Our friends of The Quietus just published an interview with Stuart Braithwaite, the guitar player of Mogwai. At this interview he reveals his favorite albums, his love for The Cure and that he’s coming earlier to our festival to check out the exclusive show of Fields of the Nephilim.

“Stuart Braithwaite is very much looking forward to this year’s Incubate Festival in Tilburg, the Netherlands. In fact he’s getting there well in advance of Mogwai’s headling set on the Saturday night so that he can watch none other than the legendary Fields of The Nephilim. Yep, the Mogwai guitarist is an old goth – although he tells us that while he technically still is, “I just have no hair to dye black anymore.” So sounds dark and heavy characterise his Baker’s Dozen, with a bit of a divergence at the end into hip-hop and folk.”

“Bowie is one of the people who made me consider that I liked music. It was a really important, formative thing. Low is probably just from becoming a fan, getting all the records and deciding that that was my favourite one. It’s not often you hear a record and can’t actually approximate the thought processes that went into making the song.”

“I really love hip hop and I thought if I had to pick one album it’d have to be the first Wu-Tang album just for the personalities, and the real rawness and lo-fi urgency about it. I don’t think I really got properly into hip hop until the last five years. Something suddenly clicked where it really made sense. These days I like Danny Brown and Aesop Rocky, things like that”

“Everyone in Scotland’s a goth, Luke, do you not know that? Margaret Thatcher brought such a black cloud over Scotland that there’s nothing better to do than sit about drinking cider and listening to the Sisters Of Mercy.”

Click here for the full interview with Stuart. Mogwai is performing together with Yann Tiersen and many others on Saturday 15 September. You can find a full list of with his favorite albums + available stream below.

Can - Tago Mago
The Cure – Pornography
The God Machine - Scenes From The Second Story
Aphex Twin - Richard D James
Slint – Spiderland
The Stooges - Fun House
David Bowie - Low
Belong - October Language
Codeine - Frigid Stars
Wu-Tang Clan - Enter The 36 Chambers
Joy Division - Closer
Washington Phillips – The Key To The Kingdom
Nick Drake - Pink Moon