HAVING established themselves as a staple part of Scotland’s thriving music scene with four well-received albums, The Twilight Sad are spending much of 2016 spreading their appeal around the globe. It’s not often you get to go on tour with your heroes after all; the Glasgow band were living the dreams of many when they were asked to join The Cure on the road earlier this year. With Robert Smith known to be a huge fan, even releasing a cover of their track ‘There’s a Girl in the Corner’, the trio have now completed a mammoth tour of the States which saw them play up and down the country, including world-famous venues like Madison Square Gardens and the Hollywood Bowl.
With the European leg set to kick off in October, the band now have some time on their hands and will make their live return on home soil with an appearance at Electric Fields festival next week. We caught up with Andy from the band to hear about his experience with The Cure and the upcoming festival.
“The tour was beyond amazing, very surreal. We’ve played some big gigs but never a full tour on that scale before.’ And with the European leg coming up, there’s still some massive shows ahead, ’We’re looking forward to all of it. Europe’s great to tour anyway, but getting to do it in these venues and see The Cure every night will be pretty amazing.”
Especially when they’ve been such a huge influence on the Sad: “I’ve always listened to some era of The Cure for as long as I can remember, so elements of their music will always overlap with ours in one way or another.”
Of course, with the post-punk legends having such a massive global appeal, the trio have found themselves in front of huge crowds every night, with many people hearing them for the first time. However, this hasn’t fazed them: “I actually look at every gig the same. To me, there’s no difference playing somewhere like King Tut’s, the Barrowlands, or an in-store in Mono to playing somewhere like Madison Square Garden or the Hollywood Bowl.
“It really doesn’t matter what the venue is or who the crowd are, you always need to appreciate that people have spent their money to get there, and if you overthink it, you can very quickly build up apprehensions and start to trip yourself up.”
One event that they are familiar with though is Electric Fields, as they return to the familiar Scottish crowds. Having performed a secret acoustic set last year, they’ll be back with the full band this time as their captivating live set looking to be one of the highlights of the weekend. What are they looking forward to though: “‘I’ll only be down on the Saturday so I’ll obviously watch Primal Scream, it’s been a few years since I’ve seen them. I don’t really know a lot of the bands, so will be good to see something new.”
With the lineup reflecting the excitement surrounding Scotland’s thriving music scene at the moment, Andy makes his own recommendations: ‘There’s loads although lately I’ve just had on the Cocteau Twins and Josef K’”
Meanwhile, he cites his favourite part of festivals as: “Getting to watch bands we don’t normally get to see because we’re all on different tours”. With that in mind though, don’t expect new material from The Sad’s set this year: “We’ll put in a few songs we don’t play too often, but there won’t be any new ones until next year. Normally I’ll be able to come up with a few ideas when we’re away, but generally I need to wait until I’m home to start writing properly again.”
Nevertheless, their appearance will be one of their only performances in Scotland this year and should not be missed. They return to the UK later in November with The Cure, when they will play the Arena in Manchester, followed by three dates in London at The SSE Arena, Wembley. And when they’ve conquered the world tour with Robert Smith and co.? “The only plan for next year so far is recording the new album”, Andy concludes. It looks like their momentum won’t be slowing down anytime soon.
Tickets for Electric Fields are on sale now via their website. For your chance to catch the likes of The Charlatans, Primal Scream and The Twilight Sad in one of Scotland’s most beautiful festival sites, get your tickets now.
