Skiddle Interviews Dom From Mogwai.

If there’s only so many answers as to what makes the Skiddle brain tick, toast, booze, the odd horror film and maybe a Dave Chappelle Show episode or two, but, you only have to say the word Mogwai and we’re grinning like buffons.  Their new album Mr. Beast which is out now, is, to be frank, a fucking monster.  A collosus.  So go buy it and if you can, get the double edition that comes with a ‘Making of Mr. Beast’ dvd.

When Skiddle was given the chance to speak to Dominic Aitchison, well, you can guess.

(thanks James)

When you’re done reading this, go to Mogwai’s official site where you can download a live version of ‘Glasgow Mega Snake' and while you're at it, check everything else below the interview.

Chay: Have Mogwai’s ambitions changed over the 10 years that you’ve been going and if they have how do they compare to when you started?

Dominic: Not particularly, I don’t think we had that many ambitions in the first place! When we started, we just wanted to make a bit of a racket and piss people off and I don't know if we're in quite so much of a hurry to piss people off now but it’s all just business as usual and keep ourselves entertained. And we’re still doing that.

C: What’s it like reading that Mogwai are seen as an influence to so many bands?

D: I find that really weird. I just don’t know how to take that at all. It’s just weird to think that anything you’re associated with that, people would find it to be an influence, it’s really unusual. I sometimes ignore it y’know, ’Nah, not us, must be another Mogwai!’

C: And what about the bands that try to copy the Mogwai sound?

D: I don’t really hear that so much. I've still yet to hear a band when I've thought ‘my god, they’re the same as us.’ The music I listen to in my own time doesn't sound a lot like us anyway. There’s bands that I've heard that are doing a similar thing but I've yet to hear anyone that’s got my angry and ‘on my god they’ve totally ripped us off!’

C: You’re in the studio just now but the albums out, so when you were recording, was there any noticeable changes on how Mr Beast was done like the structure because it’s your own studio?

D: We just spent more time getting things right, we normally have a certain amount of time to do things, and when it’s done, that’s it and whatever’s there, is there. With this one, there was a couple of tunes that needed recording over and over which we did until we were happy with them which is great because we’ve never been able to do that before.

C: How does a Mogwai song come together, because there’s a lot structure and your sound is very layered.

D: Yeah, we just have to work out the basic structure in rehearsal and then we just come in with the shell of it. When you hear it recorded you know how it worked in rehearsal and you might have to sit back and start again anyway.

C: The press surronding Mogwai this time, they’re calling Mr.Beast the breakthrough album which is bizarre because it’s your fifth and it makes you sound as if you’re going to be household names and playing huge venues.

D: I know! I think it’s going to go the same way as the others. Nothing has happened differently this time that’s happened previously and there’s nothing particularly more accessible this time. We’re still not going to get played on the radio, it’s not going to get us on the telly, it’s just not the sort of thing that the majority of people are into.

C: I was reading Barrys rants and the few bad reviews from the likes of FHM. How does Mogwai take that sort of critisicm, particularly from magazines like FHM?

D: I actually find that quite amusing and I think we enjoy the bad reviews more than the good ones. When the people who review us and don’t like us, they really don’t like us. Those reviewers write that it’s nothing special, so when a guy who reviews it like that….so if we’ve ruined someone's day enough, it’s a good thing.

C: That’s a wee bit evil.

D: Well, yeah…

C: Talking of evil, you’re not a band that’s done many videos. The last one I can think of was Hunted By A Freak, very late on MTV2. Now that’s an evil video.

D: Yeah, it is. There’s no real money to make them and there’s no singles to promote so the record label don’t feel like putting their hands in their pockets for it. I think it’s good that some people get to see them but I don’t think it makes a difference to a band like us. I think we’d find it quite hard to do as well, and to get a video concept that we all liked because we’re all pretty hard to please and we all have different ideas of what’s good and what isn’t.

C: More recently, there was some live footage on The Music Show.

D: That’s the thing, we could do more live footage but we don’t do much on stage so it could be kind of boring. Its different when you’re there and you're getting battered by the sound but we do just kind of stand about. I don’t know if it would be the most exciting visual thing and we’re not particularly handsome so…I never saw the footage from The Music Show but I’ve heard it was okay. You never know, you might be right, it’s something we haven’t really thought about.

C: I was checking out the tour dates, there’s the likes of Russia and Japan. How do you find the level of Mogwai fandom over there?

