Scottish post-rock giants Mogwai have spoken to ClashMusic about work on their new album.
Mogwai like to do things their own way. After the release of ‘The Hawk Is Howling’ in 2008 the band found themselves free to operate on their own, deciding to release any new material through their own Rock Action imprint.
Recording recent concert film ‘Burning’ in Brooklyn was a new step for the band, with the resulting release being handled on a DIY basis. Accompanied by the audio album ‘Special Moves’ the new film is a stunning document.
However what fans really want to know is when a new studio album is going to come their way. Speaking to ClashMusic, guitarist Barry Burns explained that sessions in their hometown of Glasgow are ongoing.
“We’ve been recording for a few weeks with the band now” he explained. “John has been living in New York for a while and I’ve been in Berlin. Before, we would meet up in Glasgow and write songs together so this is a different way of doing things – sending files to each other over the internet. It’s slightly weird doing it that way but I think it’s going quite well.”
“I mean, we’re only two weeks into it and we’ve only done the drum and bass…not the genre – the instruments!”
Mogwai have decided to lock themselves up in Hamilton’s Chem19 studio, the scene of some of their best recordings. “It’s Chem19, yeah. We’ve got about four weeks in there, then we’re moving to our own studio in Glasgow. The Castle Of Doom!” joked the guitarist.
“We’ll be mixing with Paul Savage in there. It’s a long one. It feels like we’ve been working on the album for some time now, but we’ve spent longer time on older albums.”
Meanwhile, Barry Burns also mused on the freedoms offered by working on their own. “There’s no one in charge anymore, we do everything ourselves” he said. “So now I think we’ll reach a point where we realise that we’re going to have to tour. That maybe sounds like in the past we were quite complacent, but now that it’s all in our hands we won’t have anyone else to blame.”
Read the entire interview HERE.
