2manyDJs are Australia-bound this summer, playing a host of festivals and headline shows over the New Year period. Touring with a full stage production for the first time, 2manyDJs are set to be one of this summer’s must see acts.
We caught up with Stephen Dewaele (one half of the duo) as he took a midnight bath in Belgium to discuss what we can expect from their tour, what’s next for Soulwax, playing soccer in Montreal and his post-release thoughts on Part of the Weekend Never Dies.
NOVANATION (NN): Let’s jump right into the important questions – when can we expect a new Soulwax album?
STEPHEN DEWAELE (SD): Well, actually, with all certainty I can tell you there will be a new Soulwax record in the next year. We’re doing these Soulxwas Christmas shows in London, and Paris, and Antwerp and a few other places, and we’ve made a completely new set, and we have seven new songs already. I’m sure by June we will have a new record.
NN: Do you think people will be surprised by the record?
SD: I don’t think we surprise people anymore; I think we divide people, which is the main threat to our careers. We always have people who will be more into 2manyDJs and not be into Soulwax, or they would be more into Soulwax being a rock band than being an electronic band. There will always be somebody complaining, or somebody asking you for another Nite Versions record, or a rock record, or a 2manyDJs record. It would be fun if we could do all of them, but we always do the one that nobody asks for.
NN: When you write a new record are you trying to please the fans or just you?
SD: There’s only two people that are important when we write stuff, and I think that would be Dave and me. We have to be happy with it. It’s always a big surprise when other people seem to like it. I’m always really happy with that. I think in the end it always has to be pleasing to us.
NN: You’re returning to Australia for some festival appearances and headline performances, what type of live show are you going to bring?
SD: For a long time we’ve been asked to headline festivals and to bring a big lightshow and fireworks and a pyramid; I don’t know what agents will come up with. If it had been up to me, I would have preferred a spaceship that just takes off from the stage, but sadly we didn’t have that kind of money. So we decided to start animating the sleeves of the songs that we play, and make a huge sleeve behind us with a screen. Whatever track we mix, you see the animation of the actual song, and we’re mixing it ourselves. So everything Dave and I do on that stage is what you see on that stage, so when we f**k up, we f**k up. We took the not-so-easy, and maybe stupid, route of doing everything ourselves, which means sometimes things go wrong. It’s the human element!
NN: Is that because you like a challenge?
SD: Yeah, yeah! I do think we do challenge ourselves. It’s not simply putting up the sleeve, we actually thought a lot about what we were going to do and how we were going to do it. We had animators help us out, so we’re actually making an animation film while we’re DJing. If we make a new edit for a track, we sit down and make a storyboard for the sleeve and send them to the animators, and they send them back to us, and we’re like ‘No, his hands have to be like this, and there’s lasers coming out of his eyes’ and stuff like that.
NN: Are you going to drop any Kylie tracks while you’re down here?
SD: We haven’t made a decision what we were going to make for Australia specifically, but there is going to be a lot of new things we do. There is going to be something specific for Australia. There’s already a couple of Australian tracks that we DJ that we have animated. kind of think it’s more of a challenge to do something where Australian people maybe don’t know it’s Australian and it’s maybe something they have no idea about that we can maybe introduce to them.
NN: That’s a challenge.
SD: I’m trying. I’m doing my best. Have you guys hears about this small band called INXS? I think they’ll be okay.
NN: You released your Part of the Weekend Never Dies doco last year. Is there anything that ended up in the final edit that you didn’t want seen?
SD: How about the parts where i look into the mirror in the morning and I look like sh*t? And everybody is telling me ‘No it’s great stuff, because it shows you how f**ked up you look in the morning when you’re really tired’.
NN: Do you regret it now?
SD: Oh yes I do. It would really be the first thing people would say to me. Like old friends I went to school with, they’d say ‘Man, you f**king look like sh*t, you look so tired,’ and I’d be like ‘Yeah, thanks, yeah’. I wouldn’t want to do that again for all the money in the world.
NN: It was a great thing to do for your fans. A selfless act, if you will.
SD: I have no idea who my fans are. I don’t want to know. It’s always the best way, then when somebody likes what you’re doing it’s always a surprise, otherwise it’s all downhill from there.
NN: What else are you working on at the moment?
SD: There’s an online radio station that we’re starting with 24 hour mix tapes that we’ve done.
NN: You’re doing them all? 24/7?
SD: Yes. And they’re all animated. We’re crazy. And we’re going to give them out for free to people. If we’re able to do it all before April or March it will be amazing.
Catch 2manyDJs live this summer:
December 31 - Palace Theatre, Melbourne (LIVE SHOW)
Tickets available from fuzzy.com.au
January 1 - Summadayze, Melbourne
Tickets are available from Ticketmaster 136 100 or www.ticketmaster.com.au
January 1 - Field Day, Sydney
Tickets available from fuzzy.com.au
January 3 - Summadayze, Perth
Tickets are available from Ticketmaster 136 100 or www.ticketmaster.com.au
January 9 - Summafieldayze, Gold Coast
Tickets are available from Ticketmaster 136 100 or www.ticketmaster.com.au
January 10 - Midsummer Circus, Adelaide
Tickets available from fuzzy.com.au
