Soulwax



Once again, the professional that I am, I'm off to intereview another band that I haven't actually heard any music by. All I have to go on is my friend's description: "you'd like them"! Well, that's a good start.

The Guitarist (David Dewaele) greets us at the bar in King Tut's (after we'd grabbed several drinks before happy hour ended), shakes our hands, mutters a sentence and sets off at lightning speed, without another word. He loses us a couple of times along the way and backtracks to find us (well, we do have our beer to think about!).

DON'T MAKE A FUSS, JUST HOP ON THE BUS

Here we meet Stephen Dewaele, the friendly vocalist. When asked to describe the band to the new listener (me!), his positive response is "we suck". Something we hear a lot more about throughout the interview as they continually joke that they're a shit band (but they are joking). My friend, however, describes them as Euro-pop with influences from most other genres, "but not reggae" contributes Stephen, who thinks Euro-pop is a 'wow' description. So Euro-pop it is...

The conversation (not interview, conversation) turns to the quest for popularity and fame. "There's a big difference between being popular and wanting people to hear your music," Stephen retorts to my question of which they wanted: popularity or just to do it for the music? "Being successful and being popular is something that helps maybe not as much for us, but other people to be more eager to work for you, to be your friend and to give you a good table in a restaurant, to give you free records, but for the rest it doesn't do anything for you. But on the other hand, making music is really, really, important to us and we definitely want everyone to hear our music - it's not like we want to be something exclusive, we want everyone to hear it, but it's not a main incentive to make music." David also makes a contribution: "I think if we wanted to be popular we wouldn't be doing this, cos we're taking the hard road - I mean we would have been in a boy band." So, they love what they do and fame isn't a necessity (and neither, they claim, a likelihood - shocker there for the band who claim their music "sucks").

We're being a nuisance now, wanting to know what they're trying to get across in their music, what it means (typical journo types, us!). Stephen answers: "When people start asking questions it's so hard, because we have to explain something we don't explain to each other. What's weird about doing interviews is that we've probably spent 10 hours already, explaining things that just take a second to do. Making music is something we don't really discuss. Either you say 'Let's do this' or 'Let's not'. You never have to prove why you should use it or why you shouldn't. We never discuss things like 'hey, lets take this hip-hop beat and try this riff over it'". I'm imagining the band meeting up to do work on their record and not speaking the whole time - sounds like a communication break-down to me. But hey, it obviously works!

According to Stephen, it is this musical side, their album, where they excel. "We're not an incredibly tight live band. We make up for it by doing a good show, we're not incredible musicians". Once again, marketing themselves perfectly.

SWEATY SOCKS JOCKS AND SHEEP SHAGGERS

The interview is being held in Glasgow, so the inevitable discussion of our great city commences. We crack a joke about Glasgow being crap and Stephen counters this with "It's one of the coolest places.. when we toured here with Muse it was really cool. It was really nice; there's a big difference between people here, I think, and say ***** or *****." - censored in case they lose fans! But everyone says things like that about the city they're playing in. But it's more compliments... "this is the second time we've been into this city and it's like, wow, I could imagine living here... it's like Gotham City to me." So there you go! Unfortunately this is when the tour manager enters to announce that here in Glasgow and the rest of Scotland, we're called Sweaty Socks Jocks. The best come-back we can give this Londoner is 'English prick' or 'wanker' - supplied by the band. (So, if anyone knows what Scots call Londoners, e-mail and let us know! - sorry folks in London.)

Their tour manager also brings our attention to a menacing looking video-camera and threatens legal action if we put a step wrong. But he's the type of person who never tells the truth, so we don't worry. (However, it sits and glares at us for the rest of the interview and I don't like cameras). He's also the one telling the band about people in different cities. Aberdonians aka sheep shaggers, and not forgetting the brummies, scoucers ("never cuddle a scoucer, I guarantee they'll take your watch, your wallet and anything else in your pocket"), manx, sweaty socks jocks, geordies... Then he hits us with this great joke: "Why do Scots wear kilts? Because the sheep got used to the sound of zips". David states "this is going to influence the next album, really," and enthusiastically sings "sheep shaggers, sheep shaggers, Geordie, Geordie, Geordie". I can see it being a hit. The band are fascinated with the idea that we would have names for people in different cities, because this is unheard of in their native Belgium.

AND THE MUSIC?

So, guys, what do you write about in your songs? "...relationships , what we see around us when people go out, some of our friends, ourselves also... having trouble with your girlfriend and throwing glasses at each other. We also write about what we were taking about earlier" - the fame game - "in 'Too Many DJs'". "If only I could sell myself, in a way that even I would buy". It's not long before we have to say goodbye and let them go and soundcheck!