2003–2006: Beginnings 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. After leaving school, they decided to take it more seriously. In late 2003, MacFarlane met bassist Craig Orzel in a bus stop and invited him to join the newly formed band. They took their name from a line in the poem "But I Was Looking at the Permanent Stars" by British poet
Wilfred Owen, which reads "Sleep mothered them; and left
the twilight sad." 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. Afterwards, they decided to take a more traditional approach, which led them to write their first song, "
That Summer, at Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy". In September 2006, they produced a 4-song demo with a 24-track desk recorded at
Paulshalls Studios in Cumbernauld recorded by David McKellar, trying to get the best representation as possible, and sent it over to
Brighton-based
Fat Cat Records. Alex Knight, co-founder of the label, went to Glasgow to watch the band perform their third gig and signed them on the spot. The demo recordings were later issued commercially on a split cassette tape release with
Frightened Rabbit for
Record Store Day in 2011. (pictured here in 2015) mixed the band's debut EP in 2006. 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. James Graham remarked, "That was the first review we ever had... we were thrilled. It gave us a lot of confidence we were on the right path." The band's first commercial release,
their self-titled EP, was mixed by label mate
Max Richter and released in November 2006 in the United States only. They then proceeded to play the fourth gig of their career at New York's
CMJ Music Marathon. During this time the band also toured with
Micah P. Hinson and participated in 2007's
South by Southwest music festival before their debut album was released.
2007–2008: Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters Their debut studio album,
Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters, was released in April 2007, featuring production from guitarist Andy MacFarlane and mixed by
Peter Katis. The album was recorded over a short period of just three days, and the songs featured were the first ones the band had ever written. Inspired by a stripped down performance at London's
Union Chapel, the band reworked some of the songs on
Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters for a new mini-album entitled
Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards It Did, released in June 2008. 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.
2009–2010: Forget the Night Ahead and Orzel's departure The band released their second studio album,
Forget the Night Ahead, in September 2009. Musically, they described the album as "noisier and bigger", where they experimented with a lot of instruments and different sounds, including fire extinguishers. The album was released to further critical acclaim, and was supported by multiple tours of Europe and the United States. On 8 February 2010, it was announced that founding bassist Craig Orzel had left the band. With a statement on the band's official blog, 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." Orzel continues to record music under his solo moniker, Orzelda. The band's first release since Orzel's departure, an EP entitled
The Wrong Car, was released in late September 2010. 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.
2010–2012: No One Can Ever Know Whilst on tour with
Errors in October 2010, vocalist James Graham stated that "the next [album] is not going to be anything like the first two. [...] The
wall of sound is kinda gone. Andy [MacFarlane]'s demos involve a lot of keyboards, and it's a lot more considered." Additional musician Martin "Dok" Doherty also stated that "the band who make the same record over and over don't have a very long career." The band returned to the studio in January 2011. In April 2011, the band released a free acoustic EP on their official blog. The release featured stripped-back renditions of tracks from both
Forget the Night Ahead and
The Wrong Car. , pictured here in 2009, aided the band with recording
No One Can Ever Know, and was credited as "anti-producer". The Twilight Sad's third album,
No One Can Ever Know, was released on 6 February 2012. 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. The band released a new song, the album's closing track "Kill It in the Morning", for free on their new website and
SoundCloud page on 21 September 2011. The first proper single from the album, "Sick", was made available as a 7" vinyl single and digital download on 14 November 2011. Second single "Another Bed" followed the album's release on 20 February 2012. In August 2012, the band announced that touring keyboardist
Martin "Dok" Doherty would no longer be performing with the band, stating "[An] end of an era as our next two gigs will be Dok's last with the band. One of our best friends and one of the most talented people we know! [...] Been a pleasure and a privilege to share the stage, be on the road [and] have many a drunken night in foreign lands over the past five years with you, Dok." Later that month, Doherty's replacement was revealed to be Brendan Smith, previously of the bands Julia Thirteen and
The Unwinding Hours. Regarding the band's line-up changes over the past six years, James Graham noted, "The good thing about the line up changes is that we all remain friends with each other and when someone has left it's been for a good reason and the right choice for them. We've lucked out with Johnny [Docherty] and Brendan who are maniacs in the best possible way, but they are also brilliant musicians as were Dok and Craig [Orzel] and they all put the likes of me to shame." Doherty left the band to further pursue his electropop project
Chvrches with former
Aereogramme guitarist
Iain Cook and singer
Lauren Mayberry. Along with nationwide tours of the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as European festivals during the summer and a headlining gig at
Barrowland Ballroom in December, the band released a collection of remixes entitled
No One Can Ever Know: The Remixes in November 2012. 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.
