MORE experimental than Robbie Williams and slightly less experimental than John Cage, is the response from Stuart Braithwaite when asked to define the band Mogwai ahead of the release of their new album, Rave Tapes.

The Scottish outfit’s eighth studio album, it comes fresh on the heels of increased exposure thanks to the success last year of Channel Four’s screening of the French language supernatural drama, The Returned, for which the band wrote the haunting soundtrack.

Featuring widespread use of the kind of the type of keyboard usually associated with 1970s sci-fi films, Rave Tapes, is more minimalist than previous offerings, but none the less interesting for it.

“I could probably introduce you to some people that if you suggested our new album was experimental they would punch you in the face.

They probably have a higher bar as far as experimentation is concerned,” says Braithwaite, with a laugh that suggests he might only be half-joking.

“I usually just say we are a rock band. Everything we do kind of fits around that basic premise – guitar, bass, drums and keyboards. We work within that framework largely.”

The album recording came soon after the band stepped off stage following the live airing of another soundtrack, this time from the 2006 documentary Zidane, about the legendary French footballer.

The consequence of such a transition from live arena to recording studio is evident on the album, says Braithwaite. “I think we were maybe a bit sharper than we would be normally.

Quite often when we are recording, we won’t have really played a gig for a long time. I think maybe we were little bit more match-fit, so to speak, than we might have otherwise been,” he says, adding that much of 2013 was devoted to preparing the album.

“We took maybe three or four weeks out to do the Zidane concerts, but that was really an interruption of the writing process for the record.

As soon as that was done, we did a little bit more rehearsing and then went in to record.”

All that coincided with the airing of The Returned – something that brought the band to a wider audience.

“It came about quite simply. The director (Fabrice Gobert) asked us,” says Braithwaite of the soundtrack. “He knew our music through the Zidane soundtrack. That was his main reference.

He asked if we fancied it and we said ‘Yes’.”

The band researched the likes of Twin Peaks, The Shining and Gobert’s first film Simon Werner, A Disparu before putting pen to paper themselves.

“We had quite a lot things to think about, but at this time it hadn’t been made. We actually started writing the music before they started to film,” says Braithwaite, adding that the producers also sent some photographs of the town that was to be used as the backdrop. “We sent them a lot of songs and I would say 90 per cent of them they liked. It was remarkably easy really.

They were quite easy going. Sometimes film people and TV people know what they want, but don’t know how to describe it. You get a lot of confusion, but that didn’t really happen in this instance.”

Braithwaite says he was impressed with the end product, both in terms of the series and the band’s input into it.

“I think it worked great, a lot of it is down to them. They are the music supervisors, they dictate where they want from the music and how long they want the theme to be and that kind of stuff,” he said. “None of us can speak French – I didn’t know what the hell was going on. I saw it on TV here and it was like watching it for the first time – I thought it was great and really enjoyed it.”

Braithwaite says he hoped it would serve as an introduction to those who had not heard the band before.

“It’s hard to tell if it translated into something tangible but, certainly, there seems to have been more interest in our new record than I imagine there would have been if we hadn’t done it,” he says. “Having done this has probably brought us more towards a mainstream audience.

It makes it easier when you have something to hang it on.”

Having had a busy year last year, the band appears to be in no mood to slow down and will start their tour proper in Newcastle on January 22.

“We are doing the second series of The Returned, which is probably the main thing this year, apart from playing concerts,” says Braithwaite.

“We have also got another EP of songs that we didn’t put on this record and probably another soundtrack for a movie a friend of ours is making called The Hudson River Project, where his friend is going to build a boat from stuff he found in New York and sail down the whole Hudson River.

“Then next year is the 20th anniversary of the band so I think we are going to try and do something around that. We are fully booked up for the next two years. After that? I don’t know – we will probably go to sleep for a while.”

  • Mogwai, Mill Volvo Tyne Theatre, Newcastle, Wednesday