If you've heard anything about electronic music, then you must be familiar with Paul Oakenfold. For over three decades, The English trance DJ/producer has made a name for himself, especially when the scene thrived in the 90s. He's been unstoppable, playing in clubs all over the world including residencies at Amnesia, Pacha, and Ministry of Sound, producing soundtracks for Hollywood movies, touring with artists such as Madonna and U2, and starting his own label, Perfecto (and Perfecto Fluoro). His lifetime accomplishments have led him to two Grammy nominations. This fall, he embarked on his Trance Mission tour, for which he's also working on an accompanying album. He's set to play at New York's Cielo this Sunday, November 24th. We were lucky enough to catch up with Paul ahead of his New York show to discuss his vision for the Trance Mission tour and album, why he loves Cielo and visiting New York, bringing trance to America, and the ups and downs of being on the road.
As one of the pioneers of the trance movement in the 90s, where do you think the genre fits in the current electronic music scene? Well in Europe it’s still massive. In America, the more mainstream EDM sound dominates the electronic community. I think we’re going to see a change. Going on the Trance Mission tour, I’m interested to see the reaction after talking to promoters who are telling me that more people are coming to trance shows and also, the reaction on social media to the tour that we are doing. I think trance will be more popular in America next year.
What is your vision for Trance Mission? We’re doing 21 dates on this side of Christmas and probably the same again on the other side, early 2014 in America. The tour is very much stripped down; it’s myself, music, and the crowd. No big production and minimal visual. It’s smaller rooms and really getting back to what it’s all about and I’m enjoying that.
You will be releasing an album that coincides with the tour. Can you tell us a little more about that? The bigger picture for the tour is that around March we’re going to release an album based on ten classic tracks, some I play and others that are classics from the trance scene. I’m going to do new versions, not remixes. I’m going to bring them totally in line with the 2014 production sound. We’re going to look at adding vocals to some of them, keeping the integrity of the artist but doing “cover” versions, for lack of a better word. It’s a kind of new thing; I’ve never done it before. It’s not really what we do in the electronic music world. We usually remix tracks so it’s a big challenge.
We’re taking something that we’ve lived with for awhile and some tracks that the newer generation has never even heard. I’m going to take the old sounds that were there. I’m going to redo the whole thing in a different way. I’ve already started on the project. It’s a lot of work but I’m actually enjoying it. We’re going to keep a lot of it a surprise for when the record actually goes out.
We’re excited for you to come to Cielo in New York on November 24th. I’ve played in that club and it’s a great club. It’s one of my favorites in New York. I like it because it’s intimate and it gives me a chance to really get close... I’m looking forward to it.
Aside from playing there, what are some of your favorite things to do when you’re visiting New York? I spend a lot of time in this city and we’ve had some wonderful moments. Aside from the general checking out new restaurants, going to museums, and seeing friends, I really hope I have time to go to Harlem. I want see the change in Harlem. I’ve been following what’s been going on there. We have a couple of friends who go up there now and hang out in bars. So much has changed there… We’ve looked at Brooklyn and we know what’s going on with the whole new scene that’s developing there. Hopefully I have time to jump on the 1 train and go up to Harlem - hang out, maybe have dinner, go to a bar or two – and then jump back down to where I’m staying and playing at the club.
You already brought your “Full on Fluoro” sound to Europe but can you tell us a little about how you came to this sound and a few things that may have inspired you? Full on Fluoro really represents what Perfect Fluoro has been doing in terms of the cutting edge sound of trance, which is psytrance/breaks. It works in Europe and strongly actually but not so much in America… Trance Mission is more of a melodic sound. It’s my sound that I’ve been playing for many years and towards the end of it, I start dipping into more of the Full on Fluoro, where the tempo is faster and it’s a lot more cutting edge. Let’s see if you New Yorkers can handle it. I hope so otherwise you guys are going to be throwing rotten tomatoes at me.
What have some been some of the highlights so far? There’s some great clubs in America. I played in Denver two Thursdays ago and that was a great night. It was packed with a really young audience. That was really interesting because I didn’t know how far you can take a brand new young audience that has just been turned onto trance on a mid-week night. San Francisco’s very open minded in terms of music. They embraced it in a big way. There’s pockets of places where you find people who can enjoy what’s going on.
I think on this first run, I liked the idea of playing Voyeur in San Diego, which is a small club. I also played in San Jose on a Thursday night, which was also in a small club. I like the idea of going to these smaller venues rather than the traditional big ones. We’re going to play Alaska so that will be interesting... playing trance in Alaska.
You’ve produced, remixed, and toured with many artists outside the genre such as U2, Madonna, and Justin Timberlake. How does that come about and can we expect any similar work in the future? The artist or the record company get in touch with you and ask you to produce or tour. Growing up in England, my sound is melodic. I love trance music but I do other things outside of trance. The last two artists I collaborated with were outside of trance and I continue to do that. I grew up listening to all types of music and I’m very open minded in general. I don’t see why you should only like a certain sound. On my next artist album, ‘Pop Killer,’ I will collaborate with a lot of new artists and singers – some you know and some you won’t. Next year there will be the ‘Trance Mission’ album which will be more for the hardcore fans and ‘Pop Killer’ will be more based around my artist albums. I think every artist has to challenge himself. I don’t want to do the same thing time and time again.
What are some of your favorite aspects of touring and what do you miss the most when you’re on the road? What I don’t like about touring is airports and planes. What I do love about touring is meeting people and experiencing different cities. I’m very much into culture. I’m a fully qualified chef so I’m a foodie in a big way. I go to a lot of art galleries. I cram it in, sometimes too much. I get to New York on Sunday afternoon and then I’ll touchdown, go to the hotel, and then I’ll be trying to get to Harlem. I’ll be trying to meet friends. I’ll be trying to do a lot before I go on stage at 1am.
Listen to Paul Oakenfold on Pulse Radio