The Twilight Sad

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Biography

The Twilight Sad are an indie rock band from Kilsyth , Scotland , comprising James Graham (vocals), Andy MacFarlane (guitar), and Mark Devine (drums). The band are currently signed to Fat Cat Records and have released three full-length albums, as well as several EPs and singles. Their 2007 debut album, Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters , drew widespread acclaim from critics, 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," 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 .

Their second album, Forget the Night Ahead , marked a shift in the band's direction; lyrically more personal and musically darker and more streamlined, it was released in 2009 to further acclaim. 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. The band describes their sound as " folk (music)|folk with layers of noise," and music critics have described the band as "perennially unhappy" and "a band that inject some real emotion and dynamic excitement into a comparatively standard template."

History

Beginnings (2003–2006)

The foundation for the group started 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 graduating 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.

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. 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 ".

In September 2005, they produced a 4-song demo with a 24-track desk, 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.

The band credit Planet Sound for giving them their first review, when a demo of their song "That Summer, at Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy" received a 9/10 rating from the magazine in 2005. James Graham remarked, "That was the first review we ever had... we were thrilled. It gave us a lot of confidence we were on the right path." They later assembled those early demos in the form of The Twilight Sad (EP)|their self-titled debut EP , a US-only EP released in November 2006, then proceeded to play the fourth gig of their career at New York's CMJ Music Marathon . During this time the band also toured with Micah P. Hinson and participated in 2007's South by Southwest|South by Southwest music festival before their debut album was released.

Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters (2007–2008)

Their debut studio album, Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters , was released in April 2007, featuring production from guitarist Andy MacFarlane and mixed by Peter Katis . The album was recorded over a short period of just three days, and the songs featured were the first ones the band had ever written. It received good critical reception from independent media; the album was lauded as 2007's "Album of the Year" in Planet Sound and The Skinny (magazine)|The Skinny in Scotland.

In July 2007, the band contributed a cover of Radiohead 's "Climbing Up the Walls" to the music download|download-only compilation Stereogum Presents... OKX: A Tribute to OK Computer , a track-for-track collection of covers commemorating the 10-year anniversary of Radiohead's OK Computer album.

Inspired by a stripped down performance at London's Union Chapel , the band reworked some of the songs on Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters for a new mini-album entitled Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards It Did , released in June 2008.

During this time, the band supported acts such as Mogwai (band)|Mogwai , The Smashing Pumpkins , Snow Patrol , David Pajo , Battles (band)|Battles , Beirut (band)|Beirut , Frightened Rabbit , and Idlewild (band)|Idlewild . During their winter tour with Mogwai, the band released Killed My Parents and Hit the Road , a compilation of live recordings, covers, acoustic demos, and unreleased material.

Forget the Night Ahead and Orzel's departure (2009–2010)

The band released their second studio album, Forget the Night Ahead , in September 2009. Musically, they described the album as "noisier and bigger", where they experimented with a lot of instruments and different sounds, including fire extinguishers. The album was released to further critical acclaim, and was supported by multiple tours of Europe and the United States.

On 8 February 2010, it was announced that founding bassist Craig Orzel had left the band. With a statement on the band's official blog, Orzel cited personal reasons for the departure and later stated that "there were some changes I wanted to make to my life that I felt being in The Sad was allowing me to put off." Orzel continues to record music under his solo moniker, Orzelda. Following Orzel's departure, the band added Johnny Docherty, of Take a Worm for a Walk Week , to the band's live line-up.

The band's first release since Orzel's departure, an EP entitled The Wrong Car , was released in late September 2010. The EP features two previously unreleased songs which were written and recorded during the sessions for Forget the Night Ahead , as well as two remixes by Simon Ward of Errors (band)|Errors and Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai .

No One Can Ever Know (2010–present)

Whilst on tour with Errors (band)|Errors in October 2010, vocalist James Graham stated that "the next is not going to be anything like the first two. The wall of sound is kinda gone. Andy 's demos involve a lot of keyboards, and it's a lot more considered." Additional musician Martin "Dok" Doherty also stated that "the band who make the same record over and over don't have a very long career." The band returned to the studio in January 2011. In April 2011, the band released a free acoustic EP on their official blog. http://thetwilightsadblog.blogspot.com/ The release featured stripped-back renditions of tracks from both Forget the Night Ahead and The Wrong Car .

The Twilight Sad's third album, No One Can Ever Know , was released on 6 February 2012. Andy MacFarlane describes the album's sound as "sparser... with a colder, slightly militant feel," and the band received some production assistance from producer Andrew Weatherall , who helped in their experimenting with analog synthesizers . The band released a new song, the album's closing track "Kill It in the Morning", for free on their new website and SoundCloud page on 21 September 2011. The first proper single from the album, "Sick", was made available as a 7" vinyl single and digital download on 14 November 2011. Second single "Another Bed" followed the album's release on 20 February 2012.

Music style and influences

When asked to describe their debut album, Graham says the band likes to see their songs as " folk (music)|folk with layers of noise", as they are based on experiences that have happened to them, around their hometowns or people they know. They often cite the works of Daniel Johnston , Serge Gainsbourg , Phil Spector , Arab Strap (band)|Arab Strap , and Leonard Cohen as influences. By the time of their third album, the band began exploring industrial music|industrial and krautrock facets of their influences, citing artists such as Cabaret Voltaire (band)|Cabaret Voltaire , Public Image Ltd , Can (band)|Can , Liars (band)|Liars , Autechre , and Magazine (band)|Magazine as key inspirations.

