|
Mogwai's music has very interesting song structure with
extreme dynamics. Explain the writing from the initial idea
until the completed song.
Usually, one person will have the basic "bits" for a tune and
the rest of the band will play along until we get some sort
of structure for it. This can take weeks or months and is never
really finished until the last day of recording because we'll
add a lot of things (or take them away) until we're all happy
with it. Recently we've been recording our bits into computers
and then giving everyone in the band a CD-R so they can go home
and make up better parts.
Never afraid to add distortion to anything, for example,
what have been some of Mogwai's favourite production techniques?
"Put a big delay on it" has always been a favourite. Over compression
with distortion (on drums for example). We've used rotating
Leslie speakers on quite a few instruments (especially when
they're a wee bit out of tune) and just playing instruments
in an unorthodox way, like hitting the piano strings with dulcimer
sticks or hitting guitar strings with beaters or miking up flipping
coins. We have a short attention span, I reckon.
What is your sequencer of choice and why?
We use Steinberg's
Cubase SX. I've liked it since I saw my friend using the
old Cubase VST Score a few years back and I thought it was very
easy to use. I saw Sonar (or cakewalk) but it looked like a
ZX Spectrum game from the 80's and Logic looks like someone
forgot to tidy up their bedroom... a mess. So, I went for SX
and I'm glad I did. It makes things quite easy for us idiot
musicians who shouldn't be allowed to touch recording equipment.
Vintage gear is always prominent on all previous albums,
have you gotten into the software instruments yet for studio
and live work?
Yes, we've actually used Native
Instruments B4 on the last album and we're using Steinberg's
The Grand currently in rehearsals. Both sound very realistic
and the Farfisa, Vox and Harmonium sounds from the extra tonewheels
CD were used quite a lot on the last album too.
I hear that you use Steinberg's Hypersonic, how does that
fit into the 'Burns Studio'?
I've just been using Hypersonic
at home to see what a certain instrument would sound like in
a song rather than get violinists or whatever up to my house.
A big time saver really. I haven't yet been particularly creative
with it, just been using the very good presets.
The video for 'Hunted Like a Freak' is disturbing yet beautiful,
how did the idea for that come about?
It was a Canadian animation company called Plates that put the
video together. We didn't come up with the idea but we had to
approve it and it's really, really good. Some overly sensitive
people have emailed us about the video saying all kinds of WEIRD
stuff and what they think it means and why we shouldn't have
done it. Those people really need to make friends and leave
the cupboard more often.
|
 |
Which lesser-known bands are you listening to?
Kling Klang, Sons and Daughters, Growing, Part Chimp, Envy and
Pelican
Steinberg's V-Stack has been spotted in the studio too...
Yes. Just got V-Stack recently for my Mac. It's great. Less
CPU power needed than using VSTi's within Cubase and I just
used it for the first time at the last gig we played. It went
well and I plan to use it Live from now on.
You've just played with the Pixies, which must have been
awesome!
I can't believe how lucky we are to have done that. They're
possibly my favourite band and they've lost none of their edge
like so many re-formed bands do. It was incredible and everyone
who was with me just looked in disbelief at each other at the
start and end of every song. I can die happy.
What's next for Mogwai, more tours, albums, perhaps a holiday
somewhere too?
We are going on tour with the Cure in the USA for the Curiosa
Tour in July, August and September so we'll be busy enough but
we'll have to be writing the new album at the same time so I
hope we can manage it! A holiday is probably not on the cards
but we're only playing for 30 minutes with the Cure and it's
in the afternoon so that's a wee bit like a holiday...
Thanks for the interview Barry!
No problem! Bye
|
