Keeping Up with Paul Oakenfold

Paul Oakenfold could make anyone shake their booty. The world-class DJ and producer has been at it for almost 20 years, and he isn’t stopping anytime soon. In fact, he’s busier and busier. This month, he released Perfecto Vegas -- which includes a double CD of 21 exclusive tracks -- to commemorate the success of his residency at The Palms casino in Las Vegas. Perfecto Vegas is just one aspect of his recent body of work. Over the past year, he scored British film The Heavy, worked in the studio on Jerry Bruckheimer’s new film G-Force, and he’s on this “little” ride with that woman they call “M.” Take a guess who? That would be Madonna -- Oakenfold is currently DJing on her “Sticky & Sweet” global tour. Madonna also asked him to produce her latest single, “Celebration,” slated to come out August 3. Fortunately, I was able to catch up with Oakenfold in Oslo, Norway -- one of his tour stops with Madge -- and have a quick chat.

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Tell me about Perfecto Vegas.
The Perfecto CD represents my residency at The Palms in Las Vegas, which I’m really proud of. We’ve worked extremely hard as a venue, as a club, especially in this time which is tough for everyone. It’s been a big team effort. We have a lot of performance art in the club—we certainly gave Vegas something they’ve never experienced. We have around 3,000 people on a Saturday night, and we’re going to step it up and go into the second year through 2010. I’m very very happy and wanted to put out this CD that represented what we do—more the underground side of what we do—to give people a taste and an idea. Even down to looking at the artwork on the CD, they can see pictures of the club. They can go online to my website or to the club’s website and see photos there as well.

What’s going on with your upcoming original studio album, Pop Killer?
That’s kind of a working title—there’s nothing official for the record right now. I’ve done a bunch of recordings with some new artists and some artists that you’re familiar with in terms of their names. That release will probably be toward next year. I’ve been road-testing some of the tracks: I did a track with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, one with Ryan Tedder (who’s the lead singer of One Republic) and one with an underground band called Infected Mushrooms. It’s been going well. Hopefully, once it’s finished people will dig it.

You have so much going on—how do you balance everything?
Realistically, it’s what you choose and what you do which are the most important things. Sometimes it just all comes out all at once. Like right now, I’m on Madonna’s tour DJing, I produced her new single, I worked in the studio on Jerry Bruckheimer’s G-Force—and well, they’re all out and going on at the same time. So it seems like it’s a lot, but if you look into it, I did the Madonna record in May, I’ve been doing the Bruckheimer thing for awhile, so everything is clear and done. And then the Madonna tour—that’s the only thing I’m focusing on right now—I’m only DJing. There’s only one thing. It just seems like there’s a lot more at once. For instance, I scored The Heavy back in December, and it’s going to come out this September. If your time is organized well, you can do everything, and I have a great team who helps me.

How’s Madonna’s global tour been treating you?
The show as you can imagine have been going really really well. My sets are a lot different. Obviously I’m warming up for “M”—it’s a lot more commercial and focused. I’m getting the crowd going and ready for the big act. We did a show yesterday for Madonna. Tonight I’m going to play my own underground show to 1,000 people—last night, at Madonna’s show, was 55,000 people.

55,000 people!?
Yes, 55,000 people. I’m very lucky because I get to play both kinds of music—the commercial and the underground tracks. It’s quite daunting when you walk in front of that amount of people. Back in December while in Brazil, it was like 95,000 people. You just channel your energy and focus on what you’re doing, and it can be great.

Tell me about Madonna’s new single you produced.
The new single I produced is called “Celebration”—it’s cutting edge in terms of instrumentation and also brings back some of the old flavor in terms of Madonna with “Lucky Star” and “Holiday,” with melody and song. It’s that kind of vibe. The whole idea is for people to go out, have a good time, and enjoy themselves in a time that’s difficult for all of us. Try to put a smile on people’s faces in a time when they need it. Hopefully, you’ll dance around your room, sing in the mirror, and smile at the end of it.

Didn’t you recently debut the single?
I was very lucky because Madonna and Warner Bros. allowed me to play and debut it in Ibiza as the last record of the night at Pacha, which was the perfect setting to hear the new Madonna song. It’s uplifting, clubby, and very strong in terms of a melodic feel. It’s a “Celebration”—come enjoy yourself. It was a perfect place to have the world premier last Friday night.