In an October 2009 interview with The Fly (magazine)|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 (band)|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."

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. 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."

Although the band's music is generally described as "anthemic" and "arena-friendly," they are quick to say their ambition is quite simple: "We don't want to be festival headliners, we just want to make enough money that we can stay in a band and keep making music."

Side projects and collaborations

Guitarist Andy MacFarlane composed the song "The Weath-er Is Bad" for Semiconductor Films' short film Brillant Noise , a film pieced together from archive NASA footage of the sun's surface. The song was later included on the Killed My Parents and Hit the Road compilation. MacFarlane also provided a remix of Errors (band)|Errors ' song "Bridge or Cloud? " in January 2010, which was posted as a free download on NME 's website. In February 2011, MacFarlane provided a remix of Fat Cat labelmate Olivier Alary|Ensemble 's track "Before Night", which was posted as a "song of the day" on The Line of Best Fit's website.

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". In 2011, Graham appeared as a guest vocalist and songwriter on the album First Edition by The Fruit Tree Foundation , a supergroup (music)|supergroup collaboration of Scottish musicians headed by Rod Jones (musician)|Rod Jones and Emma Pollock for the benefit of the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland|Mental Health Foundation for Scotland .

Under the name Orzelda, 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.

Members

Core members

James Graham – vocals (2003–present)

Andy MacFarlane – guitar, accordion, noise (2003–present)

Mark Devine – drums (2003–present)

Live members

Martin "Dok" Doherty – keyboards, backing vocals, guitar (2008–present)

Take a Worm for a Walk Week|Johnny Docherty – bass (2010–present)

Former members

Craig Orzel – bass, glockenspiel (2003–2010)

Discography

Studio albums

Year	Title
2007	Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters Released: 3 April 2007 Label: Fat Cat Records\|Fat Cat (FATCD55) Formats: Compact disc\|CD , limited edition CD, LP album\|LP , Music download\|DL
2009	Forget the Night Ahead Released: 22 September 2009 Label: Fat Cat (FATCD77) Formats: CD, 2LP, DL
2012	No One Can Ever Know Released: 6 February 2012 Label: Fat Cat (FATCD98) Formats: CD, LP, limited edition LP, DL

EPs

Year	Title
2006	Twilight Sad (EP)>The Twilight Sad Released: 14 November 2006 Label: Fat Cat (CDFAT056) Formats: CD, DL
2008	Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards It Did Released: 9 June 2008 Label: Fat Cat (CDFAT078) Formats: CD, 12", DL
2010	The Wrong Car Released: 27 September 2010 Label: Fat Cat (12FAT079) Formats: 12", DL

Compilations

Year	Title	Details
2008	Killed My Parents and Hit the Road Released: 8 December 2008 Label: Fat Cat (FATCD87) Formats: CD	Collection of live and unreleased tracks.
2011	Demos Released: 16 April 2011 Label: Fat Cat (FATTAPE01) Formats: Compact Cassette\|Cassette	split cassette release with Frightened Rabbit for Record Store Day .cite web

Singles

Year	Title	Details
2007	" That Summer, at Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy " Released: 2 April 2007	tracklist	headline = 7" (7FAT29)	collapsed = yes	title1 = That Summer, at Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy	length1 = 4:48	title2 = Watching That Chair Painted Yellow	length2 = 5:31
2007	" And She Would Darken the Memory " Released: 16 July 2007	tracklist	headline = 7" (7FAT32)	collapsed = yes	title1 = And She Would Darken the Memory	length1 = 5:49	title2 = That Summer, at Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy	Ensemble	length2 = 4:17
2009	" I Became a Prostitute " Released: 3 August 2009	tracklist	headline = 7" (7FAT67)	collapsed = yes	title1 = I Became a Prostitute	length1 = 5:22	title2 = In the Blackout	length2 = 5:15
2009	" Seven Years of Letters " Released: 19 October 2009	tracklist	headline = 7" (7FAT49)	collapsed = yes	title1 = Seven Years of Letters	length1 = 4:34	title2 = Suck	note2 = The Wedding Present cover	length2 = 3:25
2010	" The Room (song) Released: 5 April 2010	tracklist	headline = 7" (7FAT74)	collapsed = yes	title1 = The Room	length1 = 4:35	title2 = The Neighbours Can't Breathe	note2 = Acoustic	length2 = 3:55
2011	"Sick" Released: 14 November 2011	tracklist	headline = 7" (7FAT84)	collapsed = yes	title1 = Sick	length1 = 4:23	title2 = Untitled #67	note2 = Demo	length2 = 3:50
2012	"Another Bed" Released: 20 February 2012	tracklist	headline = 7" (7FAT85)	collapsed = yes	title1 = Another Bed	length1 = 4:39	title2 = A Million Ignorants	length2 = 3:32

Music videos

Year	Video	Director
2007	"And She Would Darken the Memory"	Mark Charlton
2009	"I Became a Prostitute"	Paul Spencer
2009	"Seven Years of Letters"	Adam Stafford
2010	"The Room"	Nicola Collins
2010	"The Wrong Car"	Nicola Collins
2012	"Another Bed"	Craig Murray
2012	"Dead City"	Nicola Collins

External links

at FatCat Records

Copyright Citations

This article is licensed under the GNU License
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