A quarter-century of feuds, regrets, and (eventual) success with Mogwais Stuart Braithwaite.
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
In an era when rock music was defined by loud proclamations, MogwaisMogwai Young Teamturned silence into asledgehammer.
Last yearsAs the Love Continuessurprised everyone, including the band, by earning Mogwai their first U.K. No.
1 LP thanks in large part to a fan-driven social-media push.
As if on cue, we now have a memoir to catch everyone up on the story of Mogwai.
Whereas this is something Ive been doing for the last year and a half.
I dont have my bandmates to be there and help.
Well, actually, to be honest, in some cases, they kind ofdidhelp me write the book.
But its my name thats on the front!
Id been reading a lot.
I just got reading glasses for the first time in my life.
You got reading glasses?
Very post-punk.[Laughs]Yeah.
The memoirs title is interesting.
In the past, Id describe your music within the context of post-punk and shoegaze.
Reading more about your father and your upbringing, maybestargazeis a better word to describe Mogwai.I like that.
Im not huge on labels, but I always kind of liked sci-fi.
That sense of wonder is something I hope comes through in our music.
The memoir covers every Mogwai album but goes in depth on just the first two records.
The stress drove us all a bit nuts.
For a long time, I was disappointed withYoung Team.
I think as you grew up, you learned to navigate life a lot better.
Everythings a little bit easier.
But theres not as much chaos, which probably means fewer interesting stories.
Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Willis one of my favorite records too.
The actual recording of it was pretty painless.
We were pretty together by that point.
But were not like shaving our heads or turning into pacifists, Manson-family kind of vibe or whatever.
People were pretending to be stupider than they were.
The kind of music that we were inspired by was a real afterthought then.
So we wanted to share a little bit about it.
Some of it just seems weird now because it would never happen.
The way music is released and consumed today, it couldnt be more different.
Its one of the stupidest things Ive ever said.
Im reading this out of context, but still, even this wouldnt fly today.No!
That is a dumb thing to say and belittling of something really serious.
I think I made the point in the book:I was kind of coercedinto going down that line.
But it still gives me a full-body cringe.
Im not a big fan of R.E.M., but, I mean, Jesus Christ.
Whereas I dont think the concept of coolness and uncoolness even exists anymore.
I think the internet has killed that.
In many ways, thats a really good thing.
In some ways, not so much.
Im readingGlamorama, by Bret Easton Ellis, right now, and its so of that time.
I was thinking that someone maybe your age must read this and just think itsinsane.
There is that lack of bite among young bands today, for better or worse.
Anyone saying anything remotely bad about someone on Twitter feels like a huge story even if its minor stuff.
I do think that theres a blandness.
But I think there are other elements to it.
If you dont like something now, you’re able to just go and listen to something else.
If youre into harsh noise, it’s possible for you to find thousands of playlists playing harsh noise.
I talk about it in the book about how to put it mildly we werent fans of Blur.
That probably seems kind of odd now.
But you couldnt escape that at the time.
You heard it everywhere.
Its all people would talk about.
To our way more left-field ears, it was an affront.
In some ways, you did have to be there.
Also we werent interested in pleasing anyone.
We never really expected anyone to like our band in the first place.
We werent worried about upsetting anyone because we didnt give a fuck.
We were already overachieving.
That was just a joke.
I think that kind of stuff is funny when youre 22.
But then when youre in your 40s, it seems slightly psychotic.
It didnt come up.I dont think hed give two fucks.
I do think a reprint of the shirts would go well.We could probably make a lot of money.
Itd probably land differently in America too.
I dont think Blur was particularly well known in America.
I dont think they were playing much bigger shows than we were at that point.
But whereas here, they were playing stadiums.
I recently read the bookSellout.
I loved the book, but I genuinely didnt know any of the bands.
Like, I didnt know the music of any of the bands.
But yeah, I was never really that into that world.
Maybe goth was the original emo.
[Stuart speaks to someone off the line.
]Sorry, were dropping our dog off.
Whats your dogs name?Hes called Prince.
Hes pretty famous on the Internet, if you want to check him out on Instagram.
Hes calledPrince of Glasgow.
Hes a very handsome dog.
My wife just said hes more interesting than my book.
So yeah I think weve always done fine in America.
Were maybe seen as more of an underground band than we are in Europe.
But Im not gonna complain.
We turn up and play a show, and people come.
Im pretty grateful for that.
Im grateful for the consistency.
I think that Americans are quite refined with music.
Theres a really good culture of really curatorial record stores and college radio.
The bands I was thinking of are more bands that are mainstream indie or almost radio-rock stuff.
I dont think we have a defined phrase for it, but it feels like post-Brexit post-punk.
Ive seen all those bands and really enjoyed the shows.
Last year, Mogwai got their first U.K. No.
And it worked.That was one of the weirdest weeks of my life.
And she was like, you oughta do this!
And yeah, you know, we went for it.
The feeling about it made me really grateful and quite humble as well.
Were an unlikely band to get a No.
It almost kind of fell in our lap.
Seeing New Order and the Cure tweet about it was special.
Like Wendys tweeting Yas, queen or something.
When I first saw the first chart that we were No.
1, I didnt know what the chart was.
I asked Craig, our label manager.
I thought it was the Scottish chart or the vinyl chart.
It wasnt something that I had any inkling might happen at all.
Im quite superstitious, and I thought this was going to jinx it.
So if you look at the photo,Barrylooks miserable because he was convinced it wasnt going to happen.
I do think its hard to emulate something that was genuinely organic.
But Ill probably become pretty insufferable telling people about my book when thats about to come out.
I dont think that its gonna go No.
1 in the charts.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
