intro scene of EA's Euro 2000 video game, which featured him using his turntables to activate the video game and control various players. He also composed the game's soundtrack, which featured 7 tracks including a remix of the official anthem of the tournament.
Pioneer in America: 2000–2001
After his success in Europe, one of Oakenfold's first major events in America was Fresno, California's Cyberfest on 22 July 2000. The 500 acre indoor and outdoor central California location had the biggest dance capacity ever in America. An estimated 80,000 dancers and music lovers from Seattle, Reno, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Diego were welcomed that day. Cyberfest 2000, also known as the "Festival Of The Future" featured other DJs such as Chemical Brothers, BT, and Carl Cox. Cyberfest 2000 paved the way for other major events in the area such as the Electric Daisy Carnival in Los Angeles in 2010.In 2001, Oakenfold took part in the first Area Festival tour. This tour featured Incubus, Carl Cox, the Orb, OutKast, and the Roots. He later released a new compilation album, Perfecto Presents: Ibiza.
2001 also saw the release of the video game Frequency, for which Oakenfold produced one track, "See It".
Global Underground sold over 150,000 copies of Oakenfold's previous Global Underground: New York. A spokesperson for the label claimed that in the US, demand for UK dance music had been increasing in the past couple of years, and now made up over two-thirds of the label's sales. The Global Underground New York office opened in on Ninth Avenue in Manhattan. The Mekka Electronic Music Festival, otherwise known as the "electronic Lollapallooza" took place in ten cities in the United States and Canada during August and September, including New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto and San Francisco. The event featured Paul, Armand van Helden, De La Soul, LTJ Bukem, Josh Wink, Derrick Carter, Roni Size, Deep Dish, BT, The Crystal Method, Carl Craig and Überzone. Oakenfold next moved to Los Angeles to work on film soundtracks and to focus his DJing stateside. In 2001 he created the soundtrack for the film Swordfish, Swordfish: The Album contained a transformation of "Planet Rock" into a seven-minute breakbeat trance anthem. Most of the tracks are collaborations with Andy Gray, the remix of N.E.R.D.'s "Lapdance" which gained total notability from other tracks. The soundtrack was produced under Village Roadshow and Warner Bros. and distributed through London-Sire Records.
Oakenfold recorded a track with Crazy Town vocalist Shifty Shellshock at the end of the year for his new album. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Shellshock said that the track known as "Starry Eyed Surprise" was created after the pair met at a Crazy Town show.