The Twilight Sad
The Twilight Sad are a Scottish post-punk/indie rock band, comprising James Graham (vocals), Andy MacFarlane (guitar), Johnny Docherty (bass), Brendan Smith (keyboards) and Grant Hutchison (drums). They have released five studio albums, as well as several EPs, live recordings and singles. Their 2007 debut album, Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters, drew widespread acclaim from critics,[8] who noted Graham's thick Scottish accent and MacFarlane's dense sonic walls of shoegazing guitar and wheezing accordion. The Twilight Sad's notoriously loud live performances have been described as "completely ear-splitting",[9] and the band toured for the album across Europe and the United States throughout 2007 and 2008. Sessions inspired by stripped-down and reworked live performances yielded the 2008 mini-album, Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards It Did.
The Twilight Sad
Kilsyth, Scotland
2003–present
Fat Cat Records (2005–2018)
Rock Action Records (2018–present)
James Graham
Andy MacFarlane
Johnny Docherty
Brendan Smith
Grant Hutchison
Mark Devine
Martin Doherty
Craig Orzel
Sebastian Schultz
The band's second album, Forget the Night Ahead, marked a shift in their direction; lyrically more personal and musically darker and more streamlined,[10] it was released in 2009 to acclaim.[11] Recording sessions for the album also produced the mid-2010 release The Wrong Car, which followed the departure of founding bassist Craig Orzel in February 2010. The Twilight Sad's third album, No One Can Ever Know, was released in February 2012 and marked another stylistic shift, with the band citing industrial music and krautrock influences for a darker, sparser sound.[12] The band's fourth album, entitled Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave, was released in late October 2014 to universally positive reviews,[13] and was the band's last album with founding member Mark Devine, who left amicably in January 2018. The Twilight Sad's fifth studio album, It Won/t Be Like This All the Time, was released in January 2019 to further critical acclaim.
The band has described their sound as "folk with layers of noise",[14] and music critics have described the band as "perennially unhappy"[15] and "a band that inject some real emotion and dynamic excitement into a comparatively standard template."[16]
History[edit]
Beginnings (2003–2006)[edit]
The foundation for the group started in Kilsyth and the neighbouring village of Banton, when vocalist James Graham met guitarist Andy MacFarlane in high school and went on to form a cover band with some friends, which included drummer Mark Devine. After leaving school, they decided to take it more seriously. In late 2003, MacFarlane met bassist Craig Orzel in a bus stop and invited him to join the newly formed band.[17] They took their name from a line in the poem "But I Was Looking at the Permanent Stars" by British poet Wilfred Owen, which reads "Sleep mothered them; and left the twilight sad."[18][19]
They performed two highly experimental shows at The 13th Note Café in Glasgow that revolved around 30-minute noise jams with guitars, bass, drums, theremin, tape loops from films and old folk and country songs, effects pedals, toy keyboards, thumb pianos, and computer games.[20] Afterwards, they decided to take a more traditional approach, which led them to write their first song, "That Summer, at Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy".[21]
In September 2006, they produced a 4-song demo with a 24-track desk recorded at Paulshalls Studios in Cumbernauld recorded by David McKellar, trying to get the best representation as possible, and sent it over to Brighton-based Fat Cat Records. Alex Knight, co-founder of the label, went to Glasgow to watch the band perform their third gig and signed them on the spot.[22][23] The demo recordings were later issued commercially on a split cassette tape release with Frightened Rabbit for Record Store Day in 2011.[24]
Music style and influences[edit]
When asked to describe their debut album, Graham said the band likes to see their songs as "folk with layers of noise", as they are based on experiences that have happened to them, around their hometowns or people they know.[14] They often cite the works of Daniel Johnston, Serge Gainsbourg, Phil Spector, Arab Strap, and Leonard Cohen as influences.[20][22] Graham lists the 2003 Arab Strap album Monday at the Hug & Pint amongst his favourite releases of the 2000s, stating that it was "the first Arab Strap album that I ever listened to... For me it was the first record that I realized it was OK to sing in your own accent. Aidan [Moffat] is one of the best lyricists of the past two decades!"