Soundtrack rockers Mogwai: ‘Miami Vice was our big break’

Scottish rockers Mogwai have credited Hollywood director Michael Mann as “the catalyst” behind their string of soundtrack albums as they prepare to perform their latest one at the Barbican.

The band, who have contributed soundtracks for supernatural French drama Les Revenants, a Zinedine Zidane documentary and a feature film by cult director Darren Aronofsky, will be performing music from Atomic, a documentary about the nuclear age, alongside a screening of the film.

Guitarist Stuart Braithwaite said things changed when some of their music featured in the 2006 remake of Eighties cop show Miami Vice, with Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx in the detective roles made famous by Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas.

He said: “Michael Mann used a couple of our songs in his Miami Vice film and that perhaps showed people our music could be used like that and that was the catalyst.”

The musician believes the common theme between the films they have worked on is that it allowed them to “work with people we find really interesting”.

He said: “It is about having specific emotions or an atmosphere to convey and that’s the challenge.”

The film, made from archive footage, covers events including the Chernobyl disaster and the Cold War and is being shown at the Barbican on September 15.

The band will provide a live score for two screenings.