Part of the Weekend Never Dies

Explain to me what you do.

Basically, anything we like,

under the name of Soulwax.

Come on.

First of all, can you tell

the audience what's the difference

between 2ManyDJs

Soulwax

and Radio Soulwax?

That's how simple it is.

Soulwax? It's like

French Canadian or something.

It's like a hemp store or like

a place that sells dragon sticks.

OK, so 2ManyDJs

are Dave, my brother,

and me, DJing

and playing other people's music.

Soulwax is a rock band

which includes

my brother Dave, again,

me

Steve on drums

and Stefaan, our bass player.

We're a rock band.

And then Nite Versions

is Soulwax remixing itself

and playing the remixes live.

Then we thought,

"What if we do everything together

and we do one night

called Radio Soulwax?

"We can do it all together."

It's confusing.

It's almost Goa. It's like

a trance name. A bad trance name.

You couldn't just go to Nite Versions.

It would have been lunacy.

2ManyDJs had gone off

DJing around the world,

but the rock band was

in a time capsule.

Every time I see Dave or Steph,

the first thing I say,

before 'hello', is,

"Any minute now is a great record."

And then they went and decided

to ditch Any minute now

and do a different version

of the album. And I was utterly...

...disappointed.

Oh, f***. F***.

Nite Versions, to me,

rocked as hard as the rock band did.

Soulwax, because it's

a live band but it sounds like...

...punk

electronic

possibly the best thing I've ever seen

in my whole entire life.

- It was diabolical.

- Beyond diabolical.

It's like cocaine

without the big ideas.

One of them dared me to go onstage

naked, so I thought, "F*** it."

He thought nothing of it.

To make the dance record

out of the gate would have felt

like capitulating to the pressure

of the new success as a DJ duo

in a world in which dance

and rock are no longer separate

like they were when

the Soulwax records were made.

And then when the massive pressure

of making the Soulwax album proper

was released, and the album came out,

to be like, "Want to make

some remixes? Nite versions?"

In our studio, without much pressure;

that was how to bridge the gap.

I remember that.

It was, "Want to DJ in August?"

"No, the record's

gonna be done in one week."

OK, December.

"Hey, you want to come?"

"Can't, man, the record.

One more week."

March. "What are you doing?"

"One more week.

It's just the final touches."

"We hate half the songs, it's crap.

We have to redo them."

God, I hated watching that.

Soulwax started because we're big fans

of Monster Magnet and Kyuss

and all that. Masters of Reality.

That's why we started playing music.

And we were already interested

in a lot of other things

and it came out of it.

That's where we come from.

We toured, against everyone's advice.

We would do support for Muse

and all these bands for months,

and we'd get really bored because

at 11 o' clock the show was over.

"OK, cool, what do we do now?"

Most times we'd go to clubs

and ask the DJs if we could take over

because we didn't like their stuff.

That's how we started doing 2ManyDJs.

We really started from being

on tour and being bored.

...changed the world

with his impossible puzzles.

2ManyDJs, live

and, introducing the album

Nite Versions by Soulwax

on November 22nd at Salon 21.

Special guests:
No Somos Machos

pero Somos Muchos.

Soulwax and 2ManyDJs:

Nite Versions Live.

A presentation to the rhythm of...

Bits of the album are sounds

they gave us when we did a remix

of NYExcuse.

And we stole them. Other people steal

them from us now, which is funny.

The drum sounds from NYExcuse

which we used maybe

ten times, I think, so...

Soulwax's beats, at the very least,

are on the Justice album.

You're supposed to do something

you can look at, I think, as a DJ.

It's not really exciting.

They're just...

Godfathers.

I mean they're...

Pioneers.

Yeah, I mean it's...

If there was a word that could combine

'pioneer' and 'godfather'...

With 2ManyDJs, sometimes,

I think we did it so much

that we wanted to be in a band again.

And we started being Soulwax again.

Then we made Nite Versions

and everything fell into place.

We can do everything!

DJ, play with the band, invite

our friends and do the whole night.

That is what I'm talking about.

Tiger-striped ice cream cones.

- Are you filming?

- Yeah.

- Can I dance?

- Yeah.

Say something about Soulwax.

I love you Soulwax,

you make all my dreams come true.

Radio Soulwax, when did you

decide to start doing that?

The blueprint for it is super-simple.

It's Nite Versions as a band live,

and 2ManyDJs as whatever,

headliner DJ spot,

and everything in between is filled up

with whatever band we love...

One live band and then two other DJs

who play in-between all these things.

And how did you find

being the promoters?

It was hard on Dave and me, 'cause

we're there from the first band or DJ.

You invite the people, so you try

and make the effort to be there.

You're there for the sound check,

then you play with Nite Versions,

then you come off, and 2ManyDJs

is always the end of the night.

So we'd have to DJ again, and then

everybody on the tour would go crazy

so we would be the soundtrack

for their decadent lifestyle.

It's kind of fun but it's tiring,

'cause you would stop at 4am,

like, "Wow, I've been here from 6.

It's been... Wow. This is..."

Then off to the next city

and you do it again.

O-U-L...

- W.

A-X.

- The drummer is amazing.

- Man, drums live...

I was right up there.

Where were you?

So many f***ing people out there.

Literally the best night ever.

I don't do this many drugs, but...

And this bloke was there...

Good career move? Probably not.

Probably lose my job on Monday.

He was going to kiss me.

I had to strangle him,

like, "Get the f*** off!"

She's really nice.

- I was terrified!

- Then he grabbed my arse, like, "Ow!"

Couldn't stop dancing.

I've never taken drugs

in my whole life.

Ever.

Who gives a f***?

That is so cool! That guy is so cool,

because he likes music.

Sorry to interrupt. I'd like to say

I've been in the business

and in electro

for more than 15 years now.

Sorry.

This is Steph when he DJs.

And this is Dave.

So it's like sine and cosine.

I think Steph's taste...

...drives a lot of it.

Which ultimately...

Which I've kind of come to realise

is pretty much a producer's role.

You know, very much so.

And Dave,

Dave's ability with

the machines, and also this taste,

is... fantastic.

They'll be the first

to criticise each other.

But if there's somebody else

threatening them

or having conflict with them,

then they'll be the first

to defend their brother.

Neither could survive

without the other.

He put the bottle on the table and

it popped out and went into his eye.

If you're the boyfriend of one,

you have to deal with the others too

so it doesn't make much difference.

This guy's like sausage, right?

Meat in the big grinder,

music. It's sausage.

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