Exactly twenty years ago to this date, on August 23 2004, Soulwax released it’s third album ‘Any Minute Now’. So I couldn’t resist writing this blog post to celebrate that birthday.
The album title ‘Any Minute Now’ refers to the answer Dave and Steph would give when they were asked when the new Soulwax album would be released. Due to the enormous success of 2manydjs, the release of the third album was almost six years after ‘Much Against Everyone’s Advice’.
Here’s some background information taken from various interviews:
Stephen: “As always, we (2manydj’s) were already bored with making mashups by the time it was a hype. We knew as soon as MTV called to say they want us to do a weekly mashup tv show, that it was over.”
The Dewaele brothers focused once again on being Soulwax and the band started working on their new album. But by that time, Inge Flipts and Stephane Misseghers have left the band already.
Stephane Misseghers: “They told me, Inge and (backing vocalist) Helmut that they would take a completely different approach with the new album and that it would take a long time. It was a tough pill to swallow but looking back on it now, I’m happy I didn’t have to work in a local supermarket for a couple of years before the new album would be ready.” Instead, Stephane became the new drummer in dEUS.
Stephen: “I can imagine it must have been a weird situation for people like Stefaan Van Leuven. We had been touring relentlessly with Soulwax and suddenly 2 Many DJ’s blows up.”
Stefaan: “Dave and Steph aren’t good in communicating with the people around them. It’s always a case of ‘What do you mean you didn’t know?’ Because for them it seems obvious what the plan is all along.”
David: “For me, the band would always be the most important.”
Flood (real name Mark Ellis) is named as the producer for the new album.
Stephen: “I loved a lot of the albums where Flood worked on. At a very young age he was already working with New Order. Off course he became famous by producing albums of U2, Nick Cave and PJ Harvey, but I was more into the albums he made with bands like Nitzer Ebb.”
Flood was interested in working with Soulwax, but the first question he asked their manager was if the band have humour. A couple of days later, Flood was in Ghent to listen to the demos in Soulwax’ studio.
Flood: “Soulwax were at that point of ‘Are we 2 Many Dj’s or are we Soulwax?’ And I’ve always loved electronic music and also rock music so it seemed like a perfect vehicle to experiment, to have fun. The real struggle for them was finding the essence of what they wanted to be: a rock band playing live music or was it as DJs playing dance music. Which ultimately was both.”
Stephen: “We made about 99 versions of each song. We didn’t really know where wanted to go with this.”
David: “We felt a lot of pressure to create something that was equally astonishing as 2 Many DJ’s.”
Stephen: “Flood told us he liked our attitude as 2 Many Dj’s, but that Soulwax was still too much playing by the rules of being a rock band. In contrast to Dave Sardy, Flood played the role of a mentor. He challenged us all the time.”
In Part Of The Weekend Never Dies, James Murphy (DFA, LCD Soundsystem) remembers the struggle of his friends at that time.
James: “I remember that recording process.
‘Hey, you wanna go and deejay in August?’
‘No man, we’re working on the record and it’s gonna be done in one week.’
‘Ok, and what about December? What’s going on guys.. you wanna..?’
‘I can’t man, the record.. one more week.’
‘March next year: So what are you guys doing?’
‘Ah, just one more week… just the final touches.’
‘Ah you know what: we hate them, half of the songs is crap, we’ve got to redo them…’
James: “I hated watching that.”
Michel Sloots aka Magic Sticks from Urban Dance Squad played drums on their demos, and told David and Stephen that they have to get Steve Slingeneyer back on drums.
Finally, six years after ‘Much Against Everyone’s Advice’, the new album ‘Any Minute Now’ is released in 2004. But the reviews are mixed.
Zane Lowe (BBC Radio One, Beats One): “I think the problem was that the dance kids wanted another 2 Many Dj’s record while the rock kids liked ‘Much Against Everyone’s Advice’. And it fell right in the middle.”
Stephen: “Although the album got mixed reviews, ‘E Talking’, ‘NY Excuse’ and ‘Any Minute Now’ are probably the best known Soulwax tracks around the world. That made me proud.”
‘Any Minute Now’, a real rock song, is the first single. But the album also delivers more electronic songs like ‘E Talking’ and ‘NY Excuse’.
The video of ‘E Talking’ was shot at Fabric in London and contains a cameo of the band and legendary producer Arthur Baker (as a bouncer).
Trevor Jackson (Playgroup, Output Recordings) was responsible for the iconic artwork.
Trevor: “Soulwax were good friends of mine. I knew that they were very visually literate and their cultural knowledge was really strong, so there were a lot of different ways I could’ve gone. I ended up doing eight or ten different ideas and that was just the one they picked. I think it was my favourite that I made for them, because it was the most avant-garde.
It was the first time I had done that effect. Most of my work has always been black and white with primary colours. I had explored Op Art before in many different ways, just not to that extent. I thought we would have a real problem getting it through the record company. But ultimately I think the effect of the cover was so strong that it actually overrode any doubts that anyone had about being illegible because it actually became an interactive object, something that people wanted to look at.”
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