The Twilight Sad interview – ‘It’s The Long Goodbye’ is about grief, friendship and finding light in the dark

(Interview by Janos Janurik) After seven years, The Twilight Sad return with their most personal album to date – shaped by loss, resilience, and a deep creative bond with Robert Smith.

After a seven-year absence, The Twilight Sad return with It’s The Long Goodbye – an album born out of personal loss, mental health struggles, and the quiet strength it takes to carry on when life becomes overwhelming.

At its core lies a deeply human story. Frontman James Graham processes the illness and passing of his mother, while guitarist and producer Andy MacFarlane crafts a sonic landscape that moves between fragile intimacy and towering emotional intensity. The result is arguably the The Twilight Sad’s most direct and vulnerable work to date – less metaphor, more truth.

The new The Twilight Sad album was written over several years, with ideas exchanged during lockdown and gradually taking shape. A key figure in this process was Robert Smith of The Cure, who contributed not only musically but also creatively from an early stage – offering feedback, encouragement, and ultimately performing on multiple tracks.

It’s The Long Goodbye is also about endurance, connection, and the strange duality of darkness and light that defines both life and music.

We spoke with The Twilight Sadabout influences, grief, collaboration, and the realities of being an independent artist in 2026.

Interview with The Twilight Sad

Q: Listening to the new The Twilight Sad album, I was struck by how strongly it captures the atmosphere of classic dark alternative and post-punk music. At times it reminded me of the spirit of bands such as Joy Division, The Mission, The Sisters of Mercy, and from a later generation groups like Editors or Cold Cave. When you first started making music, which artists had the biggest influence on you?

Andy MacFarlane: When we first started we were mixing a lot of stuff together, like Sonic Youth, The Cure, Wire, The Flaming Lips, Mogwai, Arab Strap, Pavement, Daniel Johnston, Factory Records etc. We weren’t deliberately trying to sound like a particular band or genre, it was more like we were trying to be the thread that joined all our influences together.

Q: To me, Waiting For The Phone Call feels like one of the strongest songs on the album. If I were a radio DJ, it would definitely be in heavy rotation. It is also your first single in six years, and it features Robert Smith from The Cure. If you don’t mind revisiting the story: how did this collaboration come about, especially considering that he ended up contributing to several songs on the album?

Andy MacFarlane: Robert was involved at the early stages of writing the album, we’d send him demos and he’d give us feedback and suggestions. We had a night in a London Studio, with Robert and Mike Hedges, going through the demos. Robert was playing my acoustic guitar, and said he wanted to play guitar on the album, so I kept reminding/annoying him every week until we recorded the album.

Q: The Twilight Sad has previously toured with The Cure, and you will also be performing with them again this year. What was your reaction to their recent Grammy recognition? Do you think darker alternative music like the kind you create receives enough attention in today’s music landscape, or could moments like this help bring more focus to the genre?

James Graham: We’ve never been part of the music world when it comes to Awards or Award Ceremony’s. It’s just not something that’s entered our worlds or is something that we strive for. The biggest award in music is the people who you create a community with and come to the gigs/connect with your music. The Cure’s last album was a masterpiece and so inspirational for anyone like me. I don’t know what awards it received but it deserves all of the awards. When you receive a message or email from someone that says “this album helped me through something or made me see I’m not alone” that is the biggest award in the music industry. Real music will always reach the right people if it wins awards or not.

Q: The press material mentions that the album was deeply influenced by the illness and passing of your mother. In some ways this echoes the personal losses that Robert Smith has also processed through his music. Have you ever spoken with him about dealing with grief through songwriting, or does your relationship mostly stay within the musical sphere?

James Graham: We’ve spoken about all things life & death and everything about our music/how his music has inspired us to do what we do. When we would hang out after the gigs we’d just speak about the gig that night, the crowd, bands we loved, bands we didn’t love. It was just like being backstage with numerous bands over the years, but obviously completely different and completely amazing to be with someone we both love and respect. He’s our friend and then you talk about the important things in life with true friends and he is very much an amazing friend.

Q: One thing that really struck me in an interview was the idea that this new The Twilight Sad album came partly from the need to appear strong in situations where you don’t actually feel strong. While listening to Back To Fourteen, I was reminded of how, as teenagers, darker and melancholic themes in music can feel strangely romantic – but later in life, when personal loss becomes real, those same themes take on a very different meaning. Has your own relationship with darker music changed over the years in a similar way?

James Graham: I still tend to gravitate toward the darker side of art, music, film but since being very ill with my mental health, I have started to lean into things that make me happy. My children are giving me a second childhood in a way, discovering things through their eyes is a beautiful thing. I love dark arty kind of movies but I also love big stupid blockbuster movies. I love escapism, being able to get out of your own head and disappear into different worlds and adventures is something I truly love. I also love good pop music, I think writing a good pop song is probably one of the hardest things to do in music it’s something I haven’t done or attempted yet. I think it’s more of a balance now, I’ve let the dark in for so many years that I think it’s time to let some of the light in.

Q: One of the darkest and most melancholic moments on the album for me is Dead Flowers. Do you see it in any way as a tribute to the masters of melancholic alternative music, perhaps even artists like The Cure?

