Interviews // The Twilight Sad

The Twilight Sad are a strange beast. They arouse fervour in their fans, the bulk of whom (myself included) don’t understand why they aren’t selling out headline slots at academies nation wide.

Since the arrival of their debut, ‘Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters’ in 2007, the Sad lads have toured with Mogwai, been awarded many ‘Album of the Year’ plaudits, and are due to release their third long player, titled ‘No One Can Ever Know’ on February 13th, on Fat Cat records.

Leaked previews and the release of single ‘Sick’ show a band moving on, away from the Mogwai/MBV-esque wall-of-noise and towards whip-crack synth-drums and the kind of pads Cab Voltaire and Depeche Mode made their name with – and Cold Cave are currently running with.

I sat down for a chat with jocular (boom-tsh) vocalist James Graham at the Mad Ferret (again, boom-tsh) in Preston – rehearsing rockabilly band to the left of us, sirens to the right – and asked him about their place in British music, working with Andy Weatherall, and supporting their long-time heroes Arab Strap.

What was it like supporting Arab Strap?

Well pretty mindblowing to be honest with you. I’m good pals with Aidan [Moffat] and Malcolm [Middleton] now, and for them to be a fan of the band is just… They were what I grew up listening to – even though they’re pals and they like the band, to be asked to do that… it was just a wee acoustic set we did, but it went down really well and the crowd was amazing for us, deadly silent.

That’s awesome.

Aye, even though I kinda think their fans could like us as well – we’re like them in some ways but in a lot of ways we’re not. It was brilliant, a good laugh, and I got to stand at the side of the stage for the whole Arab Strap gig, and I think I just stood there with a big smile on my face. I’m usually a miserable bastard but that night was definitely a career high highlight instead of a ‘this year’ highlight, it’s one of the best things we’ve done.

Mogwai and them, that’s the two bands that I wanted to support and so…


Well you’ve been on tour with Mogwai a few times haven’t you?

Yeah, and they’re good pals as well so it’s all a wee bit of a mindfuck for us. But it’s the biggest compliment to be paid. Nobody’s forced our band on these people; they went out of their way to befriend us and to like our music.


Do Mogwai feel like father figures?

They say to us that we remind them of them when they were our age. We’ve definitely taken a lot of advice from them and they’ve tried to help us along as much as they can, but they really don’t have to, but they do. And if I’ve got a question – say something about the business side of stuff I’ll email Stuart [Braithwaite] and he’ll help us out. I dunno about father figures ‘cos they’re bad role models, taking us out and getting’ steamin’!

The new Album’s out in Feb. You had a really signature sound before. How did the departure come about?

It was never… For us it doesnae seem to be a big departure to be honest. I still do it the same way. I didn’t change anything about what I write about, and I did that and Andy [MacFarlane, Guitar] gave me the music straight back. It was just a case that we all started writing songs and using instruments that were interesting us. And if we’d just repeated our first album or repeated our second album, there’d be no point. We’d have called it a day after a while.

[rockabilly band starts playing in background]

…that’s what we want to be playing! But the erm… I would probably have called it moving forward. I love our first album and I love our second album and I love our third album. But the second one didn’t sound like the first and the third one certainly doesn’t sound like the second. We are just going to keep going, and interesting ourselves so…


Would you say it’s more of an evolution?

Aye, aye. I hate using the words ‘Natural Progression’ because everybody bloody does it and it’s so wanky it’s unbelievable, but it makes sense that way.

You got Andy Weatherall on hand, and he’s a pretty big name. What did he do? How did he contribute? Did you want him on board?

The records he’s been involved in recently have been great, like the Warpaint album.


I didn’t know he had anything to do with that.

Aye, aye, I don’t think he did the whole thing. And I like what he did to them, and we knew he was a fan of the band, and they gave him all the demos and he said ‘shit, this is right up my alley this’. And then, by the time we got down to London we’d done all the pre-production ourselves, he kinda went ‘d’you know what? Yous have produced this’.

He was just there as a… reassurance. He’d be like ‘aye, that’s cool, that’s cool – this is pretty much exactly how I’d do it anyway’. He was there as an ‘anti-producer’. It was just good to have him right there, to bounce stuff off and at the same time to reassure us that we were on the right track. And we kept a lot of the vocals, and the sounds on it and stuff. We produced the album, but we definitely wanted to credit him because we felt like he’d helped us.

For the second album, I remember reading that you were in a very dark place, has anything changed?

Erm, the weird thing is that I think… I gave the album to Stuart and Aidan and they were like ‘man, it’s fucken darker than the last one!’ I was like ‘what, really?’ I thought I’d lightened up a wee bit! I mean, I always focus in on the darker side of things a bit – it interests me more. I like darker films and I like darker music myself so, I find that side’a life more interesting. And I always kinda write about that stuff as it can help you think everything through in a way, so you can get through that.

