

READ MORPHIZM'S REVIEW OF MOGWAI'S HAPPY SONGS FOR HAPPY PEOPLE HERE "Justify Your Existence": An Interview with Barry Burns of Mogwai by Scott Thill Scott Thill: First, thanks for talking to me. Mogwai was my first Napster casualty. I found both Napster and Mogwai at the same time, and downloaded everything you guys ever made. Then I went out and bought everything I could find the next day.

Barry Burns: We don't mind, I don't care about that. I download lots of stuff when I'm at home, but of course I've got a fast connection. Otherwise, it's a pain in the neck. If you've got dial-up, what's the point? It's hopeless. Hopefully, people will remain on dial-up and downloading will never become an issue. ST: You guys are cool with file-sharing, right?

BB: Yeah, it would be wrong of me to say that I don't agree with it, when I do it myself! (Laughs). I don't know. I think it's good for small bands, and we almost come under that category. It's probably not so good for Metallica! (Laughs). Think about it as a form of tax for the large bands. A preventive tax. ST: When I was downloading your stuff from Napster, it was impossible to find some of it in the stores.

BB: Some of that Napster stuff wasn't real; some of it was a hoax. Apparently, there's a collaboration with Sigur Ros floating around that never happened. I was just some kid's demo that he wanted everyone to hear, so he threw our names on there to get people to listen to it. But it wasn't a collaboration. It's very unlikely that we would ever do anything with Sigur Ros. ST: In this kid's imagination, Sigur Ros and Mogwai just go together.

BB: Yeah, those bastards. ST: You're not a fan of Sigur Ros?

BB: No, I think the word "plagiarism" comes to mind, but I'll say no more. I think because they've got singing they're a bit more successful, but they're pretty much the same as us. I mean, I'm not trying to be impolite, but they're very similar. I'm just not happy about it. ST: Well, let's face it: they're just not as good as you guys.

BB: Well, thank you very much; someone's said it. Usually, people say it's the other way around. ST: Well, the great thing about Mogwai is it has both the gorgeous, poetic, moving compositions but you guys can also turn the fucking noise up, you know? I haven't seen Sigur Ros ever do that.

BB: Nah, they're boring as fuck. We're boring as well, but we try not to be. ST: How is Happy Songs for Happy People different from your last album?

BB: There's more chords, I think it's as basic as that! (Laughs). We tried to do some things that we haven't done before. There's more instrumentation, but there was also less time and money spent on this album. And it was done in Glasgow instead of America. A few factors like that made it different for us. We're always conscious of trying to change every album because, more than anything, we get bored quickly with doing the same thing over again. So we're already thinking about the next one. You just have to justify your existence as a band, and that's what we're trying to do. We don't really know how to do it, but we're managing OK.

(Photo: Mark West, mogwai.co.uk) ST: Do you plan on recording the next one in Glasgow?

BB: Yeah, we're trying to do that. It just means you can go home, and there's no cabin fever, like we had on Rock Action. Because we were in that city for five weeks with nothing within ten miles of us. It started to get a bit claustrophobic. But don't get me wrong -- it was fun. But I think it was better for us the way we did it this time; it was just easier to go home at night and come back in the morning with a fresh head on. ST: This album reminded me of the Mogwai EP with "Stanley Kubrick". Was there a conscious decision to recreate that kind of atmosphere?

BB: No, never at all. We just pour it on; we never talk about stuff like that. We don't have conversations about our aims or objectives, or level any kind of evaluation on our work. We just get on with it. I don't know if it's because we're not very good at talking to each other! (Laughs). If it's obvious that it sounds like an old song, we usually put it in the trash; that is, of course, unless it slips through our fingers unnoticed. Which probably happens quite a lot. ST: How do you just get on with it, as you say? What's the process?

BB: Well, four of us five usually make up songs, so it sometimes starts with one person with an initial idea, and we just play it into some sort of structure that we're happy with. And then we go in and record it. Once we record it, it usually changes right up until the last minute. I think we change a lot of stuff, but we usually know when to stop. We try not to make our songs sound really busy, like I don't know, the Red Hot Chili Peppers or someone like that! (Laughs). There's too much going on at one time. So I think we're really good at knowing when to stop. ST: The interesting thing about your music is that it doesn't sound busy but there's still so much going on.

