Mogwai will release a new studio album, The Bad Fire, produced by John Congleton (St Vincent, Angel Olsen, John Grant) at Chem19 studios in Blantyre.
The album will be released tomorrow, 24 January, and is available to pre-order and pre-save now in various formats, including vinyl box set, CD box set, black LP, clear vinyl LP, CD and cassette.
The album was introduced by new song Lion Rumpus, alongside a video directed by long-time collaborator Antony Crook, director of the documentary, Mogwai: If The Stars Had A Sound. The album features recent singles God Gets You Back and Fanzine Made of Flesh. The band will embark on a world tour in 2025.
The album was recorded in Blantyre, with Grammy Award-winning producer John Congleton joining the band in the studio. Mogwai explain: “A Scottish colloquialism for Hell,The Bad Fire draws inspiration from a series of tough personal moments that the band found themselves in following on from their chart-topping tenth album, 2021’s As The Love Continues.”
I spoke to Stuart Braithwaite about the new record.
The album will be released tomorrow, 24 January, and is available to pre-order and pre-save now in various formats, including vinyl box set, CD box set, black LP, clear vinyl LP, CD and cassette.
The album was introduced by new song Lion Rumpus, alongside a video directed by long-time collaborator Antony Crook, director of the documentary, Mogwai: If The Stars Had A Sound. The album features recent singles God Gets You Back and Fanzine Made of Flesh. The band will embark on a world tour in 2025.
The album was recorded in Blantyre, with Grammy Award-winning producer John Congleton joining the band in the studio. Mogwai explain: “A Scottish colloquialism for Hell,The Bad Fire draws inspiration from a series of tough personal moments that the band found themselves in following on from their chart-topping tenth album, 2021’s As The Love Continues.”
I spoke to Stuart Braithwaite about the new record.
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:0011th studio album and is this is this kind of is this 30 years this year?
00:07It will be in the summer yeah yeah.
00:12Congratulations on still being at it. I wonder when you arrived into the studio how much of
00:18this was already fully formed and ready to go or how much kind of emerged in Blantyre?
00:23How much is this a Blantyre record?
00:25I'd say I'd say it's a Glasgow record. I'd say we got we got most of it done before we went in.
00:35There was still kind of some parts and some sounds and everything that we kind of worked
00:40on when they were there but the demos were in pretty decent shape and we'd been rehearsing
00:46so yeah I'd say I'd say it's a it's got a it's got a G postcode not an ML.
00:52And do you do you come in and you've got a clear idea of what the running order is
00:57going to be in terms of like the album or like how does it all work then?
01:02We actually almost always record quite a lot more than we need.
01:08Yeah we've actually got like another half an album that we've probably got to try and
01:13work out what we're going to do I think because it's not like
01:16some of the stuff turned out bad it's just that it didn't maybe fit together or didn't
01:21kind of kind of go with the whole mood of how everything else was sitting so no that's
01:27the running order. I'd say the order of how things get done is running order, artwork,
01:33song titles, mastering. So that's it that's the last kind of sprint at the end of the race.
01:43I'd read that you said that Fanzine made a flesh that that started off when you were
01:49kind of you were in Brooklyn. Do you find that like where you are geographically whether
01:54on tour or where it kind of leaks into the music are you kind of influenced by your surroundings
01:59and what you're doing at the time what you're watching on telly what you're listening to?
02:03I think everything does to an extent though I would imagine probably with that it was
02:07more like oh shit why am I on holiday when I should be writing music?
02:10There's a guitar line about maybe I can maybe I can sort of assuage my guilt by
02:19coming up with something. Is there a thread that runs through this record in terms of the themes
02:25you've been thinking about or what kind of brings it all together where the band is in 2025?
02:33Well I was I with a hard record to make because for a few years I was a
02:38hard record because Barry hadn't really been with the band. Barry had went through a really
02:45terrible time his little girl was really sick she was in hospital for most of a year so just
02:51all of us getting together was a bit of a struggle so I think I can't speak for everyone else but
02:58from my point of view it felt like a kind of I don't know a bit of a release just all being
03:04I don't know a bit of a release just all being together making music so I think it's
03:10kind of to my mind got quite a kind of cathartic energy to it and I think there's definitely
03:18kind of themes themes in the music that tie it together of things I was trying and things that
03:24the others were trying to I think. I mean most bands when they're not on tour or they're not
03:31recording in the studio they don't live in each other's pockets they might see each other a fair
03:35bit but you know like there's that kind of sense that you're you're kind of away and you're doing
03:39your own thing. When you get back to when you get back together is there a moment when you're
03:45kind of in the studio and you really think right that's us back that's us ready to go let's get
03:50recording? I mean there was with this one just because we hadn't been together we went to
03:59Australia without Barry which was the first gig we've done without him since he joined the band
04:06so when we got together it did feel kind of like that. I would say it probably doesn't normally
04:12because we're always doing something yeah we're always doing a soundtrack or on tour or something
04:20so we that I can't really think of a time apart from actually the pandemic when we didn't see
04:28each other on a fairly regular basis. See like with the success of the last album and then you
04:36know like the gigs that you played and the new audiences it brought to both the existing
04:42material and like going back through the back catalogue and things and it's been quite an
04:47exciting four years for the band you know like I mean and you know to reach 30 years and feel
04:52like you're kind of starting out on something rather than just going through the motions and
04:56you're not you're not a legacy band you know like you're out there creating new music and
05:00new things and bringing new people to the band does that feel good? It feels great it feels
05:05really good and quite a few people have asked about if the last record Do So Well brought
05:11pressure but I actually kind of think it released pressure because it kind of made me think well
05:17we've got like a lot of support people are people got really excited about our last album then
