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Artist of The Month
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| Junkie XL |
| Written by IS Team | |
| Friday, 02 May 2008 | |
 Tom Holkenborg IS Junkie XL. The whole idea was his and the music is completely created by him, except the lyrics of course. Tom Holkenborg was born in Lichtenvoorde (The Netherlands) at December 8th 1967. But now he lives in Amsterdam, where he has his own studio. He became interested in rock when he heard The Who's 'Live at Leeds' at the age of 8. Two years later (at the age of 10!) he was making his own music. He was raised in a musical family, having a mother who was a music professor at a local university and a harmonica-playing father. He started playing in Funk and Reggae bands at the age of 14 and later he moved to new Wave. At that same age he started working in a music-shop, he learned all about keyboards and started experimenting with electronics. In the late eighties Tom was a member of the, what he described as a 'Talking Heads-alike', Dutch band Weekend At Waikiki. After that, Tom became a freelance producer and remixer. He is more recently known for his remixes on bands like Fear Factory (Remanufacture), Dog Eat Dog and Kong. Just before starting Junkie XL in 1995, he was part of the industrial band Nerve, which he left due to what he describes as 'personal problems'. The Junkie part of the name is due to Tom's working appeal. His friends say he's a workaholic, a working junkie. In fact it was Dino Cazares who first said: 'Hey Junkie, what's up?!'. Due to his hard working and too much alcohol, Tom had some heart-problems at the age of 27! Nowadays, Tom is working less hard than he used to do, but he still works harder than most other people. At the end of 1999, the whole band behind Junkie XL was 'dismissed' and from then, Tom and Rudeboy were doing all live-performances together, although the 'band-members' still played some stuff on the 'Big Sounds Of The Drags' album. Tom wanted to go more into the dance-scene and he was unable to do that with a complete band on stage. In June 2000, Rudeboy decided to leave Junkie XL. From that day, Tom puts a real cool 'DJ-act' on stage, although Tom isn't an ordinary DJ (He doesn't use any vinyl on stage, but he uses harddisks, samplers and stuff like that!). Tom also works together with a lot of other artists nowadays (producing and mixing). Currently, Tom is working in the studio for the new upcoming Junkie XL album 'Red Heat'. The Dutch band Junkie XL started in 1995 and debuted in 1997 with their album 'Saturday Teenage Kick'. Their music is a mix of rock and big beats, often compared with the sound of The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers. The power of this music is absolutely best expressed in a live performance. Junkie XL is one of the first bands that plays modern electronic music and combines it with a good live show. Junkie XL's music is a mixture of styles; alternative dance with a rock-attitude. The real Junkie XL-feel is probably in 'Saturday Teenage Kick': an uptempo hip-hop beat with a groovy guitar and Rudeboy behind the mic. Junkie XL's name is based on what Tom Holkenborg described as his 'studio-junkie' reputation. He's seen as a real workaholic. The XL is referring to the process of 'eXpanding Limits' (of perception, reality, etc.). On stage Tom Holkenborg is the main man, the sequencer. All sounds played on stage come through his desk and he adds all kinds of effects to them. Tom once said: 'The basic ingredient that separates us from other electronic bands is that groups like Fatboy Slim are presented as dance acts with rock guitars. I consider us more of an alternative rock-band using dance tools.' According to Tom it is very hard to perform this kind of music live: 'To soon you end up sounding like a school band', says the man behind the music. After a lot of rehearsing, the band first performed in 'De Melkweg' in Amsterdam, November 1997. A few months later the band did some shows with The Prodigy who were touring in Germany. After that little tour, lots of people claimed (including Liam Howlett...) that Junkie XL stealed the music-concept from The Prodigy. But all the Junkie XL-fans know that that's not true, 'cos Tom was already mixing rock and electro with Nerve. Junkie XL did an amazing tour in America. They played in about 80 cities (on their own and for example with Gravity Kills. Junkie XL ended to be first in the Dance Pool Charts (which means that 20.000 American club-dj's selected the Junkie-song to be the best song of the year). Their popularity was also indicated by the fact that MTV called Junkie XL to ask if they could broadcast the 'Billy Club' video (Roadrunner has no contract with MTV....). By the way, Junkie XL has a contract with Roadrunner for 5 (!) albums...... Tom Holkenborg wants the Junkie XL-music to be a combination of dance and rock music. The music must be timeless, like (for example) The Beatles. At the first album 'Saturday Teenage Kick', the rock-sound dominated. Although this debut-album was a great success, Tom didn't think it was timeless. The second Junkie XL album 'Big Sounds Of The Drags', released in 1999, is more a dance-album with a 70's sound. At the end of 1999, Junkie XL stopped playing with a whole band on stage. The cooperation (Dino Cazares, Rene van der Zee, Baz Mattie and Frankie D. were not real members of Junkie XL, they were just working together with Tom) stopped because of financial reasons and because of the fact that Tom wants to represent a dance-act and that works better with only Tom and Rudeboy on stage... In June 2000, Rudeboy quitted Junkie XL and Tom plays all performances alone, clearly choosing for the progressive-house style. Respected DJ's like Carl Cox, Pete Tong, Nick Warren, Jo Wiley and Steve Lamaq (BBC Radio One) start putting Junkie XL on their playlists. Six months later, Junkie XL stopped working with Captain Video (who provided the background video's at the live performances). Nowadays, all the Junkie XL releases appear on Mostiko Records, which is the dance-label of Roadrunner Arcade. In 2001 Junkie XL was doing performances in and outside the Netherlands. Tom used these opportunities to try some new stuff on the audience for the new album, which will be released in September 2002. The album has recently been finished. Some very interesting vocalists will appear on the album, for example Saffron (singer of Republica) who has already recorded the track 'Crusher' in Amsterdam. Since a few weeks Junkie XL is also well known under the name 'JXL' because the new remix of Elvis' 'A Little Less Conversation' will be released as 'Elvis vs JXL'. The track is currently getting a lot of airplay all over the world. It has been used for the Nike football commercial and will officially be released on June 10th. |
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