It’s a name now synonymous with impactful, blockbuster soundtracks, but Junkie XL’s first taste of mainstream fame came on the back of a fantastic remix of Elvis Presley’s A Little Less Conversation.
Transforming Elvis’ quite obscure song into a club-ready banger, Junkie’s chart-topping remix was replete with chopped up vocals, a relentless backbeat and pounding bass.
Released in 2002 under the artist name ‘Elvis vs JXL’, following a commission to remix the track for a Nike World Cup advert, the track's success led the formerly underground electronic artist Junkie (aka Tom Holkenborg) to be suddenly thrust into the limelight as it ascended to the top of the chart in multiple countries.
It also served to re-launch ‘brand Elvis’ for a new generation.
Five years later, in 2008, our magazine - Computer Music - spoke to Tom to find out more about the making of that hit, and Tom’s burgeoning career as a soundtrack composer. We also touched on Tom's thoughts about the rising standardisation of computer-based music production in general.
Holkenborg would develop his soundtracking career in the years following this interview, becoming the man behind the rebooted Mad Max franchise (Fury Road and Furiosa) as well as the controversial Zack Snyder’s Justice League, amongst many others. We would speak to him about his position in that world over a decade later, in another interview you can read here.
But the most interesting aspect of this classic interview is Tom’s detailing of the painstaking work that he had to do to get that monster 2002 remix to sound good - and the surprising lack of remuneration he got for his work.
“After they approved the demo I went through a nightmare of getting it to sound really good,” Tom told us. “I only had the mono mix and had to chop it up into a thousand pieces to make it work within a grid and with all the programming and other instruments I recorded on top.”
We’ve dug out and re-published the full interview below, wherein Tom also talks about his late 2000s toolkit and his philosophy when it comes to production. It’s an enlightening read.
Junkie XL - The Computer Music Interview (2008)
Junkie XL - The Computer Music Interview (2008)
We have ‘a little more conversation’ with JXL about life after that mega-successful Elvis number, producing music for the biggest films and games around, and remixing the past and future…
Junkie XL (aka Tom Holkenborg, or even JXL for the more easily offended) would probably rather spend less time conversing about A Little Less Conversation.
The remix was commissioned for a Nike advert that was shown around the time of the 2002 FIFA World Cup, and propelled both him and Elvis Presley to the top of the charts in over 20 countries.
But that was merely just “a mad three weeks” in a career that spans three decades.
Before and since, Tom Holkenborg has made his name working on some of the biggest movies and video games ever made, not to mention his own solo output and assuming production duties for loads of other artists. The remix was a spike in an already successful career that stretches back to 1979, just when technology started getting interesting…
“I was a traditional musician, playing drums, guitar, bass and piano,” says Tom. “I started
working in a music store when synthesizers became affordable. The Yamaha DX7, Roland
Juno-106, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST and Yamaha CX-1 were released, and since I worked in the shop, I didn’t have to buy them!
“It was an amazing period. I wouldn’t say that there is stagnation now, but back then there was something completely new every month. It was great to be part of that. I knew that what I’d learned as a traditional musician combined with my new technology knowledge was where I wanted to be.”
And that’s exactly how it panned out. Tom became a member of Nerve, an industrial electronic band, and started working with other people within that genre, including Front 242, Revolting Cocks and Ministry. However, he wanted to spread his wings musically, and began making tracks as Junkie XL in 1994.
“I started not only making tunes as an artist but remixing and producing a lot of people. I also did music for commercials and videogames - the whole thing. I gained a lot of experience and started working with bigger names and on more interesting movies, games and collaborations.”
The ‘more interesting movies’ included global phenomenon The Matrix. Jobs like this, combined with a slew of video game soundtracks, got him noticed by Nike, which led to that Elvis remix…
“It was great to be part of that for a couple of weeks,” says Tom. “I was producing Sasha’s
record when I got the offer. The people from the ad agency came in at 4pm and said: ‘we need something by tonight’. So I said, ‘OK’, and went and did it in three and a half hours! After they approved the demo I went through a nightmare of getting it to sound really good. I only had the mono mix and had to chop it up into a thousand pieces to make it work within a grid and with all the programming and other instruments I recorded on top.
“The track blew up to enormous proportions - it opened up a lot of doors, but it also shut some,” continues Tom. “Before that, I was considered a small electronic artist with a cool following, but, because of that track, people were thinking, ‘Ooh this is quite commercial - is Tom overground now?’ I got a lot of offers to remix songs by Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, The Beatles and Johnny Cash, and I turned them all down. The first remix I did after the Nike ad was Legacy by Infusion, who were an unknown band at that point.”
You could be mistaken for thinking that by avoiding the massive remix offers Tom was choosing the least lucrative path, but he didn’t want to be typecast. And besides, remixing Elvis Presley and having so many number ones wasn’t as big a payday as you might think…
“We basically negotiated on the basis that it would never achieve any of that success, so I didn’t get much at all,” he reveals. “The only cool thing was that they gave me a really good bonus after everything was settled. It was still nothing next to the money that it generated, though, which was close to $80 million! That went to the original writers of the song and the record company.”
Computer Heaven… or Hell
Since the Elvis remix, Tom has forged ahead with his company Computer Hell, and continues to produce remixes, his own music, and soundtracks for games and videos from a large studio in Venice, Los Angeles. It consists of three computer-based suites all linked up to a huge server setup, with the sounds generated by Tom’s team available to all. It’s a music factory, if you will, and it’s a busy one…
“2007 was mainly about videogames, but some years it might be more about movies,” says Tom. “Last year it was SSX Blur and Need for Speed - both EA games. It’s very intensive work. You have to do up to two hours of material, but also turn it into a highly interactive experience so that the player triggers the music. I was also doing my artist album, remixes for Justin Timberlake, Bloc Party, Britney Spears and Avril Lavigne, and I also co-produced a couple of tracks. Plus, I did some commercials, produced EPs and trailers… It’s been busy!”
