Mogwai on Their China Tour and the Demonic Origins of Their Name

By Erica Martin

Mogwai are hailed as the first name in post-rock, the pioneers and definers of the genre, but they generally laugh off such praise.

Over the course of 23 years, they’ve perfected their signature ‘loud-quiet-loud’ song formula in a large and varied discography, while experimenting with everything from spoken word lyricism to poppy hooks.  Founded in Glasgow in 1995, the band still largely lives and works out of their hometown, which has a reputation as one of the world’s best music cities thanks to its enthusiastic audiences and fans.

“It’s certainly a very supportive town for music and art (and there’s always room for improvement),” says band member Barry Burns, “but it sounds a lot less fun than places like London where the costs of rehearsing are much higher.”

A multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar, bass, keyboards, synthesizer, flute and vocals, Burns joined the band just before the recording of their second album back in 1999. In typical Mogwai fashion, his invite came down to his being “a good laugh” as much as his impressive musical skill set, according to guitarist and co-founder Stuart Braithwaite in a 2006 interview.

This sly jocular attitude characterizes many a Mogwai interviews and public appearances, and it’s marked contrast to their music, which flits between tender melancholy and screaming walls of noise. Their famously nonsensical song names, which span everything from football references to questionable puns to obscure in-band jokes, are another spot in which this contrast plays out.

“Once the hard work – the serious business of making a tune that we think is good enough – is over, we just have a big list of nonsense song titles,” Burns says.

In recent years, Mogwai has taken to scoring films, perhaps as a natural reaction to what’s always been perceived as a ‘cinematic’ quality in their music. The most recent and notable is their soundtrack for Storyville: Atomic – Living in Dread and Promise, a BBC 4 documentary on atomic bombs and Hiroshima, which spawned the simultaneously lovely and paranoia-inducing single ‘Ether.’       

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Many Mogwai songs feel uniquely suited to setting an onscreen mood, and they appear often on soundtrack lists for movies and video games. The song ‘Kid’s Will Be Skeletons’ became one of their most popular (at least outside avid post-rock fan circles) after appearing on the soundtrack of 2015’s acclaimed video game Life Is Strange.

Mogwai first toured through China in 2011, a time Burns recalls as full of “pretty hazy memories because we were in and out so quickly.” He and the band are looking forward to stopping through again and spending more time exploring the two cities.

Their return comes thanks to the 2017 release of their ninth LP, Every Country’s Sun. Hailed as a return to form by many critics, the album sees poppy vocal tracks like the second single ‘Party in the Dark’ alongside shining examples of the band’s classic style, like the album’s stirring finale track. Admirers of the record have credited its producer and sound mixer, Dave Fridmann, an old friend of the band’s who also produced their second and third albums in 1999 and 2001, which essentially cemented their early popularity.

Fridmann is a sought-after producer, but he will not relocate from his home in upstate New York to record an album, which somewhat explains the 16-year gap between his and Mogwai’s previous collaborations. For Every Country’s Sun, the band traveled overseas and stayed in Fridmann’s tiny rural town outside Buffalo during recording, which undoubtedly had an effect on the atmosphere of the album.

“It’s in the middle of nowhere, and even the main town 10 kilometers away isn’t exactly a metropolis,” says Burns, looking back on their stay upstate. “The atmosphere is one where you want to work constantly, and at nighttime you get to relax and have a great time with your bandmates.”

Every Country’s Sun debuted just two years after the release of their 20-year compilation album, Central Belters, and the band seems to be using this latest world tour – in which their Beijing and Shanghai shows fall smack in the middle – as an opportunity to take stock.

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They’re currently running a podcast in conjunction with the tour consisting of interviews between band members and reflections on how far they’ve come. In a highlight moment in episode one, Braithwaite reveals to producer Fridmann his belief that “weirdly, the more records you make, the less you worry. And I think if you’re not too worried about something being terrible, you kind of free yourself up to more opportunities.” In our interview, Burns had a slightly different take on the same idea.

“I feel like we were just as risky when we were younger, but that there are more opportunities given to us to try things out these days,” he says. “Perhaps t 53 29209 53 15526 0 0 7046 0 0:00:04 0:00:02 0:00:02 7044he longevity of the band has enabled this. The amount of hard work and practice over the years can improve your output, too.”

In another potential piece of fodder for reflection as the band arrive on the mainland, Mogwai has one longstanding connection to China, random and unplanned though it may have been. Back in 1995, they named themselves on a whim after the tricky mogwai creature from the 1984 cult film Gremlins, which in turn was taken from the Chinese word mogui (魔鬼), or demon.

“We only found out about the Chinese connection many years after the band was called Mogwai,” says Burns, “but I’m quite pleased about it. Hope it’s not too much bad luck!”

Shanghai: Mar 12, 9pm, (tickets currently sold out). Bandai Namco Shanghai Base.
Beijing: Mar 14, 9pm, RMB360 presale, RMB450 door. Tango, 79 He Ping Li Xi Jie, by South Gate of Di Tan Park 东城区和平里西街79号 (近地坛公园南门) (6428 2288)

Photos by Brian Sweeney.

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