Nobody said anything, So we were able to experiment and to go with whatever came out of it. It wasn't like, make us a sound that can be played on Radio 1, or make sure that you have a dance hit on it. We built our own studio in Ghent, and no one came in, 'cos that was the deal we had with the record company. It's become formatted, structured, it feels like a big old animal, and I don't think a lot of bands would have had the chance to make the kind of album we've done. "I'm really proud of it, but I think the record industry has changed a lot. I think we made a very difficult album, I think we made something which is not really easy.
"A lot of people want this to be the album that will break Soulwax, but to be really honest with you, I don't think that." Steph pauses for effect. Mention the name 2 Many DJs, and you'll get frantic nods of recognition and approval from dance fans mention the name Soulwax, however, and you might only get a puzzled look. Much against everyone's expectations, the CD grew wings and flew out of the record shops, outselling Soulwax's entire back catalogue and putting the Belgian boys on a par with such scratch surgeons as Coldcut, DJ Shadow and Richard X.
They displayed their prodigious mixing talents on the hour-long mash-up As Heard on Radio Soulwax Vol 2, gleefully performing brain salad surgery on tracks by Destiny's Child, Peaches, Iggy Pop, 10CC and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. It earned an honourable mention in Nick Hornby's collection of rock-centric essays, 31 Songs, and kudos for the clever cover artwork (based on classic vinyl seven-inches) and smart, hard-edged alt.rock songs - Conversation Intercom, Overweight Karate Kid and (no relation to the Westlife song of the same name) Flying Without Wings.Īlso on the début album was a song called 2 Many DJs, and the brothers adopted this name as their deck-wrecking alter-ego. Soulwax sold a modest but respectable amount of copies of their fine 1999 album, Much Against Everyone's Advice. Given the success of 2 Many DJs, it's a brave thing Steph and Dave are doing too, reawakening the sleeping rock beast that is Soulwax and risking all on a record that may or may not be the breakthrough they, their friends and their record company are hoping - perhaps even praying - for. "So it's a pretty brave thing for him to do here." "So I knew he was going to do this project, and when it opened up we DJed for him, and Manu Chao came also, because he's a good friend of his, and also 'cos it's the idea for him of having this cultural thing in the middle of Roubaix, which is like a miners' town, one of the biggest immigrant populations in northern France, and this is one of the rougher areas. "But Manu does also this electronic festival, La Villette in Paris, once every two years, and he also does a festival in Lille, and that's very close to Ghent. "I'll be really honest with you, I don't have that much of a connection with Roubaix because I haven't really been here that much," admits Steph. In Belgium, you are either Flemish or Walloon in musical terms, Steph and Dave Dewaele swing from Flemish to Walloon and back again, depending on whether they're DJing or rocking out, and believe me, it can sometimes really mess with their heads.
#MARIAM DINGILIAN WAXWORKS HOW TO#
But now the brotherly Belgians are back doing the real day job: getting their band Soulwax on the road, rehearsing the new (and old) songs, and trying to remember how to pull those rock star poses again. Steph and Dave have been on a vinyl whirlwind for the past three years, touring the world under their alter-ego of 2 Many DJs. Here they are, on the verge of releasing their second album and about to embark on a major tour, but they're still finding it hard to adjust to being in a band again. You have to forgive the Dewaele brothers if they're feeling a little torn in two.
The Belgian brothers talk to Kevin Courtney about the trials & tribulations of reviving Soulwax 2 Many DJs can spoil the rock 'n' roller, the Dewaeles decided when they set aside their smash hit alter-egos and returned to the business of making music.
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