 | (ML) Ein nicht mehr ganz aktuelles Mogwai Interview mit John Cummings über Bob Dylan, Stanley Kubrick, Brian Eno
und die Suche nach der letzten Frage. |
Stephen Malkmus said that Mogwai is the band for the 21st Century. Would you like the 21st Century to be like your music?
I don’t think our music is necessarily particularly futuristic. I don’t know. But the future is never futuristic either. So yeah, why not. A kind of a non-futuristic future. What is for you the most important aspect of music?
That we try to make it good. Really, that’s the most important thing. There’s no point in doing it, if it’s not gonna be as good, as you can make it. How is the song-writing process?
We’re just sitting together with our instruments, at home or in our rehearsal. We play something that sounds quite good, then we play it and repeat it a lot. Someone may be sitting at home playing guitar or whatever, he discovers something that sounds good, comes in and shows it to everyone else. It’s not very complicated really. And most of it is good?
Well most of it is not good, it takes a lot of working things out, to try to find good things and then to forget about all the rubbish things. So there’s a lot of left over?
Not so much left over, but it just doesn’t get very far. I suppose for every tune that gets on an album there are probably ten things, that didn’t even turn out to be full songs, that the rest of the band got to hear. I’m sure everyone got lots of bits, that they don’t bother playing to anyone, because they’re rubbish. You might be playing something in the night and think oh, that’s good. Then you wake up in the morning and try to remember it and maybe you’ve forgotten it, or you remember it and it’s just rubbish. So there’s a lot of rubbish, that happens. Mostly rubbish. And then when something good happens it’s quite exciting. Why are there rarely vocals?
We’re not very good singers. I mean there’s a bit of vocals that me and Barry did and there’s some that Barry did alone. But there’s no singing from Stuart. That’s no criticism, he is a better singer than me. But he is not really a singer-singer, that can do different types of vocal performances. So if he sang, it would just sound the same, as all the singing, we have done before. It sounds nice, but we’ve done it before. It would be boring. There’s no point in overdoing it. Don’t you need to say something with lyrics?
Most lyrics are terrible. I doubt, that we would come up with something fantastic, that would be worth being there. Brian Eno had that interesting way of writing lyrics. He would just sing noises along the music that he recorded and then change the noises into words. Like just singing sounds and then work out, what words sounded like those sounds, rather then actually the words meaning anything themselves. I think there’s a point to that to a certain extent. That the human voice definitely adds something to music as an instrument. The same as a guitar has a particular sound, human voices have a particular sound. That makes it sound like something else, but it’s still not Bob Dylan. Words have a purpose being there, sounds have a purpose being there, but not in an intelligible lyrical content. So unless you’re gonna be as good as Bob Dylan, there’s no point. Do you want to say something with your music?
No. It’s just music that we try to make as good as possible. For that reason we hope people like it. I suppose it’s some kind of justification of our existence as musicians. That people actually want to hear us. But it’s just music, hopefully nice music and music that can affect people emotionally or whatever, but not necessarily in any political direction, or philosophical way. You don’t have to think too much about it. It should just be nice and good as music, without really needing any other explanation. It should be self contained. You have been politically active as a band. Would you call yourself therefore a political band?
We have had more political moments, but music hasn’t been connected to that really. There’s not really much connection between the titles of our songs and records and the music. It’s mostly just random quotes taken out of context. They have got quite a few different meanings. They’re quite interesting to think about. But they don’t have any connection with the music, because the music doesn’t have any words. The music is non verbal. Any words can do relate at all. When we’ve had political suggestions for our song titles, it has not been connected with the music, but felt was suitable or the right thing to say, for personal reasons I suppose, or whatever. It’s not that the music has been composed to convey us a political ideal or anything. How do you come up with the song titles?
Just from things we’ve seen and read in magazine articles or something that we have heard someone say on television. You just can take a few words out of a sentence from someone and it seems to mean a lot. Maybe in three or four different ways it can mean something. It’s quite difficult to find a solution.