2013–2015: Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave The Twilight Sad performed their debut album
Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters in its entirety for the first time in December 2013, The tour dates coincided with the release of a deluxe edition reissue of the debut album, with bonus tracks including demos and rarities, released on
Record Store Day 2014. with recording sessions at
Mogwai's
Castle of Doom Studios in
Glasgow beginning in January 2014. On 12 August 2014, the band announced via their official website,
Facebook, and
Instagram pages that the new album, entitled
Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave, would be released on 27 October 2014. The announcement was accompanied by a 1-minute teaser video trailer on the band's website, 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. In an interview with
Contactmusic.com, guitarist/producer Andy MacFarlane explained that with
Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave, the band aimed to capture all the different forms their music has taken over the years, from "full on noise/feedback, to a sparse, synth led sound, to a stripped back set up with just keys, drum machine and guitar, to playing with an orchestra, and to just an acoustic with vocal." The album produced three singles; the first single, "Last January", was released as a digital download on 15 September 2014; second single "I Could Give You All That You Don't Want" was released as a double A-side 7" vinyl single with the exclusive track "The Airport" on 9 February 2015; and third single "It Never Was the Same" was released on 29 June 2015 as a 7" vinyl single, featuring the exclusive version of "There's a Girl in the Corner" as covered by
Robert Smith of
The Cure. Additionally, a limited edition 6-song EP entitled
Òran Mór Session, featuring stripped-down versions of songs from
Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave, was self-released by the band in October 2014, then expanded to 9 songs and given a wider release by Fat Cat Records in October 2015. 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 and
The Empty Bottle in
Chicago. The band toured the United Kingdom in December 2014 and January 2015, including a date performing at
Edinburgh's
Hogmanay Celebration on New Year's Eve, then returned to the United States in February/March 2015. Further tour dates across Europe and festival appearances followed throughout summer 2015, culminating with UK and European tour dates as the supporting act for
Editors in October and November 2015, and a headlining performance at
Barrowland Ballroom in mid-December.
2016–2023: Touring with The Cure, change of drummers and It Won/t Be Like This All the Time in 2018.Left to right: MacFarlane, Graham, Schultz, Smith and Docherty. Prior to recording
Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave, the band was considering calling it quits until a major revitalisation occurred. In addition to the warm critical response the band received for their fourth album, The Twilight Sad was chosen by
Robert Smith to be the supporting act for
The Cure on their May/June 2016 North American tour, which included three nights at the
Hollywood Bowl in
Los Angeles and three nights at
Madison Square Garden in
New York, and continued to support The Cure on their October–December 2016 European tour, which included three nights at
London's
Wembley Arena as well as dates in
Berlin,
Rome,
Madrid,
Barcelona, and
Paris. On 22 January 2018, the band announced via social media that drummer Mark Devine had amicably left the band. The band's new touring drummer, Sebastien Schultz, joined shortly thereafter. In June 2018, the band played their first shows for 18 months at the
Primavera Sound festival. Following this, on 16 June they played their first UK headlining show since 2015 at the
Brudenell Social Club in Leeds, and appeared at The Cure's
Hyde Park show on 7 July. During these shows they premiered three new songs - "The Arbor", "VTr" and "Shooting Dennis Hopper Shooting" with Graham stating: "we have a duty and responsibility to keep Scott's music and keep sharing it. When we're around touring, we need to tell people about him". Community Room,
Leeds in June 2018. 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. On 5 September, the band announced that their fifth studio album, titled and stylised as
It Won/t Be Like This All the Time, would be released on 18 January 2019. The album, recorded in early 2018, features Jonny Scott on drums. The first proper single, "Videograms", preceded the album on 26 October 2018. A third song lifted from the album, "VTr", was made available for download and streaming on 13 November 2018. The album was released to critical acclaim, including perfect scores from
Drowned in Sound and
The Skinny. 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, the shows being professionally recorded. In 2020, two shows were planned in quadrophonic sound at Glasgow's
Barrowland Ballroom, but those were postponed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, on what would have been the day of the first show, the band released a live album,
It Won/t Be Like This All the Time Live, for download via Bandcamp on a pay-what-you-like basis, and on 17 April, the night of the second Glasgow show, fans were invited to take part in a listening party on
Twitter, hosted by
Tim Burgess. Graham said: "... we were supposed to be playing our second night at the famous Glasgow Barrowland Ballroom ... Let's pretend we're all at the gig together. All five of us will be taking part and sharing memories from past gigs, sharing thoughts on playing live and many other things". Hutchison played with the band at further gigs in 2022, and in September announced on his Instagram account that he has fully joined The Twilight Sad, though the band did not also make an official statement about the changing of members. In October, the band embarked on a two-month European tour, once more as The Cure's support act, followed by a similar tour of North America in mid-2023.
2024–present: Becoming a duo and ''It's the Long Goodbye'' Following the support tour with
The Cure, the band took some time off to start work on their next album. 2024 saw the band only perform several stripped back shows featuring Graham and MacFarlane. A winter tour saw the debut of two new tracks, "Designed to Lose" and "Chest Wound to the Chest". The band later released a digital-only album recorded during these shows, titled
Stripped Back. They also released an album titled
The Twilight Sad - Nobody Wants To Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave (Demos), marking the 10th anniversary of their
fourth studio album with previously unreleased demo tracks. In 2025, the band confirmed via social media that they have started recording their long-awaited new album, uploading photos from the recording studio, though no official statement was released. Their only show of the year was as one of the supports for
Mogwai at the London-based festival South Facing in August. It was the band's first full-band show for two years, though the lineup featured Graham, MacFarlane,
Editors' Nicholas Willes on drums and Mogwai's Alex Mackay on bass. On 28 October 2025, the band released "Waiting for the Phone Call", their first new song in over six years. The song features The Cure's
Robert Smith on guitar, with credits to Alex Mackay (bass) and
Arab Strap's David Jeans (drums) appearing on the official music video for the track. Graham described the track as being about "grief, love and mental illness". Upon announcing the song, it was revealed that The Twilight Sad was now officially a duo, consisting of core songwriters Graham and MacFarlane, with Docherty, Smith and Hutchinson having departed the band. The upcoming full band tour will feature drummer Cat Myers (formerly of Mogwai and
Honeyblood) and
Primal Scream's Simone Butler on bass. ==Music style and influences==