Dutch DJ Tom Holkenberg -- better known as Junkie XL, or JXL -- is just back from Ibiza, where the British dance scene vacations every summer, and it's safe to say his gigs there were exponentially bigger than prior years. Holkenberg and his remix of Elvis Presley's "A Little Less Conversation" -- featured prominently in Nike's World Cup advertising campaign -- have been dominating the British singles chart for nearly a month, and last week took over the top spot in the U.S. as well.

"It's incredible to me how the story gets bigger every week," Holkenberg says, "particularly considering the way this all started. There was a guy at the advertising agency that works exclusively for Nike who was a fan of the stuff that I'd done. So two and a half years ago, he called me and asked if I'd be involved with a commercial for the last Olympics. I did that, and then later I did something for the European [soccer] Championships, and then four or five months ago they approached me to do a World Cup commercial."

Kicking around ideas in brainstorming sessions for the ad, Holkenberg recommended Elvis, one of the few artists popular enough to appeal to audiences of all cultural backgrounds -- essential since the commercial would air around the world. "I was familiar with the song because my father was a huge Elvis fan," he says. "And we thought the line, 'A little less conversation/A little more action,' was really spot-on for football."

But he also understood how difficult it would be to win approval from Presley's estate, which had never before licensed a remix. And it was only when Holkenberg got approval for his nearly finished demo that he realized how big the song could be. "We knew we had something really special because they haven't licensed anything for twenty-five years," he says. "And it's the World Cup, the biggest sporting event in the world. But I never could have foreseen this success. I played it to a lot of people while I was working on it, and they said they liked it, but I've heard that before."

Of course, things have worked out well for the King and his estate, too. When the remixed track -- the original version was recorded for the 1968 film Live a Little, Love a Little -- reached Number One in the U.K., it put Elvis one-up on the Beatles, with a total eighteen top-selling singles to their seventeen. And the song's new version will also be included on the upcoming Elvis' 30 #1 Hits collection, due out this fall from BMG to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death.

The chance to be involved in something historically important was part of the reason Holkenberg agreed to change his stage name from Junkie XL to JXL for the project, as per a request from Presley's estate. "When I ask people here in Holland how they remember Elvis," he explains, "they always say that they remember him being too fat and doing drugs and all this. But that was just the last few years of his life, when he had this horrible contract to perform two or three times a day in Vegas. And that's too bad, because musically he did amazing stuff, and his performances were amazing. So changing my name for this single was about respecting Elvis and his fans."

Even though the song's commercial success might make it tempting to carry on as JXL, Holkenberg insists the name change is only temporary. "That's just not how I work," he says. Instead, despite remix offers piling up from big-name artists and advertisers, he'll use his newfound global platform to help less-known bands gain popular exposure. "I thought it would be best to do a really underground remix," he says. "So I'm working with a band from Australia, Infusion, who nobody has ever heard of, but are a great band and a really intelligent group of people. And I did a remix of a Natalie Imbruglia track, 'Beauty on the Fire.'"

That desire to support other artists' developing careers also explains why he wasn't put off by the recent news that BMG plans to stop pressing the single despite -- or rather because of -- its strangle hold on the world's singles charts. "That's the rumor," he says dismissively. "I think it has something to do with needing to move on with other artists. I think it's important for new artists on the same label to have the chance to go to Number One. The Elvis track is keeping them out of the top spot, and, apart from that, they're releasing the Elvis CD with all his Number One hits on it, and they want people to buy that too."

Holkenberg has plenty else to keep him busy, anyway. Due in the fall is a new X-Box car racing game, Quantum Redshift, for which he composed sixteen new tracks. "The X-Box project started similarly to the Nike project," he says. "There was someone working at the company who knew my work, and he approached me to write music for the video game. We talked on the phone for a long time about what the game would be, the ideas behind the game and what the sound effects would be, then I got the game and just started playing it all the time, just over and over again."

"There are so many racing games out there with very typical music," he continues, "exactly what you'd expect. So what I tried to do was create contrasts -- because the game is so much about speed, when you make the music really slow and ambient, it heightens the effect of the game. And it was a thrilling process to record a song and then put it underneath the game to see if it worked, and then go back to the drawing board to fine tune it. We did the whole thing in Dolby surround sound, so there were so many options."

Holkenberg is also finishing an album of his own, with guests including DJ Sasha, Gary Numan and Republica singer Saffron. "I got to work with people whose work I've admired for a long time," he says, "and everything about the album turned out really well, so that was kind of a dream project for me." He hopes to release the album in October and then tour the U.S. with Numan and Saffron.

AUGUSTIN SEDGEWICK
(July 12, 2002)