Following on from last year's national tour, the worlds highest paid DJ arrived back in Tokyo for his first appearance at Shibuya's Club Womb. He started as he meant to go on, atmospheric, groovy but always with a relentless beat creating an atmosphere on the dancefloor usually found at large festivals. After taking us a little bit deeper atmosphere with some twisted progressive cuts, he broke the tension with a couple of breaks tunes, before stepping it up for the last hour making the crowd go crazy with a selection of hard, psychedelic tracks before finally ending the 3 hour journey with U2's 'A Beautiful Day' in response to the endless shouts for an encore from the crowds. The perfect entertainer, Paul gave the Womb faithful a night to remember.
This is a more in depth interview that we did with Paul just before his appearance at Womb.
> Interview : laura brown (ArcTokyo) / photo _ jim champion
Higher Frequency (HRFQ) : You're preparing the release of your second album. How far along is it?
Paul Oakenfold : I'm 3/4 of the way finished, and then I had to stop working on it. I've got offered some other projects - some film work which I really wanted to do, so I've stopped.
HHRFQ : Regarding the film work, you're now working on the sound for Shrek 2 and the Tom Cruise film Collateral. When you are producing for film, how does your work change?
Paul: When you're writing to film, you're writing to picture. When I'm producing my own album, the canvas is blank - it's about what you imagine and how you feel. On film, you're dictated by what you see, so you catch what is there.
HRFQ : So you have done quite a few film projects in the past. How many?
Paul: 12 I suppose.
HRFQ : Recently we've gotten the bad news of distributors like Prime as well as others going bankrupt. Do you think this trend is going to continue or things are going to pick back up again?
Paul: I hope not. What I've noticed from traveling - I went to 26 countries last year - I found that countries like Poland, Russia, Chile, Brazil, Argentina were really getting into dance music. Vietnam, surprisingly - there were 5,000 people there, which you'd never expect a lot of people to be in a show in Vietnam. I think what it is is, mainly in the west, in England, in America, where I've been living, it's been so pushy, in England it's so popular, it needs to change and change is good. So let's see, let's see what comes out of it.
HRFQ : You mentioned that you aren't getting too many demos from Japanese artists.
Paul: Where are they?! Come on! We need 'em!
HRFQ : Is it that you aren't getting them at all, or you aren't getting potential Djs?
Paul: No, probably cause it's because I'm not here a lot. I've been coming to Japan over a period of 10-12 years, but not on a regular basis. So possibly because I'm not around.
HRFQ : So you've been playing quite a bit in Asia, and from the soundsystem point of view, in general we had thought that Japan was a kind of leader in Asia, but now a lot of other clubs, like Singapore's Zouk are really moving forward. How you would compare Japan now, in terms of Asia?
Paul: Your only competition, as always has been Zouk - Zouk's been there for 10 years. I think the soundsystem in this club [Tokyo's Womb] is better than Zouk. One of my good friends, dear friends owns Zouk. You know, I think this soundsystem they installed in here, this is Steve Dash sound, and it's the same sound I've installed in the three clubs that I was involved in. So for me, it's the best.
HRFQ : We have to stay competitive, so it's important to know. In terms of DVDs, now recently a few people have begun releasing DVDs for compilation mixes. Do you have any interest in going in that direction?
Paul: I've been asked a few years ago, and I will. It's just that I want to do something that's different, interesting and exciting - not just watching another concert. I think for me, I want to do something that's pushing the boundaries and is visually really interesting, rather than just standing there, or sitting t
HRFQ : If you were to do that, how soon do you think?
Paul: We've been working on it for three years. It's just we're funding it ourselves, so it takes a lot longer - selling the rights to someone else.B
HRFQ : Regarding your Perfecto label, what kind of strategy do you have for the coming years? In terms of releasing new artists, who are you interested in releasing?
Paul: On the new album that I'm just releasing is by a girl DJ - Sandra Collins. In my opinion, she's great. She's got personality, she's original in her taste, she understands the elements of being a DJ. She's really on it to go on to make an artist album. So I don't know if the record is coming out here, but you should check it out.
HRFQ : We have very few women coming to Japan.
Paul: Yeah, it'd be nice for her to come. You know, she's not just one of the best girls, she's better than 90% of the guys. She's just a good DJ - it doesn't matter whether she's a girl or a guy, in my opinion.
HRFQ : How do you feel generally when you're playing in front of such huge audiences? Such massive crowds?
Paul: I feel very excited, very lucky. I love it. I really enjoy my job-I'm very fortunate. I wish that everyone could do what they really enjoy doing. I was doing this when I had no money, so now that I'm doing OK, it's great to see people happy. If you can connect with these people through playing music, rather than just listening to it, then there is no better feeling.
End of the interview
"Paul Oakenfold Asia Tour @ WOMB, Tokyo" Party Report (28th April, 2004)
