Небольшое интервью с Филом Уайлдом, пока на английском:
The comeback of 2 UnlimitedЦитата
2 Unlimited is back from being away a little while. The Belgian-Dutch hitfactory was in the ‘90s one of the most successful danceacts of all times. Because of the (so-far) one-time reunion-concerts on 11 and 12 april in Hasselt (Belgium) we look back with producer Phil Wilde to seven very good years.
Filip de Wilde (42) a.k.a. Phil Wilde, was the brain behind 2 Unlimited. He welcomes us in his modern home-studio in the countryside of Adegem. The delightful white villa is the proof that this sympathic East-Flemish producer, deejay and keyboardplayer did pretty well.
We’re invited here to talk about the unequalled successes of 2 Unlimited, good for number-1 hits in dozens of countries and over 20 million sold records. Here in Belgium only the Francophone Italo-Belgiums Salvatore Adamo (90 million) and Frédéric François (35 million) a reached higher sales-figures..
It all started in 1991 with the instrumental house-track “Get Ready For This”, that grew into a world-wide hit and even now in 2009 still can be heard every week in a large number of US sport-stadiums.
Filip de Wilde: The basics of the song came in the clubs. As a deejay I bought records in the record-store ARS of Jean-Paul de Coster in Antwerpen. As a producer I worked with singer Petra and new-beat/technoproject T99. Jean-Paul already had a top 10-hit in England with the Eurohouse-act Bizz Nizz. We decided to start a new project together. In the studio we listened to some records, we found a “soundske” and worked it out. Then I came with this (he sits behind the piano and plays the catching tune of Get Ready For This) and we recorded it. We added the drums and used a sample “Y’all ready for this” that we found on a sample-CD. It was an instrumental club-record of which we hoped to sell ten thousand copies. We called the project 2 Unlimited, because Jean-Paul and I were two. Jean-Paul pressed the record and released it under his own label Byte Records. Because of the success of Bizz Nizz he already had contacts in England and some other countries.
Enter Ray and AnitaDid you realize right then that you made a moster-hit?
De Wilde: Not at all! As a deejay I played those days in dancing Lambourgieni in Maldegem. Each weekend we had 1.700 visitors there. I was THE deejay of the region you might say. If I played Get Ready For This I saw the song worked on the dancefloor. At a certain moment we sold 30.000 copies, which really wasn´t bad. Then we had the luck that (as I have heard) a Scottish deejay played the song for Pete Waterman, the one/third of the successful producersteam Stock, Aitken & Waterman. We were picked up by PWL (Peter Waterman Limited; red), in those days the label of Kylie Minogue and Rick Ästley, so a real hitfactory. Before we knew it we were number 2 in the UK charts. Get Ready For This had a lot of international success, also in the USA. In the sport-arenas they still play it as an intro. But in those days it only reached number 38 in the Billboard Hot 100. The USA are about the only country where we didn’t make it into the top 10. But we sold more albums then Snap! (Rhythm Is A Dancer) and Haddaway (What Is Love?). Those groups were at number 1 but their albums were not a success. We sold in the USA almost half a million copies of an album. For a dance-act that was more than substantial.
Why did you add Ray Slijngaard and Anita Doth?De Wilde: When Pete Waterman decided to release Get Ready For This in Great Britain, we thought it was necessary to make the song a little more commercial. We wanted a vocal version and, because it was something new, we wanted to add some rap too. Jean-Paul called around, looking for a rapper. He found the little company CBA that in those days did the management of Ray. They send him to our studio in Lovendegem. Ray took his little friend Anita. If she was his girlfriend, I’m not sure but it might be. Anyway, Ray was very popular with the girls, but OK, that’s another story. He did his reap while Anita sang something spontaneously. There were many versions of Get Ready For This but the one with Anita singing never did anything wrong. In the UK they didn’t even release the version with the raps of Ray because Pete Waterman detested rap in general.
The cabinRay and Anita came out of nowhere. Ray was a chef at the Schiphol airport and Anita worked with the Amsterdam Policeforce, where she did the administration of the wheel clamps.
De Wilde: They just rolled in, they had no history at all with music. And because they also were two the name 2 Unlimited fitted perfectly. It went lightning fast. If you reach number 2 in England you have to send someone for promotion. And although Ray and Anita where not on the English version of Get Ready For This, they went for gigs as 2 Unlimited. We had 2 songs that reached number 2 in the UK in those days. With Get Ready For This we couldn’t get Whitney Houston with I Will Always Love You from the 1st place. The next single Twilight Zone also reached number 2 and found (Everything I Do) I Do It For You by Bryan Adams. But with No Limit finally it did happen and we were 5 weeks number 1 in England. The song was chart-leader in about 35 countries.
Цитата
Those world-hits were produced in those days under impossible circumstances.
