EXBERLINER Issue 164, October 2017

WHAT’S ON — Barry Burns
MOGWAI
Sat, Oct 14, 20:00
Columbiahalle,
Tempelhof
Interview
“It’s gonna be a disaster,
let’s be honest”
Brian Sweeney
Barry Burns
The keyboardist/flautist/guitarist/vocalist
joined Mogwai in 1998,
three years after the
band’s founding, while
recording sophomore
effort Come On Die
Young. Since then, they
have recorded seven
studio albums and various
soundtracks. Burns
moved from Glasgow
to Berlin with his wife
in 2009; the couple
opened the Scottishthemed
Neukölln pub
Das Gift in late 2010.
Mogwai multi-instrumentalist and
Berlin barman Barry Burns on Brexit
angst, his band’s legacy and the
dreaded G-word. By Adam Turner-Heffer
The Glasgow instrumental post-rockers recently
released their ninth and best-selling studio record,
Every Country’s Sun, on the back of film soundtracks
Atomic and Before the Flood. We caught up with Burns
(photo, right) ahead of one of Mogwai’s biggest tours,
which sees them play Columbiahalle on Oct 14.
How’s the reception been for Every Country’s Sun?
Generally, everyone has been really positive about
it and it’s our best selling record so far – but what is
most important is that we were really happy with it.
We’ve completed another soundtrack since then [for
upcoming James Franco vehicle Kin] so for us, it is
mostly in the past. It’s just time to play it live.
How was recording it – did you do anything different?
Not really, as we are used to living in separate
places at this point. Stuart [Braithwaite], Dom
[Aitchison] and I will all write songs individually and
share them over Dropbox, and we generally won’t
get together to collaborate on them before we get to
the studio. We recorded with Dave Fridmann [who
produced Come On Die Young and Rock Action] for the
first time in 15 years, and it felt strangely familiar to
be back at his isolated studio in upstate New York. It
was like we had never been away. It was eerie, all the
same smells of timber from the house and routines
like where and when to sleep just came flooding back
to us. It helped us focus on the album, I think.
You’re an outspoken critic of Brexit – are you
worried about how it will affect you personally?
It’s gonna be a disaster, let’s be honest. I don’t think
many people are going to emerge from it unscathed.
It’s going to be terrible for young bands. We already
have to pay for visas to countries like Switzerland, the
States and Japan, which cost about £1000 per country.
We’re potentially going to have to do it every single
tour now, which most likely will mean we have to slow
down our touring. That said, I’m 41 now so that maybe
would have happened anyway.
What about you as a Berliner? Do you plan on staying
here? Yeah, my wife and I are currently applying
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