(AU magazine, November 2009)
Pic by Nic Shonfeld
The Twlight Sad release second 'more intense' album
"Our brake lights on our trailer aren't working. We've had trouble since we got here with our equipment, bass amps and... nothing seems to be working for us at the moment," a strong Scottish accent heavily sighs. "We're all pretty jet-lagged as well, which isn't helping."
The Twilight Sad are in conquering form a few days into their sixth visit to America. No, really. It's just the logistics of life on the road that seem to be a problem.
AU catch up with James from the band 100 miles from Boise, Idaho.
"We're at a truck stop with a lot of big scary looking guys. I'm hiding at the back." After triumphantly conquering Salt Lake City the night before, James is in buoyant mood, despite technical difficulties which are hampering even their viewing pleasures: "I just bought a Denzel Washington double feature to keep me busy for the van because the TV's not working so we're just going to have to watch DVDs from now on. That was the best selection in the truck stop."
Stuck on a bus in the middle of nowhere then - it's a clumsy metaphor for any band, and an entirely erroneous one for the four piece from Kilsyth, Lanarkshire. On the eve of the release of their second album, Forget The Night Ahead, the music and attitude on display has taken a leap forward from 2007's debut, Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters. "I think that main thing that we didn't want to do was that we didn't want to clean anything up and polish it up and make a nice-sounding album - we wanted to make it that bit more intense and to challenge ourselves and challenge the person that was listening to us. Maybe that will put some people off that were into the nice warm sounds that were on the first record, but that's just not who we were. We wanted to write a sort of dark, noisy, different record to the first one. It's a lot rougher round the edges, but it's maybe even more melodic than the first one, it's just we've all moved on and written better songs." A huge achievement considering they've barely been off the road in those two years, between SXSW appearances, their own tour and supporting Mogwai in America. This time round they've hit the road with labelmates and old friends Frightened Rabbit as well as Brakes. James admits that The Twilight Sad do bear comparisons with the other Scottish band; "The similarities are that we both sing in a Scottish accent, and that the music's pretty honest as well, but there are some big differences in the band as well."
If you haven't heard the album yet, James says it's best summed up "by striking that balance, getting the power of the noise but trying to let the songs break through too." The Twilight Sad aren't resting on their laurels, mind. "We've already started working on our new new record - I think we're going to try some new things and maybe surprise a few people."
James says that they also plan to release a 12" single of "a song that wasn't on the record. It was a song that was strong enough to be on the record but it just didn't fit. We just want to get it out there and it's too good for a B-side, so we think we're going get some other friends to remix the song as well for us."
Staring down the barrel of two more years of life on the road and its attendant mechanical failings, James is pretty upbeat.
"We're just going to play as much as we can, in front of as many people as we can - doing the best that we can in this mad music business that we've got ourselves involved in." There you have it. The Twilight Mad.
FORGET THE NIGHT AHEAD IS OUT ON ON FAT CAT RECORDS.
WWW.THETWILIGHTSAD.CO.UK
No comments:
Post a Comment