There isn’t really one at all. I suppose some people name songs in a descriptive manner. But that’s just not the way we feel is right. I suppose it seems about much to call something waterfalls at night time or something stupid. I don’t know. But they need a name, like babies need a name when they’re born. Whatever name you give them it doesn’t have connection to with what they are like as a person. It’s just a tag. So you can talk about it. “What are we going to play next? The fourth of the fifth album. What was that? Oh no, I can’t remember.” If you’ve got names, they’re a lot easier to deal with. They’re never connected to the music. Do you always play the same setlist?
No, we probably have about 18 or 19 songs, that we can play live at any time. We only play about 10 or 11 or 9 of them. So it does change a lot, but there are some songs we nearly play every night. It’s about half the set, that changes. It depends on how we feel that night. There are quite a few people who come to see three or four shows in one country, or if we’re playing two nights in the same venue. We can’t really play the same songs on both nights, because people will come to both. So we try to be able to play some different ones. And there’s a lot of songs, that we haven’t ever played live, or that we’d never play live again, cause they weren’t very good. They just didn’t come across so great live as on the record. But there are some, that we have been playing for eight years. Have you got a favourite live song?
Not really. There are a few I don’t like playing., but I don’t really have a favourite amongst the other ones. I mostly enjoy all of them. There are a couple, where I just never been into. I suppose that’s the way. There are five of us. We can’t always all really love everything in the same way. You just have to get on with it. Are you sometimes nervous when you play a show?
It depends. Sometimes if it’s a really big festival, I tend to go to the bathroom quite a lot. Last night I was really stoned, when we started to play and I was really, really scared, for I wasn’t sure if I was able to keep it together. But it was fine. I was just nervous, paranoid because of bad things. But usually I’m not nervous. We’ve been on tour a lot this year and we’ve played the songs for a lot of times, most of the songs 80 or 90 times. We should be able to do it, and we’ve got a very good crew. So there’s not much that can go wrong. Stoned in a bad way?
Just stoned. We hadn’t had any grass for a couple of days, and then we got some for the gig. “Ah right, a joint, ahhh, brilliant, mad.” And then we gone up the stage, it was like, “Oh bloody hell, uhhh, fuck.” But then it went all right. It was fine. It still was a good show?
Yeah it was fine. Mogwai is now in the music business for nearly eight years. Did you ever think in the beginning, you would be successful for so long?
We never thought we’d be successful. It was never anything, that mattered. Well, nobody wanted to be successful, but when we started being successful, we were recording and releasing a single, playing gigs. But there were a couple of points where nothing happened, for a half a year or so. I suppose, it didn’t seem, we’d be a very successful band, because we weren’t doing much. But the successfulness we wanted, is just being able to do it and gradually we got to do more and more, more records and tours and stuff. We feel most successful, that we’ve got away with it, that we continued to be allowed to do it financially, rather then be successful, because we’ve sold so many records. So yes, hopefully we’ll go on to be successful. Even more successful, we’ll make better records and play better concerts, but without anymore people buying the records. So we still can get more successful, if we get better. Sales figures don’t matter that much for you?
Well they do matter. They represent financial gains and the fact, that we don’t need to have other jobs to pay for the rent, or booze and stuff. And we can go away on tour. And people want to come to the concerts and pay for it. We don’t have to cycle to the concerts. We don’t have to cycle around Europe, with our guitars on our back. We can come in a nice bus. The number of people who want to pay for Mogwai music and for Mogwai concerts helps us to be comfortable personally. But we’re not trying to get famous. We just want to be able to sit around all day and not have proper jobs. What would you be doing if you weren’t a musician?
I’ve been doing sound for people. I produced an album for a band last year. I would probably end up doing something like that. But I don’t know if I would have done that three years ago. You wouldn’t do something completely different?