De Wilde: I had a very modest studio, above the shop of my parents. I had a room on the second floor and in the time of Get Ready For This I worked with a little 8-track mixpanel and a few synthesizers, stuff that I bought cheap with the money I earned as a deejay. Ray and Anita passed by regularly, of course. They and their manager called my little studio “the cabin”. Basically it was a closet, a part of the attic in which we “tinkered” a bit.
I remember that as a 24-year old I was very much focused when I was mixing Twilight Zone. In fact I over-produced that song. There were far too many samples used. My mixpanel was too small so I had to rent another one, but didn’t have the patch-cables for that one. It drived me nuts. Finally it took me six long days of hard work. Twilgiht Zone was an underground-track, based on an idea on an organ of someone from Waarschoot. We made a heavy version of that, with the tipical sounds and samples of that time. An “orchestral hit” as it was called, with a “fat sound”. But I’ve always been a pop-guy and wanted a choir in the track. So we put a “Michael Jackson-like” refrain on it (sings “This is the twilight zone”). You can hear Michael Jacson sing it like that. Such heavy dance-music with that poppy choir was in those days “not done”. But I liked to hear that and wanted to do it like that..
“Twilight Zone” turned out to be the goose with the golden eggs. Then things started rolling commercially. Lots of other groups with a boy and a girl followed: Culture Beat, 2 Brothers On The 4th Floor etcetra. All followers of 2 Unlimited. Twilight Zone was something new. And we scored immediately with it.
“A BUNCH OF RUBBISH”Your international success didn’t seem to impress your mother at all, at 11pm she just pulled the plug out.
De Wilde: Well, she wanted to go to sleep. Artist and managers just walked around in the house, which annoyed my mother, because they always let the door open. Here in my house all doors close automatic. Something I got from my mother. “Heating the house costs money” she always said.
Did you realize that you were writing pop-history?
De Wilde: No, neither did I know the music-business. I didn’t know which were the right deals. I started to live together with someone and wanted to build a house. I could buy this ground real cheap, but getting a loan with the bank was another story. Being number 2 in England was not a good reference (laughs).
On your website I read that you were summoned during the recordings to unload a truck.
De Wilde: (laughs) On Thursday the shop was closed, but a truck arrived from Germany and I was the only one that could ride a forklift-truck. There were many people in the studio: Jean-Paul de Coster, singing-coach Peter Bouwens, Ray and Anita, their manager.. I said “sorry folks, a little time-out because I have to unload a truck.” They were all watching on the balcony while I was riding around with the forklift-truck.
Almost the whole music-press looked down on 2 Unlimited. In England your music was called “eurotrash”, a bunch of rubbish.
De Wilde: Just like what Abba went through in the 89’s. Also that group couldn’t do any good in the eyes of the rock-journalists. Nobody thought in those days that they would last. They made music that was tipical for that time.
What was the key to your success?
De Wilde: There was no key. In the first song, Get Ready For This, probably it was the groove. (sings) Tata tarata tata tata tarata tata tata. THAT is the song, not more. Why did the Birdsong become so popular? (sings) Tété tété tétété. Such a nice song that everyone likes it. Why? It’s contagious. And why does one song have it and another one not? It stays in your head, but you don’t know why.
THE BEATLES BEATENNext to the music you had the perfect image with Ray and Anita.
De Wilde: Now you can say “that was all invented very smart”, but that wasn’t so. Ray was a cute bloke and everyone thought he was cool. And Anita.. Her singing talent was not extraordinary. But she had so much sexappeal, and extremely photogenic. If she came in you would have given her five francs, but if you saw the photos.. WOW!
And as a deejay of course you know as no other what works on the dancefloor.
De Wilde: That is not something you can reason out. And you never know it beforehand, otherwise every record that I recorded would have been a hit. But of course you know what “marches” in a dancing. Take “Desenchantée” of Kate Ryan. I produced that with the idea that it could work as a cover. But it was such a huge hit.. six or seven weeks number 1 in Belgium, 70.000 singles sold. I’d never expected that.
Even better: with your “groovy dance” remix of the “dwarfsdance” you did in Holland better than the Beatles and Elvis Presley, by being in the charts in 2000-2001 for over a year.
De Wilde: People of Studio 100 came to me with a different song. But I definitely wanted to remix the “dwarfsdance”. I told them the rest didn’t interest me, so they gave in. The original wasn’t so much different, but it didn’t have that dance-feel. I made it danceable, also via the sounds. For me it was a do-between. I added the right sequencers and grooves, the ones I knew they would work in a club. I know how to get people on the dancefloor. But that it would stay in the Dutch charts for 64 weeks (an absolute record), I would never even dared to dream that.
I Love the 90’s with a.o. 2 Unlimited on 11 and 12 april in the Grenslandhallen/Ethias Arena in Hasselt, from 20:00 (both sold out).
Thanks to ToCo Team for the entire english traduction of Phil Wilde's interview..
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