Soulwax

Career

Soulwax produced their first EP, 2nd Handsome Blues, in 1995 and their first full-length album, Leave the Story Untold in 1996.

The 2004 album Any Minute Now spawned three singles in "E Talking", "NY Excuse" and the title track. The "E Talking" music video was controversial and restricted to post-watershed broadcast on music television channels. Filmed on location in London's Fabric nightclub, everyone in the video is depicted as being on a different drug, listed from A through Z (including popular drug nicknames).

The group produced a number of official and unofficial remixes, including "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House" and "Get Innocuous!" by LCD Soundsystem, "Robot Rock" by Daft Punk and "Dare" by Gorillaz. They are friends of artists Tiga, LCD Soundsystem and WhoMadeWho. The album Nite Versions (2005) is a collection of remixes of tracks from the album Any Minute Now.

In January 2006, Soulwax released their second remix album. Titled This Is Radio Soulwax, it was covermounted into the February 2006 issue of Mixmag. Their third remix album, Part of NYE Never Dies, was also covermounted into Mixmag in late 2008.

In summer 2006, Soulwax completed a "Nite Version remix" of Gossip's "Standing in the Way of Control" as well as their "Ravelight Dub" and "Ravelight Vocal Mix" of Robbie Williams' "Lovelight". The summer 2006 tour was filmed by director Saam Farahmand, and resulted in the documentary "Part of the Weekend Never Dies".

In August 2006, Soulwax were working on tracks for the new album from Tiga. In late 2006, it was announced in Belgian magazine HUMO that David and Stephen Dewaele had formed a band with Shane Doran and his brother-in-law Fergadelic, called Die Verboten.

In 2007, Soulwax produced remixes of "Gravity's Rainbow" by Klaxons and "Phantom Pt. II" by Justice.

Soulwax, under the guise of 2manydjs, headlined their own "Radio Soulwax" tent at the Rock Ness Festival held on 9 June 2007. The following day at the festival, they played a Soulwax Nite Versions show in the "Clash Arena." Later that month, they took part in the Wild in the Country event at Knebworth Park on 30 June 2007. In December 2007, they held Radio Soulwax-mas, a massive Christmas party in Flanders Expo, with guests such as Tiga, Erol Alkan, Boys Noize, Justice, Riton, Mixhell, Daniele Baldelli, Hong Kong Dong, Das Pop, Goose, and Milk Inc.

Soulwax produced the debut album by fellow Belgians Das Pop, fronted by Soulwax drummer Bent Van Looy, scheduled for 2009 release in the UK.

In December 2009, Soulwax produced the song "We Love Animals" for Crookers with Mixhell. In addition, Soulwax produced the song "Talk to Me" by Peaches.

In 2016, Soulwax returned with a new live show entitled "Soulwax Transient Program For Drums And Machinery". The new line up consisted of three drummers (Victoria Smith, Blake Davies and Igor Cavalera) as well as Igor's wife Laima Leyton, (also of Mixhell) on synths and backing vocals. This live show was the basis for their album From Deewee, released March 24.

''As Heard on Radio Soulwax''

In 2002, under the name 2manydjs, the Dewaele brothers released the compilation mixtape/mashup album As Heard on Radio Soulwax Pt. 2. The album, structured as a continuous DJ mix, is composed of 45 tracks the Dewaeles were able to clear the rights for. They originally requested rights for 187 tracks and got clearances for 114 of them; 62 were refused, and 11 remained untraceable.

Despite the Pt. 2 in the title, all other albums in the "series", even Pt. 1, are unofficial fan-released bootlegs. Released from 2002 to 2012, they are mostly compiled from the Radio Soulwax and Hang the DJ series of mixes 2manydjs did for radio stations, including Studio Brussel (Belgium), Radio 1 (UK), KISS 100 (UK), and Eins Live (Germany); the last several installments in the series (Pt. 12 to Pt. 15) are bootlegs of mixes from the 2011 incarnation of Radio Soulwax.

VIVID Sydney 2011

As part of the Vivid Live Festival in Sydney, David and Stephen Dewaele behind 2manydjs and electro-rock outfit Soulwax presented a one-off series of radio shows on 'Triple J' Australian national radio station. The series was broadcast nationally 6 PM nightly from 31 May 2011 to 3 June 2011.

Other work

The 2001 track "Theme from Discothèque" is by David and Stephen Dewaele from Soulwax, under the name Samantha Fu. They produced this track for a Ghent-based dancegroup called Kung Fu.

On February 2, 2009, Soulwax made a guest appearance on BBC Radio 1, playing 420 song introductions in a period of 60 minutes.

David and Stephen produced Bolis Pupul's debut album Letter to Yu, and recorded it at their studio, Deewee Studios, in Ghent.

