The Twilight Sad have spoken to NME about the gruelling road to ‘It’s The Long Goodbye’, their first album in seven years and one written in the wake of frontman James Graham losing his mother to dementia. Check out our interview below along with new single ‘Designed To Lose’.
Previewed by launch single ‘Waiting For The Phone Call’ and now the pensive ‘Designed To Lose’, the duo’s sixth album is announced today (Wednesday January 7) will arrive on Friday March 27 via Mogwai’s Rock Action Records. It is available to pre-order here.
The album was born of Graham grappling with the light and dark of losing his mother to dementia while becoming a father himself, all while dealing with his own mental health struggles. As a result, ‘It’s The Long Goodbye’ is a meditative and powerful reflection on the human condition and what it is to live.
“There were a few things that really kept me going,” Graham told NME in his first interview about the new record, with music by bandmate and childhood friend Andy MacFarlane. “One was being a father and making sure that I was there, especially when I was ill. That’s my number one job. This other thing keeping me going was these songs that we were writing.
“Now, looking at it, the album needed to take seven years to allow me the mental space. Now I can map the songs that were written either at the start of the process, in the middle of the hellhole, or when my mum had died. It really does document the seven years, and the hell inside my mind. As soon as I got the final masters through and listened to it, a huge weight was off my shoulders.”
He added: “I thought, ‘I’ve done it. I’ve got this down on paper and on record. This is the weirdest therapy you could ever have’. I couldn’t have put more into it. I’ve realised why I write music. I’ve been through this and it’s a very human thing. Everybody is going to go through something like this in their life – in a different way. We all have our ins and outs, but it’s a very human story. People can see: ‘Oh fuck, someone else felt like this’.”
In the long wait since 2019’s acclaimed predecessor ‘It Won/t Be Like This All The Time’, the band completed world tours with The Cure, having been handpicked by Robert Smith as their support act of choice for much of the last decade. However, the band had to pull out of one string of dates when the weight of everything he was dealing with took its toll on Graham.
“The South American tour was coming up, and I dreamt of going there my whole life, not just for playing but just to witness those places. To be playing stadiums there with The Cure, you can’t get much better than that,” Graham admitted. “Things were just building up for me at home, my mum was in the latter months of her life, and mentally I wasn’t in a great place at all. I was starting to feel it manifest itself physically. I had really bad stomach issues and wasn’t telling anybody. I was going against everything that I preached.
“Every morning I was waking up and I lost hope. I was searching for it constantly but life didn’t make much sense to me and I couldn’t control my emotions anymore. I woke up one morning and I couldn’t move. My body just said, ‘I’m not doing this anymore, fuck you’.”
Graham went on: “The main thing for me wasn’t to be in a band, but to be better to be a dad and a member of this family. If I’d have gone on that tour it would have been so bad. The decision had been made for me.”
Having since made what he describes as a “breakthrough” with his health, Graham headed home to recover – with support from his bandmate and childhood friend MacFarlane as well as Smith (“He’s got a really good understanding of these things,” revealed Graham) and receiving a touching message from the recently departed Cure guitarist Perry Bamonte (“That showed me what an amazing connection I’d made with him on tour and how he sweet he was. He was so complimentary to me. Losing Perry has been rough as well. He was such a lovely person”).
Smith, a longtime friend, collaborator and champion of the band, gave Graham and MacFarlane invaluable advice during the making of the record as well as playing guitar, keys and bass across three tracks: ‘Waiting For The Phone Call’, ‘Dead Flowers’ and ‘Back To Fourteen’.
“Robert’s been wanting to play guitar on a record of ours for a while,” MacFarlane told NME. “Things don’t always work out because he’s so busy. He’s so involved in the actual arrangement and songwriting of it too and was giving us tips. We told him he needed to play something on this album. We didn’t want him to sing as that would have been too on-the-nose. We’ve got him playing guitar, keys and six-string bass.”
Graham noted that Smith was “a great friend to ask for advice as well”.