I don’t really know how to do anything different. I’d still be going on tour, or I’d be involved in the making of music at some hopefully. It’s the only thing I can do. I would try that first. If that failed I would have to go back to college. Was it difficult for you as a Scottish band to get airplay in England?
Not at all, no. I suppose there’s a small difficulty in being a band from Scotland, a lot of the music industry is based in London, so playing a gig in London is quite a big thing, but it’s also quite a big journey. It’s not something a lot of small bands can afford. I suppose it’s the same anywhere, in any country. Lot’s of small bands in France can’t go to play in Paris. Scotland is quite far away from London, so in that respect, it’s hard to get to London. There are always people willing to respect bands all over from England. There have been quite a few Scottish bands who have been critically acclaimed and have been accepted. So it’s not really a barrier. I would have imagined our type of music more to be a barrier, than anything else. But we still got played in John Peel and other programs on national radio in Great Britain. We did quite well at first, all things considering. Is it true, that British people like American music less then British music?
I don’t think it’s true at all. No. I can’t think of any way that that would be true, not even of popular bands. People love Bon Jovi and stuff like that. I like Fugazi and Funkadelic. I don’t see why people in Great Britain wouldn’t like American bands. Probably most people like American bands. Why do you ask? Sometimes it seems that British people like American bands, but not as much, as they would like them if they were British.
You mean like the critical NME type? Yeah, exactly.
I see what you mean. No, yes. I don’t know. I mean the NME, most people like it I suppose. The people that work there go and see a lot of young bands in London. So their professional attention is gonna be directed towards the people that they know and have a good time with, and bands that they like and champion new music and say they have the next big thing and all that to generate record sales. So if slagging off American bands generates copies sold of the NME, then I suppose in some way people do not like American bands. But that seems rather stupid really. I imagine it’s more for the effect and out of self importance, that the NME would do that, rather then automatic thinking, that American bands are rubbish. Does the NME still have influence?
I’m not sure of how much influence it has now. But before I think it had more of an influence. I mean they had, though not quite single handedly, certainly a very large contribution to Mogwai being known of by a lot of people. They used to write about us all the time for a long time. So I mean they can be influential in that way. But I think thy lost some of the, or a lot of the respect they used to have from more serious music listeners. Why?
The format’s pretty much just not the same as it used to be. It’s not the same style of content. Before the Maildemaker went out of business, it got really into a magazine for smash heads, like a teenage pop magazine kinda thing. Just terrible. Now the NME is about to do the same way. Much more tabloidy. It doesn’t seem to be worth reading anymore, to me. But I’m maybe just getting old, I don’t know. Maybe all the 18 year olds love the NME. “Yes champion of new music.” And I’m an old fugie. Do you like the band Sigur Ros?
Well I’ve heard of them, they sound fine. I wouldn’t listen to it again, but I wouldn’t walk out of the room if it came on. A lot of people seem to compare them to us, but I don’t find them that interesting. Not in a bad way, it’s not quite my kind of thing. Do you have some favourite bands right now?
[long time thinking]. I’ve come here listening the warm jets by Brian Eno. But that’s not really a new thing. A recent resurgence: Brian Eno oh, yes! I’ve hardly have any new music. That’s more out of laziness, then of anything else. I got an iPod, we’ve all got Apple Mac Computers, so come in to steal a lot of music out of Stuart and Barrys computers. I’ve not quite come around to do that, but once I did that, I will know everything. I will be sitting there “Oh new music, ohh, that’s exciting.” But no, I’ve been very lazy all year in fact, since we’ve been on tour. We’ve been very busy. I didn’t really buy any music at all. Does it get boring being on tour all year?
Yeah, but it’s not boring all the time. Some things begin to annoy you more then they should. But it’s not too bad. You get to go to nice places. Do you get to see anything from the places you stay?
