Mogwai: Rock Action, By The Book

“Glasgow remains the band's hunting ground, providing a source of continuing inspiration - the sounds of urban fracture, of desperate nights, fights and high-rise love affairs. Romance is fleeting but palpable… All I know is, eleven years in, Mogwai still sound like the future, their five-strong core membership still the coolest gang in town” – Ian Rankin

Not every band can coax a literary giant to pen their press release, an area of journalism normally associated with faceless hyperbole of even the most mundane acts. But then again, not every band are Mogwai. With Ian Rankin’s tales of a brutal and dark Scottish underbelly and Mogwai’s atmospheric, brooding, cinematic sounds, perhaps it was meant to be. Barry Burns, the bands most versatile musician, explains more from his Glasgow home on a wet Monday morning, strong cup of coffee in hand.

“My Dad read a couple of his books and he said there’s a thank-you to Mogwai in a few of them,” he begins. “I think it just helps him write for some reason, probably because there’s no singing. I think Stuart (Braithwaite, guitarist) met him at some event, schmoozing away maybe, who knows? We just thought he might be a good person to get on board. I mean, press releases are usually pretty dry, so it’s good that he wrote that.”

The press release itself is for Mogwai’s forthcoming studio album, The Hawk Is Howling, due for release this month (here's a review). And with that sixth LP in the can, it seems Burns has itchy feet. “I’m just waiting for the album to come out. It’s a wee bit frustrating because it’s taking so long,” he admits. So, is this down to nerves or excitement? “I don’t know. We kind of gave up being nervous about what other people think two albums ago because it doesn’t really matter. We’re just excited that it’s finished and want to get it out and let people hear it,” he states. “But it’s more exciting playing live. The album’s really just a means to an end for us being able to go out and play shows, because that’s where the fun is.”

Video: Friend of the Night (Live at ICA)

Burns is more than happy to take us through the bands creative process, though he is typically modest about it. “We never seem to have a plan of what we’re doing and we don’t really talk about it when we’re rehearsing and writing the songs - we don’t really talk about anything,” he laughs. “I remember reading an interview with Sonic Youth and apparently that’s how they do it too. Someone will start playing a song and if everyone’s ears prick up, then everyone else will just… this sounds really hippy-ish,” he worries, “but it’s not like that at all. It sounds like it’s considered, but we don’t really talk about it...it just comes out the way it does.”

Yet despite being considered an instrumental proposition throughout their career to date, The Hawk Is Howling is actually Mogwai's first studio album that entirely fits the tag. “I don’t enjoy singing much, and we’re not really very good at it,” confesses Burns. “It’s only if we have a song that doesn’t sound as if it’s finished that we’ll try and put samples, singing or spoken stuff over it. We just didn’t feel like it needed it this time. We’ve always been thought of as an instrumental band, and now, after ten years, we’ve finally delivered,” he laughs.

With no lyrics to dissect, it mght be tempting to pick apart the album's intriguing song titles such as I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead, and I Love You, I’m Going To Blow Up Your School. However, fans familiar with the irreverence of the ‘Gwai will already have picked that for the futile exercise it is. “I think we were just trying to make up more ridiculous song titles and then that came out of it,” admits Burns of The Sun Smells Too Loud, an upbeat, dare we say, happy track that even he describes, with inimitable Glaswegian panache, as “chipper”. “We always have all the songs finished and it’s just a case of ‘we’ve got to name them now so everybody get your National Enquirer out!’”

Along with the ‘burden’ of song naming, it’s been a busy year for Mogwai. As is becoming obligatory for bands of their stature, a belated tenth anniversary release of debut album Young Team - re-mastered and re-packaged with extra tracks - was released earlier this year. Yet despite formally joining the band after its initial release, Burns found himself an equal amongst men. “All we had to do was just pick what extra songs there were and I felt like I shouldn’t really say much about it, but the rest of the band were just like ‘naw, if it’s crap, tell us’,” he laughs. “None of the four of them really like that album, apart from a couple of songs, and because I’m a little bit detached from it, I quite like it. But when we were practising Summer, the five of us were just looking at each other going ‘this is shite – why are we playing this?’” he states deadpan. “I mean, it was good fun, but we probably won't do it again. I’d rather play these new songs.”

Video: BatCat

And they'll be doing exactly that come this October, supported by the likes of Errors and RememberRemember, two bands who just happen to be on Mogwai's own Rock Action record label. “It doesn’t feel like we’re label bosses or anything like that,” explains Burns of the band's responsibilities in this area. “They’re just friends and we’ve put their music out, so it doesn’t feel like a business at all. I don’t know if we’ve even signed anyone,” he ponders. “I don’t think Part Chimp have ever put pen to paper - I’m not sure who has. I don’t ever remember going to a signing party,” he laughs. “It’s a bit like Factory, but without the excess.”

Perhaps though, we should leave the last word to Rankin, a man who knows the power of words and, it seems, of music; “You shouldn't be reading this. It's completely redundant. All the potency, texture and variation of moods come from instruments alone. Mogwai paint pictures in sound; no words needed.”