BB: Maybe that's the only thing we're good at! (Laughs). ST: What about the album title? I know that Stuart has said it's irony-free, but you are releasing it into a world at war.

BB: No, it doesn't have anything to do with events that are happening in the world. It's not ironic, really more sarcastic than anything else. We're fairly happy people. I think Stuart said to me, "How do you feel about the album?" And I said, "I'm quite happy with it." We had to make up a name that day, because the record company needed it for promotion and stuff, so we just said, "Fuck it, why don't we just call it that?" I mean, the titles of the albums and songs aren't particularly relevant to anything. They're important in that we want them to sound good or make people laugh, but they don't really mean anything, to be honest. ST: So you guys just slap the song titles on at the last minute?

BB: Yeah, pretty much. Usually they're just jokes and crap that annoy people, but we manage to get away with it. I think some of the titles are quite funny. I mean, we'll have a few titles before we get one that we're happy with, and those are usually the names of the chords or bands that the song sounds like. I think we've called some songs, "The Cure". (Laughs). But we always change them to something else. ST: I know you guys get pretty heavy mail on your site. Do you ever get people writing in with crazy theories on some of the titles?

BB: Yeah, I can't remember all of them. Martin told me about one for the song "Christmas Steps", which is named after a street in England somewhere. And someone thought the whole song was like the build-up to Christmas. You know, the song builds up as you open your presents, then dies down when you don't get what you wanted. Wrong, really. Usually, people come up with some pretty funny ideas about the songs.

(Photo: mogwai.co.uk) ST: That's kinda the fun about getting on with it as you say. If the song titles don't mean anything on your end, it leaves them open to all kinds of wild interpretations.

BB: Yeah, and it's also quite good, because you get to hear some unbelievable crap you would have never thought of in the first place! (Laughs). But it is up to the listeners to decide what they want the songs to be about. They just need to keep it to themselves! (Laughs). ST: Have you ever written one back and said, "You're fucking crazy."

BB: Yeah, more like, "What are you talking about?" ST: Well, one thing is that Mogwai's music is always so cinematic, whether on accident or on purpose.

BB: Yeah, and ironically enough no one has asked us to do music for a film. ST: You're kidding me.

BB: Well, sometimes we'll get approached. Right now, we're trying to get an agent in Hollywood for stuff like that. But we'll get asked to do stuff, and then at the last minute, people who have put the money up for the film that unfortunately decide what music goes into it will say, "We've never heard of this band" to the director who wanted us. "They don't have anything on the charts" or whatever. There are all these factors that we don't care about, so we manage to never get our music into film. I think something will happen eventually; right now, we're doing small stuff like student films that never make any money. But it would be nice to do something from scratch, because I've had experience doing that and it's great fun. And I think that we'd be able to do it as a band. ST: Yeah, I don't see how they could possibly stay away from you guys.

BB: It does confuse me, but I don't want to be so up on myself to say that we should be doing it. ST: Well, I did see one commercial with Mogwai on it, during the Super Bowl of all fuckin' places.

BB: That was very, very strange. ST: The Levi's commercial with "Summer".

BB: Yeah, I wish we hadn't done that now. (Laughs). ST: How did that work? Did you guys just say, "Aw, give us the money and do whatever you want"?

BB; No, I think we only got paid last week for that, and it wasn't much money at all. There was a big legal problem over who owned the masters; we got fucked over by our old record company, who said they owned them even though we did. It was a sneaky record deal they had us sign before we really had a manager or a lawyer; it was a long time ago. And it all came back on us quite bad, because they wanted to sell Levi's for some money. We probably won't do that again unless we know exactly who owns the fucking songs! It was a strange arrangement with JetSet Records, but they can fuckin' die.

(Photo: mogwai.co.uk) ST: Yeah, I was wondering about that commercial. I was like, "What's this running of the bulls shit ruining this beautiful music?"

BB: It was a rubbish advert, totally crap. And they only changed the music about a month later because I think some focus groups said we were too noisy for Levi's. All we got out of it was a free set of denims that didn't fit. They're all bastards. It's the chasing of the dollar. ST: Are there any directors that you'd like to work with?

BB: Yeah, Darren Aronofsky. Todd Solondz would be good too. ST: What about David Lynch?