“It’s both amazing and terrifying at the same time, but he’s been so generous with his time and his opinions,” he revealed. “He genuinely cares. He was advising on these little things here and there, and of course they all fucking work! It’s not just about having Robert Smith on the record, he’s been part of this and tried to help us more than anyone: in life and in music. It was so natural and important for him to play on it.”
Check out the rest of our interview with The Twilight Sad below, where Graham and MacFarlane spoke frankly about the “cruelty” of dementia, fighting back from the darkness, taking stock of what it is to be an artist, the impact of Robert Smith, touring plans and what the future holds.
NME: Hello The Twilight Sad. How does it feel to be staring down the world of music again after seven long years, given everything that’s happened?
James Graham: “This is my first interview in a long, long time and I feel like a different person now to the guy that was making music before. I’m so focussed on making sure that we do it really well. I want to have a good time, but I want to be healthy as well. I know how unhealthy touring can be, and being away from family is a massive thing for me. I am nervous, but I’m genuinely itching to start singing again.
“I enjoy my life, my privacy, and now I feel like I’m jumping back into the unknown. I’m being very cautious and just want to be as good as I can be.”
You’re six albums and 23 years into your career now – that’s a rare feat. Does this put you in ‘national treasure’ territory?
Graham: “It hasn’t felt like it! We feel like the cockroach that won’t go away, if I’m being honest. I’m really proud. To get to this stage is mental, especially for a band that have not been a ‘commercial’ success. It’s quite a testament to our belief in us and what we do – and other people’s belief in us.”
The album deals with your mother’s battle with dementia. That’s quite a profound experience for anyone to go through – like a loss within a loss.
Graham: “You’re grieving so many times. Dementia is a long, cruel grieving process. My mum lost her speech very early on after her diagnosis. You’re already with someone who’s slowly declining. This person suddenly couldn’t communicate with you to tell you how they’re feeling physically, mentally, how they’re confused. It was just nothing and like, ‘Fuck!’ All other things in life just kind of disappeared.
“That was the beginning of the downfall of my mental health; to see just a complete deconstruction of her and it was fucking horrific. Everybody is going to go through losing a parent and nobody is going to have a good time during that. I’d just had a kid, so I was watching this life grow and the person who gave me life go. The paths crossed. To mentally comprehend that was so hard.”
And what did it do to you to turn those thoughts and feelings into lyrics?
Graham: “The album itself is from my point of view, but I’ve also tried to see it from my mum’s point of view, and from other members of family. Nobody has an answer, and every day was different.”
Did it make you a different kind of writer?
Graham: “Yes. There used to be a lot of metaphors in the lyrics, but this time you now what you’re getting yourself into. I told myself, ‘If you’re going to do this, then don’t hide behind anything. You’ve got to go all in’.”
As you say, losing a parent is so universal. Were you looking to show others that they’re not alone?
Graham: “There’s always been something like that in our music. I’ve always been looking for people who feel the same way as me, you know? For someone to go, ‘Please tell me I’m not alone’. Within making a record, it’s not a cry for help, but a cry to find others. From the reaction from people who have heard the record, they’ve said what I’ve hoped. If it gives someone one minute of clarity and peace then it was worth it to put it out.”
Andy, you and James have been friends since school. What was it like to see him going through this, and then to match his feelings with music?
Andy MacFarlane: “We’ve always tried to have a contrast of the music versus the lyrics. The music on this one is quite, not upbeat, but up there, quite guitar-heavy. We tried to add that more positive and optimistic slant on things as well so it’s not all just down. We’re always trying to keep that in mind, and that crosses into the artwork with super bright colours.”
Graham: “I might be in the pits of misery, but the soundscapes that surround me have so much colour, texture, volume and dynamics.”
MacFarlane: “My dad died around the time the band started [in 2003], so I kind of understand the feeling of losing a parent and transferring it into music. With the other albums, there were a lot of other different life events having an impact. Now we’ve hit this 20 year cycle of understanding.”
