NEWS
EVENTS
An Interview with Paul Oakenfold
House | Thursday 8th May 2014 | Annalisa
A true titan in dance music’s history, Paul Oakenfold has seen it all. Going back to the very start, this expansive artist helped bring the big room clubbing culture of Ibiza over to the UK, making him a key player in England’s Acid House rave movement. The world’s concept of electronic music has been well and truly effected but his influence, having worked with some of the biggest names in music and entertainment over the last twenty years such as Madonna, U2, Cher, Justin Timberlake and Massive Attack to name but a few. Nearly thirty years on from his creation of ‘Project Club’ in Streatham, this prominent and ever-present producer has had, without doubt, one of the most colourful careers in dance music. Even today this legend is touring and making music with a passion and commitment as large as ever.
June will see the release of his new album ‘Trance Mission’. Oakenfold has embarked on the task of re-creating some of his favourite, classic Trance tracks and spreading them to a wide audience once again on his enormous tour that has been commencing since November. Starting from scratch in the studio, these covers are new takes on the original tracks, putting them into the context of the scene today but keeping the charm and vibe of their classic sounds. Two singles from the album, ‘Toca Me’ and ‘Café Del Mar’ have been released so far with ‘Ready Steady Go’ arriving imminently.
Paul returned to Ministry of Sound as an essential stop off on his tour and I was lucky enough to catch up with him just before his 2am-4am slot.
G: Hi Paul, thanks for taking the time. So the new album ‘Trance Mission’ is arriving in June. How did the idea of going back and producing these ten covers come about?
P: Well these songs were really important to a lot of us actually, I was putting this tour together and I thought it would be a good idea to share these songs with the new generation. These are the songs, from my point of view, that I felt the crowd have always loved in my sets and that I’ve always loved playing out. In terms of playing the originals, they seemed in many ways quite dated so I had the idea of going back and re-doing them with a 2014 production sound. That was essentially the process and it’s worked really well.
G: So is it nice to be back in the studio, picking them apart?
P: Well you see they’re not remixes, they’re covers. It’s a completely new production with nothing directly taken from the original. Because we know them so well, we’ve got the tools to re-do them well. They’re great original tracks that I’ve always loved playing and I felt that I could do a good job of giving them a new interpretation with today’s production quality.
G: Awesome. You’ve been running on this tour for quite a while, how is that going? Is it good to be back at Ministry of Sound?
P: We’re right in the middle of the tour at the moment. We started in November and began to introduce the first songs in December. I think we’ll probably go to the end of the summer with it to take us through the album release in June. Ministry of Sound is a big one on the tour, there’s a lot of history in this place and of course I was the resident here when it opened, it’s always great to come back.
G: That must be amazing. You’ve seen dance music progress since the beginning and been at the forefront of it. Do you still get the same feeling playing out as you did all those years ago?
P: I’ve always been very lucky in that people enjoy the music that I make. I still love it, as long as there’s music around that is melodic and has feeling to it. You’ve got to have the feeling else there’s no point in any of it.
G: So what do you think the future holds for Trance and dance music generally? Is there anything around at the moment that you particularly have your eye on?
P: I don’t really know where it’s going to be honest; I don’t think anyone can really tell you where it’s going. I love Trance and it’s still popular, it’s not as popular as it used to be, especially not in the UK. Nowadays House, Deep House and EDM are around a lot more but you never know and I guess we’ll see.
G: With big club culture being what it is today, a commercial driven business, could you ever see it going back to the roots of open warehouse gatherings and free parties?
P: I’m sure it will yeah! Things are always moving. People get easily fed up with the way things are and they always look for change and take it more underground. That’s the way it’s always been before so we’ll see how it turns out.
‘Toca Me’ and ‘Café Del Mar’ are available now and Trance Mission will be landing on June 20th.
For all info and downloads, visit http://pauloakenfold.com/
