Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite on flutes, football commentators and their new Nick Drake dimension

Where does the album's title come from?

"It's a gang in Glasgow that's notorious for killing people. Our flute player, Barry - his dad was in the gang. It was probably just bickering over who lives in what block of what estate - people get very territorial about things when they're young"

The is album is more restrained than the last one. What happened to the feedback? "We we're conscious we didn't want to repeat ourselves. We've always been fans of soft music - Leonard Cohen and Nick Drake. Our gigs are still a bit Napalm Death though."

What's with the flutes?

"They've got flutes on 'Stairway to Heaven', so that's good enough for me. Barry plays keyboards and guitars on the album too. You can never have to many guitars."

'Helps Both Ways' was originally going to be released on the 'No Education = No Future' EP but was withdrawn...

"When we did the original we recorded John Madden commentating on an NFL game. We'd have got away with it in the old days. Now we're with a major label - they tried to clear it and he demanded ten grand. For the album we just re-did it with the the TV tuned to some high school football game in Buffalo."

Is that really Iggy Pop on 'Punk Rock' ?

"Its from a bootleg video from the '70s. The interviewer takes the piss and ends up looking like a cunt. Iggy really gets the crowd behind him."

Is 'Waltz for Aiden' about Aidan from Arab Strap?

"Yeah. We did it for a Peel Session and we forgot about it until Aidan reminded us. We promised we'd give it to for a single on his own label, but it was too good. We didn't get him to sing, because the last Arab Strap album's sound was getting much closer to ours. This time I did the vocals myself."