James Graham, lead singer of Scotland?s latest import ? The Twilight Sad ? already has seen the band mature.
After he and his three bandmates created half-hour-long pieces of music using conventional (guitars, drums) and unconventional (tape loops from films, saws) instruments, they developed a following after playing a few gigs. But they almost immediately began to reject more gig offers, instead choosing to hunker down to fine-tune their writing and style. The result is the band?s album “Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters,” released by FatCat Records.
“Those songs were written before anybody had influenced us,” he said. “That was just about the four of us making music, and we produced the album ourselves. It is so special because the songs are about the people we know, the places we love and where we were then.”
Now on a short U.S. tour to promote the album, band members promise the shows will exude great passion and noise ? although not so many instruments as heard on the CD ? when the songs are played. Yet, as fond as they are of the songs, Graham and the others see it as a stepping-stone for the band. The members? songwriting already has matured as they move forward to record another album.
“Our next album won?t sound like this,” said Andy MacFarlane (guitar, accordion). “It will sound like us, definitely, but it will be a step forward, a progression. I still can?t say specifically what it will be, but it will definitely be different.”
That avant-garde attitude has served the band well so far. Consider how MacFarlane learned to play guitar: “One day, I just sat down and taught myself.” And Graham, MacFarlane and Mark Devine (drums) met their future bass player, Craig Orzel, at a bus stop. After the quartet recorded and produced their CD, they sent a demo ? without any formal introduction ? to FatCat and immediately got a positive response. Why quibble with success?
“We are really lucky when it comes to that. We see so many bands playing seemingly endless number of gigs and never getting signed,” MacFarlane said. “But I?ll never be content. Once we do this tour, we want to move on to the next one straight away.”
If you go
The Twilight Sad
» Venue: Sonar
» Where: 407 East Saratoga St., Baltimore
» When: 7:30 tonight
» Tickets: $10
» Information: www.ticketmaster.com; 410-547-SEAT
