MOGWAI
HAPPY RETURNS
As Mogwai release their 20th anniversary boxset, frontman Stuart Braithwaite tells David Pollock about his favourite tracks from the collection and what they mean to the band
‘SUMMER’, FROM MOGWAI YOUNG TEAM, 1996 It was the i rst song we really did as a band, and the i rst instrumental we recorded. It was a bit of music I’d written, a bit of music Dominic (Aitchison) had written, and we bashed it all together. The fact it turned out so well is the reason we went down the road we did. Every band starting out tries to go down every road at once, but this was the i rst time we knew what Mogwai sounded like. ‘MOGWAI FEAR SATAN’, FROM MOGWAI YOUNG TEAM, 1997 It was one of the i rst songs that came together as a result of just playing
together all the time, which we did at my parents’ house or Martin’s (Bulloch) parents’ house. We just played and played and played, and this felt like we’d taken a step up when we played it live. I love the way it keeps building, and it’s longer than anything we’d done. Yeah, it’s pretty much the only song that people moan about if we don’t play it live, which is a huge compliment after 18 years. If it was a human it could drink in a pub. It never gets boring to play, but it’s frustrating if we’re playing it somewhere and it’s not loud enough or people aren’t paying attention. I sometimes catch sight of someone reading their texts just before the really loud bit and think, ‘you’ll regret that in a minute, mate’.
102 THE LIST 5 Nov 2015–4 Feb 2016