Stephen and David Dewaele, the brothers who form the core of Soulwax, are back with Soulwax. The first album in eight years was recorded in their own DEEWEE Studio in Ghent. After many extensive world tours — during which they brought rock ‘n’ roll to the dance floor like no one else — and after remixes for Wet Leg, Daft Punk, Fontaines D.C., and The Rolling Stones, it was high time for a new record.
Stephen: “The recurring theme is: Is it real? Is it not real? ‘All Systems Are Lying’ is a phrase we used while making the record. Every time the computer crashed, every time there was fake news, this was our phrase. Eventually we thought: okay, this is the title of the album.”
David: “It felt like the studio was an antenna.”
Stephen: “Is what I see real? Is what they say on the news true?”
David: “Is this real money? Do I have something tangible?” ‘All Systems Are Lying’ feels and sounds like the time we’re living in now, as experienced by two people who have made records before and know that ‘then’ is not ‘now’ — with repeating lyrics like a lost Laurie Anderson record.
Stephen: “It wasn’t that we planned to make an album about how the world feels now. It’s kind of the opposite — at the end of the process, we were like…”
David adds: “…oh, all those things… all those things around us… came to the surface.”