Today, Glasgow’s The Twilight Sad announce their return with the band’s fifth full-length – and their first for their new label Rock Action Records – IT WON/T BE LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME arriving on January 18th, 2019. The news comes accompanied by a second taster of the record – following recent single ‘I/m Not Here [missing face]‘ – in the guise of its tumultuous, icy closer ‘Videograms’, which also sees release as a standalone 10″.
Speaking of the track, frontman James Alexander Graham says, “‘Videograms’ was the first song written for the album but the last song finished before we went in to record. It’s one of the most melodic things we’ve done. Since writing the song I’ve heard the phrase “don’t you start on me” whilst walking down the street, in the supermarket, in the pub. It must have been something that I’d heard a lot that stuck with me and came out in this song.
“I quite like that it’s the first official single yet it’s the last song on the album. There’s sometimes pressure to front load an album with the singles as it’s assumed that people don’t have the attention span to listen to a full record, but people that know us and like our music know that we make albums that should be listened to all the way through as every song is a chapter in the overall story of it. It’s also why I love Rock Action as there was no pressure from them, they let us do what we wanted with the track list.”
Listen to ‘Videograms’ – BELOW:
While the 11 tracks that comprise IWBLTATT largely began to take form during the band’s lengthy recent tours with The Cure, it wasn’t until returning to the UK and the isolation of his London home, that guitarist Andy MacFarlane distilled the band’s collective aspirations – to find immediacy in their writing, to bring a new hugeness to the often dark matter of their songs – into demos for their fifth LP. Following six months of pre-production, his vision was made flesh during a productive residency in a remote rehearsal space on Loch Fyne last November. Eager to keep momentum, the band subsequently tracked their efforts at Devon’s Middle Farm Studios with long serving live engineer Andy Bush in January of this year.
For this record, Graham and MacFarlane officially brought long-time touring members Brendan Smith(The Blue Nile, The Unwinding Hours) and Johnny Docherty (Take a Worm For a Walk Week, RUNGS) in from the wings to help push The Twilight Sad to the next plateau.
“I’ve always seen Brendan and Johnny as part of the band and it’s time to say that aloud,” Graham affirms. “From the actual coming together of the demos to recording the final versions of these songs has probably been one of my favourite experiences of being in the band. All four of us were throwing ideas in, whereas before Andy had mapped it all out. Once he got past the point of making the demos his point of view was ‘we need to make these even better. These need to take a step up from where they are.’ He opened the floor to everybody.”
The results speak for themselves: an exhilarating listen, by turns cinematic and claustrophobic in its scope, the band dug deep to produce It Won’t Be Like This All the Time, and it’s perhaps their most raw and dynamic record to date.
“It’s a dark record but I think there are some uplifting moments to be had too,” Graham offers. “There are so many extremes here – there are moments that are harsh, then others that are quite melodic and others that are stripped right down. This album definitely comes with the extremes of every side of the band, I think. There’s a certain direct openness and candour now but at the same time I want to keep some mystery. We don’t like to throw things in people’s faces and spell it out for them.”
For those eager to catch a glimpse of more new music ahead of the album’s release in the year, the band’s autumn shows are on sale now and will see them bringing their cathartic, intense live show all over the USA and Canada before a return to this side of the pond that culminates with intimate, sold-out London and Edinburgh dates in late November.
Keep your eyes peeled for further news from The Twilight Sad in the coming months and see further below for a full touring itinerary.
The Twilight Sad – IT WON/T BE LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME // Rock Action Records – 18/01/19
1. 10 Good Reasons for Modern Drugs
2. Shooting Dennis Hopper Shooting
3. The Arbor
4. VTr
5. Sunday Day13
6. I/m Not Here [missing face]
7. Auge_Maschine
8. Keep It All To Myself
9. Girl Chewing Gum
10. Let’s Get Lost
11. Videograms
Tour Dates:
Oct 9th | Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour
Oct 10th | San Diego, CA – Casbah
Oct 12th | Tustin, CA – Marty’s On Newport
Oct 14th | San Francisco, CA – Independent
Oct 17th | Portland, OR – Doug Fir
Oct 19th | Seattle, WA – Crocodile
Oct 20th | Vancouver, BC – Fox
Oct 25th | St. Paul, MN – Turf Club
Oct 26th | Chicago, IL – Theater on the Lake
Oct 27th | Toronto, ON – Velvet Underground
Oct 28th | Montreal, QC – Ritz
Oct 30th | Boston, MA – Middle East Downstairs
Oct 31st | Kingston, NY – BSP Lounge
Nov 1st | Brooklyn, NY – Elsewhere
Nov 2nd | Philadelphia, PA – Boot & Saddle
Nov 3rd | Washington, DC – U Street Music Hall
Nov 10th | Paris, FR – Point FMR
Nov 11th | Wiesbaden, DE – Sclachthof
Nov 12th | Munich, DE – Ampere
Nov 13th | Vienna, AT – Chelsea
Nov 15th | Berlin, DE – Musik & Frieden
Nov 16th | Hamburg, DE – Molotow [SOLD OUT]
Nov 17th | Amsterdam, NL – Paradiso
Nov 18th | Brussels, BE – Botanique
Nov 27th | London, UK – Bush Hall [SOLD OUT]
Nov 29th | Edinburgh, UK – Liquid Rooms [SOLD OUT]
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