Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite: "This Labour government have completely shat the bed already"

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the forming of Scottish noiseniks Mogwai, who arrived in the mid-'90s with an uncompromising manifesto that championed underground, alternative music, with the group’s spiky punk attitude conveyed in a series of memorably provocative press interviews.

Mogwai’s latest album, The Bad Fire, is another vintage effort, which as well as trafficking in the group’s customary quiet/loud dynamics, also masterfully incorporates elements of electronica, krautrock and shoegaze.

When I catch up with the band’s Stuart Braithwaite at home in Scotland late on a Friday evening, the band are in the middle of rehearsals for their upcoming world tour, although unforeseen circumstances have resulted in “a rare day off”.

I start by asking him if, 30 year ago, the group could have foreseen they’d still be going strong in 2025.

“No, not all,” replies Stuart. “I mean, we were so young when we started the band that a month seems a long time, never mind a year or a decade. So without a doubt, it would not have been in any of the plans.

“In terms of writing, it’s a bit different. Back then, we’d always just do it in the rehearsal room, whereas these days we can demo at home. The finishing parts of writing a song are very much the exact same, but the very start of the songs is a bit different.”

The opening track on The Bad Fire, ‘God Gets You Back’, is built around a bit of a rave groove.

“I think it just sounds like ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’ by Bauhaus,” counters Stuart. “It’s more of a ‘grave’ groove!”

Were they teenage favourites of yours?

“Oh yeah,” nods Stuart. ‘“And an adult favourite!”

I’ve always loved ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’, but I could never really get into any of the other Bauhaus stuff.

“Oh man, you need to check them out,” Braithwaite enthuses. “They’ve got lots of good songs! “There’s ‘In The Flat Fields’ and ‘All We Ever Wanted Was Everything’. I really like Bauhaus – I’m probably the wrong guy to ask for an unbiased view (laughs).”

The Bad Fire seems to have more of an electronic feel than some of Mogwai’s previous records.

“Maybe a little bit,” Braithwaite considers. “The thing with us is, we try a lot of different things and it really just depends on which songs turn out the best. We usually record quite a lot more songs than we need, so it’s probably as simple as that, to be honest. We definitely still like the quiet/loud dynamics, it’s fun to do.”

Do you write with live shows in mind?

“Not really,” he considers, “but when the songs are close to being finished, we are kind of thinking, ‘How’s this gonna work live?’ But I think our songs are naturally quite suited to gigs.”

In the accompanying notes for The Bad Fire, Mogwai note that the album was born of some trying personal times. However, rather than being an obstacle to overcome, the album seems to have served as a welcome distraction to disappear into.

“Yeah, I think so,” Stuart nods. “It is hard. Barry’s little girl was really ill, and we lost a lot of friends and people we work with. It was very tough, but having something to focus on is always quite good. It always makes things a little bit easier.”

It seems to be a stage of life we all go through around our fifties – losing people we love and having to overcome adversity. “Yeah, absolutely,” says Stuart. “No one really prepares you for it! All your problems become a lot worse. But we’re not immune, it’s the same with everyone.”

Before Christmas, I actually read Stuart’s superb 2022 memoir, Spaceships Over Glasgow, which tracked the band’s rise from small beginnings in Glasgow to international cult heroes. Reading the book, it was notable the extent to which My Bloody Valentine seemed a foundational influence on Mogwai, and one of the standout tracks on The Bad Fire, ’18 Volcanoes’ has a very MBV feel.

“Yeah definitely,” says Stuart. “They were one of the bands we bonded over. Kevin designed a pedal for Fender that I use on that song as well. We like to wear influences on our sleeve. We’ve got friendly with Kevin. I think I tell that story in the book of maybe the first time we went to see them, and it was so loud my trousers were flapping. And another time we went to see them, Dominic’s ears bled – but that’s a whole other story! Kevin’s got a lot to answer for.”

As it happens, MBV have announced a hotly anticipated 3Arena date for the end of this year, which of course sold out instantly, but as yet there’s no news of other shows or new material.

“I’d be very surprised if there’s not more one gig, just knowing how these things work,” says Braithwaite. “But it’s certainly cool, it’s a really big gig. And I think I saw they hadn’t played a gig in Dublin for years and years, so they’ll be great.”

One of the acts I’ve seen live the most, Mogwai themselves have developed a reputation for uniquely powerful gigs, alternating between otherworldly beauty and eruptions of sonic mayhem.

“That’s good to hear,” acknowledges Braithwaite. “Cos I find it quite an overwhelming experience to be honest. It’s pretty intense. It’s actually funny, we had our documentary, If The Stars Had A Sound, come out recently, and I was sitting watching it with Kenny, who does our sound.

“I was like, ‘Oh man, that’s really intense, Kenny. Am I that loud?’ And he was just laughing, like, ‘Oh my god, you’ve no idea!’ It seems pretty relaxing from where I’m standing, but it gets pretty wild.”

Changing tack, Mogwai were among those advocating for a Yes vote in the 2014 Scottish referendum. Is Stuart still engaged with UK politics?

“I am,” he affirms. “I mean, I find politics pretty depressing. But yeah, this Labour government have completely shat the bed already. Actually, ironically, they’ve probably blown it for Labour in Scotland. They might win – I think it’s in in May next year – but it won’t be resounding, because people have been so unimpressed with the London Labour government.

“It’s all about a bit murky just now, isn’t it? There are all these kind of right wing weirdos popping up everywhere. I’m not absolutely finger on the pulse with it, because I find it a bit depressing.”

Do you think Scottish independence will come back on the agenda?

“Probably,” says Stuart. “Especially since young people are thinking about it after Brexit. I think Scottish independence polls very highly with young people. As the older people die and more young people can vote, it’ll probably be back on the table. The other thing is that everything they threatened would happen, if Scotland voted for independence, has happened anyway.

“All your shopping’s going to go up. Okay, that’s scary. And then it just happens! I mean, you only have to look at Ireland, which probably doesn’t have the resources Scotland does, and Ireland’s doing great, so they must think our heads are stitched up the back.”

Finally, I mention that Mogwai came to prominence in the ’90s, at a time when Scottish authors such as Irvine Welsh and Ian Rankin, were also becoming successful. Do the band feel they were part of a wave of Scottish culture?

“Yeah, I think so,” says Stuart. “I think there was definitely a lot of confidence in Scottish culture, and Ian and Irvine are big on telling Scottish stories on an international level. So I definitely feel connected to them, a hundred percent.”

The Bad Fire is out now. Mogwai play the Heineken Big Top, Galway on July 24; Live at the Big Top, Limerick (25); and Vicar Street, Dublin (27).