Mogwai uses tech toys to perfect its loud, eerie space rock.

Scotland's Mogwai is made up of intense indie rockers with a penchant for Ozzy Osbourne. One of the first guitar-oriented bands to embrace electronic music, the group's style of starting mellow and slowly building up to explosive, screeching, art-rock sets it apart from fellow Glaswegian luminaries such as Travis, Belle & Sebastian, Teenage Fanclub, and The Delgados.

Now on über-indie record label Matador, Mogwai has released three albums: "Young Team," "Come on Die Young," and the latest, "Rock Action."

AudioFile met up with Stuart Braithwaite (guitars, keyboards, percussion) and Barry Burns (flute, guitar, keyboards) before a gig at San Francisco's world-famous Fillmore. Despite some thick accents, we were able to decipher the players' takes on which technologies refine their melodic noise. Read our interview below, and hear even more from the band members by clicking on the video icon above.

TechTV: What are your thoughts on the recording process?

Braithwaite: I think the process of recording has changed a lot in the last 50 years. People are using sequencers, digital recording, that kind of thing. We used a lot of fancy computer programs to fix our mistakes and to glue the songs all together. It is just much easier digitally, you can see it on the screen, you can be a lot more precise. You can be a lot more lazy as well.

Burns: We just mess about with stuff. We don't actually know what we are doing, ever.

TechTV: Do you rely on technology during shows?

Burns: It's much more stressful using technology live than when you are in the studio. [In the studio], you got more time and you don't have 1,200 people looking at you.

TechTV: What kind of gear do you use?

Braithwaite: We've got lots of amps, Fender, Mesa Boogie, Marshall. For guitars, mostly a Fender Telecaster. I've got a Gretsch, Gibson Les Paul and Fender Stratocaster.

TechTV: What about pedals?

Braithwaite: Delay, distortion, tremelo, wah wah, reverb, EQ...

Burns: We've found EQ pedals are good for hurtin' people's ears.

Braithwaite: All different kinds. Electro-Harmonix. We use a lot by them, the Micro Synthesizer, the Q-Tron. And the Big Muff. That's a fine pedal company. It's just an old-school fuzz pedal. It sorta has that Mudhoney, that Black Sabbath sort of sound.

TechTV: We hear you quite fancy the Korg Kaoss Pad.

Braithwaite: It is always there just lying about. Our producer loved it; he couldn't believe it was so cheap.

Burns: Ya, it was only like $200 I think.

Braithwaite: It is amazing. It's a smart little thing. I'd like to get it live as well. We don't use it live.

TechTV: Like Mogwai, Radiohead is also a rock band that is branching out and getting some new sounds.

Braithwaite: People have a tendency to copy Radiohead, especially in Britain, you know all those bands -- Muse and JJ 72. They will probably go out buy Kaoss Pads as we speak to follow in Thom's footsteps (laughing).

Burns: Those little bastards.

Braithwaite: I think it is really good, what they [Radiohead] are trying. It sounds quite good.

TechTV: What about samplers and drum machines?

Burns: An Akai S5000, it's got just about all the samples we use. And if something goes wrong with that -- I'm just always worried.

Braithwaite: Have you not got it backed up?

Burns: No, not really (both start laughing).

Braithwaite: We've got a Roland 505 drum machine as well. It is so hard to work. We phoned up Roland to complain that the manual was really hard to understand. It turned out that it was a Welsh guy who translated it from Japanese so it doesn't actually make any sense at all.

Burns: And the little Zoom sample trax thing, that is great.

Braithwaite: Which apparently has been discontinued.

Burns: Ya, they don't make them anymore so we are gonna have to buy them in bulk just to make sure.

Braithwaite: We also use the unorthodox Sherman Filterbank. We really love it.

Burns: The pinnacle of noise. It's the best noise machine in the world.

TechTV: Do you have any recording tips?

Braithwaite: Record the drums onto tape, record everything else on the computer.

Burns: Drums sound so good on tape.

TechTV: What does the future hold for Mogwai?

Braithwaite: I want pure tones, with no attack and no decay, everything just seamlessly coming in and out. I don't know, that might just sound like a mush. I want to try and have the rhythms be whereas, if someone is playing a drum kit, what you're hearing is the defined mark of what is being hit.

I would rather have something that is constant, and you would only notice if something disappeared. Like the difference between reading some words that are white on black, black on white. I want to try that. That might have just sounded like absolute nonsense.

Burns: It is worth a try.

Braithwaite: That's today's musical whim.

Burns: It'll never work.