Profile of Paul Oakenfold on Famous Like Me

Paul Oakenfold (born August 30, 1963 in Britain) is a record producer and one of the best-known DJs worldwide.

In the early 1980s, Oakenfold managed Run D.M.C. and the Beastie Boys.

In 1987, Oakenfold and his friends, Trevor Fung and Ian St. Paul, spent several months in Ibiza, Spain, where they fell in love with the dance club music (see 1987 in music). Using influences from Ibiza's sound, Italian disco, soul and house, Oakenfold produced Happy Mondays' Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches, followed by productions for U2, Massive Attack, Arrested Development, The Cure, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Simply Red, New Order, and The Shamen, many of which were released under his label Perfecto Records.

Not only did Oakenfold produce records, but he also mixed them. He had first DJ'd as a teenager, and his return to DJ'ing in the mid-1990s, after a short spell as a member of the band Grace, culminated in his tenure as Cream's resident DJ from 1997 to 1999. During this time, he began to concentrate on building an American audience, which led to the release of the US release of Tranceport in 1999. The album was very well-received by American trance music fans, and even garnered him modest acceptance in the mainstream American music scene. Oakenfold followed Tranceport with arguably his most successful album Perfecto Presents Another World which introduced millions to his mixing skills. Some sources report this album as the highest selling dance recording of all time. His popularity across the Atlantic is slowly growing thanks to his work on the movie soundtracks of Swordfish, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions and Die Another Day, for which he remixed The James Bond Theme.

In 2002, Q magazine named Oakenfold in their list of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die".

In the same year, Oakenfold released his first solo album, called Bunkka featuring some artists like Nelly Furtado ("The Harder They Come"), Ice Cube ("Get Em Up") and Shifty Shellshock, the lead singer of Crazy Town ("Starry Eyed Surprise"). His latest effort is 2004's Creamfields, a double album.

Discography

External link

• Paul Oakenfold Official Website
• Paul Oakenfold Tracklisting archive
• Freedb link to his works registered there

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