Junkie XL: Outer Limits.

10 March 2003 | 1:00 am | Paul Rankin
Originally Appeared In

Conversation Piece.

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Junkie XL plays Two Tribes at The Spit on the Gold Coast on Saturday.


Junkie XL shot to fame thanks to a man who has been dead for twenty-five years.

‘A little less conversation, a little more action please’. Unless you have been living under a rock for the past year you would have heard these catchy lyrics played on the radio, in a club or even on the sporting field. Junkie XL (aka Tom Holkenborg) remixed Elvis Presley's A Little Less Conversation for Nike's World Cup 2002 commercial that hit number one in 24 countries and shot him to worldwide fame. However all this fame and glory hasn't stopped Tom from working, in fact it has inspired him to tour and collaborate with more artists including Infusion, Syntax, Natalie Imbruglia and Fisherspooner.

"I'm really ready to go out for a year and just meet people, play live and see happy and see disappointed faces," says Holkenborg.

When he is not lusting over his favourite pop singer Kylie Minogue, Holenborg has been hard at work finishing his album, Radio JXL - A Broadcast From Computer Hell Cabin which is due out by the end of May. This will be Holkenborg’s third album and collaborators on the album include Saffron, Gary Numan and Anouk.

"The concept I am using for this double album is a live one," says Holkenberg. "CD one is called 3pm which stimulates day time radio and the second CD is called 3am which is a more dance orientated mix. Both albums will also feature some commercials of non-existing products and weird announcements thrown in."

Holkenberg has never been to Australia before but will land on our shores very soon as he is touring with the Two Tribes Festival across Australia. He laughs that his record box is already overflowing with "something for the oldies and the newbies of the dance scene". Not only will Tom have just turntables and a mixer but is ensuring there will be a special setup especially for him.

"I'll be bringing a bunch of computers with me so I can make sure that I can reproduce the things I do in the studio, and basically play all the new tracks I have on my album plus a couple of remixes I have been working on over the past couple of months."

So what exactly does the XL stand for in his name. Simple, says Holkenborg, XL stands for Expanding Limits.

"I always try to push boundaries of making music and try and develop new styles and new blends."