For a man whose band has recently graced the stage with 90s alternative gods The Smashing Pumpkins, travelled to most corners of Planet Earth and been asked to curate the UK’s All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival in May, guitarist Munaf Rayani is disarmingly humble, philosophically gnomic, and switched on when it comes to the ins and outs of the music business. Along with Scottish lads Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky are the progenitors of the new wave of post rock, a term maligned mainly by those labelled with it. While Mogwai excel in the ability to shift dynamics at the drop of a coin, this Texan four-piece have secured a global fanbase with their cinematic, guitar-driven opuses; waves of melody intertwined with complimentary countermelodies floating in a sea of canorous ambience.
It’s a formula that hasn’t brought them to Australian shores before, until now. “There were a couple of times that we were supposed to come,” states Rayani, on the phone from his Texan abode, “but it always fell through for one reason or another, but this time it’s definitely happening and we are quite excited by it as we have never been there before and to go see any part of the world that you haven’t been before is always a treat.”
This visit comes off the back of the much lauded All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone, released at the beginning of 2007; an album of lofty ethereality that was as equally applauded by the cognoscenti as it was by the mainstream. The Australian shows are just the beginning of what will be a marathon run of tour dates for Explosions in the Sky. “There are perils to rock music and I suppose this is one of them,” Rayani says pensively, admitting that the forthcoming tour is somewhat daunting, “but there’s not much to cry about when you’re getting to see the world.”
Coming along for the ride with be Matthew Cooper, better known by his moniker Eluvium. His minimalist, ambient electronica will offer the perfect support to Explosions in the Sky’s resplendent instrumental rock. Being a friend of the band has helped give Eluvium the chance to tour the world, a chance he might not have had on his own. “That’s just as good of a feeling; that we got to extend our hand to someone who may not have had the opportunity but will have it now,” beams Rayani. “So you know, it’s kind of just paying it forward.”
So it begs to ask then, in the cut-throat, back-stabbing, shit-slinging world of rock ‘n’ roll, does Rayani encounter the same camaraderie the lads are demonstrating towards Mr. Cooper? Assuming the Zen pose, he enthusiastically answers “Definitely,” before continuing in a philosophical tone, “I would hope that there’s camaraderie in anything when there’s a big group of people that are of the same – for the most part – mindset; that you grow attracted to each other; and while we’ve met our fair share of dickheads and arseholes along the way they have been far eclipsed by the beautiful ones.”
Rayani’s interminable brightness is hardly contrived. For close to nine years, the band has been slowly accruing a worldwide fanbase by performing music that’s usually limited to the esoteric minority. Now they’ve been given the honour of curating one of the UK’s most prestigious festivals, All Tomorrow’s Parties, in May this year. “Yeah, how’d that happen?” laughs Rayani with a nervous quiver. “I’m not sure how it played out but man, what a position to be in and you know we definitely take that as a great honour and hopefully we can do right by it.”
Selecting Dinosaur Jr, …*And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead* and Broken Social Scene to perform probably isn’t a bad start. “It’s really blowing our minds. When it became official a few months ago, we looked at each other dumbfounded. Wow, our lucky numbers have come up a number of times in this life and yet again they hit! [Laughs]. I don’t know how long this lottery ticket is going to stay valid, but as long as it’s paying out we’ll keep going to the teller machine.”
Four guys who play quarter-hour long instrumental music usually aren’t the objects of desire for groupies, nor would you expect Explosions in the Sky to have the phone numbers of cocaine cartels on speed dial, but the music business can have its temptations. And although they take friends on tour and distribute limited-edition remix discs to independent record stores, does Rayani sometimes find it hard to stay grounded? “Oh yeah, most definitely,” he answers in his slight Southern inflection. “I think that everyone is human and so we’re all susceptible to the flash but I think for the team that I’m on, those three other boys that are in this core with me – the four of us, Mark, myself, Michael and Chris – I mean, we are together on everything and I think we see the world through the same eyes.
“Whatever the situation is,” concludes Rayani, “we try to do it with as much humility as possible because you know, despite whatever you may think or what anybody says, we are far from superstars and we feel very lucky to be here as we’re almost convinced that tomorrow the lights will go out. So when that day does come, we’ll be OK with that too because everything that we have seen and experienced in the time that we’ve been doing this… thank you clouds and stars that we made it this far.”
Don’t miss Explosions in the Sky when they land in Australia this February