In 2015, the Dewaeles founded the record label DEEWEE, operated out of their specially-designed studio in Ghent.

Film

In 2004, Soulwax compiled the soundtrack for the Belgian movie Steve + Sky. Soulwax contributed three instrumental tracks on this compilation under the name "Kawazaki".

Soulwax's remix of the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want" is the credit song of, and featured in the movie 21.

Director Saam Farahmand has filmed Soulwax on their international dates (2005–2007), capturing all the excitement, chaos and humour of the world tour. Soulwax filmed 120 shows with one camera in Europe, Japan, U.S., Latin America and Australia. This resulted in two films entitled "Part of the Weekend Never Dies"; a live music film and a documentary which includes 2manydjs, Soulwax Nite Versions and features James Murphy, Nancy Whang, Erol Alkan, Tiga, Justice, Busy P, The Naked Guy, So-Me, Peaches, Kitsuné, Klaxons and many more in behind the scenes footage, interviews, etc. They performed a sold-out gig at the London Royal Festival Hall, during which they did a première of the film. It came out on DVD September 2008.

Soulwax composed the soundtrack for the 2016 film Belgica by Felix Van Groeningen, crediting every song on the soundtrack to a different fictional band.

In 2025, the Dewaeles, under the 2manydjs name, provided the soundtrack for the Netflix film Banger directed by So Me.

Radio Soulwax

In 2011, Soulwax established a website called Radio Soulwax, in which a continuous mix played all day, featuring 24 hour-long mixes with visuals similar to those used in the 2manydjs live sets, and included music from many decades. These "RSWX hours" have since been made available on Vimeo.

Soulwax - Machine was conceived and directed by Saam Farahmand, who was inspired to create an interpretation of the ethos behind the project. The result is a film featuring model Marilyn Rose that encapsulates the audio-visual obsession of Radio Soulwax, according to Soulwax themselves. The film was previsualised, edited, and post-produced by Andrew Daffy's The House of Curves in London.

Soulwax FM

Soulwax contributed to the soundtrack of Grand Theft Auto V. They hosted and supplied the playlist to the in-game radio station "Soulwax FM".

Awards and nominations

Remixes

Production for other artists

• Tiga - Sexor (2006)
• Tiga - Ciao! (2009)
• Das Pop - Das Pop (2009)
• Peaches - "Talk to Me" (2009)
• Crookers - "We Love Animals" (with Mixhell) (2010)
• Hot Chip - Freakout/Release (2022)
• Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul - Topical Dancer (2022)
• The Blessed Madonna - "We Still Believe" (2023)
• Bolis Pupul - Letter to Yu (2024)
• Marie Davidson - City of Clowns (2025)

Discography as 2manydjs

;Official compilations

• As Heard on Radio Soulwax Pt. 2 (2002)

;Soundtracks

• Banger (2025)

;Remixes (officially released)

• Basement Jaxx - "Magnificent Romeo" (mashup of "Romeo" with "The Magnificent Seven" by The Clash, released officially on the 2005 compilation The Singles)
• Mina - "Capisco (2manydjs Edit)" (2020)
• Tiga - "Woke (2manydjs Edit)" (2023)

;Unofficial compilations These unofficial compilations are bootleg recordings of radio shows that 2manydjs did for Studio Brussel.

• 12 albums - As Heard on Radio Soulwax Pt. 0 to As Heard on Radio Soulwax Pt. 11
• Hang All DJs (all volumes) A bootleg recording of their Essential Mix for BBC Radio 1 in 2005 was released under the title 50,000,000 Soulwax Fans Can't Be Wrong.

Record collection

As sons of radio and TV host Zaki, the Dewaele Brothers grew up among vinyl records and started collecting them themselves. On 26 March 2014, students of the PXL university digitalized 5.000 of the more than 40.000 vinyl records owned by the Dewaele Brothers. As a gift back, the brothers played a set at a student afterparty.

