Oakenfold starts from scratch

By FIONA STURGES

Paul Oakenfold is standing by the window in the penthouse suite in his marble-clad Chelsea hotel. He's looking wistfully out across London and trying to pick out the landmarks.

"Every time I come back it seems to be different," he remarks. "There are half a dozen buildings here that I've never seen before. It's enough to make you homesick."

That's hardly surprising. Last year, Oakenfold spent a total of six weeks at home in London. This year, he's managed only four and he's not holding out hope for much more. Such is the existence of the biggest DJ in the world.

It's difficult to think of a DJ who ranks higher than Oakenfold in terms of success and credibility. In the late 80s he was crucial to the evolution of dance music in the UK, and over the next decade he set about turning it into a global commodity.

He has opened shows for U2 and the Rolling Stones, remixed Madonna and Massive Attack, and buffed up such landmark albums as the Happy Mondays' Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches and Primal Scream's Screamadelica.

These days, he has been spending a lot of time in Los Angeles, too, composing the sounds for several Hollywood blockbusters, such as Blade II and Swordfish.

At 38, he might be viewed as a little old to be playing for the sweating masses in clubs. Yet, Oakenfold is the biggest in the business, and he's not ready to be put out to pasture just yet. At first sight, he could pass for a civil servant or an accountant. Anything, in fact, except a world-class, award-winning, globe-trotting DJ.

We're here to talk about his new album, a work that does at least suggest that he is ready for change. Bunkka is vastly different from anything he has released, not least because it is all his own work. Over the years we have come to associate Oakenfold with remixes and glossy club compilations, but on Bunkka we find him writing and composing songs. It has, he says, been one of the most daunting tasks of his career.

"I didn't tell anyone I was doing it for over a year, because I didn't want the pressure," he confides. "It took two years to make. I really agonised over it."

Not being much of a singer, Oakenfold enlisted the help of vocalists including Grant Lee Phillips, Perry Farrell, So Solid Crew's Asher D, Tricky, Nelly Furtado and Ice Cube. It's notable that two years ago Furtado and So Solid Crew were up-and-coming rather than established artists. But the most intriguing is his collaboration with the veteran gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.

"I had to turn up at this bar at midnight," he recalls. "I was terrified. I took him a present, a bottle of absinthe, as I'd read in a Johnny Depp interview that he liked it. It was the first time I'd ever tried it. Within about half an hour I was practically on the floor and he seemed completely fine."

The resulting track, Nixon's Spirit, has Thompson picking holes in American values over a backdrop of muted ambient beats. It's part of an otherwise upbeat and wildly eclectic album that seamlessly brings together rock, hip hop and soul.

So what made him finally make the leap into the song business?

"I wanted to learn the craft," he says. "I wanted to understand how songs were made. I grew up on songs. When I was a kid, my dad was always playing the Beatles. One of the first records I bought was by T-Rex."

Born in east London, Oakenfold, was a shy child with a passion for music and developed an interest in clubs when he was 16. In the late 70s he moved to New York, studied the stylings of disco DJ Larry Levan at the legendary Paradise Garage and first heard hip-hop, a sound that made a lasting impression. When he came home, he became an A&R consultant. But as rap descended into violence in the mid-80s, Oakenfold chose to concentrate on his DJ-ing. He began playing in Ibiza, then a little-known scene inhabited by hippie types and celebrities such as Grace Jones, Freddie Mercury, and transvestite star Divine.

Eventually, Oakenfold decided to bring Ibiza back to London and started a series of "Balearic" nights at the Heaven nightclub.

So what does Oakenfold make of dance music now, compared with the underground scene of 15 years ago?

"I'm just as into it as I was then, although it's very different. Dance music is established now. Like rock music, it will always be around. I think the bigger it gets, the better."

He wonders what some of the dance purists will make of his new album, though. "Sometimes people take dance music too seriously, and it's not meant to be like that. My view is: if you've got something good, it's your duty to share it."

- INDEPENDENT

* Bunkka is out now.