Interview with Stephen from Melody Maker issue 13.9.2000

Do you think your new single, "Too many DJ's", will be a hit?
I really wouldn't know. They video's being played on The Box and somebody said to us that if you're being played on The Box, then you're doing OK. Our cab driver said that he watches it all the time and he saw it and thought that we were great. But he thought that we were a boy band! When we released it the first time, it was just a limited promo, but this time a lot more people know about us. They know we're a bunch of wacky, Belgian people!

You're famous at home. Do you think you'll ever be as big here?
I doubt it. We always thought that we'd be the kind of band who are always Number 43 or something, just outside the Top 40. 'Too Many DJ's' is weird because it was Number One at home, but we never expected it to do as well. We're big in Belgium, but that doesn't mean anything, does it? We ought to have that on our T-shirts - 'Soulwax : Big in Belgium'! The video did a lot for us. A lot of people told us that they thought it wa hilarious. We filmed lots of old wedding DJ's, really old guys called things like DJ Loveboat.

How was the Carling Weekend?
It was brilliant. The crowd were really into it and there were so many good bands playing that you felt everyone was there for the music.

Do you and your brother (guitarist David) manage to avoid falling out like the Gallaghers?
Yeah, we're cool. We get on well most of the time. We had a row the other day when we were doing a session for XFM. He wanted to do a different version of 'Too Many DJ's', but I didn't think it was working. It ended up sounding really good though, so he was right. It's probably about 50-50 who's in the right when we argue - that's very diplomatic, isn't it?!

Are you writing new songs?
We've got a couple now and the plan is that we'll go to Portugal to write some more. We need some pressure put on us. We have to tell our management to force us to write. 'sit down! Write some songs, now!' I'm really lookin forward to recording new songs because we've been playing the same ones for about two years now. We're just trying to find a balance between what we do as a live band and what we do as DJ's.

What else have you got lined up?
As a live band, I think we've become really good now. We're a lot more confident in what we're doing. We're touring Britain with Brassy in October and they're so cool - I'm really looking forward to it.

You're a very dapper band - will you still be wearing your suits?
We haven't exactly sat down and thought about it! Not that we ever did, it was just a spontaneous thing. David always wore a suit and the rest of us thought it looked good. We'll have to do something, we couldn't go back to wearing jeans now.