Stephen and David Delwaele, AKA Soulwax, 2ManyDJs, Soulwax Night Versions etc, etc, etc, have a worldwide reputation as being two hard-working dudes. Fifteen years on since the conception of their rock-electro group Soulwax, the Belgium brothers remain at the forefront of musical innovation.

After the release of their revolutionary mixtape As Heard On Radio Soulwax Pt. 2, they went on to release a big bunch of internet radio sessions which were made free to the public. After criss-crossing the globe many times over during 2009 under an array of their chosen monikers, the radio station had new life breathed into it and Radio Soulwax was born.

We caught up with the charmingly hilarious Stephen Dewaele to discuss the concept behind Radio Soulwax, switching between alter-egos, and some of the more confusing aspects of their projects and the paranoia it can cause.

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2ManyDJs/Soulwax - Part Of The Weekend Never Dies clip

I've just been watching your Part of the Weekend Never Dies DVD.

Oh really man, in the morning? You are crazy.

I didn't get much sleep last night.

Well that's good then.

It's a killer movie, by the way. It's put together perfectly.

Thank you very much.

I imagine that the kind of touring schedule depicted there hasn't subsided much?

No, it hasn't really changed at all!

Where are you at the moment?

At the moment I'm home. We've got two weeks of staying at home and rehearsing a new Soulwax set that we're going to play on Friday and Saturday at Brixton Academy. Then we're doing all these Christmas shows over Europe.

Is that the Soulwaxmas shindig?

Yep, that's where we play as Soulwax and do the 2ManyDJs thing. We also have Tiga, Boysnoize, Aeroplane, Riton and a few others who are coming along and playing with us.

Breakbot, yeah?

Yes, Yes! From Paris.

He comes highly recommended from Busy P.

Oh good. It's great, you know. It's just a really big excuse to hang out with all of our friends.

This is obviously a Soulwax headline tour. How do you find it, shifting between the two alter-egos?

In our heads it's pretty simple. It's always other people who seem to ask us 'what's it like to be in the band and then to DJ blah blah blah'; to us it's pretty normal. It think it's also a case where each needs the other. Once we play as Soulwax a lot, we kind of like going back to DJ'ing. Once we've played as 2ManyDJ's a lot we think to ourselves "ok, let's make this a bit harder on ourselves". It's great to be able to do remixes and produce music for other people, too. It works for us.

I imagine the intensity levels shift quite a bit. There's only so much you can do when you're on a set of decks.

Yep, and you can only push out other peoples music. I think it's a bit of a rule we made that when we play as 2ManyDJs we will only play other peoples stuff. When we play as Soulwax we play our own stuff, with some minor exceptions. There's a couple of little rules we try and be true to.

Talking before about your Soulwaxmas tour and the great supports you have on it - did you guys pull these yourselves?

No, no, no. To be fair, most of the people there, aside from Breakbot, have been doing it for three years with us. At the beginning when we did it with Crookers and Boysnoize etc…they weren't the superstars that they are now. It all started as an excuse to have it at Christmas. When we got the offer to do Brixton, the tickets went on sale without any of the support guests announced. It sold out in six days.

It's become a big thing now. We play really big shows all over Europe, but I think the main reason for doing this is to hang out with a big group of friends over Xmas and we can all do something different, musically. It's a special challenge. It's actually all an excuse!

Well it's a good excuse.

Our whole life is an excuse..

Welcome to my world.

[Laughs]

Talking about your documentary before, it really encapsulated the substance behind 'Radio Soulwax'. Tell me a bit about this idea.

Well, I do think we're really really good at - without knowing it ourselves - naming projects that we haven't actually done yet. But we know that by naming them, we will have to do them. One of the things that we always wanted to do was make a radio (show), it was already in our heads. Then when we went on tour it was like 'well if you get Soulwax and you get 2ManyDJs, then it's kind of like a radio Soulwax'. A bit naive, but now we're really working on the radio station and it's pretty full circle.

We're not conscious about all these concepts and the downside to all of this stuff is, it becomes confusing. It becomes confusing for the people who want to release your records, or promote your music..I dunno…we're not really easy to promote.

Channeling energies into one stream?

Yeah, exactly. How do you explain what 2ManyDJs does, or what Soulwax does? Now that we produce, now that we have another side-project etc etc..

So, I guess this is a natural progression on from your radio session. Do you feel as far as free listening goes, this could be the future?

Yes. I mean, I do think when we do the radio thing, we will do it for free, because I don't believe in people having to pay for mixes that you can make at home. We are gonna try and make them special by animating them and stuff, but I would feel a bit weird asking people for money for that, you know?

I don't know it's the way things will necessarily be in the future, but I do think at the moment for a band to be commercially successful and have any chance of making some money - continuously - you need to play live. We've never been the sort of band who is worried about whether or not we're getting screwed over with our royalties. I download stuff on the internet, you know?

I downloaded a record of yours last night…

[Laughs] Yeah, yeah.

I think it's pretty hackneyed these days to refute the acceptability of that sort of activity.

Absolutely. Especially for things like research. You're on the other side of the world and you can access information on pretty much any artist you're into and it can help you out. It's an amazing tool.

You guys have always managed to capture a great emotion live. You never take yourselves too seriously.

Yeah, I think this is a problem with a lot of bands. This is something I really like about Radiohead. So many people think they're really miserable all the time, but I think they're really funny guys. I think there is some great humour in that band and that goes for all of my favourite artists, they all have a sense of humour.

Here's a fantastic quote from yourself: "Influences can come from anything, even with music that's bad or annoying."

When did I say that!? [Laughs]

I have it in front of me right now...

I must have been stoned…

Most likely, but I think its a great quote and there's a lot of truth to it.

Well yeah, I think so. My Dad was a DJ and he never played anything that was good or bad - it just had balls, to him. To this day Dave [Dewaele] and I don't really know what he was about. I think it's the thing where music in some way or another emotionally appeals to you. You can hear an awful song that makes you want to puke - that's an emotion. At the moment there's way too much stuff out there that I just don't want to listen to.

Agreed. Before you go, it needs to be asked. Will the full live show be coming out with you in January?

Definitely. We will be bringing it all out. We have a huge visual aspect which accompanies our shows. We've never brought that out before because it's generally too much and too expensive, but this time we are going all out. We really love Australia and it will be great to get out there again for the Summer.

Perfect. Ok well, well I'll leave it at that this morning.

[Laughs] Really? Was it bad?

Not at all, but I am going to go back to bed and watch the rest of your movie.

No, no. It sounds like you're getting a bit too paranoid!

[Laughs] Thanks Steph, good luck over Summer.

Thank you, mate.

Nick Holt

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2MANYDJS - AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2010

Dec 31 Palace Theatre – Melbourne, Australia – 2manydjs live show
Jan 01 Summadayze (afternoon) – Melbourne, Australia – 2manydjs dj set
Jan 01 Field Day Festival – Sydney, Australia – 2manydjs live show
Jan 03 Summadayze – Perth, Australia – 2manydjs live show
Jan 09 Summafieldayze – Gold Coast, Australia – 2manydjs live show
Jan 10 Midsummer Circus – Adelaide, Australia – 2manydjs dj set