Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite Sheds Light on Minor Victories Project

BY Cam LindsayPublished Sep 14, 2015

Back in July, news emerged that a new band called Minor Victories had been formed by Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite, Slowdive's Rachel Goswell and Editors' Justin Lockey, along with his brother James Lockey. A trailer for the band was also released, as well as a few details, including word that an album in the works that will feature a track with Mark Kozelek.

In a recent interview with Exclaim!, Braithwaite shared a few more newsy nuggets about his new band, stating that, "I think there will be a record early next year."

He describes Minor Victories as "totally different" and "something totally new" compared to what he does in Mogwai. "There is definitely a lot of excitement about this, which is a bit different in how I work with Jonathan [Cummings], Martin [Bulloch], Dominic [Atchison] and Barry [Burns]. It's exciting, it's fun. There are some really good songs on the record, so I think people will be into it."

Braithwaite says that the band originally came together as a project between Justin Lockey and Rachel Goswell, and that he became involved at Goswell's request. "Justin and Rachel had been writing songs together and then they just realized they needed some more people involved," he says. "So Rachel got in touch with me, and Justin got his brother involved. It's really been a natural process."

Braithwaite says that he is just excited about members of Mogwai and Slowdive coming together for this new band, as the group's combined fans are. "Rachel is great, really cool," he says. "And people love Slowdive! I love them too, and I think they're a great band. I was blown away by the size of shows they were playing, especially in North America. So maybe this is my ticket to the top!"

Mentioning a release in early 2015, as of August, Braithwaite says the band are currently working with Tony Doogan, a producer both he and Goswell are familiar with through Mogwai and Mojave 3, respectively. "The album is 80 percent recorded. I've recorded my parts in my house, but I'm not the most technical person, so I'm gonna go in with Tony in a proper studio."

Although there were some slight hints given as to what Minor Victories will sound like in the trailer they dropped back in July, Braithwaite says the music will probably sound just like how you'd imagine it would.

"Some of it is really epic, but then some is really concise as well," he explains. "To be honest, I think if you know the music that all of us have made, it won't really surprise you. It has a lot of the good elements from everyone's band. I think people are going to like it."

At this moment, Minor Victories are currently unsigned, but Braithwaite says they won't be releasing the album via Mogwai's Rock Action label. "We're going to keep it all pretty separate," he says. "There are already some labels asking about us, but nothing's set in stone yet."

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