Exciting news from the Dewaele camp, I've cut the interview from Erol Alkan's site because it explains the project wonderfully.
Radio Soulwax App – 5 Questions With David Dewaele
‘Ok, so it’s a radio station, but not as you know it. For now, it’s a growing collection of 24 one hour-long mixes with visuals that we are sharing with you for free, and hopefully it will become a platform for many more things to come. We call them mixes, but in reality they are more like musical films based on the record sleeves.’We had a quick chat with David Dewaele to find out more about the Radio Soulwax App.
When and how did you came up with the idea to start a such a huge project?
It was about 2 and a half years ago. We had been asked many times to make another 2manydjs compilation and to be honest we didn’t see the point. People’s ways of finding out about music and listening to music has changed so dramatically in the last 10 years that we didn’t really care for putting out another CD with the shelf life of a few months and the limitations of how much we could physically fit onto it.We wanted to make something where musically we could get away with things that we can’t really do in front of a big audience and something that allowed us to be more visually creative as well. So we applied for an internet radio license, which gives us the freedom to play and stream whatever we want without having to clear any of it, as long as we make it free, which was more important to us than making money on it. The whole thing is basically a labour of love for music and record sleeves. We thought it would take us a good six months, but we got a bit carried away…
What about the track selection, what kind of music did you choose, and why?
Every hour has a different musical and visual theme. Musically it goes from genres to geographical connections, to songs from one artist only. The themes are quite random but it makes complete sense to us. It’s quite far removed from what people who know us only from our live shows, would expect. At least that is what we think. Visually, the themes are always based on the actual record sleeves but with a different slant. We’ve been very lucky to have been able to collaborate with a number of amazing filmmakers and animators on the radio, who have all put their heart and soul into this for the love of the project.
Do you have a favorite hour and why?
It changes all the time, especially whenever we finish a new show it’s always my favourite but right now it is the Librarian Girl hour, which is actually one that we finished about a year ago.
Where will the app lead to? how should people best enjoy it?
This is the crazy part. We honestly have no idea how people will experience it. It’s already hard enough to get people to watch one minute of a 5-minute youtube clip, let alone watch 24 hours of crazy music with visuals! so we’re launching on monday with 6 hours at once, which we hope won’t be too much or too little for people to take in, and then we are releasing a new show every week until we reach 24 some time at the end of october. We’ve made it as widely accessible as possible, there will be a stream of a continuous loop on our website and there is a more fancy version in the form of an app that allows you to choose which hours to stream or download. It also works well with Airplay so where exactly it will lead, we have no idea but we are giving people a lot of options to enjoy our project.
It must have taken a lot of work and time to put it all together, is there anything you’ve missed or wish you had include in retrospect?
Is there anything we’ve missed? Mainly a social life and common sense, and believe it or not, we have enough inspiration to do a second leg of 24 hours but whether we have the will power (or the money), is another question.
So hit up www.radiosoulwax.com tomorrow to get the first installment from the legendary brothers.
