Junkie XL (a.k.a. Tom Holkenborg) is a multi-talented, multi-instrumentalist music machine hell-bent on defying genres, twisting electronic dance beats and organic guitar rock music into one massive wall of sound, and bringing his special brand of sonic madness to the world of video game music scores. Part classical musician, part producer, part programmer and part performer, Junkie XL also manages to find to time to dress sharp and maintain a dapper appearance. Be it from a chic London swanketeria or a five-and-dime thrift store, like his music, Netherlands-born Junkie knows what he wants and knows how to get it “(As long as it sounds good,” he says!).

After toiling away in Dutch new wave group Weekend, Holkenborg went on to form industrial rock band Nerve and released two full-length albums in 1994 and 1995. During this time, Tom produced metal acts Sepultra, Fear Factory and Dog Eat Dog, and worked on music for video games, movies and TV.

In 1997 Holkenborg released his first album as Junkie XL, entitled Saturday Teenage Kick. A fusion of breakbeat and rock, he joined The Prodigy on tour and began building his fanbase in the US and Europe. A second album followed, Big Sounds of the Drags, but it was his remix of Elvis’ “A Little Less Conversation” that put him on the map, becoming a worldwide smash hit.

In 2003, the all-star concept album RadioJXL – A Broadcast from the Computer Hell Cabin was released in stores across Europe and Japan the same time that RadioJXL.com launched with a streaming radio station, chat forums and an exclusive MP3 double album. After an exhaustive tour, he moved to California in 2004 and began remixing for artists such as Sarah McLachlan, Britney Spears and Depeche Mode, while dabbling in video games again.

The result of his Cali time is the score to highly anticipated Xbox racing game Forza Motorsport, due out on May 3. Aided by Fireball Ministry guitar god James A. Rota and Logan Mader (formerly of Machine Head and Soulfly), Holkenborg produced 56 pieces of original score influenced by ‘70s dark guitar rock. All the tracks are instrumental and are a sonic departure for the artist most know for “that cool Elvis remix.”

G4 had a chance to chat with Mr. XL about video games, metal, electronic and breaking down walls (…not literally) and found him to be quite the personable chap. Read on…

How did you get into scoring video games?
My music has popped up in hundreds of video games, but the first time I scored a game was in 1999 or 2000 I did Quantum Redshift, which I did all the music for.

How did you get involved with the Forza folks?
I got approached to do it. There was somebody working at the time at Microsoft who I had worked with on Quantum Redshift.

Did they give you any direction or do you go in with an empty slate?
The things with video games, movies and bigger projects is that you actually sit down together and talk about ideas. Of course, the ideas I have as a composer/artist are very important to them. They explain what the game is about and are like, “Okay, what do you feel like doing.” And they have ideas too. In the end you agree on something because it could be great for the game. I thought for this game it would be great to do big ‘70s rock, but in a 2005 way. It’s almost an homage to all those arena rock bands.

After I wrote the songs, I got together with two people that have been very important to this project, Lucas Banker and Logan Mader and we got so many guitar players in that live that lifestyle and we recorded that. It was amazing.

Who are some of the players?
Fireball Ministry. It was great to work with them. And lots of players you wouldn’t know immediately, but were good for the project.

What was it about this game that made you want to do a rock score, as opposed to the electronic many folks associate you with?
To do music for a racing game in the time we live in now, it would be almost too obvious to go down the electronic dance route. So we looked for something else that was high octane but at the same time you can do something with. The idea of taking the revised rock gave us a good option derived from that same music style for the menu music. So the in-racing music is that high energy ‘70s sound, and then the menu music has the tripped out ‘70s sound like the ballads of Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd. The trippy stuff. That style lends itself real well to cover the whole game, and not only the in-racing music.

Do you have any more plans to score more games?
I see the video game and movie industry as almost the new radio for electronic music, or music that is derived from electronic music. It’s amazing. I remember over four years ago when I first said I was going to do music for a video game, everybody was like, “You are gonna do music for a game? I said, “Yeah, it’s great!” And now it’s funny to do music for Forza and find out that everybody is taking the video game industry very seriously. It’s a huge industry. The next 10 or 15 years it’s gonna be like, you aren’t going to go to the shop and buy Spider-Man 2 the DVD and the game. It’s gonna be, like, the same thing. That’s where we’re heading and, as a musician, to be part of that whole multi-media experience is really amazing. So, yes, I will definitely do more games and have already done so since Forza. I working on the new Matrix game, Path of Neo, and just worked on the Destroy All Humans, which is coming out soon. Plus, I am working on the new Tony Scott film and my new studio album, which will be more organic and have more guitars in it.

It seems like the barriers as to what is electronic, what is rock and what is hip hop are almost completely gone at this point.
I think people are really focusing on the end result and not so much about how you get there. Whether it’s a real guitar of electric noise, drum machine or drummer, as long as it sounds good.