D: It’s great because the audience are completely unlike anywhere else and they react in a totally different way. They’re completely silent when you play and they don’t make any noise, which is quite unnerving, but it’s also brilliant because when you go quiet you can actually hear what you're playing. They’re just very very polite. It’s just really unusual.

C: Given the kind of music that Mogwai play, and this isn’t one of those influential questions, but in the US you were on the Cure tour with some big venues. Are they the kind of band that draws Mogwai together as listeners?

D: Not really The Cure. I don’t think any of us dislike them but there are a couple of people in the band that are into them a lot more than others like John and Stuart. They grew up listening to The Cure as teenagers so they’ve got a very long-standing liking of them. I didn’t know that much about them apart from the singles until we went on tour and then I discovered a lot of their other songs that are crackers. It was just an opportunity. We were given the chance to do shows that we’d never normally get the chance to do every again. Big stadiums!

C: So you don't see Mogwai playing anything that size again?

D: No, no, it’s not like playing a gig, you’re so far removed from the audience, it’s like doing a soundcheck, it’s weird.

C: Not like a night at the Barrowlands then.

D: No, it’s definitely not like that. It’s hard for the music to come across when it goes over a certain size, like I’ve always thought that at festivals, when you go and see bands, it’s daylight, it’s outdoors, it’s just so much harder to get into it. As for festivals ourselves, I think we will be playing some. We always try and play in the tents, as close to night as possible as we can. But I don’t think T in the park are eager to have us back! So we’ll be touring, doings some festivals and that’ll take us up to the end of the year, and more touring after that. We’re quite anxious actually because we want to get it started. We’ve been doing it for 10 years so this is the way it goes, but by the end of the year we will be sick of playing all the new songs so we’ll be desperate to write some new ones.

C: You spoke about how what you listen to away from Mogwai isn’t like Mogwai, so what do Mogwai listen to these days?

D: I’m not totally sure what everyone listens to, different things, I really like that Jose Gonzalez album, it’s all totally kicked off now. A mate gave me it just before Christmas, I thought it was really good, then we went out tour, came back, and there’s adverts on the telly and he’s playing massive tours and it’s quite weird. There was an album out that I liked by a band called Big Business from America. I like the Joanna Newsom record, I know that a lot of people think that she sounds like a muppet, but I like it. I don’t care.

March -

29/03/2006 Bristol Academy, Bristol.

30/03/2006 Southampton University, Southampton

31/03/2006 Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton

April -

01/04/2006 Brookes University, Oxford

02/04/2006 Coal Exchange, Cardiff

04/04/2006 Junction, Cambridge

05/04/2006 Carling Academy, Liverpool

06/04/2006 Northumbria University, Newcastle

07/04/2006 The Plug, Sheffield

27/04/2006 Triptych, Usher Hall, Edinburgh

September -

22/09/2006 Royal Albert Hall, London

So, who are Mogwai?

These days - when membership of the rock army can be symbolised by the simple purchase of a Ramones T-shirt - dedication has become a debased currency, subject to the hyper-inflationary dictates of fashion. Raw recruits sign up for the short term, soon surrendering their affections to whichever sexy "scene" might spring up next. Unswerving commitment to rock's righteous cause is rare; it demands a troop of seriously single-minded dudes with their collective heart and soul fixed on one goal - to bring the noise.

Scottish five piece Mogwai formed in 1995 and debuted a year later with the single "Tuner/Lower", released on their own Rock Action label. They've since gone on to develop their distinctive style of apocalyptic, yet deeply humanised noise across four albums, establishing the transcendentally effective quiet-loud/quiet-loud dynamic as their very own and spawning a generation of imitators. Usually tagged a post-rock band because of their slow-build, instrumental workouts and the neo-classical majesty of their more ambitious songs, Mogwai are rather a bunch of a-rockers, drawn to whatever serves their cause - be it the stripped-down delicacy of Erik Satie or the boiling rage of Big Black. Mix light and dark together, Mogwai understand, and you make magic.

Mogwai are:

Stuart Braithwaite, Dominic Aitchison, Martin Bulloch, Barry Burns, John Cummings

Mogwai on myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/therealmogwai

the best unofficial Mogwai fansite on the planet:

http://brightlight.youngteam.co.uk

Rock Action records (Part Chimp!):

http://www.rockactionrecords.co.uk