Listening back to the record, do you feel a sense of healing?
MacFarlane: “Yes, and also just to get that into an album meant that we could, not put it behind us, but make sense of it.”
Graham: “I feel a massive relief. Just getting the album made and recording it was pretty straightforward and simple, but getting there was hard. We’ve worked our fucking arses off and mentally tortured ourselves to do this. I’m not afraid to say that. So it better be fucking worth it.
“I can listen to it and feel the gut punches. There is an immense sense of pride. Musically, Andy created this soundscape for me to be able to express myself. He’s been through just as much over the years. We’ve been friends since school, so to see him really take the reins has been amazing. He has made something special and dragged me through it. He’s really supported me.”
Was there ever a question as to whether this album would even get made?
Graham: “I think we’d have always made it, but I don’t know if we’d have put it out, gone on tour and put myself out there for judgement. I think me and Andy will write music together for the rest of our lives – whether we do it in this way with an album and a tour, I don’t know. Nothing lasts forever. There is a want to do it and I want to do it right now, but not so much that I work myself into the ground. Who am I without this? I wanted to be somebody. I didn’t want to be one-dimensional.
“I want to write albums not because I have to and someone is telling me to. I need to make an album because I’ve been through something or I’ve lived life.”
How are you feeling about taking this album out on the road?
Graham: “I’ve missed that: that connection of when you’re in a room and people are fully passionate. Sharing that you’re not alone is one of the most powerful things. I’m still anxious about getting up there, but when I do I’ll be fine. I’ve pushed myself as a writer and as a vocalist.
“What’s the point of doing a sixth album if you’re just going over the same things? There has to be a reason to do this. It’s so all-consuming. I can’t just be about wanting to be popular, because I don’t! I’m just hiding away up here. This band has given me so much, but also caused me so much stress.
“That’s what you do if you love something. It shouldn’t be easy. There’s a real hunger and a want. I miss singing. It gives me something. Also, with the amount of support we’ve got from people that are my heroes, it would feel a disservice to them if I didn’t show that their belief in me was warranted. Robert has put so much into us, Mogwai have just been there for me and encouraged me to do this. They’ve helped me to get this record made.
“There are a lot of contributing factors that have helped me get this record made, but the main one is that I do love it – but I’m pretty scared of it at the same time.”
The Cure’s last album ‘Songs Of A Lost World‘ dealt heavily in mortality. Did you talk to Robert Smith much about life, death, coping and writing about it?
Graham: “Yes and no. When we were hanging out, we liked to just have a laugh and get all that heavy shit out of the way. He’s very passionate about our band. We talk about the gigs, talk about the songs.
“It was amazing to see those songs played live before the album came out. We did two massive tours where nobody knew those songs, but we were getting to hear them every single night. That was a dream. Every night, you could tell they were adding to the songs and perfecting them. It was just such a special thing to be able to see an album come together.
“Robert was very emotional on stage. He’s always been an inspiration, but seeing how vulnerable he could be at that point was seeing past Robert Smith. You saw an actual guy that was hurting. The fact that he was brave enough to put those feelings out into the world while knowing how difficult they were was an honour to see. We watched every soundcheck, we were super fanboys. We were pinching ourselves every day.”
You’ve got Arab Strap’s David Jeans and Mogwai live team-member Alex Mackay playing drums and bass on the album, along with additional production from Andy Savours (My Bloody Valentine) and mixing by Chris Coady (Slowdive). Who’ll be in the live band for this tour? Will Frightened Rabbit’s Grant Hutchison be back behind the kit?
Graham: “Grant is going to be busy, and all is good with him! We’ve got Cat Myers on drums. She was in Honeyblood, Mogwai and Benefits. We’ve known her for years. If you pass the Martin [Bulloch, drums] from Mogwai test, then you’re alright in my book!”
