Paul Oakenfold Biography - Artistopia Music

Paul Oakenfold (born 30 August, 1963 in Greenhithe, Kent, UK) is a record producer and a popular trance DJ worldwide.

Early Career (1979-1984)

Paul Oakenfold's career was set to be a chef, after having hopes of becoming part of a band, he describes his early life as a "bedroom deejay" on an interview in a podcast for Vancouver's 24 Hours stating he grew listening to The Beatles


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. Later 21-year-old Paul Oakenfold and Ian Paul grew in 254 West 54th Street, Studio 54's Steve Rubell ran the place and only allowed popular people inside, they used fake passes to sneak into places in New York where they met Maze, Bobby Womak and Bob Marley who they even interviewed as they said to be NME and Melody Maker journalists. Other people were Brooke Shields, Cher, Donald Trump and Bianca Jagger, Warhol, Dali and Yves Saint Laurent.

Paul Oakenfold's musical career began in the late 70s, he started playing soul in a Covent Garden wine bar when he met Trevor Fung as well as Rumours in London where he played Earth, Wind and Fire and popular British bands. In 1984 he spent several months in New York City's West Harlem. During this time hip-hop was the most popular sound in the area (see 1984 in music). Larry Levan, one of the early deejays during this period performed at the Paradise Garage weekly with the hypnotic mixing style that would become the acid house that has evolved into and whose influence was absorbed by Paul. As he returned to his home country in the UK, Paul began utilizing the foreign sounds he once met and became one of the leading authorities of hip-hop in the United Kingdom. He began breaking into the mainstream as he was working as an A&R man for Champion Records, he signed at that time the unknown DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, as well as Salt N'Pepa. He also appeared on the Blue Peter tv show from BBC programme for children with a breakdancing crew, he also became promoter and British agent for the Beastie Boys and Run-D.M.C.; Since then, he began his presentations at The Project in Streatham playing soul and jazz music.

Perfecto and Fame (1985-1991)

Perfecto Records Logo.
A year later in 1985 Paul travelled to celebrate his birthday for a week in the island of Ibiza, along with him were Trevor Fung, Nicky Holloway, Ian Saint Paul, Danny Rampling and Johnny Walker. It was then when Amnesia demonstrated Paul the balearic house sound that can be heard in some of his music works. The event marked his career as a producer as he convinced his owner to display 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, since then the night grew as a classic and was one of the UK's major acid house nights which became known as "Spectrum at Heaven in Charing Cross". Spectrum became popular in The Sanctuary as a bigger space was required, it became into the Heaven club which was ran by Paul and his friend Ian. The party was 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 Paul more free time, and then he began producing music under the alias "Electra" in 1988 with his friend Steve Osborne. In 1998 he decided to create a place where new artists could develop their careers, at that moment Perfecto Records was born.

In 1990, he worked with Terry Farley, Andrew Weatherall and Osborne on two remixes for The Happy Mondays, the remixes of "Rave On" and "Hallelujah" were released on the Madchester Rave On EP as well as "Step On" which is a covered 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 from The Stone Roses and pleased with the last single, the Happy Monday's later gave Paul and Osborne the opportunity to produce their third studio album, ''Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches''. The album entered the UK charts at #1 with pre-sales of 150,000, the album became NME's "1990 Album of The Year" and both Paul and Osborne won the 1991 Brit Award for "Best Producer".

In 1998 DJ Magazine inaugurated its online edition of a poll which takes place yearly worldwide for electronic dance music. Carl Cox was the first deejay to take first place in 1997 when the poll began but in 1998 Paul took the first place in "DJmag's Top 100 DJs", since the opening date of the poll, the amount of votes more than tripled, and Paul Oakenfold was crowned people's champion for the first and second time as in 1999 there were thirty-one new entries with four women and Paul Oakenfold took it again. With the two-year contract as a resident in Liverpool's Cream it was until 1999 when 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 (GU007) was released as (GU002) in the United States only, the compilation was released on May 25, 1998 with the US release on Jan 19, 1999. This was the second production from Paul 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 left the UK and Europe; he risked his fame and his profile, he moved to the USA, a place in which he met once with the jazz influence from New York in the early 80's. It had been ten years since he had contact with the style of the United States, dance music had not been as popular as it is nowadays, (see 1999 in music) but he went on with the US tour. A speculation had aroused about Paul leaving London superclub Home (nightclub) to return to Cream (nightclub) at Liverpool, but instead he moved due to his increasing demand in foreign countries mostly in The Americas, he toured across North and South America were he met Argentinian deejay Hernan Cattaneo.

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, consisting each of six seconds; the album cover says "Only for DJs and Producers", the album was released on Music of Life and has never been described as his first studio album, it only included useful tools for deejays.

Deals and Barriers (2000-2001)

Area Festival

Oakenfold's next project took him to club Pacha in Ibiza for the summer, before returning to America for the Burning Man festival in August; Even though he had spoken extensively to the press about breaking barriers with the US, the DJ/producer said he felt his "Stateside" ambitions were not unique. Together with drum and bass maestro Aphrodite, he sold out the 10,000 capacity of the Red Rocks stadium in Colorado. He also kept presenting the Perfecto Nights for a year in Pacha, but he decided to host for a second year and he recruited Hernan Cattaneo as his co-resident at the club which has a capacity of 3,500 guests.

"Every artist all over the world wants to do well in America and I'm not different from any [1] artist."
— explained Paul.

"Like anyone else, it is important for me to crack America. I spend every second month in the US and I play every night, I realise how difficult it is and how much work it takes."
— said Oakenfold about his success in the US.

