Mogwai is a Scottish post-rock band formed in Glasgow in 1995 by guitarist Stuart Braithwaite, bassist Dominic Aitchison and drummer Martin Bulloch. Later, guitarist/keyboardist John Cummings and guitarist/keyboardist Barry Burns were added. Their music is inspired by early 60s and 70s psychedelic music, like The 13th Floor Elevators, alternative pop of The Cure but also the vaulting guitar noise and dynamic assault of US indie rock. Their largely instrumental music, by turns aggressively loud and heartbreakingly delicate, became central to the disparate, chaotic gang of bands based in Glasgow. They formed a countercurrent to the very English vision of mainstream 90s indie, what become known as Britpop.
Raised in a pro-independence family – a rarer thing in the 90s than now – Stuart Braithwaite lent his voice and his music to the yes campaign in the 2014 Scottish referendum. One of the reasons why the band is so embraced by many Scottish music fans. Mogwai are also committed to independence in a wider sense: they never signed to a major record label, but have their own label, Rock Action. “I would advise everyone to try to have as much control over what they do as they can in every walk of life,” says Braithwaite. “It’s good to know when you’ve made a terrible mistake that it’s your own terrible mistake.”
Mogwai – which means ‘ghost’ or ‘evil spirit’ in Chinese – is named after creatures from the movie Gremlins. According to Braithwaite, the intention was at one time to choose a better name, “but like many things we never got around to it”.
In the film “If The Stars Had a Sound” we see the band at work in their studio and at concerts and the band members talk about what drives them, but also tell fans why Mogwai’s music is so important to them.