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Interview Podcast Audio Paul Oakenfold
Live at Union Basement

He has deejayed in front of millions of people all over the world, from stadiums and megaclubs to way-out-there spots in such places as Siberia and South Africa. But for all his fame and success, there are few figures in electronic music as polarizing as Paul Oakenfold.

For one reason or another, whether it's his production talents or his remixes for seemingly every major act under the sun, Oakenfold is the deejay/producer people love to hate.

Reached at his home in Los Angeles, Oakenfold laughs off the vitriol directed his way as pure jealousy. He also told us about his focus in recent years on film and video game soundtracks, the new digital division for Perfecto Records--the label he launched nearly 20 years ago--and getting a chance to deejay in Central Africa.

Hey, Paul. Jim Welte at MP3. Hey, Jim. Is now a good time? Yeah, good. Thank you. Great. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me. I really appreciate it. No problem. So the primary reason we are speaking today is the launch of a digital division for Perfecto Records and the label you launched almost 20 years ago. Does the fact that you're getting into the digital division now reflect any reservations on your end? The situation we had was, over the years as an independent record label it became tougher and tougher. So I chose at the time to be distributed through a major record label, which was Warner Brothers. When Perfecto left Warner Brothers a few years ago, my rights were retained by Warner.

So they had all my material sitting on a shelf, and it was very difficult to negotiate to get the rights to use the material. So, long story short, it's taken this amount of time to get ourselves sorted out because of third parties. So no fault of our own. But since then, we've kind of gone out and licensed new material, and we've just kind of soldiered on, as you might say. Yeah, right. So it's no reservations from a digital perspective on your end. It's just dealing with the red tape of a gigantic music bureaucracy. Yes--how the business changes. Sometimes they'd rather have a record sitting on the shelf than allow an independent to release it. And it just takes forever. From my point of view, when deejays moved from record to CD, including myself, it was always the way forward. It was always a case of let's service deejays through the Internet and through the digital world. But it's just taken forever. Yeah. So you embrace that angle of it wholeheartedly. Absolutely. Got you. Now, talk to me about the first artists that you're releasing digitally. You have Liam Shachar's remix of "On All My Sundays." You've got a remix by Adam White. A guy named Robert Vadney. What's the underlying theme that these artists kind of bring to Perfecto? Well, the idea is, primarily with the artists you just named, they're all new producer/deejays. So we've got a division of Perfecto digital where you've got the bigger names in myself, Jan Johnson, and the Perfecto All Stars, the likes of tried and tested artists that have had international hits. But I really wanted to give something back, and over the years, I've embraced a lot of young, new talent. And this gives me an opportunity.

On my travels, I came across this wonderful, great young talent. Robert's from Greece. Liam's from Israel. Vadney's from Detroit. And I thought it gives this talent an opportunity to work in the studio under my guidance with my help as a remixer/producer and develop their deejay talents, taking them on tour as opening acts and allowing them to release material. The deejay from then to now has to be a deejay/producer. He has to know his way around a recording studio. You can't literally these days just be a deejay because it's so fierce. There are so many deejays. So you've got to add the production side to your hat. You're talking about new talent here. Many people don't know that one of your first gigs in the music world was doing A&R work for Champion Records back in the day, inking people like Salt-N-Pepa and the Fresh Prince to UK deals. It sounds like you still crave the ability to discover new talent and expose it. Very much so. I mean, I've just come across an act called the Bad Apples, which are an electronic rock band. I've come across an individual called Spitfire. I'm always looking for new talent. You released the Greatest Hits & Remixes compilation last fall. You're showing no signs of slowing down. But I've talked to some big-name deejays over the years who say that when you get into your mid-40s or somewhere around there, the big payday offered by the deejay gigs all over the world tends to look less appealing than label work and artist development and production stuff and all that. What's your take on that? Where do you fit on that career arc right now? I moved to Los Angeles five or six years ago. I wanted to get into film. Yeah, sure. It's a big part of it. And I got offered to score a movie. So I've been moving more and more away from deejaying. I mean, I love deejaying, but it's not really my priority. My main job now is I score music for film and game. So I still get offered to deejay, and I love it, and it's an important part of what I do, but it's not my priority, no. Yeah, whereas in years past, you would tour for the bulk of the year. Now it's more spot dates here and there. For sure. Less is more. You know, rather than me being in your town every week, if I came to your town once a year, it would be better. Absolutely. What's your perspective on the global electronic music scene generally speaking? I mean, is it in a better or worse place than it was when you were first coming up? Well, it's obviously in a better place. Music is accessible. I've played all over the world--from playing on the Great Wall of China to the middle of nowhere. I've been to Siberia to deejay. We're talking about going to Africa, in Central Africa and deejaying there. It has always been about taking deejays out of a club. And I toured with U2 to go to fresh frontiers as a deejay. As a club deejay, I was opening for the biggest rock band in the world. Last year, I was opening for Madonna on her tour. So it's going into those areas that's the challenge for me. That makes sense. You've kind of long been something of a lightning rod within the electronic music world. It seems people absolutely love you or, if they have too much time on their hands, they like to write long, nasty diatribes about you on the Internet. Why do you think that is? And do you care one way or the other? Well, no, because it's jealousy, isn't it? You know how it works. People do well, [and] other people like to knock them. That's the way we are. That's the way we are, right. I read a really interesting article that U2 has got a hotel, right? And these people are writing these really anti-U2 letters because they just want to build an extension on the hotel. And it's just people are jealous. They've got nothing better to do than sit there and write that stuff. But you can't let that bother you. Just like when you read all the good stuff--you can't take that to your head. I think with your hand on your heart, you've just got to do your best possible job. That's all you can do if you believe in what you do.

