About this Artist
PAUL OAKENFOLD has been touted as one of the world's leading DJ/remixers by various outlets, including CNN, Rolling Stone, BPM, Remix, and more. He is a two-time Grammy nominee for "Best Electronic/Dance Album" (A Lively Mind - 2007, Maverick Records - and Creamfields - 2004, Thrive Records). Oakenfold's second album for Maverick, A Lively Mind, was released in June 2006 and includes the single, "Faster Kill Pussycat," featuring Brittany Murphy. Other guests on the album include Pharrell Williams, Grandmaster Flash, Ryan Tedder of Onerepublic, Spitfire, Bad Apples, and more. His first album for Maverick, Bunkka, was released in 2002 and included "Starry Eyed Surprise," which featured Shifty Shellshock of Crazy Town and became a Top 10 hit in both the U.S. and the U.K. Other guests on the album were Perry Farrell, Nelly Furtado, Ice Cube, Tricky, and Hunter S. Thompson (his last recording before he passed away). Paul Oakenfold's 2004 mix album Another World has reached gold status in sales, making it one of the biggest-selling dance albums of all time. His remix credits include works for U2, Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Madonna, Paris Hilton, Jennifer Lopez, Salt-N-Pepa, and The Cure.
Oakenfold has also enjoyed considerable success with music for television, film, and video games. "Starry Eyed Surprise" reappeared in early 2005 as part of Diet Coke's ad campaign for their re-launch of the beverage using Splenda. His hit "Ready, Steady, Go" currently appears in Saab's US ad campaign, and a new song, "Feed Your Mind," also appears in Toyota's European ad campaign, for which the major car manufacturer has committed to 42 million Euros (over $51 million dollars) worth of ad buys. Oakenfold also scored the music to the current Hummer commercial.
His film credits include music for Nobel Son, Collateral, Swordfish, The Matrix Reloaded, Die Another Day, Planet Of The Apes, The Bourne Identity, and Shrek II. Paul's TV credits include music for Alias, Big Brother, and Las Vegas. He has also appeared on screen as the star of the Spike TV series The Club and had a cameo appearance in the film The Rules of Attraction. In the realm of video games, Paul provided an original score for the James Bond-inspired video game Golden Eye: Rogue Agent.
As a touring musician, Oakenfold has DJed in hundreds of places around the world. Some unique locations include the Great Wall of China, a sold-out concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, and Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado. Abroad, he has appeared in Cypress, Lebanon, Ibiza, Korea, and more. He is also noted as one of the most well-traveled electronic touring artists within the United States.
Paul was born in London, England and currently resides in the U.S. Before becoming a major force in the music industry, he graduated from the Westminster Technical culinary institute becoming a certified chef. He also is an investor along with rockers Tommy Lee and Dave Navarro in the new Hollywood nightlife establishment Rokbar. Prior to becoming a world-famous DJ and producer, Oakenfold served as an A & R consultant for Profile Records and Def Jam, where he signed artists including Salt-N-Pepa, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and Will Smith.
Two-time Grammy nominee and underground darling CARMEN RIZZO has had a very eclectic career. He is a frequent figure in album credits for producing, mixing, remixing, programming, and co-writing on a range of influential artists, including Seal, Alanis Morissette, Coldplay, BT, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Cirque du Soleil, Paul Oakenfold, and Pete Townshend of The Who, to mention only a few. He has also made records with a slew of notable producers, such as Trevor Horn, Marius de Vries, David Foster, Rob Cavallo, and Don Was. Rizzo recently composed his first film soundtrack for The Power of the Game, from acclaimed British director Michael Apted.
Rizzo also has an extremely credible career as a recording artist under his own name. His latest CD is The Lost Art of the Idle Moment (2005, The Lab/Universal). This solo album is a lush, cinematic, beat-driven disc that features collaborations with a wide range of guest vocalists, including Esthero, Jem, Kate Havnevik, Ladybug Mecca (The Digable Planets), Grant Lee Phillips, Thomas Heinrich, Alpha, and Deidre Dubois. USA Today featured the album with his picture on the cover of "The Life" section as their No. 1 pick for their fall music guide. Songs from the album have been licensed to TV shows The O.C., Windfall, and Commander in Chief. Taste-makers Jason Bentley, Nic Harcourt, and Anne Litt from L.A. radio station KCRW championed the disc before he even had a record deal. The album debuted at No. 2 on their album chart as well as on Sirius & XM Satellite radio.
Rizzo's other side project, Niyaz (2005, Six Degrees Records), a collaboration with Azam Ali and Loga Ramin Torkian, is a world beat/electronic fusion sound, "blending Indian and Persian exoticism and beats that are state of the art," says Billboard. The album debuted at No. 1 on the iTunes world music chart, and was in many critics' top ten albums of the year. It has also been featured on National Public Radio's Day to Day and Public Radio International's Voice of America. The band has had successful tours all over the world, playing in India, Tokyo, France, Turkey, Spain, Montreal, Vancouver, and all over the U.S. Its quality and eclecticism will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Rizzo's work. In 2000, Rizzo's band project, Povi, released its first disc: Life in Volcanoes (1999, Nettwerk Records), a down-tempo electronic record in the style of Portishead and Massive Attack.
Rizzo's first break came producing Kristin Vigard in 1990 for Private Music/BMG, which helped him break into a Los Angeles music scene that included up-and-coming musicians such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fishbone, N'dea Davenport of The Brand New Heavies, Jill Jones, and Amp Fiddler, who all entered into successful careers. Since then, he has been in high demand as a producer, mixer, and remixer.
08/07