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Mar 08, 2023 By Mark Redfern

Silver Moth, a new seven-piece band featuring Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite, are releasing their debut album, Black Bay, on April 21 via Bella Union. Now they have shared its second single, “The Eternal.” Listen below.

Previously the band shared their debut single, “Mother Tongue,” which was one of our Songs of the Week.

As well as Braithwaite, Silver Moth features Elisabeth Elektra, Evi Vine, Steven Hill, Abrasive Trees guitarist/songwriter Matthew Rochford, Nick Hudson, drummer Ash Babb, and cellist Ben Roberts.

A press release describes the genesis of the new song in greater detail: “‘The Eternal’ is a deeply heartfelt song written in tribute to Elisabeth Elektra and Stuart Braithwaite’s close friend Alanna who passed away suddenly. A major theme of the song is the regenerative sense of hope that comes with the knowledge that the love we have for our friends and loved ones is eternal.”

The band was born of some Twitter exchanges that led to some Zoom meetings and eventually a recording session at Black Bay Studios on Scotland’s the Isle of Lewis, where they worked with producer Pete Fletcher.

“Because we didn’t know each other before we went to Black Bay,” said Elisabeth Elektra in a previous press release, “we went into a really intense creative mode as soon as we got there. We were in a bubble and there was a lot of collective grief going on, so it was like a pressure cooker, but I think some real beauty came out of it.”

“I knew with everything in me that we could make something powerful, beautiful, celestial and driven,” said Evi Vine, “even though we had never met. We spend our lives in repetition, surrounded by certainty. It’s important to push aside the things we think we understand, because when we least expect it, change comes and we are lost.”

Mogwai’s last studio album was As the Love Continues, which was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2021.

Read our interview with Mogwai on their 2017 album Every Country’s Sun.

Also read our 2014 interview with Stuart Braithwaite on Mogwai’s 2001 Rave Tapes album, as well as our retrospective article on Rock Action.

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