|
 "There
was some-
thing truly visceral about Cube's voice that made his ever-present snarl
that much more serious. As he barked on Death Certificate and
Amerikkka's, he was the nigga you love to hate as well as the
wrong one to fuck with."
 "In
a segment that seems designed to honor yet another one of rock and roll's
seminal yet fallen heroes, MTV just can't help talking about why it,
not Nirvana, mattered so much."
 "I
don't give a fuck about that stuff. I feel comfortable being called
a punk band, because I feel that's what we came out of."
 "Even
though Sonic Youth grabbed Cobain by his hypodermic needles and helped
foist him into the spotlight, alterna-fans du jour didn't return the
favor when the New York noisemakers lobbed this bottom-soaked missile
their direction."
"Bush's
lame response to North Korea has made it quite clear that all he wants
is to invade Iraq again. North Korea may be more dangerous in fact,
but there's no oil there, and it simply doesn't figure in the grand
eschatological design of Bush's theocratic circle. Pyongyang isn't
even in the Bible!"
 "People
are more aware of the world that they want to live in, and now they
have to realize that they can actually create that world and fight
for the things that are worth fighting for and not feel apathetic.
We are all going to die. There is no point in holding anything back."
 "The
recall provision itself was designed as a way for the people of
the state to get rid of a governor who had disappointed them. Not
a bad idea on the face of it,. but then about 90 years later, reality
sets in."
 "There's
some thing in our psyche, this kind of right or privilege to resolve
our conflicts with violence. There's an arrogance to that concept.
To actually have to sit down and talk, to listen, to compromise,
that's hard work. To go for the gun, that's the cowardly act."
 "Word
comes that brother Cat Stevens refuses to lend his support to our
virtuous jihad. May this turncoat's Peace Train be laden with explosives
and rammed into the Mountain of Mohammed, peace be upon him."
 "There's
a scene in Richard Link-later's Waking Life where the protagonist
crouches down to read a note in the street that says, 'Look to
your right,' which he does, only to come face to face with a speeding
car aiming right for his head. That's what it's like to listen
to Mars Volta's De-loused in the Comatorium for the first
time. "
 "You
need gas money and a car that works. Of course, my preference is
to do it in the middle of the night! Leave them little presents,
you know what I'm saying? Like the Easter bunny."
 "The
idea -- if we may use so flattering a term -- was that the Pentagon
would monitor the site and the betting, and thus get a jump on
terrorist acts to come. After all, as the theory goes (and never
mind the whole dot.com fiasco), if people are willing to put money
on something, they must have a pretty good idea what they're doing."
 "Well,
well, well. President George was in one hell of bind when it turned
that that Saudi Arabia funded Al Qaeda, not Iraq. Realizing we'd
invaded the wrong country, Bush did the honorable thing: he's
come out against gay marriages."
 "Gregory
Peck, in what may have been divine justice died comfortably
in his sleep, old age finally having caught up with him. His
soul, like his formidable legacy, was one of peace, so it is
poetic that he left this world in such a manner. But the times
he has left behind for his unknown sons and daughters resembles
the dystopia of Boys From Brazil more each day. ."
 "Can
you believe these guys? A third grader can tell you that crack
is to pot like an Uzi is to a banana. Crack kills, pot giggles."
|
"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.
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.
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.
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 |
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If you're looking for an artistic intersection between
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