MacFarlane: “We’ve got Simone [Marie Butler] from Primal Scream on bass. There are a lot of mutual friends from that Cure world, so that’ll be exciting. It’s shaping up to be pretty cool. We’ll have a lot of projections from the videos playing. It feels like it’ll be another step on from the last tour.”
So you’re going out to really let these new songs live and breathe on stage? It sounds like it’s going to be quite the exorcism…
Graham: “Somebody said to me after a gig once, ‘Wow, people really like to see you in pain!’ You can never gauge or try and guess what kind of audience you’re going to get when you start a band, but the passion that people have for our music is there. I like to think we’re just normal guys that don’t act like rockstar bellends – I fucking hate all that – and that probably helps. Our audience actually fucking care. They haven’t just heard us on a playlist, they come to the shows to have a cry and a proper emotional breakdown! That’s quite cool.”
Are you feeling the muse and looking to make another album in less than seven years?
MacFarlane: “Honestly, we wrote so much for this record that we’re starting to work on another one already. We’ve got enough for another album. We’re just going to get this one out and get back back to it.”
Graham: “I want to finish the songs that we’ve still got and see how this year goes… if I can make it to the end of it year! As much as it seems like an easy thing to do, it’s not. I want to do this the best I can for me and everyone around me. We’ve done tours when we’re not in a good place, but I want us to get everything out of these gigs and get through it.
“After everything I’ve been through healthwise, I don’t want to think more than a few days ahead. I’m taking each day as it comes and trying to enjoy that for what it is. A lot of this business seems to be about what’s next. I just want to live in this moment and enjoy it. Of course, I want to do this, write music with Andy and play gigs for the rest of my life.
“Even though it’s six albums of us writing songs together, it feels like we’re starting again. I’m getting a lot of the same feelings as when we first started. I think that’s just because I feel like a new person, jumping into the unknown.”
The Twilight Sad release ‘It’s The Long Goodbye’ on Friday March 27. Check out the tracklist below:
- ‘Get Away From It All’
- ‘Designed To Lose’
- ‘Attempt At A Crash Landing – Theme’
- ‘Waiting For The Phone Call’
- ‘The Ceiling Underground’
- ‘Dead Flowers’
- ‘Inhospitable/Hospital’
- ‘Chest Wound To The Chest’
- ‘Back To Fourteen’
- ‘TV People Still Throwing TVs At People’
The band’s upcoming tour dates are below. Visit here for tickets and more information.
Headline shows:
APRIL 2026
Sunday 12 – Italy, Milan, Legend Club
Tuesday 14 – Switzerland, Zurich, Bogen F
Wednesday 15 – Germany, Munich, Ampere
Thursday 16 – Germany, Berlin, Gretchen
Saturday 18 – Denmark, Copenhagen, Loppen
Sunday 19 – Norway, Oslo, Parkteateret
Monday 20 – Sweden, Stockholm, Slaktkyrkan
Wednesday 22 – Germany, Hamburg, Grünspan
Thursday 23 – Netherlands, Utrecht, Tivolivredenburg Pandora Hall
Saturday 25 – Germany, Cologne, Gebäude 9
Sunday 26 – Belgium, Brussels, Rotonde – Botanique
Monday 27 – France, Paris, Le Trabendo
Wednesday 29 – UK, Bristol, Electric Bristol
Thursday 30 – UK, London, Roundhouse
MAY 2026
Saturday 2 – UK, Manchester, New Century Hall
Sunday 3 – UK, Newcastle upon Tyne, Boiler Shop
Tuesday 5 – Scotland, Glasgow, Barrowlands
Saturday 9 – Ireland, Dublin, Button Factory
With The Cure:
JUNE 2026
Wednesday 24 – Cardiff, Blackweir Fields
Friday 26 – Dublin, Marley Park
Sunday 28 – Belfast, Belsonic
JULY 2026
Friday 10 – Germany, Berlin, Wuhlheide
Saturday 11 – Germany, Berlin, Wuhlheide
Sunday 12 – Germany, Berlin, Wuhlheide
For further help and advice on mental health:
