Albums: Fourteen Autumns And Fifteen Winters, Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters, Stereogum Presents... OK X: A Tribute To OK Computer

The Twilight Sad are an indie rock band from Kilsyth, Scotland formed in late 2003. The band is composed of James Graham (vocals), Andy MacFarlane (guitar, accordion), Craig Orzel (bass, glockenspiel) and Mark Devine (percussion). The band's debut album, Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters, was released on FatCat in 2007, drawing widespread critical acclaim.

The band played a couple of gigs at the 13th Note in Glasgow, creating half hour-long pieces of music using guitars, bass, drums, theremin, tape loops from films and old folk/country songs, effects pedals, toy keyboards, thumb pianos, saws, computer games, and a lot of noise, in an attempt to try and discover a sound they could call their own and continue to develop. After these two shows, they rejected many gig offers, and became a more reclusive unit, spending any spare time they had in the studio focused on writing and sculpting away at new material. In September 2005, they wrote four songs they thought gave a relatively good perspective of the band, and went into a local studio to record them, producing it themselves.

Staying in the studio for many nights, they used a 24-track desk to build layer upon layer of sound, trying to get the best representation as possible. Thinking that the CD they came out with showed little more than some kind of raw potential, they posted it down to FatCat as a demo. After receiving a positive response and a request for more tracks, the band continued to expand on their song writing and kept regularly in contact with the label.

Instead of paying for more studio time they began to make lo-fi recordings in bedrooms, bathrooms and their own rehearsal space, developing a more folk/experimental/noise sound. In mid-May the band came down to Brighton to meet the label and played on the bill of a FatCat night on the pier alongside The Mutts, Charlottefield, The Rank Deluxe, and fellow Glasgow band, Frightened Rabbit. November 2006 brought their first official release with The Twilight Sad EP - available in the US only, that helped bring attention to the band, as well as performances at CMJ and SXSW Festivals.

Where the band’s recorded sound is layered with many melodies, their live sound is a more intense experience which replaces the intricacies of the recordings with a more visceral wall of sound. In June 2008, the band released the Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards It Did EP, which included off-the-cuff reworkings of songs from the debut album, alongside the title track and a cover of Daniel Johnston, an artist they've cited as one of their main influences.

The idea came about after the band played at London's Union Chapel, a venue with noise restrictions that forced them to perform with a more basic line-up of a fan organ, glockenspiel and percussion. At the end of 2008, they released The Twilight Sad Killed My Parents And Hit The Road, a limited edition compilation to help fund their tour with fellow scots Mogwai. The album consisted of live performances, acoustic tracks, previously unreleased material, new demos and covers, which included The Smiths, Joy Division and Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Their next full-length album is due for release in 2009.

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