Who is your favourite local band? When you have a scene as consistently strong as Glasgow’s, that can be a tough call. Ask around our Glasgow guitarguitar store and you’ll get answers like The Jesus & Mary Chain, Arab Strap, the Cocteau Twins (Grangemouth is close enough!), Biffy Clyro and Edwyn Collins. Some might even say Texas and the Blue Nile.
One band that everyone will agree on, though, is Mogwai. It’s not like they are a mainstream, people-pleasing band either; not in the slightest! But everyone just loves the epic, brooding soundscapes that they make, and it’s been that way pretty much from the beginning of their career in the mid 90s.
Mogwai frontman (if anyone within the band can indeed be named as such) Stuart Braithwaite and I have bumped into each other a number of times over the years, but we’ve never had the occasion to enjoy a proper sit down for a music-based conversation. In the end, it was our mutual friends at Fender who facilitated. With our 20th anniversary celebrations and their 70th birthday for the Strat, we were looking for appropriate people to chat to, and Stuart quickly became an obvious choice.
Mogwai are currently in the process of writing material for a new album, and so that frames a little of the conversation we had. But we hit a number of topics, such as the nature of live music scenes (and the importance of such), the Mogwai writing process and of course, plenty of gear chat! Those of you who have visited Glasgow will no doubt recognise many of the places we mention, but don’t worry: there’s tons of other subjects too, including Mogwai’s collaborative work with Clint Mansell and the Kronos Quartet for The Fountain’s soundtrack!
Check out the full conversation on the video below.
