Mogwai interview: Stuart Braithwaite on Atomic, performing in Japan and the band's upcoming Barbican show

'It’s been incredible playing it live'

(Brian Sweeney/press image)

Speaking over the phone from what sounds like a busy street in Denmark during their Atomic tour, Mogwai frontman Stuart Braithwaite is giving a quick rundown of how the shows are going so far.

"It’s been incredible playing it live, I’m really excited to do it in London," he says, referring to their gig at the Barbican taking place next week.

This latest tour has taken the band everywhere from Sweden to Osaka and Hiroshima, the latter of which sound particularly meaningful - for obvious reaons.

"It was quite emotionally draining to do those shows," Braithwaite says, "but I think it’s a worthwhile thing for us to have done."

Mogwai's latest full-length is comprised of reworked material to the BBC 4 documentary Storyville - Atomic: Living in Dread and Promise, which set out the history of nuclear disaster from Hiroshima onward.

Their soundtrack is a poignant, complex work that evokes the constrasting reactions to Hiroshima: hope, fear, war, peace, life, death. But creating these soundtracks, where the narrative is already set, hasn't changed the way the band approaches the music they write for themselves.

"I think it taught us what parts of our music work well for a cinematic environment," Braithwaite says. "Everything had its own challenges, and being able to work with different people was great as well. Definitely with Les Revenant [TV series The Returned] we've had a specific narrative."

He's expressed interest in working on a feature film, something like Terrence Malick's Tree of Life: "Something really personal and psychadelic."

"I really like sci-fi films," he continues, "and I think very few of them, particularly modern ones, have particularly good soundtracks. The one on Gravity's really good, and Interstellar..." he pauses. "So actually I'm talking complete rubbish."

Looking over Mogwai's own catalogue, which at last count puts it at nine LPs, a live album, four compilations and 13 EPs (plus their own record label, whisky and rum), Braithwaite considers how easy it is now for new bands to achieve such impressive longevity.

(Brian Sweeney/press image (Brian Sweeney/press image)

"It’s so hard to start a band - when we first started even smaller labels could afford to get bands playing outside of their hometowns, but that happens less and less.

"And because of that it means a lot of new bands are from really rich backgrounds. And I don’t think there’s a problem with that but I think there are a lot of other people who’d have a lot to offer. And on a musical level a bunch of people could be in a band and make music for decades, but living a normal life while doing that is the hard part, and that’s where the changes have made it less likely than before."

Braithwaite has also been working with his other band Minor Victories, billed by the media as an 'indie supergroup' that also features Rachel Goswell of Slowdive and Justin Lockey of Editors.

"We messed up on the first bit at our first ever gig, but I’m actually surprised that only happened once," he jokes. "The band’s been really good, it’s made this summer a bit hectic for me, but I certainly can’t complain about people wanting to hear music that I’ve made.

"I think it’s good to work with different people, get a different perspective on things and see how different people work. We’ve all been working on different projects this summer."

In a recent interview, I remind him, he said he was going to try and tone it down a bit.

“Yeah… that was all bulls**t," he says laughing.

Mogwai perform their live score for Atomic to a screening of the documentary at the Barbican in London on 15 September