Every Thursday I look back to the past
Before 2manydjs, Dave and Steph were getting very succesful with their eclectic dj sets as ‘The Flying Dewaele Brothers’ (later ‘The Fucking Dewaele Brothers’).
The Flying Dewaele Brothers’ dj sets were always a mashup of different musical genres. But the brothers took it to another level when they started making their own mashups. Studio Brussels ask Dave and Steph to do a weekly show on Saturday called Hang The DJ. These radio mixes have the same creativity, humor and eclectic song selection as their dj sets.
Stephen: “It was cool, we could do what we want. We had to make an hour each week, where we were already starting to make edits and mashups.”
Hang The DJ was bootlegged massively.
Kenny Gates, label boss of PIAS, wanted to capitalize on the success of the brothers’ deejay career and asked them to make an official mix album.
The brothers gave Kenny a list of songs they want to use. It took them hundreds of phone calls to get it all done, but David and Stephen feared they would never get enough tracks cleared to make the album.
Stephen: “They gave me a list of songs that were approved. The first thing I saw was The Velvet Underground, and I said: “yes!”. The second track that was approved was Dreadlock Holiday by 10 CC. I looked at the whole list, “hmm, The Residents”.
In the end I thought: “Okay, this is going to work”. That’s how it started. The album was actually finished rather quickly. I think it took five or six weeks and it was really cool to do.”
The brothers released the record ‘As Heard On Radio Soulwax Pt. 2’ under the name 2manydjs.
At the time of the release, back in 2002, you could find a list on the 2manydjs website on how easy or difficult it was to get the tracks for the album cleared.
So here’s that track by track guide:
emerson, lake and palmer “theme from peter gun”
basement jaxx “where’s your head at?”
2 many dj’s:
“it’s a perfect song to start with due to the eponymous, bombastic intro. we already made a remix for personal use of basement jaxx’ “romeo” with the clash’s “the magnificent seven” but we were unable to clear the clash’s copyrights.
so we thought of something to fit with “where’s your head at?” and this worked perfectly”
2 many cleareance:
“we had a little difficulty with licensing the basement jaxx tune ‘cause they’d accidentally switched two songtitles on the record-sleeve. it took some time to figure that out”
peaches “fuck the pain away”
2 many dj’s:
“this is just a fucking cool song, and not many people know it, so it’s perfect to create a “what-the-fuck-is-that?-feeling” right after the basement jaxx track which is much better known.
2 many clearances:
“the small, independent labels never make much hassle, they just want some money and they’re happy”
velvet underground “i’m waiting for the man”
2 many dj’s:
“an all time favourite of ours, that’s always included in our dj-sets. it was one of the tracks that was essential for the album”
2 many clearances:
“any track of lou reed would’ve been a problem but luckily he doesn’t control all the rights from the velvet underground-catalogue. we also tried to get the copyrights to reed’s ‘viscous’, for instance, and that was a definite no-go
polyester “j’aime regarder les mecs”
2 many dj’s:
“the track hardly gets used in that mix but we wanted to credit them anyway because the original is so brilliant. it’s an electro cover version of coutin’s ‘j’aime regarder les filles’ but obviously changed around so it’s told from a shall we say , different viewpoint. big up to polyester”
sly & the family stone “dance to the music”
ready for the world “oh sheila”
2 many dj’s:
“a very cool bit on the album, a perfect example of how you can create something totally new out of two different tracks”
2 many clearances:
“we never thought “dance to the music’ was going to get cleared but surprisingly it wasn’t a problem, we licensed the copyrights already almost two years ago”
dakar&grinser “i wanna be your dog”
2 many dj’s:
”we’ve been playing this for three years already, it’s a real classic ‘cause it started off the whole ‘new wave-electro’ hype. our respects to DJ hell!
2 many clearances:
”no problem”
ural 13 diktators “disko kings”
2 many dj’s:
“a super-cool, quit recent track. we always sing along to the vocoder bit, very catchy”
2 many clearances:
“a bit difficult to find out who owned the master takes, but no further problems”
bobby orlando “bobby o. medley
2 many dj’s:
“he’s the man! all his songs sound exactly alike, but what a sound that is!”
