Doyen of the DJ circuit Paul Oakenfold and musician / engineer Steve Osborne were among the first studio/DJ partnerships to emerge from the melting pot of dance music, as remixers par excellence. They have more recently cast the mould for a new generation of acts, blurring the lines between remixer, producer and artist.

Dominique Atkins

This biography was compiled from several websites including the following:

www.futurenet.com

www.perfecto-fc.com

In the case of Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne, remix work has led naturally to a taste - and a technique - for generating their own original material. From stripping away unwanted tracks from a client's multitrack before rebuilding the groove on their own terms, Paul and Steve came to the obvious conclusion that, really, they didn't need the
client's multitrack at all. With the resources to input so many of their own ideas and sounds on to the tape, a project under their own auspices seemed logical.

For Oakenfold it's the culmination of over a decade in the thick of club culture, starting with New York hip-hop, discovering Chicago house, and effectively launching acid house into the UK. He DJ'd, opened clubs, and remixed other people's records, and by the time the aristocratic likes of U2 began inviting him to consult with them on how to make records, an entire youth scene was exploding.

The ensuing phenomenon of dance music made him a star, and put him in demand as a radical producer. Famously hooking up with The Happy Mondays for the groundbreaking Thrills, Pills And Bellyaches album, he continues to apply uncompromising progressiveness to all his production work. For his own music, the habits of remixing have stuck, and new material is constructed in much the same way.

Whether reconstructing songs like Even Better Than The Real Thing for U2 or building a single from scratch, his partner Steve Osborne programs the parts while Paul directs - with the sensibility of modern dance music's principal architect.

"DJs know what's going on," says Steve. "There's so much coming out all the time now that it's a full-time job just keeping up. They put a lot of work into that. I haven't got the time - I'm mainly in the studio. Paul has an overview of the whole thing. The nuts and bolts is my job, whereas Paul knows where we're aiming. As a DJ he has an overall picture; he knows what's working on the dancefloor. I'm not experienced in that."

"DJ'ing is about understanding crowds," says Paul, "whether in an underground club or in front of 90,000 people in a stadium. And for me it's a test; it's about moving on."

Paul and Steve's remixes apply this understanding directly to making records, by swapping a song's original backing with one that will kick more arse. Their own records, naturally, come straight off the starting blocks in size 10 Doc Martens.

"If you listen to lots of our remixes," Steve points out, "we just basically re-write them - take away nearly everything and keep the vocal. Most of everything else is re-done. The point of doing our own project is: why don't we do it all ourselves?".

Paul had already taken the remix concept a stage further over a year ago, when he released a record of other people's music with only his name on the cover, as one of a group of DJs contributing to the Journeys By DJ series on DJM Records. Having established that to some audiences the DJ is more important than the artist, it was only one more step to becoming the artist himself.

"DJs are the 90's pop stars," Paul claims. "You're delivering hit singles for bands, cramming clubs to capacity, people collect all your records. But really the point of DJ'ing is that you're lucky enough to express your musical taste to other people."

Which is what all artists do, of course. Duly inspired, Paul and Steve begin like most hi-tech combos: with a groove.

"Just basslines," confirms Steve. "We throw stuff up really quickly and if it sounds half decent we'll carry on, if not then we'll throw it."

Often a singer is allowed to improvise over the backing, and the team select snatches to form a coherent song. From here, the vocal performance is recorded onto 24-track tape.

"We do still work with tape. I started off in Trident Studios, so I prefer having things on tape. However many settings you write down, if you've got a lot of analogue stuff running you can never get it the same. It's better to get it down on tape - same with vocals."

Analogue patches are developed on MIDI-retrofitted synths, and sequenced in Cubase.

"To start off I'm running loads of things all at once, then we start our recording. Pretty much the main bulk of the work is done in the mix."

Sequencing and multitracking is all one continuous writing process, Steve explains.

"We'll have loads of stuff on tape and loads of stuff running live. It's the same with the remixes, until it's actually edited together. Both of us find that when you're sitting down working on things with just a computer you get really fucking bored. But if you run the maximum amount of stuff available, when you're doing the mix you can construct the thing as you go along. You can get really excited about it and get a real feel for where you want to take it.

"The most important thing about the way we work is the way things flow. That's something we're both into. The way Paul DJs has got a real flow to it. It's all down to the order in which he's playing his records, and that's the same thing with our work. It's putting all the parts together in the right order."

You could say that Paul and Steve are DJ'ing all the sounds they have programmed, as opposed to spinning vinyl. The tools might be different, but the technique is remarkably similar. Steve's metaphorical record collection is his equipment,
and he has a pretty broad taste.

"It has to be the Juno 106 for the bass," says Steve. "I usually go for the 106 because it's so warm, it's really nice. There are certain things, like the Moog, that I use a lot for sequencing lines where I can get the filter to change a lot. I've got one of those new BassStation things, too - and a JP6."

The BassStation doesn't challenge the 106 for basslines chez Steve. But he's no Luddite: he has a sizeable sample library, and even digital synths have their place.

"I kind of leave a lot of sounds to chance," he reveals. "My sample library is getting bigger, and I've bought a few of the CDs, but there's so much information there, so many different things, you have to listen to loads of stuff to find the right
thing. It's kind of the same as Paul having to listen to piles of records. He gets piles and piles every week and has to sift out the ones that are all right."

Between them, Steve and Paul look for the sound that will best suit the melodic idea within the track, rather than basing everything around the sound itself.

"You could be using the cheesiest of sounds, but it if it's the right part it will sound right. Chuck it through something to make it sound better if needs be. But quite often we use really naff things, if the music's right.

"At the same time there are sounds that don't need a part, because they are so great. But I think we tend to work more from the part. Quite often when we come to the mix, halfway through we'll have used all the bits up that we've already prepared. And Paul will say, we'll have to make up another part. We manically play around until another idea comes up, which usually means the sound has to be done very quickly.

"So we find a part and get a sound - bosh, bosh. And because you're hearing it in a finished mix you can make it sit. It doesn't matter what instrument it is, because you're listening to an overall finished product."

And for the eclectic Oakenfold and Osborne, even a digital synth preset will do. Records, synth patches, grooves: truly, these guys are not prejudiced.

"Yeah, if it works. There you go, lovely. Finished. "on."