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).

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.

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.

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.

"[16] 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.

"[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.

[24] 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.

Their debut studio album, Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters, was released in April 2007, featuring production from guitarist Andy MacFarlane and mixed by Peter Katis.

[27] Inspired by a stripped down performance at London's Union Chapel,[28] the band reworked some of the songs on Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters for a new mini-album entitled Here, It Never Snowed.

During this time, the band supported acts such as Mogwai, The Smashing Pumpkins, Snow Patrol, David Pajo, Battles, Beirut, Frightened Rabbit, and 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.

With a statement on the band's official blog,[33] 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.

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 and Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai.

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.

"[46] Doherty left the band to further pursue his electropop project Chvrches with former Aereogramme guitarist Iain Cook and singer Lauren Mayberry.

[49] In December 2013, The Twilight Sad and The Skinny released a free digital download single and video of the band performing "The Wrong Car" with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, recorded live at Paisley Abbey in October 2013.

[51] The band began working on tracks for their fourth album in late 2012,[52][53] with recording sessions at Mogwai's Castle of Doom Studios in Glasgow beginning in January 2014.

[54] The announcement was accompanied by a 1-minute teaser video trailer on the band's website,[54][55] followed by a posting of the album's opening track "There's a Girl in the Corner" on Vice magazine's Noisey blog on 18 August 2014.

The band embarked on a North American tour supporting We Were Promised Jetpacks in October and November 2014, with two dates performing Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters in its entirety at Rough Trade in New York City[58] and The Empty Bottle in Chicago.

[72] In an interview with NME, posted on 9 July 2018, Andy MacFarlane stated that the band's fifth studio album is "finished", with a tentative release date of January 2019.

"[72] In the same interview, James Graham discussed the album's lyrics and themes, describing them as "heavier": "It's all pretty full on but there's some lighter shades and some hope on there.

"[72] On 10 July 2018, the band announced that they had signed to Mogwai's label Rock Action Records and released their new single, stylised as "I/m Not Here [missing face]", for streaming and as a digital download.

[76] In November 2019 the band played a short UK tour of larger venues, at London's Kentish Town Forum, Manchester's O2 Ritz and Edinburgh's Usher Hall,[77] the shows being professionally recorded.

[81][82] 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.

[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.

"[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."

[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.

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.