I noticed that there are a lot of old fans of yours that, after all these years, still feel a great affection for you. Just yesterday I told to a friend of mine that I was going to interview you and she started saying how much she admires you, for being a mother and at the same time being able to have a musical career:
When you become a mother, when you become a parent, its quite easy to lose your own identity, because you are totally focused on your own children. The Slowdive thing came when Jessie was three, up to that point it would´ve been very difficult, because of his special needs. (Jesse is affected by the CHARGE Syndrome, ed.) But then he started going to the nursery and school. And his father looks after him, it´s thank to him, to being supportative in that way so I can do what I do. It´s important for a mum to be able to regain her identity as the children go older. For me it was very much the Slowdive starting again. It was a side of my life I didn´t think would happen again. But then I realised how much it meant to me to have a creative output, and still be able do that it´s amazing and I´m very grateful to have the opportunity to do it again.
On the other hand, I suppose the other three Minor Victories guys are becoming quite jelous of you, stealing the scene to them:
(laughs) No No! I think they are fine. Oh well, I think Stuart is stealing the show, surelly. In Minor Victories he has a lot to do on stage with his bass and his guitars.
How´s for you to travel with a bunch of guys, I mean with the band members and the rest of the crew. Do you ever think “Oh I have enough of all this testosterone-laden guys”?
(laughs again) They are pretty good to be fair. I have been on tour pretty much through all of my musical career in bands where I was the only girl. I really don´t know any different. It´s easier now with internet and the immediacy of being able to chat to your friends on Whatsapp or wherever. I can chat with my girlfriends now wherever I´am. But to be fair, everybody is quiet, it´s not really young men getting drunk, they are all family men and all a bit older… Even if they still like to drink.
One of the cool things about your new musical project is that there was no expectation attached to it. That´s why maybe I was particularly surprised by the first single Scattered Ashes. I would like to ask you how did you get to that particularly powerful, anthemic sound?
That came basically from Stuart, it was something he sent through to Justin as an idea, it was a bit of a 60s -Shangri Las kind of thing, with a tambourine in it as well… I wrote the vocal melody and the words to it and so it came together, it s different. Live it´s the bouncy one, I play the guitar on that. Lyricaly it´s a very sad song but musically it´s quite uplifting, so it´s weird.
Probably the overall sound of the album is also unexpected for the fans of your original bands, It´s quite aggressive and noisy in some parts, in Cogs for example or the final part of Out to Sea:
When the all thing started Justin sent me some instrumental pieces of music and Out to Sea was one of the first songs I wrote the lyrics for. What he sent me was pretty much as it is on the record. A lot of it was already there. It was very loud and powerful. I think that Justin had a sort of vision, he wanted to make a very beautiful album but one that was also very powerful and rocky. I guess a lot of the elements come from him, a lot of strings arrangements for example. Cogs it´s funny because actually James came up with the music. It´s James that plays the bass, the drums and the guitar. It´s all him. Different songs originate from different people and not necessarelly what the listeners would expect. People wouldn´t probably expect from Stuart to write music like Scattered Ashes, which is not very like Mogwai.
Talking again about the live dimension of Minor Victories, how was it for you to go on stage and play this new songs?
Initially it was very nerve-wracking because we didn´t really know what to expect. Because this project it´s so different to anything we ever done before, but it been fantastic. We had a really good summer, we played a very successfull tour around Europe, really well received. We started doing it before the record came out and that was quite strange, because the people didn´t really know the songs and then we went through the summer, and more and more people were singing along. That was really really good fun.
And now you are starting a new tour leg that will bring you in Italy too, right?
We are doing a small run, some club dates in Europe, in Milan too, and a couple of festivals. Then we´ll be back at home for three weeks and then we ll be out again with Placebo on their U.K. tour in December, and then it´s Christmas! (more laughs)
I suppose it´s just the four of you on the stage, right? How do you translate the sound of the album live?
That´s five of us live. Justin isn´t doing the next live shows because he´s busy with his Editors duties. So aside an initial run in the U.K. he wont be able to play, which is a bit of a shame. Because of that I will pick up the guitar and I will play it on some songs. We´ll have Callum with us on the stage and he plays keyboards, triggers samples and sings some backing vocals.
Do you think that there will be a sequel of your debut album?
Yes definitely! We are planning on doing a new record. It will be something we´ll work on in 2016. Next year I will be quite busy with Slowdive and Stuart will be very busy with Mogwai as well but we´ll work on it in between times. It been really good fun and we want to continue.
Do you see yourself in ten years time, still making music and touring around the world?
(laughs) I really have no idea! I´ll be fifty-five by then… Who knows!