2 many clearances:
“no one nowhere could say who owned the copyrights and when we finally found out, the guy in question had never heard of this ‘bobby O. megamix”. even ben liebrand, who actually produced the megamix, asked to let him know who owned the rights to the song”
felix da housecat “silver screen shower scene”
2 many dj’s:
“it uses the same sample that’s in the bobby o. megamix, and it’s a song we never get bored of. felix has got a funky approach to electronic music, a bit like kraftwerk, and we like that”
the stooges “no fun”
salt’n pepa “push it”
2 many dj’s:
“this was a mix we made a long time ago, and it’s always been a success when we play it live, so it definitely had to be on the album”
2 many clearances:
“the stooges-people gave us a hard time ‘cause they did want to license ‘i wanna be your dog” , but not “no fun” they came round in the end”
hanayo “joe le taxi”
2 many dj’s:
“it was on one of the hard to find colette-compilations first, but it was too good to be not included here as well. when we play it in the clubs, we get some pretty confused reactions from the people on the dancefloor”
2 many clearances:
“we started our search in japan but there they claimed that this was a ‘europe only’-release. in europe they said the exact opposite. when that was cleared out we found out that there are three different versions of the song and the story could start all over again. it was a mess. in the end we had to send mp3’s to the record-companies so that they could figure out who owned what version”
the jets “crush on you”
funkacise gang “funkacise bonus track”
2 many dj’s:
“we wanted to use the ‘running’ track from alan braxe and fred falke but they wouldn’t give the rights. instead we cleared the same sample they used in their song and created our own little version”
2 many clearances:
“monsieur braxe only wants to be included on ‘dance-orientated’ compilations”
lil’ louis “french kiss”
2 many dj’s:
“you’ve got to be a real ‘trainspotter’ to catch this one”
zongamin “serious trouble”
2 many dj’s:
“we were big fans of his first release, ‘tunnel music’, and when we found this 12” in london it turned out to be even better! apparently they were honoured to be on the album as well”
2 many clearances:
“they almost let us have it for free. almost”
garbage “androgyny (thee glitz mix by felix da housecat)”
2 many dj’s:
“a very good remix from felix (da housecat) again, a classic example of a dance-track that really rocks!
2 many clearances:
“normally this is an ‘un-clearable’ track – which goes for everything from garbage – but they let us have it as a favour”
frank delour “discjockey delight”
2 many dj’s:
”it’s impossible to get clearance for anything from michael jackson, but we found this on the ‘buds international’-label. it’s a track that uses the ‘billie jean’ groove, and quite unexpectedly we got permission to use it”
2 many clearances:
”the guys from ‘buds’ were very friendly, we could license any track from their catalogue. ‘good choice,’ they said in the end, ‘..you guys have good taste’”
the residents “Kaw Liga”
2 many dj’s:
“basically this is – again – the same groove as ‘billie jean’, so we edited the two tracks together. it’s quite difficult to hear where one stops and the other starts. also, everyone seems to be familiar with this track but nobody knows it’s the residents, not the fact that it’s a hank williams song”
2 many clearances:
“they instantly ordered 100 copies of the mix-album to give to their fanclub”
carlos morgan “shake your body”
2 many dj’s:
“this is an old record we found at a flea-market and it’s another jackson-song, a reggae version of the jacksons 5 classic. despite not being able to locate the performer we included it, so this way we beat the system three times”
2 many clearances:
“we tracked down one carlos morgan in montreal, canada, which seemed right ‘cause the album had a montreal address on it that turned out non-existent. but the guy – who is a now a r&b-star singed to a major company – disassociated himself from the track so we were unable to clear the rights of this one”
alphawezen “into the stars” (firebirds mix)
2 many dj’s:
“a band we never heard of but they use the same killer-groove as in nika costa’s ‘like A feather’ and we like that groove very much”
interstellar “concepts”
2 many dj’s:
“one of the few more downtempo dance-releases we liked from last year and not very well known”
2 many clearances:
“before giving clearance they first had to make up their mind about which name they would use for themselves in the future. It was either dj pogo or interstellar”
The band actually renamed themselves to ‘Copyright’ and released this track on their ‘Pogo EP’.
nena“99 luftballons”
2 many dj’s:
“another track that’s hard to spot, we just use a few seconds from the break in the original song.”
10CC “dreadlock holiday”
destiny’s child “independent women pt 1”
2 many dj’s:
“another mix we already made some time ago, included because of the big demand there seems to be for it”
2 many clearances:
“10CC wasn’t a problem but destiny’s child was a tough one to get. we already cleared two other destiny’s child songs and the people from their management were getting a bit nervous. because this track is on the ‘charlie’s angels’ soundtrack they said it was impossible to license it for any compilation. but then we came across some weird ‘tribute’-compilation that featured the track but re-recorded by a band called ‘the countdown singers’. we could’ve used that one instead but they gave it a go in the end”
dolly parton “9 to 5”
2 many dj’s:
“theoretically not the most logical choice to mix into a destiny’s child track but this runs surprisingly smoothly, honest!”