With the success of Tranceport and the mix compilations he created for GU, he released two DJ Mixes known as Perfecto Presents: Travelling and Perfecto Presents: Another World, both released in 2000 as double disc albums. The purpose of producing something a computer could do is that the montage of new music with classic sounds from different times and ages that can make people dance. The compilation traces Paul's hip-hop sense as well as underground disco, the compilation includes Quiver's remix of Led Zeppellin's ''"Babe I'm Gonna Leave You"'' with a passive rock feel to it. The compilation sold 13,000 copies at counter sales in its first week, and over 80,000 copies were shipped to stores across the US. While in the US he met actor Jack Nicholson in a Lakers match, it was Paul's first Basketball match.

Paul joined Seb Fontaine and Timo Maas for Cream's event at Nation, before travelling to play at the Ministry of Sound event at the Millennium Dome, London. He performed with The Dreem Team, who broadcasted live on Radio 1 from 1:00 AM to 3:00 AM. In 2001, Oakenfold took part in the first Area Festival tour. This tour featured Incubus, Carl Cox, Orb, OutKast, and The Roots. He later released a new compilation album, Perfecto Presents: Ibiza; The album features the essence which has inspired his dance music focused on Ibiza. In a presentation at Portland, Oregon a 19-year-old young girl Melissa Flaherty died from suspected ecstasy-related causes, the set had finished a couple of hours before she collapsed. However, drug-related deaths are usually blammed on the nightlife such as the event where Oakenfold played, the moral panic which grows in US parents over dance music and ecstasy increases every time a death related to drugs in a club occurs.

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Global Underground sold over 150,000 copies of Paul Oakenfold's previous Global Underground: New York, A spokesperson for the label revealed that the increasing demand for UK dance music in the US had been increasing in the last couple of years, the country covered at this time 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 US and Canada during August and September, including New York, 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, Crystal Method, Carl Craig and Uberzone. Since Oakenfold had been working in the American market for a long time especially during 2001, he moved to Los Angeles to work on film soundtracks and to intensify his DJing commitments 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 film was directed by Dominic Sena and stared Hugh Jackman, John Travolta, Halle Berry, Don Cheadle, and Vinnie Jones, the soundtrack was produced under Village Roadshow and Warner Bros and distributed through London-Sire Records. Paul 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 in the US, Shellshock said that the track known as "Starry Eyed Surprise" was created after the pair met at a Crazy Town show.

Discography

Albums

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Studio Albums

2002 Bunkka
2006 A Lively Mind

DJ Tools

2000 Bust A Groove
2000 Sampladelica: The Roots of Paul Oakenfold
2006 The Ultimate DJ Sample Box

DJ Mixes

1994 Journeys By DJ 5: Journey Through The Spectrum
1995 A Voyage Into Trance
1996 Perfecto Fluoro
1997 Fantazia Presents the House Collection 6

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1997 Cream Anthems 97
1997 Global Underground 004
1998 Tranceport
1998 Global Underground 007
1999 Resident: Two Years of Oakenfold at Cream
2000 Perfecto Presents: Travelling
2000 Perfecto Presents: Another World
2000 Essential Selection Vol. 1 with Fatboy Slim
2001 Perfecto Presents Ibiza
2003 Perfecto Presents: Great Wall
2004 Creamfields
2005 Perfecto Presents: The Club
2007 Greatest Hits & Remixes, Vol. 1
2008 Anthems

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Film Scores and Soundtracks

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1999 Entropy
2000 Get Carter
2000 Kevin & Perry Go Large
2000 Requiem for a Dream
2000 Big Brother

Big Brother 2
Big Brother 3
Big Brother 4
Big Brother 5
Big Brother 6
Big Brother 7

2001 Celebrity Big Brother
2001 Swordfish: The Album
2001 Planet of the Apes
2001 Alias
2002 The Bourne Identity

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2002 Blade 2
2002 Birds of Prey: Primal Scream
2002 Austin Powers: Goldmember
2003 Fastlane
2003 Inside Die Another Day
2003 The Matrix Reloaded
2003 NBC Las Vegas
2003 Hollywood Homicide
2004 Appurushido
2004 ''Big Brother's Efourum
2004 GoldenEye: Rogue Agent
2004 Collateral
2004 Big Brother Panto
2005 FIFA Football 2005
2006 The Pink Panther
2006 The O.C.

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2006 Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
2006 The Best of Celebrity Big Brother 2006
2007 Pirates of the Caribbean
2007 Nobel Son
2007 Vexille
2007 ''Shoot 'Em Up
2007 The Game Plan
2007 Fred Claus
2008 Drive Thru: Japan
2008 Californication
2008 The Heavy
2008 Fever
2008 The Bourne Conspiracy
2008 Speed Racer
2008 Humboldt Park

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Single chart positions

Recognitions

Awards

1999 DJ Awards Best Techno DJ
2000 DJ Awards Best Trance DJ
2001 Gold Album - Perfecto Presents Paul Oakenfold
2004 DJ Awards Best Trance DJ

Nominations

2001 DJ Awards Best Trance DJ
2002 DJ Awards Best Progressive DJ
2005 DJ Awards Best Trance DJ
2006 DJ Awards Best Trance DJ
2006 World Music Award World's Best DJ
2007 Grammy Awards Best Electronic/Dance Album - "A Lively Mind"
2007 international Dance Music Awards Best Underground Dance Track - "Faster Kill Pussycat"

Filmography

2002 The Rules of Attraction (Himself)
2003 Dancestar USA 2003 (Himself)
2003 No Cover (Guest)
2003 MTV Europe Music Awards 2003 (Himself)
2004 The Club (Himself)
2007 Post Military Trip (Guest)

External Links
AskMen.com - Paul Oakenfold
Copyright Citations
This article is licensed under the GNU License
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Industry Music Artists

Paul Oakenfold