WORDS Liam Maher
Since 1995, Mogwai have steadily been pushing their unique brand of what has come to be termed “post-rock” — a sound characterised by its dense, almost orchestral arrangements and use of feedback, drones and other recording techniques that lend the genre its distinctive sound. Now poised to release their latest record Rave Tapes at the end of the month, tn2 caught up with guitarist Stuart Braithwaite to discuss the band’s composition process, their longevity and the Scottish music scene in general.
Since their inception the Glaswegian quintet have brought out eight studio albums, numerous EPs, and in recent years have composed the soundtracks for the French series les revenants as well as a documentary on Zinedine Zidane. Their music often moves suddenly from quiet, fragile guitar melodies to an apocalyptic cacophony of noise before gently retreating back to its original, peaceful state. At other times it is deeply atmospheric, with ethereal synth lines providing the backdrop for sporadic vocals which are put through various effects until the human voice underneath them is unrecognisable. The band stick to their guns and release mostly instrumental music, with their original songwriting template still intact.
They have stated in various interviews that they hate being told what to do musically and this independent attitude has contributed to their longevity, something that many of their contemporaries didn’t have. Braithwaite admitted that this confidence in their musical product has resulted in them still being artistically viable and relevant, as the “bands who really listened to the A&R guys had a very boom-and-bust career. They had one or two records and then people lost interest as they were pointed in a very populist direction.” This is a dangerous road to go down in the world of pop culture, where musical trends do not tend to last for too long, and audiences are fickle. Mogwai have steadily resisted this process, as “once you go down that path where you’re courting people because of populism, by the nature of pop culture the crowd will have already moved onto something else. And I think that could be a factor with us, it probably has contributed to our longevity.”
When it comes to composing, the individual band members usually demo songs that they have written themselves before bringing them along to a practice session to rehearse them as a full band. This creative process encourages musical innovation and experimentation, something that keeps the band’s sound from becoming stale. For Rave Tapes, this process remained largely unchanged. However, according to Braithwaite for this record, the band “improvised a lot of the arrangements and more parts in the studio than usual”, something that “forced us to think on our feet a lot more”. This process adds a degree of urgency to the new album that has not been present in their past few projects.
This commitment to their composition process and their original musical vision has not led to stale material, however. One of the most interesting cuts from Rave Tapes is Repelish, which has a spoken word piece alerting listeners to the subliminal Satanic messages hidden in records and various other conspiratorial notions. This sermon fits in nicely over the top of a textbook slab of Mogwai atmospherics. The original spoken word piece was done by an American radio personality, and was placed on a jukebox in keyboard player Barry Burn’s pub in Berlin — a jukebox whose tracklist was chosen by none other than Geoff Barrows of Portishead. Braithwaite elaborates, “[w]e tried it on the song and it worked out well but we didn’t end up using the original one because we didn’t know who did it and we didn’t want to get in trouble. So we got our friend from Chicago to copy it.” One of the things the first time listener of Rave Tapes will notice is the number of songs with vocals on them, something that has only been present sporadically on previous Mogwai albums. Another notable Mogwai trait on the new record is the ever present emotional edge of its material. Braithwaite says “I think our music has always been quite emotive, it’s something that happens quite naturally, and I think it’s a lot to do with the types of music that we’re drawn to. It’s not something that we’re ever really conscious about, it’s just omnipresent.”
The emotive element of the group’s music has seeped into their soundtrack writing especially, something that seems completely natural for a band such as Mogwai to do, given their propensity to fit in such dense emotional and atmospheric elements into their tracks. When it came to writing the score for Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait and les revenants, the composition process again remained relatively unchanged. The only discernible difference that Braithwaite pointed out to me was logistic in nature, the fact that “there are other people in the mix. You also have to keep the director and film people happy. It’s just adding someone else into the process.”
This type of music is strangely at home in Scotland. Previous goliaths such as the Jesus and Mary Chain were well adept at crafting songs that were irresistibly catchy, but underneath this sugar coated pop song was often a highly depressing message. When asked about the Scottish scene and the more downbeat music that tends to come out of it, Braithwaite says: “I’m sure it’s not a happy coincidence. I don’t think Scotland is unique in that aspect. I think it’s something to do with the Scottish mentality that brings that out. Maybe it’s an outsider thing.” Growing up in a Scotland that was quite marginalised “brought out a lot of great things in the arts and maybe it just snowballed from there.” Having predecessors such as The Jesus and Mary Chain was important for Mogwai’s generation as they saw that a band from similar backgrounds could “go on to make really great music and tour the world”, as well as showing many young groups “that this aesthetic could be viable.”
This aesthetic has continued to be viable, but Scotland’s musical output is not limited to downbeat shoegaze or instrumental music. Braithwaite was keen to point out that the Scottish scene is becoming bigger by the day, with electronic music in particular undergoing a huge surge in the past few years: “[A]nd it’s not just people making cool underground records — people like Hudson Mohawke produced one of the biggest records of last year. I think that will inspire another generation of kids to go and make music too and show that you can go from djing in a bar to making millions of pounds and selling millions of records.”
As well as electronica, the band scene in Glasgow has moved from strength to strength — something that Braithwaite has been keen to keep up with for future releases on the band’s label, Rock Action Records: “I think the fact that Glasgow has a tradition of music, and people moving here because of the music and to study specifically has influenced the scene. So there’s a constant influx as well of people that grew up here, and people moving here.”
As we wind down our conversation, Braithwaite jokes that the reaction to Rave Tapes “has been really good, and no one has said anything mean. I presume it’s either a mass dose of politeness or that people like it.” The latter is certainly the case, and bodes well for Mogwai in 2014, a year that will no doubt see them going on to write and release further interesting projects.
