For the past 15 years, Scottish post-rock overlords Mogwai have been rupturing into ecstasy the eardrums of concertgoers with their insane god-volumes and destroying-the-very-idea-of-decibels decibels of drone and fuzz. A beautiful pain indeed, but let’s not overlook its creation: they are still rocking the fuck out on their instruments, and quantity of sound aside, its manufacturing is a magnificent sight as well. So it was only a matter of time before some geniuses came around and put it on film: enter Vincent Moon and Nathanael le Scouarnec (creators of La Blogotheque’s Take-Away Shows), who turned some April ’09 concerts in Brooklyn into: Burning, a concert-film of perfect pitch. Along with the DVD comes a live-album, Special Moves, which is as good a live album as we’ve heard in ages. Burning has its New York premiere/screening tomorrow night at The Music Hall of Williamsburg, so we had a chat with director Scouarnec and Mogwai multi-instrumantalist Barry Burns to discuss the film. Q&A and screening dates after the jump.

VMAN: What’s the purpose of the film?

Barry Burns: To try to convey the experience of seeing a Mogwai concert but also so that you can just watch it on your big TV or projector in your house on any day of the week rather than every two years at an actual concert. And more unlikely, long after we’re all dead and a Doors-like revival of our music occurs, people will have something to go back to which is better than the scant, g rainy footage of Jim Morrison exposing his genitals. I would hope our DVD would be better than that but I know it’s a tough act to beat.

Nathanael Le Scouarnec: I often get bored in front of live films to be honest. Even with bands I adore. Because too many live films are just, well, live films. So on every project, I always try to build for them their own history beforehand. Because I think you can’t only film what happens during a live show. You have to push it forward. Because you lose so much between being in the venue and when your are on your couch viewing a live film. The smell, the heat, the vibrations in your legs… You have to express those with images and sounds and so work very precisely on the rhythm of the cuts, the frames you chose, the lights… and all the elements you have to counterbalance from what you lose. It’s an interesting challenge. Live films can’t only be a testimony of what happened, it has to have his own history.

How does the aesthetic of the film participate with the aesthetic of the band?

BB: When we work with people, whether they be other musicians or other people that create, we leave them to do what they feel is right and we are usually afforded the same trust in return. We let the directors do what they felt Mogwai was about to them rather than let us have any direction because there would have been far too many cooks. We’re sometimes told by people who listen to us that it creates imagery or emotions for them and that’s fine: it’s not what we particularly intended (but it’s what happens) so in this film, Vincent and Nat have tried to capture what we are to them. The narrative of the film is pretty much the story of how it feels to us playing a show in a foreign place. Wandering around the towns, trying to see a bit of somewhere new or alien and then playing in front of the people, seeing them walking into the venue when you’re in the diner across the street and wondering how you got to this point, just reflective perhaps.

NLS: With the Mogwai movie, the challenge was to recreate the amazing experience you live when you see them live. The way your mind and your body can float. It’s like a hypnosis moment, the beginning of “Burning”, to let us take them by the hand so they can live an experience. You know, I think there are basically two ways to work a song for a live film. You can either be very efficient, give the viewer a lot of fun and go in an obvious but enjoyable way. The last song of the movie, “Batcat” is like this. Very primitive pleasure. A bit childish but a great simple feeling. And on the other hand, you can trick [the viewer]. Be in opposite with what is obvious. “Burning” also has those moments, like with “Like Herod”, or the moment we introduce the audience in the venue. A live film is a roller coaster with combinations you can mix to make the viewer have his own musical experience. Mogwai is quite perfect for that, because they have very violent and very quiet songs.

Why these songs? Why this set list?

BB: After we played the 3 shows in Brooklyn we listened through the sets and picked the best performances on each night and used them. It was the set list pulled from those shows; on that tour; a wee moment in time is all it was. Ah, the memories.

 

 

 

 

 

North American Public Screening Dates
Aug 24 -Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Aug 24 – Vancouver, BC @ Pacific Cinematheque
Aug 25 – Seattle, WA @ JBL Theater
August 26 – Cambridge, MA @ Brattle Theatre
Aug 26 – Lawrence, KS @ Liberty Hall
Aug 28 – Long Beach, CA @ Art Theatre of Long Beach
Aug 29 – Chicago, IL @ Smart Bar
Sept 2 – Pontiac, MI @ The Crofoot
Sept 4 – San Francisco @ Roxie Theater
Sept 10- Portland, OR @ Bagdad Theater
Sept 12 – Los Angeles @ Echoplex
Sept 14 – Toronto, ON @ The Drake Underground (2 showings)
Sept 23 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
Oct 3 – Montreal, QC @ Ukrainian Federtation