Mogwai reflect on challenges with new album

3 Min Read
Mogwai reflect on challenges with new album

Stuart Braithwaite, frontman of the Glasgow four-piece band Mogwai, says their recent number one album success was “psychedelically weird.” It was made even stranger by the fact that it happened during the pandemic, so they couldn’t even go to the pub to talk about how weird it was. The achievement took them to the Mercury Prize gala, which Braithwaite describes as “such a weird ceremony.” However, they didn’t let the success influence their new album, “The Bad Fire.” In fact, they forgot to mention the chart achievement to their new producer, John Congleton, who only found out when a French journalist brought it up in an interview. Mogwai, formed by longtime friends who wanted to create “serious guitar music,” specialize in long, mesmerizing instrumentals.

Their journey to number one took 25 years, aided by chart rules that place higher value on physical record sales over streams. For one week, they outsold Dua Lipa and Harry Styles. As they prepared to record the follow-up to “As The Love Continues,” keyboardist Barry Burns received the news that his daughter might die from aplastic anemia.

“She had blood coming out of her gums and bruises all over,” he recalls. “It was extremely stressful.” After a bone marrow transplant and chemotherapy, his daughter recovered. The band experienced other traumas while making the record.

Live agent Mick Griffiths died of cancer, bassist Dominic Aitchison lost his father, and Braithwaite’s pet dog had to have his leg amputated due to cancer.

Mogwai’s surreal journey to success

The album’s title, “The Bad Fire,” is a Glaswegian term for hell.

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However, the band’s songs are deliberately left open to interpretation, with nonsense titles and in-jokes. When lyrics appear, they’re opaque and impressionistic. Released last Friday, “The Bad Fire” is heading for the top five of the UK albums chart.

Braithwaite is happy about the advantage physical sales give them over streaming hits. “The streaming world is very murky and hard to understand,” he says. For Braithwaite, there’s something alluring about the prospect of art outliving its creator.

“I’m kind of obsessed with the concept of eternity within culture,” he says. As Mogwai celebrate their 30th anniversary, they’ve come a long way from their beginnings. Braithwaite laughs, “I thought we’d have flying cars by this point.

So any joy at the fact I was still eking out a living as a musician would probably be tempered by the lack of jet packs.”

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