The Twilight Sad are a Scottish band with an unfortunate name. Currently on their 11th tour of America, they've had handfuls of audience members show up dressed as vampires, clearly unaware that this Twilight Sad has nothing to do with the other Twilight, which is, for entirely different reasons, equally sad. I caught up with singer James Graham before their show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg last week at a bar across the street. I was expecting an affected twee lad in a cardigan to tell me about his poetry fetish, yet James was as affable and hilariously candid as they come – a strapping guy with a penchant for swearing and a good laugh at the expense of his bandmates or stray child that happens to walk up to the table mid interview.VICE: How did you get the name?JAMES GRAHAM: It was one of those things where we didn't have a name and the drummer came in and said "how about the Twilight Sad?"It seemed a bit wanky and a bit pretentious to be honest but it was one of those ones that stuck because we couldn't think of anything better.Your drummer is writing a rock opera, right?Aye. I don't know how much I'm allowed to talk about it. It's called Even Dogs Carry Knives. He's been working on it for ten years. Nobody has heard a note. I think he should quit the band and focus on it! I'm kidding.You guys have somewhat literary song titles, huh?We're smarter than we look, that's certainly true. But no… on our earlier albums there's been lines from our favorite movies. No specific reason.Switching gears. What's Buckfast?It's fortified tonic wine. Made by monks in Devon, I think. It has fifteen cans of Coke's worth of caffeine in one bottle. It's brilliant. I really like it. It's supposed to be the cause of 50% of Glasgow's crime rate or something.Have you heard of Four Loko? It's a similar thing that we had over here.Is that a regional thing? We tried "Mad Dog 20/20".(At this point, a baby walks up to James. The mother runs over and scoops him up before apologizing).They don't even start them that young in Scotland.Read the rest over at VICE…@nedhepburn
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