Spaceships Over Glasgow: Mogwai, Mayhem and Misspent Youth

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Mogwai was one of those bands which I read a lot about but did not have a chance to listen to their music. I was a teenager in the 90’s and it was difficult to come across their music at the time as record stores in Malta only focused on major label bands . Finally in ’99 , NME issued a best of the year compilation and Cody was on it and I was smitten. In Niall McCann’s film about a journey to a festival of Scottish indie music in Brittany, Lost in France, a gig and journey that Braithwaite documents in the book, he says it’s impossible to explain music and what it does to you, and I think that’s true. But sometimes that inexplicable feeling can be reactivated by someone else’s memories, much as Braithwaite himself found when writing it, saying, “One of the most fun parts of the whole thing was talking to old pals about things that had happened. Loads of the best stuff in the book was things I’d completely forgotten about until it came up from other people.” He says the tight friendship that exists between him and his bandmates has deepened over the years they’ve been making music together, reinforcing their determination to tread their own path, regardless of prevailing trends. “We’ve always had an us-against-everyone attitude right from the start. We’ve always had that kind of gang mentality.” Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite: "Creating art is a political act, because you're choosing to spend your time making the world a better place" ". Kerrang!. 15 February 2021 . Retrieved 23 March 2021.

In 2022, Braitwaite's memoir Spaceships Over Glasgow: Mogwai, Mayhem and Misspent Youth was published by White Rabbit, an imprint of Orion Publishing Group. [15] Fiona Shepherd in The Scotsman called it "neither a glamorous nor an indulgent account and, as such, probably closer to imparting what it is actually like being in a successful band." [16] Musical style [ edit ] The sense of family that is evident throughout – whether his own, the band itself, touring pals or recording with Mercury Rev’s Dave Fridmann – is what persists underneath any ‘mayhem’. I would also argue that a youth is not misspent when you have amassed the body of work that Mogwai has and this book, if anything, shows that what society tells kids is time wasted is often very much not. When offered the means to make use of time differently they can and often will do so positively.

But it's not just a carousel of music and madness. When discussing the genuinely heart-breaking moments in his life - the death of his father, the breakdown of his first marriage - he's disarmingly candid, honest and full of resonant perspective. INTERVIEW: Stuart Braithwaite (Mogwai) – "It's quite important as an artist to put yourself in an uncomfortable position" | XS Noize | Online Music Magazine". xsnoize.com. 25 January 2021 . Retrieved 23 March 2021. As much as music has been the guiding light in my life I think that the people that I’ve met through it have been even more defining. Earlier this month we lost the wonderful Mimi Parker from Low to ovarian cancer. It’s such a heartbreaking loss. Low are among my favourite musicians, and wonderful people too. Mimi had one of the most beautiful voices and was a sweet, kind, funny person. Stuart has a very straightforward style of writing and most of the time this comes across nicely as genuine and unpretentious. Occasionally it verges into overly simplistic and could have benefited from a bit more editing. I also found it irksome that he mentioned the race of people of colour he came across for no reason, without doing the same for white people. I'm sure there was nothing malicious in this but it really shouldn't be in there. Mogwai in 2001 … (from left) John Cummings, Martin Bulloch, Stuart Braithwaite, Dominic Aitchison and guitarist Barry Burns. Photograph: Andy Willsher/Redferns

In the book, Braithwaite describes Arab Strap’s 1996 debut album, The Week Never Starts Round Here, as “probably the first time I’d heard something that properly reflected my experience of growing up in Scotland”. In coming years, bands such as the Twilight Sad, Glasvegas and Frightened Rabbit became more confident in their identity; before then, Braithwaite says, “even in Scotland, people would just think the Proclaimers were absolutely hilarious, because they sang in a Scottish accent … you wonder what was going on in the national psyche, that people were embarrassed to sing in the way that they spoke.” Stuart ging schon früh auf Konzerte. Erst gemeinsam mit seiner Schwester im heimatlichen Glasgow, später vergrößerte sich sein Aktionsradius. Viele der Bands, die er gesehen hat, haben mich auch interessiert. Dafür, dass er Nirvana gesehen hatte, bevor sie große wurden, beneide ich ihn fast ein wenig. Irgendwann war Schottland als musikalischer Spielplatz nicht mehr groß genug und es ging nach England zum Reading Festival. Damals hörte er noch auf die Bitte seiner Mutter, dort keine Drogen zu nehmen. Später würde sich das ändern. The last chapter about the death and legacy of Stuart‘s father is emotionally rich and touching and together with the first chapters that tell how Stuart‘s love for music developed definitely one of the better / best passages of the memoir. As ridiculous as the hyperbole of the narration at the start of "Yes! I am a long way from home" is, I still also kind of believe it. I feel profound gratitude towards Mogwai for existing and creating endlessly wonderful music over all these years. How many other bands have consistently been active over this time and seemingly getting better and better? I have a huge emotional connection to their music. But they also expanded my musical journey, I encountered new bands through them and through the people I met in the process, who expanded by education even further. In 2021, Reuss Musical Instruments of Denmark released the Plasmatron, a Stuart Braithwaite signature guitar effects pedal. The circuit is based on the Danelectro Fab-Tone Distortion and the Electro-Harmonix op-amp Big Muff, with the two effects mixed in parallel. [18] [19] Personal life [ edit ]My big sister Victoria had great music taste and it was by taking her record collection that I found my way in music. She was into The Stooges, Pixies and biggest of all for me – The Cure. I obsessed over all of The Cure’s albums, and by the time they were about to release Disintegration in 1989 I was a fully fledged fan. I counted down the days till its release like Christmas, even dreaming about what it would sound like. Disintegration was the first record I ever bought and it didn’t disappoint. It was a work of utter majesty. The Cure were the first band I ever saw. That record wasn’t a lot of fun to make,” recalls Braithwaite, speaking to Big Issue North over the phone as he walks his two dogs, Prince and Lyra, around a Glasgow park. “We didn’t have enough songs in the studio, so we were writing them at the same time and there was a lot of self-doubt. That meant we were really gobby and we kept telling everyone how brilliant our band was and how rubbish everyone else was. You can’t come out with all that nonsense and then not bring out a decent record, so there was a lot of pressure onus to deliver.”