Tom’s own rig is based around Logic and Pro Tools, but rather than using the former for composition and the latter for mixing, he has a very specific way of combining his gear. He runs Logic as a “very expensive sampler” with a standard setup of synths, EXS samplers (running his own banks of sounds), and other instruments, and then records the results into Pro Tools, where the bulk of the editing and arranging takes place.
“I go through my drum sounds to find a kick, for example,” he explains, “I play it in Pro Tools and edit it really quickly there, so Logic is the sampler. In Pro Tools, I drag the waveforms in, jam along, play around and chop them up. Eventually I will end up with a large section.”
Tom also has a ‘big picture’ approach to using Pro Tools with external hardware…
“The trick with Pro Tools is that it sounds amazing as a digital medium,” he says. “But if I’m mixing, I usually run each track through one of those outboard boxes [by Empirical Labs, Lexicon, TC Electronic and Manley Labs] to give it nice distortion. It means that technically you’re mixing 120 tracks in a super-expensive studio with hundreds of those boxes!
“If you have a soft EQ on your drums, for example, take it off and try to mimic it with hardware. With a little bit of time and love you can get a better result than with the plug-ins. Not always, though! If you have an analogue signal that you throw into Pro Tools and you use analogue outboard gear, the resultant sound might get messy. Sometimes you need the digital EQs or compressors to clean it up.
“It’s a combination of analogue and digital that makes a good mix,” he says. “I’m happy that I came from the analogue world, where I had to keep recording my guitar parts until they were tight, but I also totally adore the digital aspect of where we are right now.”
The big Logic synth
Tom’s synths are all run from Logic, which basically acts like a big software sound module…
“The basic Native Instruments setup is always there with Battery, Massive and FM8, as we make a gazillion sounds for those,” he explains. “Very recently we added Cakewalk’s Rapture, which is the last synth that I got really, really enthusiastic about. It’s very unique sounding, and what I really like is that it’s built out of individual elements, and every one has its own DSP before it goes into the synthesis section. Rapture gives me results that I’ve never heard before. I’ve previously used plugins to create that particular sound, but now it’s part of this synth."
During our conversation Tom reveals that he has a studio full of original hardware synths back in his native Holland. So you’d expect him to either love or hate software emulations…
“Actually my favourite synths are the ones that don’t emulate, such as NI’s Massive and Rapture. But I have to say that FM7 does an amazing job of emulating the [Yamaha] DX7, as does the GForce stuff. And Korg did the MS-20 and M1 really well. But the reason I use those plug-ins is not necessarily because of the sound. I have the ‘real deal’ synths, so I could use them, but most of the time I use the plugins because of the total recall.”
Tom’s sound is definitely one that utilises effects and dynamics processing to the max, so what software does he use for that?
“My favourite compressor is the TC Electronic Master X3,” he says. “It has a really hard sound that I love. I also like the tape compressor emulation made by McDSP. You can set the roll-off and the bias and choose between different tape speeds and various modes.
Everything McDSP do is great. The filter bank they use is the only one that emulates what the old Akai samplers did.
“When it comes to fucking up the sound I use MetaSynth and Reaktor. The plug-ins I have in Pro Tools are primarily to control whatever comes back from the sound design programs. My favourite compressors are the API 2500 and the Bomb Factory one. The SSL bundle is good, too. It’s really accurate – I mixed on those desks a lot back in the 90s.”
Leave those kids alone!
It’s fair to say that while Tom has one of the most complex computer setups we’ve ever seen, with a powerhouse of sounds, drives, servers and other technology hidden away behind the scenes. What we’ve discovered, though, is that his ideal working scenario is blending old and new. He uses Pro Tools with external outboard gear; he blends his traditional music background with electronics; and even that remix had an old Elvis vocal over new beats.
So how does he see the new ‘have laptop, do everything’ generation?
“I think it’s amazing,” he says. “I teach in Holland. Three big universities there merged and asked me to set up a course. These kids use everything on their laptops, whether it’s Cubase, Logic, Pro Tools or Sonar. They use it all but have no idea about the luxurious position they’re in. They complain all the time about processor speeds and so on. I had a four-track Tascam recorder in 1986, and that was the biggest deal on the planet! These kids are so spoilt with everything out there, but they use it like it’s second nature. They know everything about what a compressor or de-esser does – things that were a mystery to me. They know all this stuff inside out!”
But is it a good thing that all of this knowledge means that more people are making more music, much of it fairly awful?
“It’s fantastic. The only limitation is your fantasy. I don’t care if the internet gets flooded with 99% of music that is horrible, because 1% is brilliant and that’s due to the technology that we have.”
And finally…
On top of the soundtracks, remixes and production duties there’s the matter of a new JXL album…
“It is pretty hard, very energetic,” says Tom. “It’s that way because I’ve never made an album that reflects my live shows. It’s almost going back to music from my early 90s roots, with an electro influence, lots of guitars, and punky vocals.”
And lastly, what advice does Tom have for aspiring computer musicians?
“Enjoy it and join the club!” he says. “You don’t need all this [points to his gear], just a laptop with the plug-ins and sounds that you like. Make music, share it and be creative.”
This interview was originally published in issue 124 of Computer Music in March 2008
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