References

References

1. (2019-01-21). "Soulwax : la musique ne s'arrête jamais !".
2. Strauss, Neil. (2002-12-29). "MUSIC: THE YEAR IN REVIEW -- THE CRITICS/THE 10 BEST ALBUMS; Somber Anthems, Loose-Limbed Funk". [[The New York Times]].
3. Bernard, Evan. (2014). "Soulwax E Talking".
4. (May 2005). "Rockness Line-ups, 9 & 10 June". [[The Skinny (magazine).
5. (2007-04-10). "More names added to Wild in the Country".
6. Vanden Broeck, Joris. (23 December 2007). "Radio Soulwax-mas :: 22 december 2007, Flanders Expo {{!}} enola.be".
7. Lester, Paul. (11 June 2008). "No 331: Das Pop". [[The Guardian]].
8. "Peaches, 'I Feel Cream' (XL)".
9. "soulwax.info". kevinenjoyce.com.
10. (9 February 2017). "Soulwax Announce New Album FROM DEEWEE - Pitchfork". pitchfork.com.
11. "Soulwax : 2 Many DJ – As Heard On Radio Soulwax Pt 2".
12. "2 many DJ's website - Albums - Compilations".
13. "2manydjs - Info, Biography, Discography, tracklistings, Bootlegs, downloads". djmixes.net.
14. (2011-06-01). "Triple J to host the Soulwax Brothers at Vivid {{!}} radioinfo".
15. (5 February 2009). "2 Many DJ's aka Soulwax: Filling In for Rob Da Bank on BBC Radio 1 on 02/02/09". hipsterwave.com.
16. Pearis, Bill. (November 29, 2023). "Charlotte Adigéry collaborator Bolis Pupul announces new solo album, shares "Completely Half"". [[BrooklynVegan]].
17. "2ManyDJs start new label".
18. "You Can't Always Get What You Want (Soulwax Remix)- As Featured in the Columbia Pictures Motion Picture 21".
19. (2008-04-25). "Review: Radio Soulwax Presents...".
20. Lynskey, Dorian. (2016-03-31). "Interview: Why Soulwax are writing music for imaginary bands". The Guardian.
21. Keith, James. (2025-04-07). "2manydjs soundtrack new Netflix film starring Vincent Cassel, Banger". DJ Mag.
22. Elise. (2011-07-23). "Radio Soulwax débarque sur le net! - Des Filles à Retordre...".
23. "Radio Soulwax".
24. "Lusty Electro Vids".
25. Wilson, David. (2011-10-30). "Saam Farahmand: Soulwax: Machine Trailer NSFW".
26. Roberts, Randall. (2013-08-23). "Grand Theft Auto V music tracklist, stations revealed".
27. (2011-08-23). "ZAMU - Vereniging voor ZAngers en MUzikanten: ZAMU-awards 1998".
28. (2000-03-08). "Soulwax wint Zamu Awards en verleidt Brits publiek".
29. (1999-10-22). "Koen Wauters grote winnaar op TMF Awards".
30. (2000-10-30). "Soulwax en Milk Inc kapen TMF-awards weg".
31. (2011-08-23). "ZAMU - Vereniging voor ZAngers en MUzikanten: ZAMU-awards 2002".
32. (2005-05-07). "'Steve + Sky' remporte la récompense du meilleur film belge aux Prix Joseph Plateau 2004".
33. (2004-10-02). "TMF Awards 2004 Winners".
34. (2005-09-27). "Coldplay en Gorillaz genomineerd voor vijf MTV Awards".
35. Gottlieb, Steven. (March 18, 2005). "NEWS: MVPA Award Nominees Announced (Updated)".
36. (2008-02-25). "ROBER AWARDS 2008: And the Rober goes to…(II) {{!}} Rober Awards".
37. (2007-02-28). "Fresh Air: Plug Awards".
38. "2007: 10th Edition (Time)".
39. (December 21, 2016). "31st Annual International Dance Music Awards - Winter Music Conference 2017 - WMC 2017".
40. Copsey, Robert. (2011-08-31). "BT Digital Music Awards 2011: Nominees in full".
41. "2011: 14th Edition (Fire)".
42. (2012-10-09). "UK Music Video Awards nominations announced {{!}} Complete Music Update".
43. "Best Art Vinyl Awards 2018 | ArtVinyl".
44. "Nominaties van de MIA's 2017 bekend {{!".
45. (2018-09-27). "UK Music Video Awards 2018: all the nominations! {{!}} News {{!}} Promonews".
46. Williams, Harrisson. (2019-11-20). "The Chemical Brothers, Soulwax, Bonobo nominated for 62nd Grammy Awards".
47. "Soulwax".
48. "Soulwax Announce First Album in Seven Years, Share New Songs: Listen".
49. Roberts, David. (2006). "British Hit Singles & Albums". Guinness World Records Limited.
50. Patrick. (2005-03-01). "50,000,000 Soulwax Fans Can't Be Wrong gullbuy music review".
51. "Kunstenpunt {{!}} Muziek {{!}} Soulwax".
52. "De platencollectie van Soulwax is groter dan die van u".
53. "De platencollectie van Soulwax is groter dan die van u {{!}} De Morgen".
54. "PXL-studenten inventariseren 5000 vinyls in ruil voor exclusieve Soulwax-afterparty".
55. (2014-03-26). "Studenten digitaliseren 5.000 platen van Soulwax".