Yeah, sometimes. I think thats the third time we’ve been to Fribourg. I’ve not been out today, but the last time I went into town for a walkabout, that was nice. Most of the time we end up sitting in the venue, cause there’s often interviews to do. When you get to the venue it’s not always open, so you have to wait. Or we go to have some breakfast, or there’s a problem with the gear, we’ve got to fix. So there’s usually stuff for us to do. So we shouldn’t wonder of and go miles away, cause we are needed. We had a day off in Croatia, in Zagreb. So we’ve seen some of Zagreb, that’s really really nice. I want to go back there. We don’t go out sightseeing everyday. Once in a while it’s really really nice. Once a week. But the weather is not that nice. [It was snowing in Fribourg]
It seems quite nice though. We don’t get very much snow in Scotland anymore. And that seems like good quality Hollywood type of snow. It looks beautiful, but I wouldn’t like to have to do any kind of work, or walk great distances. That may be horrible. But a leisurely strawl would be nice. Peaceful, Beautiful, just like in a film. Are you into films?
Again, not so much, as I used to be. I’m very lazy. I see a lot of blockbuster films on aeroplane journeys and buses. There’s always lots of DVDs, “the sum of all fears” we started to watch that last night. It was terrible. We watched Star Wars “The empire strikes back” and “return to the Jedi” the night before. That was good. But nobody finished return of the Jedi, because it’s terrible. But “empire strikes back” I really enjoyed that. Do you have a favourite movie?
Rollerball used to be my favourite, I don’t know if it would be anymore. I used to really like Stanley Kubrick films as well. “Pirates of the Carrebean” is actually a recent favourite of all of us, cause we like to talk like pirates. [Imitates a pirate]. So that’s been very funny. I’ve enjoyed it a lot. There’s a Mogwai song called Stanley Kubrick, is this some sort of attribute to him?
We didn’t have a name for that song, and then he died. We liked his films for quite a few years. But the song was already written. It was only once he died, that we decided to name that song after him. It seemed fitting in some way, but not in a “ohhh Stanley Kubrick, he was…” not in too a reverential manner. All songs need a name and Stanley Kubrick’s a fine name. Something completely different: What was the worst experience you had with Mogwai?
A couple of months ago we were on tour in America that was terrible. Everyone was ill, everyone had a stomach infection. So everyone was really, really sick. We had been on tour for months and months, we hadn’t been home for so long. It was just terrible. But you still played shows while you were sick?
Oh, yeah. We have to play shows. We did have to cancel one, a couple of months ago, because I had some acid thing in my stomach, and was very, very sick. So we had to cancel a show in Brighton, in south England. It was meant to be on John Peel. We had to cancel that, because I was too sick. But that’s the only concert we ever cancelled due to sickness. Is there one show you remember particularly?
Some nights ago in we had a show in Dresden that was really good. Everything just seamt to go right. I didn’t make any mistakes playing the guitar, which I worry about and try hard not to make mistakes. If I do mistakes, I get very embarrassed. But no mistakes, all went fine. Everything that I tried to do happened. Everything worked fine, all the equipment. Everyone played properly. Have you already plans for the future, for a new CD?
We haven’t written any songs for it really. But we’ve all written separately. So it’ll be another few months, till we have anything to record. But hopefully we’ll record it in summer, and have it out before Christmas. Does everyone write songs?
Yeah, apart from Martin the drummer. Barry writes the most, then Stuart, then me and Dominic. Do they all go in the same direction musically?
Similarly, not exactly at all. I think a lot of ideas we have are discarded not because they are bad, but because they are not very Mogwai. For instance there seems to be something good about them, but not quite right for someone else. So how would you describe Mogwai sound?
Instrumental ambient rock. That’s not a very good description though. But it’s as good as any other. There is just no good description. It’s tricky, but I suppose you can describe anything with words. That’s why words are there. I can’t describe it though. I’m not very good with words. 26.01.2005, Fri-Son, Fribourg (Switzerland)
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