Interview: 2manyDJs on breaking conventions, compilation CDs, and flying cars

2ManyDJs. You might of heard of them. Over a decade ago they put together mixtapes which couldn’t have flew in the face any more of what everyone else was doing.

Affronted by the very suggestion of the term 'genre', they ransacked every bit of music going in the aid of the ultimate party, glueing Vitalic to Skee-lo, Dolly Parton to Destiny’s Child and much, much more. In the process they, along with a few luminaries such as Erol Alkan and an at the time heavily electro influenced Damian Lazarus, transformed the mix CD and clubland as a whole.

Since then they’ve gone onto headline festivals and clubs across the planet, started a hugely popular band called Soulwax and very recently took the art of audio visual djing to the next level.

Ahead of them playing Birmingham this weekend for Gibb St Warehouse, we caught up with the Belgian brothers to get the inside knowledge on everything in their world at this moment. 

You’re returning to Birmingham to play your first ever date for the new Gibb St Warehouse. What’s your vibes on Birmingham as a city and are you looking forward to the show?

We've been fortunate to have been booked in Birmingham a great number of times and we always have a good time, whether as Soulwax or 2manydjs. I guess Birmingham has a special place in our hearts as it was the place where I spent a summer vacation in the mid-80s visiting our mum's best friend who had moved there from Belgium, got to watch breakfast television for kids on ITV and Channel4 (we only received BBC in Belgium) and so subsequently discovered Roland Rat Superstar, which was my very first 12" vinyl purchase.

Has the UK always been very receptive of your sound? Did it help that when you first blew up at the start of the century, there were guys like Erol Alkan and Damian Lazarus who were pushing the new aesthetic of electro/electroclash and the tearing down of genre conventions?

When we met Erol in '99, it was eerie how similar our tastes were, and how passionate we all were about music. It was clear to us that music in general, and dance music even more so, was heavily segregated and categorised which wasn’t how we saw it.

To be young and into music nowadays means you are probably into a large variety of different styles of music, all for different purposes in your life. It might sound strange but that was really not the case back then, and Erol was very instrumental in opening those doors with Trash. He was doing in London what we were doing in Belgium and so over the years we have been involved in each other's lives and careers in many different ways and he was, like you say, helpful in getting 2manyDJs recognised in the UK, even though we had already been quite successful with Soulwax, at least for our standards.

The Under the Covers series showcased your ability to not only mix records but also videos; something you’ve been adopting as part of your sets for a while. Is it crucial to have a constant relationship between what people are hearing and what they are seeing?

No it's not crucial at all, you can have a great time with just music, but what has happened in the last five or so years, is that dance music acts have been propelled into the role of playing in front of huge crowds, and since there is essentially nothing to see other than a few dudes looking at cd players or a laptop even, many of us have had to find a way of visually representing our music, and for us that meant the record sleeves. What has happened since is that we have gotten really into the visual side of things, hence Radio Soulwax.

You mentioned in Clash magazine that a compilation CD has a shelf life of maybe a month or two. Is the format pretty much completely dead, and is there little chance for a mix CD to ever have the impact again that your original Radio Soulwax compilations did?

Well the one compilation we released in 2002 was already an anomaly by itself, it went on to live a whole life of its own, after a while we were just standing on the sides watching it all happen as if it had nothing to do with us anymore. So in short, no. Even if the industry hadn't gone the course it did, there was no way we could have obtained a bigger, let alone a similar impact, which is good because it pushed us to do something completely different. This doesn't of course mean that mix CDs have no value whatsoever, but I’d be surprised if CDs in general will be still be around in the future.

You’re once again involved quite heavily with We love... Space in Ibiza in the upcoming summer. How relevant is the island still and what makes We Love such an enduring institution for you to be part of?

We have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Ibiza so as to its relevancy, it's hard to say since so much of what goes on musically over there is so cheesy and horrible, but it allows us to hang out and spend time on this beautiful island with great food, and a very rich history, and We Love... is the night with consistently the best lineups for us.

Last time we spoke to you there was the hint of potentially releasing new material. Is there likely to be any music from Soulwax in the foreseeable future?

Yes we are currently working on a new Soulwax album, as we type.

You’ve kick-started the year off with some cracking remixes, namely of Joe Goddard and Arcade Fire. Can we expect any further turns in the near future in this department?

We don't do very many remixes, really, so it feels like we have already filled our yearly quota with those two you mentioned, but who knows? We'd like to concentrate on this album first and then usually we get bored and will want to do something different.

Finally what lies in the future for you guys?

Hopefully jet packs and flying cars; ideally a world where everyone wears the same uniform, like in Logan's Run. That’s our hope.

2manyDJs play Gibb Street Warehouse this Saturday with Alex Metric. Tickets cost £15 and are available through Skiddle below.

Tickets are no longer available for this event