This week i interviewed Waxdolls, our Spotlight artist of the month and a name that has been featured on the blog a few times with their tracks and videos. Waxdolls are based in Ghent, Belgium and with a few releases out already they’ve been making quite some noise! Signed on Sputnik, Waxdolls just finished their “Dingeling King” EP and like most of you, I hope and will try to find out what else they are planning and what else we should expect by them in the near future. So…
Wim will be answering the questions, as Lieven is on a trip to France.
01. Hi guys! Would you mind introducing Waxdolls?
Waxdolls is an electronic live band, with members Wim Slabbinck and Lieven Dermul founded in 2007. In 2009 we released our first longplayer, “High Speed Killer Ride” on Sputnik/PIAS, recorded in Temple Studios Malta. After the LP, we made a lot of remixes for other artists (Shameboy, Black Box Revelation, Aerotronic, Wallace Vanborn…)
We used to play both in an indie rock band during high school. Afterwards we both went our own way, Lieven started studying at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent, I studied Sexology. Back in the days, I used to be a drummer, but bought me some synths and workstations, as did Lieven. After a few years, we spent a few days making music and it was so much fun that we decided that we should make music together again.
02. You grabbed our attention with your tracks “Favorite Girl” and “Spoiled Rich Bitches” from the “High Speed Killer Ride” LP. An album that had a very characteristic “rock influenced” sound, what was the feedback you got for it?
Overall it was very good. A lot of gigs in Belgium followed (Dour, Pukkelpop, 10 Days Off, Laundry Day…) Due to extensive blogging in foreign countries, we managed to attract a lot of foreign fans and some touring, mainly in France, but also in Portugal, Germany, Austria and so on.
03.What are your influences/music backgrounds and what or who might have played a role in shaping your sound?
Evidently, we listened a lot to Soulwax in those days. They are also from Ghent and are always a big inspiration for us. Besides that, we also liked a lot of electronic dance acts such as The Faint, Infadels, Does It Make You Offend, Yeah?, Kap Bambino, and so on. What we liked about those bands live is that they are all able to transform electronic music to something dynamic on stage. Actually we were both mainly into rock music but somehow we ended up producing electronic music. You can still hear that background on the LP, especially on songs like “Favorite Girl”, “Epsilon”, “High Speed Killer Ride”, “System Crash”, “15 Minutes”.
04. Apparently you’ve done quite a few videos. If I’m not mistaken, 3 for “High Speed Killer Ride” and one for “Dingeling King” and you’ve been in all of them. What was the experience of participating in making those videos like? Surely “Dingeling King” looks like it was fun…
Actually, we did not appear in our first video “Chips”, but we did in all the rest. We always try to do something extra that suits the track. We put a lot of time in preparing our clips, we love to make ’em (especially the “Spoiled Rich Bitches” and “Dingeling King” clip). With “Dingeling King” it surely was a lot of fun shooting it, especially for Lieven 🙂 Staying a whole day with a bunch of nice chicks in a club on a Sunday afternoon… There are worse things than that.
05. Speaking about the videos, which school is the one in “Chips”? I bet many of the readers would like to know and personally I would love to enroll for next year. Seriously now, what happened with the “Dingeling King” video and the censorship problems? Is there an uncensored version out as well?
Long story… To start: we made a censored cut for youtube and an uncensored cut for our own website. Only 2 hours after uploading the censored version to YouTube, it was banned due to explicit images and sexual content. We kept the nudity as much as possible out of the clip (believe me, it was hard) but the sexual insinuations were apparently the major hurdle for YouTube. Of course, the press loved the story, and it was on all big press sites here in Belgium, as in the papers and so on… Promotionally speaking, this was bulls eye but the fact that we were actually making a parody on all those typical american-style hip-hopclips was left a bit behind.
06. Speaking about “Dingeling King”, you collaborated with Gloria on the vocals, how was that as an experience and are you happy with the result? If you could pick anyone to collaborate with, whom would you pick?
Well, she did a great job on the track and we will work with her again. She’s also featuring now in our new live show this summer, we already had some shows with her already (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmw4Ks6LmsQ)
Personally, I would love to work with Kelis. She’s such a great artist and a great musical inspiration (Wim). Or the lads from Simian Mobile Disco, I wouldn’t say no to that!
