Why did Mogwai choose to release a live album and concert film simultaneously?
STUART BRAITHWAITE: It’s two separate reasons, really. One, we’d never really met anyone that was comfortable just watching us play until we met [Burning directors] Vincent Moon and Nataniel La Souanec. As for the live album, we always wanted it to be on our own label, Rock Action. It just so happened that all of these things kind of happened at the same time. SHOCKHOUND: Why did you choose to record the live album in Brooklyn? BRAITHWAITE: Well, it’s where a couple of the band members were living at the time, so it just cut down on a lot of hassle in terms of flying people all over the place. Plus, we were confident they would be good shows. New York has always been good to us. SHOCKHOUND: Is it a relief working with material you’re already familiar with, or does making a live album present a whole different set of issues to deal with? BRAITHWAITE: It was weird, in that the songs would just fly by so quickly. We were playing live, so it’s not like we can just stop and re-start a song.
