Zone Magazine Issue 011 - Paul Oakenfold

" The label has grown into a life force of its own. It’s such an
amazing experience to watch. I am so happy the label can
now be used to help others and be a piece in the jigsaw that
carries them to the next stage in their career. "
__________________________________________________________________________________
It helps being a DJ. All of the music on the
label is music I’d play in my sets, it’s music I
believe in and really love. I’m committed to the
art of djing in the same way I’m committed to
discovering new music, I truly love the search for
new music, and this helps a lot with the growth of
the label. I’m always looking for new talent and
new music. I spend a lot of time whilst travelling
listening to promos and prior to each show I’m
going through the promos of the label and my
own looking for that special track.
What advice would you give to new
producers out there to get their music
noticed by a wider audience? It’s fair to say
that the whole ‘Revealed Recordings’ project
has snowballed over the last six years and
has grown into a massive entity in dance
music. Did you ever imagine that it would
grow so big and so fast?
I had dreams, I’ve always had big dreams, but
I think to imagine it would have become this big
is truly out of my wildest dreams. The label has
grown into a life force of its own. It’s such an
amazing experience to watch. I am so happy the
label can now be used to help others and be a
piece in the jigsaw that carries them to the next
stage in their career. The only advice I can offer
is what was once said to me which is “believe in
yourself and follow your own path”. We’re very
open at the label and if you’re music is what
we’re into then we’ll support you. The thing for us
is we’re always pushing our ideas and projects
forward to improve the quality of what we’re
working on, so it’s really excited to be a part of.
Out of the many different facets that make
up the magnificent gem that is ‘Revealed.’
which one if any would you say was your
favorite?
I love helping the artists where I can. I enjoy
the process of sharing my experiences and also
getting in the studio and offering any help I can.
It’s also fun to get artists involved in the events
we run and give them a chance to DJ out to a
crowd with the freedom to play what they want.
For me seeing new artist’s breakthrough and
being able to help with that for new talent is
something I’ve always been very happy to do.
Revealed Recordings has its own distinctive
sound be it EDM or Big Room, do you think
that you will ever move away from that
sound in your label output and the style you
play personally?
The label, like myself, is always looking to
evolve its sound but you have to take that
direction of change at a slower place if you’ve
grown a community of fans and they have a
passion and love, like we do, for a style and area
of electronic music we’ve become known for. I’ve
always tried to keep dj sets mix varied. The label
has a slightly different direction but it’s again
varied. As mentioned it’s constantly evolving so
I’m sure we’ll be sat here in years to come talking
about different sounds and genres we’re into.
You must get to listen to some amazingly
talented producers and DJs, are there any
that you care to mention who you think have
got what it takes to make it big?
Julian Calor is a talent who has that capacity to
make it big as a producer. He’s doing this really
cool visual concept project at the moment titled
Involve, where he’s building sound structures
around these short video visuals from a designer.
Definitely something to check out and a project
that demonstrates his qualities as a producer
away from typical dance music sounds.
And with your own numerous productions
and collaborations, how do you find the time
to get into a studio and actually produce?
These days we work a lot of time into my
schedule to give me the freedom to go and work
on new music. It’s important to be smart and
manager this otherwise you never get to
complete half the projects you start on the road.
I’m really enjoying it and I’m excited to show a
lot of new music soon that I’ve been working.
Are you always working on tracks on your
laptop on planes etc like a lot of DJ/
producers that I have spoken to or do you
prefer a proper studio to create music in?
I do work on music whilst on the road. I’m
never too far away from my laptop working on
ideas etc whilst touring but for me nothing beats
being in my own studio. I love it. As well as a DJ,
I’m a producer at heart so working off a laptop
isn’t the same feeling.
Finally can you tell us what you have coming
out, or coming up that we should be on the
lookout for?
I recently released the latest edition of my
Hardwell Presents Revealed Compilation Volume
7. I also just did a track giveaway with a new
record titled ‘Wake Up Call, it’s something really
cool and one you should definitely check out. I
have a collaboration coming up with Craig David
called ‘No Holding Back’ which is due out later
this year and I’ve some other new music coming
up, which I’ll be announcing very soon.
Connect:
https://www.facebook.com/djhardwell
Words By Danny Slade
Pics By Gerard Henninger
__________________________________________________________________________________
ESSENTIALDANCEMUSIC 19