07. What would you say is your biggest music achievement/highlight so far?
This interview! No, serious? I think, playing before Digitalism at Ancienne Belgique, playing before Squarepusher at Pukkelpop, closing down Dour Festival and headlining some festivals in France.
08. Do you prefer working only with computers/sequencers or do you get your hands dirty playing and recording instruments? Do you use samples and what’s your opinion on sampling and copyright?
We do both. Mainly, we start off on computers/sequences, but when we go to recording mode, we go analog most of the time. Regarding samples: actually, on whole the “High Speed Killer Ride” album there is not one sample from another artist. We made and make all our sounds ourselves.
09. If your studio was on fire what would be the first thing to save?
Wim: Backups, backups, backups! After that, the monitors, my teisco 60-F, after that: my record collection.
Lieven: Ms 20, monitors, and my coffee machine!
10. The best and worst thing about working with each other?
Wim->Lieven: Best: very good in chords and voice recording, worst: I am his alarm clock
Lieven->wim: Good in giving interviews while I am on a trip, getting things done…
11. I know you guys are big fans or “real mayonnaise” and like you dinners served with plenty of it. What’s your favorite mayonnaise?
Actually that’s the preference of a mixer of ours. I hate mayonnaise!! (Wim)
12. What is music for you and what do you think about the way the music industry is changing?
Music means freedom for me. I can totally relax while listening to music, but I can also go totally wild.
Regarding the music industry, it’s a shame that young people think music is free now, or should be. I still like to buy cd’s or go to a store and find those special albums that stand out and can make your day. It means some much more than just clicking on a torrent or going to mediafire to get a song.
On the other hand, the industry has been way too slow in coming up with alternatives for the challenges that lied ahead. But bands are becoming more and more independent and with the social media, you can reach your fans instantly, you can do your own promotion, give your band a face without a big commercial promotion campaign.
13. What do you think about today’s mainstream music?
I don’t listen regularly to mainstream music. I don’t really care about it. We are doing our own thing and are not interested in what’s hot or not.
14. Do you believe that an electronic music artist can earn his/her living from music nowadays?
Well, we do. It’s not easy all the time, especially as the income of bands depend more and more of their live shows, so you have to be able to make a difference there, why people would want to see your band live. We try to give some extras to the audience during the live shows to get them more thrilled.
15. You’ve been playing more than a few live shows, any interesting backstage or on-stage stories to share with us? If you could pick any artist to share the stage with whom would you pick?
Well, one of the funniest things happened on Euromillions Roofs Festival 2008. It was a line up with us, Chromeo, Fedde le Grand and some other chaps. After the show, we started boozing and at a certain moment, my ex-girlfriend asked me to sit down next to her. When I sat down, I felt something soft and juicy under my ass. Seemed that it was the birthday cake for Fedde Le Grand. The organisation was panicking, I told them to relax and half an hour later I was eating the cake with Fedde next to me. Afterwards we crashed at Chromeo’s hotel room. Funny night!
16. You’re currently waiting for the release of the “Dingeling King” EP. Who is going to be remixing the track and should we expect to listen to another Waxdolls release this year? Give the readers something to look forward to…
The remixers are Shameboy, Zombeez and Wasabi, and a special version by ourselves. It will be released in a week or so. Dingeling King has already been released in May.
We are currently working on a new album. We don’t know when it’s going to be released, probably at the beginning of 2012 or something like that. In the meantime, you can check the dj set set we did for Studio Brussels here: http://soundcloud.com/waxdolls/waxdolls-kills-your
17. Any other plans for 2011? (live shows, releases, videos, remixes etc)`
Probably some more remixes and a new single in autumn or winter 2012 with videoclip off course :-). Summer of 2012 will be filled with touring!
18. What are you listening to lately? Any tracks/artists you recommend?
According to my last.fm stats, these are my top artists for the moment: Siriusmo, the new cd of SebastiAn, Hot Chip and Simian Mobile Disco. I recommend them all!
19. What do you like to do when not in the studio producing music?
We often go out to grab a drink here in Ghent, attend some concerts. Checking out new musical stuff and having sex of course.
20. What do you think about the Metalectro blog and the music featured on it?
I often check it to find out about upcoming artists. It’s becoming a reference for electro music.
21. Something else you’d like to mention and we forgot to ask?
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