The Justice

With Mogwai's new album The Hawk is Howling, a landmark has been set in the band's discography. For the first time, they have released an entirely instrumental LP, a welcome motion on account of the fact that Mogwai has been widely recognized as one of the most popular instrumental acts of the last decade. Rather than taking center stage, vocals leaked in though the seams or, if present at all, were vocoded, mumbled or otherwise rendered inscrutable.

On this record, the vocals have disappeared, and Mogwai is back with all of their lovable idiosyncrasies. Enigmatic song titles? Yes, they're present in the form of "I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead," "The Sun Smells Too Loud" and "I Love You, I'm Going to Blow Up Your School." There's synthesizer and plenty of mellifluous beds of noise. There are still the famous Mogwai "soft/loud" dynamics, but the transitions are subtle, and the listener is allowed to fully experience the melodic development of each song segment before being shunted into new sonic territory.

Highlights of the album include the Pelican-ish "Batcat," the beautiful and disturbingly titled "I Love You, I'm Going to Blow Up Your School" and the majestic "Thank You Space Expert." Mogwai's music may not be suitable for the listener who judges a song based on its hook, though. It is, however, ideal for anyone who enjoys lush beds of sound and excellent melodic development.

In a graciously granted phone interview, a flustered interviewer spoke to Dominic Aitchison, Mogwai's bassist.

JustArts: How has the tour been going?

Dom: Eh, the tour's been going good. We're about halfway through now, so the jet lag is over and done with, and we're getting into the swing of it.

JustArts: That's good, that's good. I'm personally very excited to see [Mogwai] and Fuck Buttons performing in Boston. Do you feel that Fuck Buttons has been well-received by Mogwai fans?

Dom: Yeah, they definitely have. We've done really well every night, so it's been really good to have them along, one, because they're a really brilliant band, but also [because they're] really good guys to hang out with, so it's been quite fun having them on the tour.

JustArts: Now, regarding the actual music, do you feel that your work conveys a narrative in the same way that more conventional music might?

Dom: I don't really know ... It's weird, we never really think about our music in those kind of terms. I mean, I suppose that people find those stories; they come up to the shows with ideas of what the songs are about. I think the fact that the songs haven't got any lyrics or any conventional verse-chorus-verse sort of structure, it's easier for people just to, I don't know, put whatever.

JustArts: Like invent their own meaning?

Dom: I don't know, it just seems like rock music to us. But what other people want from it is not for me to answer, I think. I guess I don't know how to answer it. Apologies for not really answering your question [laughs].

JustArts: No, no, that's actually what I was leading into. Do you feel that people try to over-intellectualize your music? Do you feel that it should just be something that is enjoyed and listened to rather than thought about?

Dom: Well, we try to be nice, I just don't think that the music that we've made represents any particular emotion or story. I mean we try to relate to it, but I suppose that it's as far or as deep into it as we get. But you know, I'm more than happy for people to listen to it in whatever manner that they want.

JustArts: How long was the writing process for the new album?

Dom: Probably just about a year, I think, maybe not even that. We toured for about a year and a half for the previous album, and we probably spent just under a year writing and rehearsing and started recording at the end of that year .... It's taken a long time to come out.

JustArts: Because of the relative heaviness of the last couple of Mogwai albums, comparisons have been made between your music and that of instrumental metal bands such as Isis and Pelican. Do you feel that either scene-and I use that term tentatively-has influenced the other? Or has the influence been mutual?

Dom: Eh, well, I don't know. I mean, we definitely like a lot of those bands, and we ran a tour with Isis a couple of years ago. Probably a lot of those bands have something of ours in their record collection [laughs], and I guess that's what it comes down to. I know that we take elements of bands we like and sort of mash it into our own music, so I think that there is an element of that. I'm not too sure.

JustArts: Considering the title of your new album, The Hawk is Howling, the album art is slightly misleading .... What appears to be depicted is a silent bald eagle. Was this intentional?