[83] Graham also cites Arcade Fire's debut album Funeral as a key influence. In a 2015 feature with Clash magazine, he said, "It was around the time that Andy [MacFarlane] had been saying to me that he wanted me to write some songs with him, and it was also around the time that I finally knew what I wanted to write about. Without this record I don't know if I'd have approached our debut album in the way that I did. Funeral had a massive influence on my songwriting style and the way in which I approach writing songs. The way in which the storytelling within the song develops as the track progresses, the power of repeating the same line within a song and the different ways to deliver the line to give it different meanings... Funeral is an album that will stay with me for the rest of my life and will always influence the music I write."[84] Graham also mentions his liking for bands such as Joy Division.[85] By the time of their third album, the band began exploring post-punk and krautrock facets of their influences, with MacFarlane citing artists such as PiL, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Can, Cabaret Voltaire and Wire as key inspirations.[86]
In an October 2009 interview with The Fly, they admitted, "We are still at the stage where we don't really know where we are in this whole music industry thing. We know people like us, but we don't really know where we fit in or, if we go to certain places, up or not. [...] It's not like we're a stadium band. We're not a lads band, like Oasis or something. We're not a scenestery band, and yet we're not a pure experimental band either. Obviously we're noisy and stuff, but we write proper songs as well."[87]
Where the band's recorded sound is layered with many melodies, their live sound is a more intense experience with a more visceral wall of noise, something the band wanted to do all along.[22] Graham stated, "We like having the contrast between the record and playing live. There are a lot more instruments on the record. There's only four of us in the band, so we have to keep it as simple as possible. I don't know about you, but I don't like going to see a band that sounds just like their album. That's what we try not to do."[88]
In a 2014 interview with Jazz Monroe of The Skinny, James Graham commented on the misconception of the band's "disturbed reputation" pertaining to his lyrics, as well as designer Dave "DLT" Thomas' "darkly suggestive" artwork. Monroe wrote, "There's a misconception that James himself had a difficult childhood; in fact, The Skinny has it on good authority that the Grahams are proud, attendant fans at many of their gigs." Graham elaborated that, "My mum and dad are actually the biggest supporters of our band. The songs aren’t about me having a really bad childhood; it’s about, from the outside, looking in at other people in my community. And the shite that happened to my family – not in my family. It's about other dickheads influencing our lives, whether or not they realise. Writing these songs is about making people feel things they wouldn't usually feel, things they're scared to feel – loss, anger, depression. To write a love song for somebody would probably be the hardest thing. I've never done that."[89]
Side projects and collaborations[edit]
Guitarist Andy MacFarlane composed the song "The Weath-er Is Bad" for Semiconductor Films' short film Brilliant Noise, a film pieced together from archive NASA footage of the Sun's surface.[90] The song was later included on the Killed My Parents and Hit the Road compilation. MacFarlane also provided a remix of Errors' song "Bridge or Cloud?" in January 2010, which was posted as a free download on NME's website.[91][92] In February 2011, MacFarlane provided a remix of Fat Cat labelmate Ensemble's track "Before Night", which was posted as a "song of the day" on The Line of Best Fit's website.[93][94]
Singer James Graham appears on the live album Quietly Now! by fellow Scottish band Frightened Rabbit, providing additional vocals on the track "Keep Yourself Warm".[95] In 2011, Graham appeared as a guest vocalist and songwriter on the album First Edition by The Fruit Tree Foundation, a supergroup collaboration of Scottish musicians headed by Rod Jones and Emma Pollock for the benefit of the Mental Health Foundation for Scotland.[96] In 2015, Graham participated in Aidan Moffat's backing band during Moffat's UK tour performing Scottish folk songs. The tour was part of the documentary film Where You're Meant to Be, which was released the following year.[97] In 2016, Graham featured as a guest vocalist with supergroup Minor Victories on their song "Scattered Ashes (Song for Richard)". The track appeared on Minor Victories' self-titled album.[98] In 2017, Graham co-founded the band Out Lines, with fellow musicians Kathryn Joseph and Marcus Mackay. Out Lines's debut album, Conflats, was released on 27 October 2017 via Rock Action Records, Mogwai's label, where Graham had also worked outside his Twilight Sad duties.[99][100] In 2022, Graham and Moffat released These Actions Cannot Be Undone, a collaborative album under the name Gentle Sinners, on Rock Action Records.[101]
Under the name Orzelda,[102] former bassist Craig Orzel released a solo album, The Wee Shop Is Filled with Delights, in 2008, with the EPs My Dress Up and Spiders following in 2010.[103]