Whether working under their Soulwax moniker or touring the world as 2manyDJs, brothers David and Stephen Dewaele have been exerting an inestimable influence on contemporary party music since the mid 1990s. Ahead of their first gig in Macau, we catch younger brother David by phone as he hides from the 35 degree Melbourne heat to ask about the duo’s busy schedule and big plans.

How’s your Australian tour going?

Really good, really funny. Australian kids are so intense. No matter what you play, they’re like [makes an ACDC-like screaming sound]. It’s fun. We really like it here.

I hear you’ve been trying out a new visual thing on this tour. Are you bringing that to Macau? What’s it like?

Yeah, Macau is definitely a big production show. The concept is very simple. For every track that we play, we show the actual record sleeve on the big screen, and we’ve spent a lot of time making bespoke animations for each sleeve to go along with the music. For example, if we play a Prince song, you’ll see him dancing to the music and maybe something funny will happen, like his moustache will grow.

You guys are known for your gruelling tour schedule. Is playing live still a thrill for you?

Yeah, of course. We tour so much, we’d be crazy if we didn’t like it. There are a lot worse things to do in life.

I also hear that you will be launching a new online Radio Soulwax project sometime soon.

We’re currently working on it, on flights and in hotel rooms. It’s taking a lot of time, because there’s so much work involved and we keep touring. But it’s going well.

What's the motivation behind the project?

To us, the standard DJ album thing has gotten kind of boring. We think this new radio website idea will have more of an impact. Basically, we’re making 24 albums, because we’re making 24 hours of music. Every hour will have a different theme. For example what you hear at 10am won’t be the same as what you hear at 10pm. The motivation behind it is that we can showcase many more sides of our music and give much more to people. And it will also have a visual side to it, similar to our new tour visuals. So in essence, it’s a 24-hour film with music, streaming for free.

What are some of the different themes?

We did one that is all space disco. Another is hardcore punk. One is all records with sleeves with naked women on them.

What time of day are naked women sleeves perfect for?

We haven’t really decided yet. Thinking it’s more of 6pm kinda thing. We’ll see.

I imagine you guys have some gem tracks that you’ve been holding onto that wouldn’t really fit in a live show?

Oh yeah, thousands! Say, like, we find a great record that was made in just 1,000 copies in Germany in 1973; we wouldn’t necessarily be able to play that in front of 20,000 people, but we can play it on Soulwax Radio. It’s a great vehicle for that sort of stuff. We’re going to update it with one new show every week. And we’re going to try to get guest mixes on once or twice a week.

Oh cool, what kinds of guests?

Like Justice, Erol [Alkan], and Boys Noise – they’ve all made contributions already. They will be the wildcards.

That sounds awesome. We listen to music all day at our office. Definitely looking forward to this.

Cool [laughs].

For artists like you guys, who seem interested in all genres of music, I wonder whether you feel it’s getting harder to keep up with everything that’s being released? The sheer volume that’s available these days is pretty overwhelming.

Definitely. I worry that the general level of quality isn’t going up. There’s so much stuff, but I don’t think there’s necessarily more good stuff. So much of it that you have to go through is kind of just okay, not great, not very original. There’s still great stuff out there, but it’s harder to find.

Why do you think that is?

I think before there was natural selection, because things still cost money. Nowadays, if a 16-year-old kid makes six tracks on his laptop and sends them to a label, they’ll put all of them out there somewhere, on iTunes, or as free downloads. But back in the day, when you wanted to put out a song, you still had to choose the best track, and invest the money in the vinyl and getting the mastering done. So there was more of a risk and therefore people were a bit more careful about putting out the right thing. Now everything is free, but it makes it very tough to find the good stuff.

Have you guys been to Hong Kong or Macau?

We’ve been to Hong Kong a few times, but we’ve only played there once. We played at a club called Volar. It was an amazing night, such a happy surprise. We’ve never been to Macau – what’s it like?

Well, there are huge casinos, and lots of prostitutes, all mixed together with interesting Portuguese colonial history and good food and Chinese people.

Amazing! [laughs] That sounds like a fun little trip.

2manyDJS play the Bellini Lounge at the Venetian on Saturday 30. Tickets available at www.cotaiticketing.com.