Paul Oakenfold | São Paulo | Hotel Unique''s Skye Bar | Brazil

Late-night after-parties, VIP treatment, all-expenses-paid trips to places most people only dream about, and, oh yeah - virtually no sleep. Welcome to the life of the world's most acclaimed DJ.
From high atop Hotel Unique's Skye Bar in São Paulo, Brazil, all the madness that is the third-largest city in the world lines the horizon. It's a jaw-dropping architectural marriage of concrete and steel that begins as far as one can see to the left and that hasn't yet ended as far as one can see to the right. It's a view that some might say must be seen to be believed, though I've seen it many times before and I still can't believe it. Neither can DJ Paul Oakenfold, whom I've come here to meet for a drink. Walking out past the pool to the glass partition that keeps guests from falling into the Jardins Europa district seven stories below, we pause to absorb the beauty of the vast panorama before us. As the world's most internationally recognized DJ-remixer-producer, Oakenfold has spent the last 15 years or so traversing the globe armed with little more than two turntables and a box of vinyl ammunition. He has performed in places you dream of visiting (the Great Wall of China, Ibiza, Cyprus), and, as an absolute road warrior and savvy traveler (he carries 39 frequent-flier cards with him), Oakenfold once played three continents in four days. Needless to say, the man has been there, seen that. Tonight, however, he won't be seeing much of São Paulo. Oakenfold is dead tired. It's nine p.m., and he has
just arrived via Buenos Aires, where he spun records all night long to a worshipping crowd of 60,000 (set time: three a.m.). If he has slept any, his eyes, and those of tour manager Michael Jackson, don't show any sign of it. The week before that, in El Salvador and Colombia, there wasn't much sleep either. I know this because I didn't catch much shut-eye myself - hitting the road with the most successful DJ in the history of record spinning does one heck of a number on one's sleeping patterns.