Barry Burns of Mogwai

By William Cody Watson » Glaswegian post-rocker on Mogwai's new album and the pissy teen who inspired its title.

Barry Burns is the sole music theory-educated bloke amongst the mass of musicians who make up Mogwai. He contributes keyboards, guitar, flute, and Vocoder'd vocals. He joined the band just prior to their second album because "he was a good laugh", and seems that's still the case.

Do you feel responsible for helping shape this instrumental, post-rock, epic, whatever-you-wanna-call-it music genre that has become increasingly popular over the years? There's a new band popping up every day, citing Mogwai as an influence. Do you feel responsible? Do you listen to much of this music?

If we are responsible for the proliferation of miserable, instrumental, two-chord "uplifting" music, then we apologize to you all! Sorry! But aye, it is flattering, and no, I don't listen to much of it at all. None of us really do, actually.

Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will is quite possibly my favorite of all your album titles. I know in the past, you've said that titles just kind of come and go because you find them entertaining. Was that the situation with this one, or is there more to it?

We didn't have a title and we really had to get one. Stuart and I were at an Errors show in Stirling, Scotland and we told James the drummer about the need for an album title so he told us this story about a Scottish teenager that couldn't get served booze at a shop, and he yelled the title at the shopkeeper. Album title decided.

Specifically, where do you think this album takes the sound of Mogwai, in comparison to your past works? What new types of ideas were you trying to get across? 

It's a lot happier sounding and faster paced than our usual thing and is verging on pop on a couple of songs. This will not mean a chart entry of course... we weren't trying to get any ideas across, really. We're quite selfish in that we make music mostly for ourselves because we enjoy doing it.

Is it getting harder to create your music as time goes by?

It always is at the beginning of a project but then you just get on with it and try not to worry too much or you get in a tizzy.

The track "You're Lionel Richie" is an extremely heavy song. Do you consider Mogwai to be a heavy band? How do you define heavy music?

Heavy = loud distorted guitars and distorted keyboards and whatever, but it can also be like the band Low who can be heavy while being quiet. I suppose you have to hear them to know what I mean.

How important is playing live? Is it something that you feel you guys have to do in order to get the music out to a wider audience, or is it a necessity for you to personally get out there and do it, to an almost cathartic extent? 

It's the most fun part of being in a group. Recording and rehearsing is nowhere near as fun or immediate and we all love to play concerts. 

How did you guys reach out to Roky Erickson for his appearance on "Devil Rides" from the Batcat EP?

I think his brother got in touch with us after he came out of his incarceration and he was into singing on the song. 

 What's your upcoming touring schedule looking like?

A fucking KFC Famous Bowl. Horrendous.

How has the direction changed in Mogwai over the years, according to you guys? Is it something that happened naturally, or was it a matter of crossing your own personal boundaries, or a desire to evolve into something else? 

I don't know, really, other than to say that we just try to make something different each time, and we'll be the first to admit that we haven't always done that with every song, but generally I think we've developed at a pace we're quite happy at. The new record seems even more of a change than usual which is going down well in most parts so far.

Posted on February 22, 2011. More on: mogwai, barry burns, bothering, interview