JUNKIE XL

Mar 1, 2004 12:00 PM, By Aidin Vaziri

           
 

Being big in Japan is not all it's cracked up to be. Just ask Dutch DJ Tom Holkenborg, who as Junkie XL took an obscure Elvis song called “A Little Less Conversation” and remixed it into an enormous international hit. Even though he had already released two albums and established himself as an electronic-music producer, it was this one-off project that grabbed the attention of the monster pop establishment.

“You've got to understand what happened,” Holkenborg says, sitting in his Los Angeles studio. “Before that remix, Elvis was banned to Time-Life magazine compilations that you could only order from the TV late at night. When that song became No. 1 in something like 24 countries, Elvis became a new industry product. His CDs became massive. What goes on in the brain of a record company guy when that happens is, ‘Who's dead? Who had an amazing career years ago? Who can we bring back to life?’”

More remix offers came flooding in: Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, even The Beatles' “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Holkenborg balked. He never intended for Junkie XL to become such a crassly commercial enterprise. In fact, he only got a one-time fee for his work on “A Little Less Conversation,” a project commissioned by an advertising agency for a sneaker commercial. He flatly isn't interested in repeating the trick.

“The Elvis thing was an unknown track that fit well with the context of the advertisement,” he says. “That was the reason I did it. Nike put $90 million into the marketing, and that's basically how it became a hit. I had nothing to do with it, and I wasn't really proud of that process.”

Instead, Holkenborg is using his new profile to revitalize the Junkie XL brand. After a pair of joyless albums that attempted to mash up techno and rock — Saturday Teenage Kick (1997) and Big Sounds of the Drags (1999), both on Roadrunner Records — his latest finds him teaming up with several celebrity fans and pulling off the ultimate concept album.

Radio JXL: A Broadcast From the Computer Hell Cabin (Koch, 2004) is based on an imaginary pirate-radio broadcast that sees guest vocalists — including Gary Numan, Chuck D, Peter Tosh, The Cure's Robert Smith and Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan — putting their distinctive imprints on Holkenborg's trance compositions. It works surprisingly well, certainly better than Paul Oakenfold's similarly ambitious Bunkka (Maverick, 2002), and is a far better prospect than, say, a big-beat makeover of Sinatra's “My Way.”

Holkenborg says that despite all their elaborate electronic trappings, most of the songs from Hell Cabin started out on guitars. “It's completely different than writing on a keyboard,” he explains. “The ideas for the melody come from guitar.” After he gets the basic premise down, he then builds up the songs in Digidesign Pro Tools.

Half of Holkenborg's studio is analog, with a large number of vintage synths and old outboard gear like tube compressors and equalizers and reverbs. The other half comprises state-of-the-art digital technology, with a number of Macs loaded with all of the latest software. “I use Logic, Reason, Live and Cubase and try to benefit from them as much as possible,” he says. “But I use each program for what it does best, its specialty.”

Holkenborg still puts out remixes; his version of Gahan's “Dirty Sticky Floors” was a huge club hit. But these days, his time is equally divided between producing associates such as Sasha and Digweed, sound designing for major motion-picture companies and making his imaginary radio station into reality through the Junkie XL Website. “The guy who invents the 48-hour day is going to get a big hug from me,” Holkenborg says with a laugh.