Andy MacFarlane: There’s definitely a lot of similarities with The Cure on this song, I’ve got their back catalogue imprinted in my brain through all the gigs we’ve played together, so it comes out in our music sometimes. It was all based around the drum pattern, I wanted to give it a lot of space, and once I had the bass line it came together very quickly, the guitar/synth melodies were improvised in a couple of takes when I was demoing it.

Q: If I had to choose another potential single from the album, Inhospitable/Hospital would definitely be one of my picks. Do you have personal favourite tracks from the album yourselves?

James Graham: Get Away From It All is the first song I remember writing for the album. It encapsulates everything that I was feeling at the time of writing it and musically I love what Andy created.

Q: The Twilight Sad will be touring across the UK and Europe this spring, followed by several shows as special guests of The Cure during the summer. Among the upcoming concerts, the three shows at Berlin’s Wuhlheide seem particularly exciting. Are there specific cities or venues on this tour that you are especially looking forward to?

James Graham: I’m really looking forward to all our German dates. Germany has really embraced what we do since our first album. Berlin is a city with such a rich musical history, I can’t wait for our own gig and the 3 nights with The Cure in the summer. There isn’t a gig that I’m not looking forward to, though, I can’t wait to be in a room with like minded emotional people. Our hometown gigs at The Glasgow Barrowlands will be incredibly special. The Barrowlands is the best venue in the world and my mother’s grandfather helped lay the famous wooden dance floor many many years ago so I have some family history inside that building.

Q: The album title It’s The Long Goodbye carries a very strong emotional weight. What does that phrase mean to you personally?

James Graham: Anyone who has experienced dementia in someone they love or any of the other horrific degenerative diseases out there they will know that you say goodbye to the person you love so many times before they leave, hence The Long Goodbye.

Q: This is the first The Twilight Sad album in seven years. What has changed the most for you as musicians during that time?

James Graham: It’s harder to tour, everything is going up in price and the artists are the ones that suffer because the price of things go up but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the artists fees are going up as well, I’m pretty sure across all types of music it’s the same story. Streaming, a great thing for consumers but again artists suffer, people seem to be ok spending £5 on a coffee that lasts for minutes but not £8-10 on an album that will be with you for the rest of your life. Vinyl sales are up because of big pop stars, which is amazing, but that success and momentum isn’t as true in the independent market which desperately needs a boost. I think we’re losing a lot of talented people to other professions because there’s no clear way of making a career out of being an artist. Artists need to be nurtured and given time to develop. Just look at us..6 albums in 20 years and it’s still a daily battle to keep this alive.

Editor’s note: With ‘It’s The Long Goodbye’, The Twilight Sad have created more than just another album, it handles survival, friendship, and emotional honesty. It’s also a reminder that even in the darkest moments, music can still offer connection – and, sometimes, a way forward.

The Twilight Sad – Headline shows

The live lineup shown in 2026 includes Simone Butler on bass and Cat Myers on drums.

• 12.04. IT-Mailand, Legend Club
• 14.04. CH-Zürich, Bogen F15.04. München, Ampere16.04. Berlin, Gretchen, Gretchen18.04. DK-Kopenhagen, Loppen
• 19.04. NO-Oslo, Parkteateret
• 20.04. SE-Stockholm, Slaktkyrkan
• 22.04. Hamburg, Grünspan23.04. NL-Utrecht, Tivolivredenburg Pandora Hall
• 25.04. Köln, Gebäude 926.04. BE-Brüssel, Rotonde – Botanique
• 27.04. FR–Paris, Le Trabendo
• 29.04. UK-Bristol, Electric Bristol
• 30.04. UK-London, Roundhouse
• 02.05. UK-Manchester, New Century Hall
• 03.05. UK-Newcastle upon Tyne, Boiler Shop
• 05.05. UK-Glasgow, Barrowlands
• 06.05. UK-Glasgow, Barrowlands
• 09.05. IE-Dublin, Button Factory
• 24.07. UK-Deer Shed Festival

On tour with The Cure:14.06. IT-Florenz, Visarno Arena

• 24.06. UK-Cardiff, Blackweir Fields
• 26.06. IE-Dublin, Marley Park
• 28.06. NI-Belfast, Belsonic
• 08.07. SK-Pohoda festival
• 10.07. Berlin, Wuhlheide11.07. Berlin, Wuhlheide12.07. Berlin, Wuhlheide

About The Twilight Sad

The Twilight Sad are a Scottish post-punk and indie rock band from Kilsyth, Lanarkshire, formed in 2003. The group was founded by James Graham and Andy MacFarlane and is now centered on that duo, with Graham on vocals and lyrics and MacFarlane on guitar, instrumentation, and songwriting.

They first released the EP “The Twilight Sad” in 2006, then followed with the studio albums “Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters” (2007), “Forget the Night Ahead” (2009), “No One Can Ever Know” (2012), “Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave” (2014), and “It Won/t Be Like This All the Time” (2019). The band released music through Fat Cat Records until 2018, then moved to Rock Action Records.

In 2025, The Twilight Sad became a duo, and in 2026 they returned with their sixth studio album, “It’s the Long Goodbye”, released on March 27 through Rock Action Records.