05:23it kind of made me not worry so much about how this one would do. As times went on I've started
05:30worrying anyway but I think that's just my my general nature but I think yeah I think definitely
05:40it gave us a bit of a boost. What would you consider the maximum amount of words that should
05:45be in a song title? I lost you for a second there Paul can you can you repeat that sorry? What do
05:54you think is the maximum amount of words that should be in a song title? Oh I don't I don't
06:00think there is a maximum. Just how much you can how many words you can fit on the line? I suppose
06:08you could you could go mental couldn't you? You could have like every single line from James Joyce's
06:14Ulysses as track four but yeah I guess I guess that it would cause some problems printing but
06:22no I think you could have as many as you want I mean they all get abbreviated then even ones with
06:27two words get abbreviated to one so I guess it doesn't matter that much. Is there any of these
06:34tracks that you're particularly looking to unleash live you know like I've talked to you before about
06:39albums and sometimes there's a particular track that you really are looking forward to getting
06:43out there? Yeah I mean we've been rehearsing we're doing all of them so but I think maybe
06:49the louder ones like High Chaos and If You Find This World Bad you should see some of the others
06:56those those those are the loud ones I think will be a lot of fun to play but I think it's
07:00all sounding all right it's all sounding good. 30 years in you're a different band to
07:09the stages you are in your life. Do you find that like the things that you're thinking about in terms
07:17of the emotions and stuff that you're investing in your music and I've talked to Aidan who's a
07:24fellow of yours from Arrowstrap about that he's kind of embraced his grumpy old man era and he's
07:30quite happy to kind of like let that kind of seep into his work but you know like is there different
07:37things that you're thinking about that is there different places that the music's coming from now
07:41that you're you're a bit older in life? You know I don't think so I mean I'd probably be different
07:46for Aidan because his music's always very specifically about his life whereas ours is
07:52more abstract so to be honest I kind of I don't I actually think that it's very similar to how
08:00well it was when we used to practice in Martin's bedroom in Blantyre to be totally I mean yeah we've
08:07just never left Blantyre that's the that's the bottom line. Yeah all around the world and brings
08:14you back to the same places. What about this the kind of the soundtracks elements do you feel
08:25that that's going to still be part of what worldwide does like being open to projects
08:29and things like that? Yeah I mean we've actually done one since we finished the album which I don't
08:36think I'm allowed to say what it is but it's the kind of thing that everyone everyone will probably
08:42get a chance to see so yeah I think it's just great to be able to to keep making music and
08:49kind of apply what we do to a kind of different different medium. Yeah I mean I guess if we keep
08:57doing it depends if we keep getting asked but yeah we've done another one so at least one person
09:04Yeah so that you said that this album and getting together and kind of there was a bit of a release
09:10through the music and it was quite a cathartic experience after a lot of challenges and stuff
09:14like that that's something you know like music helps people, music people would have been walking
09:19around at different stages in their life listening to Mogwai as a soundtrack as a back backdrop to
09:25things through challenging times is that something that you think is a very you know positive aspect
09:31of great music that they can have that effect on people? Absolutely like that's I don't know if
09:36you've seen the documentary that Antony Crook made but that in his Mogwai film the last part
09:41of it is people specifically talking about that about our music kind of helping them you know
09:47get through hard parts of their life in one case extremely hard and it's the I find that quite
09:58emotional to be honest and and it's maybe something that I hadn't thought about too much
10:04but I've kind of maybe because we've we've had a we've had a hard time that's kind of resonated
10:10quite a lot during the period of making this this record definitely. Someone once asked Alistair
10:19Greig you know you could live everywhere you could be you could be creative anywhere why do you live
10:25in Glasgow? Why does the band stay rooted to our place? It's mainly the weather
10:39I don't know I think we just we just feel at home here you know. Yeah that was a good
10:44answer as well. Yeah we're kind of part of the kind of music community you know like
10:51feel kind of uh quite supported but also it's just correct it's quite an inspiring place there's an
10:59awful lot of talented people around here you know and if you're kind of around other talented people
11:03you're kind of in that mindset you know most of my friends are either involved in the arts in some
11:11way or they're creative people who make things and and yeah who's to say that wouldn't be the
11:19case if we lived somewhere else but if we all lived somewhere else it would certainly make
11:23band practice a bit of a pain in the arse. Yeah there was yesterday there was a there's a kind
11:31of list that comes out every year by time out of best cities in the world Glasgow was one of them
11:35and it specifically mentioned the music scene and the fact that that makes us a more you know like
11:41a better place to live and but you know like we want we want you know like young bands to
11:48to want to come here and we want creative people to to feel here and I suppose part of that is like
11:54being a city that's that allows people to go on and get their first stage you know like you can't
12:00just jump from King Tut's to the Hydro you have to move your way up and in your experience is that
12:06like a really important part of what Glasgow is as a city that if you have an idea you can find
12:10a stage and you can get things going. Yeah yeah yeah and I actually think that's it's one of the
12:18things I thought was so sad about the 13th note closing because that's such such an important
12:23place. I've heard rumors it might reopen which I hope it does but that was such an important place
12:29for us to play numerous times to get better at what we were doing and I think that to be honest
12:37Glasgow still has other places too like there is definitely a kind of a really good ecosystem of
12:44that's very successful in all kinds of music not just the kind of stuff we do but like
12:50places for people to get opportunities to to work to work on their work on their their
12:57their music and get better and better and in some cases kind of breakthrough which is really great.