Interview By Garrett Ian Shatzer

Onbeat talks to Junkie XL about how one manages to go on tour, work on a new album, remix a few huge tracks…and still come home in time for dinner

These days Tom Holkenborg, aka Junkie XL, has his hands in pretty much everything related to electronic music. Whether it’s producing an album, scoring a film, composing a videogame soundtrack, or remixing the latest Top 40 hit, Junkie XL’s mark is there. Although he’s been involved in music since the age of eight, Junkie XL’s current success started in 1997 when he toured through Germany with The Prodigy and later found himself moving crowds at the Fuji Rock and Roskilde music festivals. In 2002 he managed to reach the public-at-large with his omnipresent remix of Elvis’ A Little Less Conversation ­– the first sanctioned remix of an Elvis tune from the deceased rock legend’s camp, which combines Presley’s swoon with big beats and went on to become a Number 1 hit in 20 countries. Since then he’s maintained top-tier status in the world of electronic music. Once again, he’ll also be showcasing his talents - po’ boy cap, jittery hands and all - on the main stage at this year’s Ultra Music Festival in Miami, Florida.

Onbeat: Part of the reason you moved to LA several years ago was to become more well-connected in the movie industry, and just recently two movies you worked on have been released – Dead or Alive and Blind. Can you tell us about your experiences thus far?

Junkie XL: Well it’s something I was already really interested in. The first film I worked on was Blade. After that I did Resident Evil, The Beach, Catwoman, Team America, Kingdom of Heaven, and many films after that. I really like using the tools and experiences that I picked up in my electronic music productions for onscreen music. The funniest part is that I feel that movies, video games, and even commercials are somewhat the “new radio” for electronic music. Normal radio stations are barely playing this kind of music. Except for some special interest programs, it’s very hard to find good electronic music or songs that have electronic elements. For movies there’s all the freedom in the world to do what you want.

For your music, do you prefer being inspired by the scenes of a movie, or would you rather be inspired by your own personal experiences, such as those on your albums?

It goes both ways. As an artist you bring a lot of interesting, creative elements to the table. Obviously when you sit down with a director the same thing happens. You start talking about what would really fit for a specific scene. It’s quite funny that most of the directors and production companies that I’ve talked to are very open-minded to up-front, weird, and experimental electronic music. As an artist that is obviously heaven.

I really like using the tools and experiences that I picked up in my electronic music productions for onscreen music.

You mentioned that you were interested in video games. How so?

Video games are another thing that I’ve been working on since ’95. In ’95 people were like, “Tom? You’re working on a video game? It’s a bloody video game!” Now the video game industry has taken over completely, and people were, I guess, jealous that they didn’t make that decision back in the day. I love working on video games. It’s a great thing to do.

A recent game I just finished for EA [Electronic Arts] Games is SSX. It’s a very exciting snowboarding game that is coming out for the [Nintendo] Wii. It was a challenge to make music for that. The end result is very funky, vibey, sometimes weird, and very uplifting electronic music. It’s completely interactive, so depending on how you play the game you will hear a completely different song or different arrangement [of a song]. It was a huge challenge to do, and it was amazing how it turned out.

Did you have to write the music so it’d be conducive to looping and changing at any given moment?

EA Games has a very intelligent software program that they use. The program allows the music to be changed around depending on how the player is playing. Obviously that means that you need to compose it a certain way. That was an amazing experience. Basically, you make the track, and then you have to break it down into interactive elements, and that was a lot of fun to do. I have that software program myself, so I can run it and actually hear how the music is going to be altered. Based on what I hear, I can change the music around and go back in and change it again!

 

This sounds very similar to installation pieces done in the art community.

Yeah, absolutely! I think that has been a big inspiration. As usual, the art and even the science fiction scene always have been a huge inspiration for video games and for science in general. In the early ‘60s we see laser machines in the James Bond movies and now they’re a common thing.

 

Many people from a wider audience first heard of you because of your remix of Elvis’ A Little Less Conversation. But after it hit big you turned down many remix offers. What made you want to get back into remixing? After all, you just did Justin Timberlake’s “What Goes Around.”

Well the thing with the Elvis remix was that it was originally for a Nike commercial. That track was so huge [sic.] that record thought, “OK. We have this huge back catalogue of this artist that died 20 to 30 years ago. Let’s send it to Tom and turn it over to him.” So I got many offers for the weirdest stuff – from the Beatles to Marilyn Monroe to you-name-it. In that specific time period I thought the best thing to do was not remix those types of tracks. I did huge amounts of other remixes but those were more like other electronic artists or guitar bands. I was totally fine with that. In that specific year when I did the Elvis remix, I didn’t want to go into history as the guy “that remixed dead guys” [laughs].

Tell us about the new album that you’re working on.

Yeah, I’m working on a lot of new music as well, and it’s very exciting. Music is always like an action and a reaction. When you work on some things for some time you feel like doing this, and when you go on tour and play a lot of gigs you get a completely different energy. At the end of the year it all bounces out. That’s how I get my new inspiration for new music. Actually the new tracks that I’m working on are pretty heavy. I did that on the first and second albums, but the third album was more musical in depth. The fourth album was more introspective and melancholic. Now the animal wants to come out [laughs]. It’s very energetic

When I did the Elvis remix, I didn’t want to go into history as the guy “that remixed dead guys” [laughs].

Are you still using guitars for this one?

I always use guitars, but the mix of how guitars end up on an album differs from one to another. Guitars and drums are my main instruments and they’ve always had a huge role in every album. I would say that on this album they’re there and they’re hard. [laughs]

Are you going to premiere any of these new tracks at Ultra this year?

Oh yeah. This year I’m going to play a lot of new music…pretty much all new music I would say, so I’m very much looking forward to Ultra this year, especially because I’m playing in front of The Cure. I did a track with Robert Smith [singer of The Cure] four years ago, and that was the first time that Robert Smith did a track outside of The Cure with someone else.

Any chance he’ll be joining you on stage?

[laughs] No I don’t think so because it’d be weird to be on stage already with the act that’s playing before The Cure, so that doesn’t make sense to me.

What other major events are you doing this year?

I’m going to do a full-on tour in the US from the end of March through April. I also have a bunch of music festivals in July and August in Europe, and then we’ll just take it from there. I have to say that I brought the touring down to some sort of minimum because I’m so busy in LA working on all of these movies and video games. For a couple of years I haven’t been on the road for nine months in a row like we used to do it in the past. I just pick 40-50 gigs a year that I really want to do and do them.

So it sounds like you have a nice balance of studio work and live performances.

Ah yes, and it keeps my girlfriend and dog happy [laughs]!

 

Please visit : JunkieXL.COM for more info.