2 many clearances:
“first it was okay but then they tried to take it back ‘cause there was a dolly parton ‘greatest hits’ about to be released. eventually they changed their mind back”
royksopp “eple”
2 many dj’s:
“we’ve been mixing this into the dolly parton-track for a while in our dj-sets and thought it fitted nicely on the album”
2 many clearances:
”because this was their first single release, no problem”
arbeidt adelt “death disco”
2 many dj’s:
“an instrumental cover-version of the pil-song that, we think , beats the original. also, it seemed like a good idea to include an original new wave-classic between all those ‘eighties-revivalists’ and it’s a belgian band, which is also cool!”
jeans team “keine melodien feat mj lan”
2 many dj’s:
“something we discovered while playing in germany, another classic in our dj-sets and the award for the best lyric on the whole album!”
2 many clearances:
“ we just had to find out if it was dj ian -with an “i”- or dj lan -with an “l” it turned out to be mj lan, with an “m” and a “l”.
skeelo “i wish”
maurice fulton “my gigolo” (instrumental)
the breeders “cannonball”
2 many dj’s:
”we use this a cappella vocal in a quite a few mixes. we did one with ‘eye of the tiger’ from survivor but that seemed a bit of a problem..”
2 many clearances:
“we couldn’t get the rights to ‘eye of the tiger” ‘cause bush jr. used it during his election-campaign and survivor were so pissed off that they won’t let anyone use it anymore for anything”
2 many dj’s:
“an incredible deep, funky groove. it’s a perfect break”
2 many dj’s:
”one of the first bootleg-mixes we ever did, about four years ago. So it couldn’t be left out.”
2 many clearances:
”this must be the one and only compilation ever that’s got the breeders on it. again, we got it as a special favour”
the cramps “human fly”
2manydjs:
this is a true classic that was very necessary to have on the album. definitely one of our favourites.
wildbunch “danger! high voltage”
2 many dj’s:
“this is a great band from detroit which features jack and meg white from the white stripes on vocals on this track. this is a very cool track. it’s funny and it rocks hard in a disco-kind of way, perfect!”
2 many clearances:
“for weeks we could only reach the company’s answering-machine but in the end it came out that the rights were still owned by the band, so they had to have a band meeting first”
op:l bastards “don’t bring me down”
2 many dj’s:
”another discovery from our time in germany, although it’s a finnish band. dave’s a big elo-fan so there was no use in trying to keep this from the album”
2 many clearences:
”their record-company first couldn’t find it in their data-base ‘cause the band changed their name from ‘opel bastards’ to ‘op:l bastards’”
adult “hand to phone”
2 many dj’s:
“we couldn’t use the carl craig remix for some reason, so we re-edited the whole song in a way that resembled his mix”
2 many clearances:
“first there was a problem because we accidentally asked for a ‘carl cox-mix’, then it seemed that carl craig didn’t want anything to do with a DJ-compilation that also included dolly parton”
vitalic “la rock”
2 many dj’s:
“this is as classic as they come! it’s some sort of ‘metal-house’ track from France. this gives me the same kick like any track from kyuss or something. proof that dance music can be quite rock’n roll”
queen of japan “i was made for loving you”
2 many dj’s:
“another one in the ‘funny covers-series’. they also do a great version of laidback’s ‘white horse” but this one is just as cool
new order “the beach”
detroit grand pubahs “sandwiches”
2 many dj’s:
“it’s the b-side from ‘blue monday’ and basically it’s the instrumental with a lot of ‘swooshes’ and echo’s on it. we like to fuck around with this track, in this case we put the a cappella version of detroit grand pubahs’ ‘sandwiches’ on top of it.”
2 many clearances: “a first the record-company were willing to license ‘blue monday’ but not this one. until i talked some sense in them by pointing out it’s basically the same track”
lords of acid “i sit on acid” (soulwax remix)
2 many dj’s:
“a remix we did for our fellow countrymen, and so the only official release of ourselves that’s on the album. we are really content with the results and because the 12” is hard to find we used it in the mix”
streamer “start button private thoughts in public places”
2 many dj’s:
“this track was just begging to be the closing song after these 60 minutes of mayhem”
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