BB: Uh, I'm not a fan. Every time I watch a David Lynch film, I walk away angry and confused! (Laughs). I'm probably quite old-fashioned when it comes to films, but I do like them to make some sort of sense and not require that much brain power. I don't really like them, but Stuart and I think Dominic also is a fan of David Lynch's films. I think our music would be too normal for David Lynch. ST: How did the tour go for you guys this time around?

BB: Good! Usually around the end of a tour, everyone just wants to go home, but we really enjoyed ourselves this time. I think a lot of it has to do with small comforts, like the bus being nice and getting a proper sleep every night. And the support was fantastic; Isis played with us, as well as a band, Part Chimp, from our own label. They played on the East coast with us, which was really cool. Because sometimes you get hit with the local support acts, and you end with Green Day covers and stuff like that! (Laughs). But everything this time out has been really organized, much better than before. ST: How is having your own label? Does it give additional leverage with the record companies?

BB: Well, it's owned by us now, because we bought the imprint outright from the record company. And I think it's just easier for us to see what bands need, because we are a band. So I think that all the relationships we have with the bands have been quite friendly, and there's really been no problems, mostly because we know what we would expect our label to do. I think we've already got quite high expectations of a record company, so that helps. But sometimes it is a hindrance, because we're away so often, and stuff needs to get sorted out. So we've employed a label manager, because it's essential for us to have someone back home dealing with stuff while we're away. I enjoy it though; we get to do things that we want, that many other record companies just wouldn't do because there's no money in it. We're just happy to break even. As long as everything breaks even, we're fine; we don't want to lose money or everything becomes stupid. We wish we had lots of money to lose, but we don't! (Laughs). ST: Yeah, you want to keep it going. The climate is beginning to change for artists; through new technologies, it seems that they're beginning to take ownership of their own production and help get their friends' work out there too.

BB: Yeah, it's much better now I think. Now you're seeing all these laptop bands come up; it doesn't cost them anything to make records. So yeah, I think people are beginning to be able to have more control over their work, and I think they're fed up with the old record companies as well. They collect 80 percent of the profits, while the bands are basically left with a loss. I'm quite happy with the ways things are progressing at the moment. ST: What do you think about these major labels and companies?

BB: Well, it's just like Wal-Mart or any other major company -- they can win on every level because they've got money, especially in the United States. That's the dream, isn't it, to grab as much money as you can so you can fuck everyone else? It's constitutional now, isn't it? (Laughs). But I think it's much better to have a bunch of small bands with their own record companies. And I hope they don't sell, because it's much easier for them to sell to a major label or company, because they get a lot of money out of it. But that's probably not the reason why they started it in the first place. Yet money is a very captivating force. ST: Especially when record companies are suing downloaders for $150, 000 per song.

BB: Yeah, but now there's this iTunes thing, which I'm really into. You pay one dollar to download a song? I think someone's got their head screwed on properly. But I do think it's time we stopped downloading for free and make a contribution, or else all these bands are going to lose out. BUY HAPPY SONGS FOR HAPPY PEOPLE HERE ST: I agree. You have to support the bands that you love. One last question -- who made that fucking crazy video for "Hunted Like a Freak?" That thing is insane. I told my wife she couldn't watch it, because she loves animals.

BB: Because she would start crying! (Laughs). It was a Canadian animation company called Plates that made it. They sent us a few story treatments for it, and we didn't like them much. But then they came up with this one, and it was just fuckin' hilarious. Really sick. So they made it, and we were really happy with it. We do really well in Japan, but they banned it from television there because a week before they were going to show it some ten-year-old kid threw some three-year-old kid off of a building. So they wouldn't fuckin show it, to be respectful to the dead. ST: Yeah, I saw that video and my head exploded. I couldn't believe you even got the green light to make that thing.

BB: The next one, from the same company, is going to be for "Killing All the Flies", and it's going to be a family of flies and a family of humans involved in some story. It sounds quite funny. But we'll probably change that with the next record, because, well, we like to keep changing. Which pisses people off because it means their employment is ending! (Laughs). 17 December 03 Scott Thill usually finds the time to write on everything that does not include those fearsome words, "boy band". He's also a gainfully employed editor who writes for Salon, XLR8R, Popmatters, All Music Guide, AOL and others. His first novel, The Dangerous Perhaps, should be done by the time the War on Terrorism is over. GET MORE MORPHIZM Environmental Awareness

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