Like Catharsis?

Yeah, totally man. I think I spoke too much about the last album, I usually keep what everything’s about to myself, and I was a wee bit annoyed with myself for talking a wee bit too much. So with this one I’ll just keep it all to myself this time. I think ‘cos also the fact that people can take what they want from it, and me explaining what the songs are about could spoil it for them in some way. But I’m just gonna keep it to myself this time. I mean, with a title like ‘No one can ever know’, what the fuck didyae expect? The thing is, we’re all of us in the band pretty easy-going guys, and we’re not miserable fucking mops. We just take that side of life out in our music. Apart from that, I just have as good a time as anybody else. Aye, aye. This one’s no’a barrel o’ laughs.

In terms of production and the music… I don’t wanna say retro obviously, because it sounds like you in 2011 – but it says in the press release you were listening to Depeche Mode, Cab Voltaire… Do you see the theme of the record as tying in what what’s happening in the country at the moment? Because the way I look at it it’s like we’re living in the 80s right now.

I’m the least political person goin’, I don’t even know what’s happenin’ in the day-to-day of my own life so… [much laughter] I dunno, eh, we just… Angry young men, I suppose that’s what we are. Even though the country’s fallin’ to piss, we’ve been in a band for 7 years living off absolutely nothing so it’s just the same for us – we’ve never had any money to live.

We’ve probably felt it as a band touring, and things like that – people are still coming to gigs and that but the merchandise situation… If you’re gonna pay to get into a gig and then have a few drinks, and if the merch is pretty expensive – even a tenner’s quite a lot of money – and especially people coming to see us as well. We’re feeling it that way, I suppose. But yeah, I dunno about it tying in with that…


I heard a rumour from a friend, that you wouldn’t go on stage before drinking 8 pints.

Ah I definitely like a drink before I go on, I’m not a… natural front man in that way. I don’t want to be, either. I just wanted to write songs. So a wee bit o’ encouragement from the old booze definitely helps me out. I’ve tried to cut back on it a wee bit now, but I still like to tan a few before we go on, cos it just loosens me up a wee bit and all my nerves will be gone. The more we do it… I’m getting used to it. I wouldnae say I’m all [adopts wankery voice] ‘hi guys, we’re the Twilight Sad…!’ that’s still not me, but I certainly like a drink, aye.

Not that I’m judging!

Hahaha, don’t care! The thing is, there have been points where I’ve been drunk on stage and I feel stupid for that, because people come to the gigs, and they pay money, and they don’t have to come, so if I’m going on stage absolutely plastered it’s not fair and it’s bullshit, basically. But at the same time, I need a drink to boost myself up. I always try and loose myself in my own world, sort of pretend that the audience aren’t there… Well sometimes they’re no’! So yeah basically I kinda just try and think about why I wrote the song in the first place, and just try and bring that out in that.


How have line up changes affected the band, if at all?

Craig, the old bass player leaving, it was a surprise but we’re all still really good friends with him. There’s no animosity. In fact, I was out with him last night. He didn’t come to the gig, he was at some kind of opera about a packet of vegetables or somethin’. We all got on really well. But Johnny [Docherty, Bass] coming into the band breathed some new life into us cos he’s a different kinda player – he’s more aggressive. Um, cos, like he’s in a few hardcore bands as well and he’s a more aggressive player, but it just breathes more life into the songs it’s like he’s harder and it’s more… it’s as intense as it’s ever been. Plus he’s a maniac as well. Him coming into the band has improved us. And Dok [Guitar, Synths, Vocals] on keys has given Andy a bit more space, ‘cos he was playing 5 parts.


He was creating a one-man wall of sound.

Basically, he’s still pretty much doing that, but it’s given him more freedom to be a bit more experimental in some ways. Dok’s basically… without him the band wouldnae be happenin’. I’m more confident about our band now than I’ve ever been.


How are you dealing with space in the sound now?

There isnae any! I never have space. We’ve done a few acoustic gigs recently and it’s been good to show people that I can actually sing. I’ve enjoyed that, but I enjoy doing the full band more because it’s just this massive thing, y’know? But no, I’ve never had any space.

And finally, going back to drinking, I’d define Twilight Sad as being music to the eternal hangover. How d’you feel about that?

I would never listen to us with a hangover! Aye, it will definitely wake you up. Even though there’s differences to it, it’s still in yer face, it’s still very intense, just because there may not be the wall of sound, doesnae mean… You know what I mean? I think it’s a different way of putting the noisy element of the band… more creatively, instead of just going BANG BANG BANG. We’ve just developed our songwriting like that.

Ben Martin

@_noize @TimMarben