Challenging and uncompromising, Mogwai isn’t your everyday indie rock band. So it would only follow that a documentary about the group’s music would be a little different too.
“You won’t get a lot of backstory,” says PJ Sykes of the film, “If The Stars Had a Sound,” which will see its only Virginia screening at Studio Two Three on Saturday, March 8. “This isn’t your normal rock documentary.”
Sponsored by CinemaNiche, the Richmond-based film collective manned by Sykes with partners Jeff Roll and Shane Brown, the 2024 film from first-time feature director Andrew Crook made its debut at South By Southwest in Texas last year. “There aren’t a lot of talking heads discussing the band. There isn’t that kind of detail,” Sykes says, adding that director Crook originally lensed interview clips with various experts and collaborators and then took many of them out in the final edit because “it didn’t feel right in a documentary about this particular band.”
Mogwai has nearly always let the music do the talking. Formed in 1995, the Glasgow, Scotland ensemble is best known for dynamic instrumental soundscapes that can reach epic length (it’s one reason why the band and its members have contributed to numerous film soundtracks over the years). “They are considered a ‘post-rock’ band, which sort of developed in the late ’80s and ’90s,” says Roll. “The music is usually categorized by textures and timbres with rock and non-rock elements blending together, and with minimal or no vocals. There’s an emphasis on atmosphere wrapped up in walls of sound.”
“If The Stars Had a Sound” focuses on a series of live performances captured throughout the years; it opens with footage shot of the band on tour in 2021, soon after the release of the group’s 10th album, “As The Love Continues,” which stunned many by reaching #1 on the U.K. charts. “The film has a purist approach,” writes Phil Hoad in The Guardian, “taking cues from the band’s anti-logorrheic approach by offering only a loose biography and comparatively little by way of analysis. All the better to let their majestic instrumental squalls fill the space, unencumbered by too much guiding commentary.”
The 90-minute doc also features behind-the-scenes footage of Mogwai in the studio as group members Stuart Braithwaite, Dominic Aitchison, Barry Burns and Martin Bulloch recorded the album remotely with New York producer Dave Fridmann during the pandemic.
“It was kind of bizarre how [“As the Love Continues”] hit number one, 10 albums into their career,” says Sykes, a huge fan. He adds that the decidedly non-commercial unit, named after the cute but destructive creatures in the movie, “Gremlins,” has always flirted with the mainstream. “Around 2001, they were scoring a Levi’s commercial, and later appeared on the soundtrack of the movie, ‘Miami Vice.’ They’ve used that money to go independent and form their own record label and studio, Rock Action.” Along the way, Mogwai has managed to collaborate with everyone from Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails to Kronos Quartet, and provide songs for the video game, “Life is Strange.”
“If the Stars Had a Sound” continues in CinemaNiche’s mission of bringing hard-to-see music documentaries and concert films to town. Their previous offerings at Studio Two Three have included “Eno,” a generative profile of producer Brian Eno, and a documentary on women electronic music pioneers, “Sisters With Transistors.” “To put it simply, if we weren’t doing this, it would not happen,” says Roll. “It would pass Richmond over. We’re trying to pull in this stuff so that people here don’t have to travel two hours to D.C. to see these kinds of films.”
“Actually, the Mogwai movie isn’t even playing in D.C.,” Sykes adds.
The March 8 screening will also have a live music component. as local guitarist and effects master Dave Watkins is slated to open the show with a thirty minute set of instrumental music. “Dave’s a huge Mogwai fan,” says Sykes. “Plus he’s an experimental artist who builds all of his own gear himself, so he really embodies the spirit of what we’re showing here, and what we’re trying to do with CinemaNiche.”
Watkins may or may not perform a Mogwai cover during his set, the curator adds. “He’s not saying.”
That seems totally fitting, considering the occasion.
CinemaNiche presents “If The Stars Had a Sound” at Studio Two Three on Saturday, March 8 at 7 p.m. Local musician Dave Watkins will open. $15. For tickets and more info, go to cinemaniche.com
