(Originally published in Disorder, March 2006)Mogwai have sold out: words we thought we'd never hear applied to arguably indie's most notoriously prickly dogmatists. Easy, though; The band haven't set fire to their kappa tracksuits, abandoned their DIY rock action ethos or buried the hatchet and collaborated with Damon Albarn on a Gorillaz b-side. They've merely performed a capacity-filled five-day residency at London's illustrious ICA to promote forthcoming album 'Mr Beast', their fifth album in a career spanning over a decade.
Hard as it is to conceive of the polemical Scottish five-piece as elder statesmen of post-rock, this record sees them, if not maturing exactly, than certainly coming of age. The band’s manager Alan McGee has already been moved to describe the album as "probably the greatest art rock record that I’ve been involved in since My Bloody Valentine’s ‘Loveless‘", something Mogwai frontman Stuart Braithwaite readily dismisses as just another example of the former Creation guru's gift for hyperbole: "I think people just take everything Alan says with a pinch of salt," he smirks "I don't think anyone's going to take it that literally. I was talking to Kevin Shields about it and he just pissed himself laughing!"
Nevertheless you sense an intense pride in the way which Mogwai speak of the new album, and an eagerness to share with the public the fruits of their labour:
“It's definitely an exciting point before you're record comes out,” agrees bassist Dom Aitchison, “it's frustrating the time between finishing your record and waiting for it to come out.”
Though the album is in the shops this month, it was leaked as long ago as early December on P2P program Soulseek. Not that the band seem too begrudging of fans taking the initiative and downloading tracks unofficially:
“We always knew it was going to get leaked, but we just didn't expect it to be on the Net as quickly as it was,” says Dom “it's inevitable so we didn’t get that pissed off about it. We're definitely not like Metallica who moan about the Internet. It's a great ways of hearing new bands.”
‘Mr Beast’ was originally envisaged as a return to the ear-splitting intensity of Mogwai’s earlier material following two relatively subdued efforts (‘Rock Action and ‘Happy Songs for Happy People’ respectively). But, as Stuart explains, it was never as calculated as simply choosing to 'rock out' again:
“We’ve always enjoyed playing pretty loud live but we've been moving away from that when we've been in the studio. We were just trying to bring the two a bit closer together.
“But the writing process is pretty organic to be honest, we do have small ideas in the back of our head that we want to do and don't want to do, but it's never really that planned.”
Do you see each new album as a reaction against the last one you released?
“To start with that was certainly the case,” admits Stuart “for instance we made a big effort on ‘Come On Die Young’ to not just repeat the quiet-loud template, because we were bored silly with it. On ‘Rock Action’ we tried to do something totally different again. After that we just thought, fuck it, we'll just try and write 10 really good songs.
“Trying to second guess yourself can be pointless I think. It's hard enough to make good music.”
Certainly, tracks such as ‘Glasgow Mega-Snake’ and the epic ‘We’re No Here’ showcase the band’s love of head-crushing white noise crescendo, but the album is also defined by moments of sparse poetic beauty, not least on the sublime ‘I Chose Horses’, which features Japanese singer Tetsuya Fukagawa on guest vocals.
“He’s the singer for a Japanese band we really rate called Envy,” explains Stuart “with that song we just thought it needed something to make it a bit more interesting and we thought with his voice, a non-English vocal part would be good. It's a non-specific, quite abstract lyric which just suit’s the track perfectly.”
Mogwai’s early interviews were characterised by a snotty belligerence which earned them fleeting notoriety, especially in the wake of those infamous ‘Blur are shite’ T-shirts. Recent sharp-tongued tirades against the NME and FHM on the band’s blog suggest that the boys have lost none of their appetite for controversy, even if today finds them in more subdued mood:
“I don't think age has mellowed us at all, if anything we have even more deranged views now than we had then,” insists Stuart “but in those early interviews we were usually drunk and just came out with whatever we thought. Now we’re more cautious maybe.
"Ultimately I'd rather be known as a band that likes music rather than a band that hates music. Inviting bands we like along to support us is a whole lot more constructive than slagging off generic indie bands that people who like us probably don't like anyway.”
Dom agrees:
“There’s a danger you can come across as bitter, especially if you’ve been going for quite a long time.
“There have been a few people in bands over the years who just start yakking away, and it's almost like they can't handle the attention going to someone else. It doesn't look cool when Liam Gallagher says 'they're shite, they're shite' you know very well that it's stemmed in jealousy rather than superiority.”
Mogwai are guardedly positive about the current musical climate. Stuart even praises fellow Scots Franz Ferdinand for the impact they’ve had on the Glasgow music scene:
“We’re really pleased for them because they’ve literally gone from playing the local art scene to becoming huge superstars in a matter of months. There are similarities between what is happening now in the city and what was happening in the days of Chemikal Underground.”
Do you hear bands cropping up now who you suspect have been influenced by you?
“Quite a few, yeah. It's quite flattering. When we started we were unbelievably influenced by a lot of bands, the God Machine, Joy Division, My Bloody Valentine, etc. As long as you find your feet after a while it’s fine.”
Since their last album, Mogwai have been asked to support two of arguably their biggest influences, the Pixies and the Cure. Stuart enthuses about being given the opportunity to tour with his heroes:
“It was great, yeah. The Pixies was just a few shows, but an amazing experience. They’re one of those bands who've been going a long time and stayed good. The Cure was a proper tour, so we got to meet and spend more time with them. They’re such nice people.”
“I wasn’t really a Cure fan before I went to do the tour,” admits Dom “I didn't really know a lot of the stuff, just the cheesy pop singles. I actually really enjoyed getting to hear them and discovering they have some really brilliant songs.
“Playing with the Pixies in Paris was amazing, people were just going nuts and it's been a while since I've been to a gig like that.”
Mogwai seem as surprised as anyone that they still inspire such a fanatical following a decade on from those seminal early EPs. The not-so young team have defied the critics who labelled them one-trick-ponies, destined to enjoy fleeting acclaim before disappearing from the radar. Stuart attributes the band’s longevity to their fiercely independent spirit:
“I think when you’re constantly being told what to do it causes a lot of tension within the band because you’re forced to compromise. When something does happen and you're not happy about relationships suffer.
“It's pretty weird,” admits Dom “I never thought we'd still be doing this 10 years after we started, but it's something I've never really thought about until we started being asked about it for this record.
“Ultimately we've made an effort to not just remake the same record over and over again. I think that’s a really easy way for a band to die on its arse.”
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