And I think deejaying is such a wonderful, special talent to have because all you do is you give. And 90 percent of people in my experience in this world take. deejays give. They give pleasure. They give happiness. They give excitement. I mean, you come off a stage and you are drained mentally and physically because you've opened your heart and your soul and you've given everything you've got.

So it does become a little bit demoralizing when you read some of this. But this is the way humans are. I mean, can you imagine what Britney Spears must feel at the moment? Everyone has an opinion about her. And it's like, give her a break, mate. She's going through a hard time. Support her rather than slag her off. Right. Yeah. I mean, she'll be in her house and pass by her front window and have 55 people standing there taking a photo. Yeah. It's like, just give her a break. So I want you to humor me for a quick second. I know you get these kind of questions all the time. But you just did your 100th remix in late 2007. You've named a few people that you've remixed--U2, Madonna, Timberlake, Bjork, the Doors, Massive Attack, to name a few. Is there any track or artist that you haven't yet had a chance to do that you would like to? I'd like to do something with Dr. Dre. Yeah? OK. Because I think that collaboration would be interesting. Yeah, it would. By the same token you've deejayed all over the world. You just said it: you've deejayed in the middle of nowhere, in Siberia, all over the place. You mentioned Central Africa. Is there any other place that you haven't played yet that you would like to get to? I can't think of any other place. I've kind of been very fortunate. Yeah, you've covered it? I think the only frontier that I haven't done is Central Africa. I think I've kind of touched nearly every frontier. So that's the next stop we're looking at [hoping to see] how we can do it. Some time maybe later this year? Well, I went down and did a show for Nelson Mandela in South Africa. But, I've been there a few times. But no, we're looking at doing something really interesting somewhere in Central Africa. Maybe next year. OK. You mentioned the film stuff, and obviously that's become a big, important part of what you've been doing in the last couple of years. I know you've done the score for Danny DeVito's Noble Son that is coming out later this year. Yeah. I've just done another film called Vexille, which is coming out in the next couple of weeks. And then I'm starting on the Bourne Identity, the trilogy. I scored the game for that, which comes out in March. Oh, the trilogy game. I see. OK. Cool. Yeah. I did the last James Bond game. I like scoring games because they really like it dark and dangerous in terms of music. Yeah, it seems to fit best, obviously. And the last thing was, I believe you made your acting debut. No, I didn't do it. 28 Weeks Later? No, I didn't end up doing it. Oh, you didn't do it? No. I decided not to do it. Oh, OK. Because I thought you had played a zombie. You decided against it at the last minute, huh? Yeah. I don't want to be an actor. I'm not an actor. Yeah. That's a whole different ballgame, right? No, that's not for me. I'm a music man. Absolutely. Well, I very much appreciate the time. You're welcome. And I wish you luck on all these balls you keep in the air. Thanks so much. All right. Have a good one, man. Take care.