Dom: Well, no, not actually. We really didn't have much to do with the cover; it was our friend who offered to do it for us. He just bought that picture off of eBay because he liked it and showed it us thinking that we could use it for the cover. We were pretty amused by it; we thought that it was a pretty funny picture. We thought that it was probably half of the appeal.

JustArts: Yeah, it's kind of ironic.

Dom: We also thought that people would read into it a lot further than what was actually there, and that always entertains us; we always get stories from people who think too much about the song titles and the artwork.

JustArts: The new album appears to be completely devoid of vocals, even vocoder or spoken word. Was this a conscious departure from the relatively verbose Mr. Beast?

Dom: Well, it wasn't a decision that we made in advance. It was just …

JustArts: Just how it turned out?

Dom: Well, there were a bunch of songs that didn't end up on the record, and we just picked the best of them and they were all completely instrumental. It's the first time we've ever had a full instrumental album. But yeah, it wasn't a conscious decision.

JustArts: Forgive me for asking this, but were bagpipes ever considered for the song "Scotland's Shame?"

Dom: [Laughing] I can unequivocally say that they were never considered. Barry Burns, [a fellow bandmember who contributes keyboards, vocals and flute], is really not fond of bagpipes.

JustArts: Ah, really?

Dom: No, I don't think that they'll be featured in a record any time soon.

JustArts: You were talking about how people come up with funny stories about how they interpret the song names and the album art. Do you ever get tired of people asking you to explain the song names and whatnot?

Dom: I mean, not really. We always just tell them the truth-that they are just random things that someone said that were sort of amusing. We only ever name the songs after they're finished and we need to get song titles together for the artwork. It's all pretty last-minute, and we're lucky to spend half an hour on it, picking all the titles. People do tend to get upset sometimes .... I don't know, I think that people think that the title should be something important, but when it's instrumental music, the only purpose is to differentiate one song from another.

JustArts: I suppose then that there's no big hidden political agenda behind "I Love You, I'm Going to Blow Up Your School?"

Dom: No, nothing like that. Definitely not. We try not to bring politics into the music, and it's difficult to pull off as an instrumental band.

JustArts: What were your primary influences on the new album?

Dom: Well, I don't know; as a band, we all have very separate musical tastes. It's not like there were a couple of artists that we were all particularly inspired by. It's very difficult to pinpoint. I suppose the thing that we were most conscious of was trying to make an album that doesn't ... suck [laughing].

JustArts: Well, you certainly did that; I enjoyed it very much.

Dom: Well, I hope so, I hope so.

JustArts: Does any band member in particular play a dominant role in songwriting?

Dom: No, it's all pretty democratic. I mean, somebody may write most of a song and have it be their song, but we all usually come up with parts and contribute ideas. It's just the way we've always done it. I'm quite happy with our process right now. I do suppose maybe that Barry writes most of the music. He's the guy who writes most of the songs these days. He'd probably be seen as the lead songwriter, but apart from that, it's all pretty equal.

JustArts: When I listen to Mogwai, often what I hear is a texture. Is that what you guys are shooting for, a certain sonic texture when you're writing music, or is it more melody-based?

Dom: Yeah, well, I'd definitely say that's what we're going for. It might be a surprise to some people, like my mother, but we're actually aiming to get a strong melody over anything else. Nowadays, that's definitely what we're aiming for, whereas when we were starting out, we were trying to create more of a soundscape kind of thing ....

JustArts: A cinematic sort of feel?

Dom: Definitely what we try for, and I don't know if we're successful, is to aim for melody.

JustArts: As you're in the U.S. for the tour, have you picked up on the presidential election or the political climate at all?

Dom: Oh yes, definitely. I mean, it's all over the news back home as well, so we've definitely been aware of what's been going on for the last couple of months now. It's quite interesting to be here, though, and see how the news is covered in America.

JustArts: Do you see any significant difference from how the news is covered in the U.K.?

Dom: Eh, well, it just depends on what channel you're watching. It's really noticeable, the bias, in certain channels-like, I mean, Fox definitely seems to be leaning more one way than the other channels. But it's good here; in Europe, things tend to be presented in a more one-sided way.

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