Video Of The Week #87: The Twilight Sad -‘I/m Not here [missing face]’  

‘I/m Not here [missing face]‘ is the intense brooding recent single from The Twilight Sad. The first on their new home of Rock Action Records, today they’ve shared the accompanying visuals directed by the band’s Brendan Jay Smith and edited by Michael Sherrington.

The clip, comprised of VHS camcorder footage, runs a fine line between wistful, homespun melancholia and a more intense, at times sinister, sense of reflection – gradually becoming more warped as if to mirror the way our memory can become self-manipulated with time and distance.

Speaking of the video, Smith says, “When Andy and I came across the footage, we both immediately felt that it was the right fit for ‘I/m Not Here [hidden face]’. I was really interested in the idea that our memories are often confused and influenced by what we recall from old camcorder footage. Sometimes it’s difficult to work out how you feel about an experience and other times it’s etched in a recurring visual that degrades over time.”

‘I/m Not Here [missing face]’ with its simmering motorik sound swirls around frontman James Graham’s repeated declarations of “I don’t want to be around you anymore,” is a brutal excavation of self-doubt, Graham says its “about my ongoing battle with not liking myself, trying to be a good person but constantly feeling like I’m failing myself and everyone I care about.”  Hypnotic, cathartic and revelatory, its the sound of Twilight Sad at the top of their game.

Exploring its inception, the band’s Andy MacFarlane jovially adds, “I was attempting to play ‘Ogives’ by Erik Satie, but I’m really shit at the piano so it didn’t happen, but I came up with the music using those chord shapes. So from my perspective, it’s a bad cover version of that piece of music.”   

The band’s autumn shows will see them bringing their live show all over the USA and Canada culminating with intimate London and Edinburgh dates in late November.

Tour Dates:

Oct 9th: Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour
Oct 10th: San Diego, CA – Casbah
Oct 12th: Tustin, CA – Marty’s On Newport
Oct 14th: San Francisco, CA – Independent
Oct 17th: Portland, OR – Doug Fir
Oct 19th: Seattle, WA – Crocodile
Oct 20th: Vancouver, BC – Fox
Oct 25th: St. Paul, MN – Turf Club
Oct 26th: Chicago, IL – Theater on the Lake
Oct 27th: Toronto, ON – Velvet Underground
Oct 28th: Montreal, QC – Ritz
Oct 30th: Boston, MA – Middle East Downstairs
Oct 31st: Kingston, NY – BSP Lounge
Nov 1st: Brooklyn, NY – Elsewhere
Nov 2nd: Philadelphia, PA – Boot & Saddle
Nov 3rd: Washington, DC – U Street Music Hall
Nov 10th: Paris, FR – Point FMR
Nov 11th: Wiesbaden, DE – Sclachthof
Nov 12th: Munich, DE – Ampere
Nov 13th: Vienna, AT – Chelsea
Nov 15th: Berlin, DE – Musik & Frieden
Nov 16th: Hamburg, DE – Molotow
Nov 17th: Amsterdam, NL – Paradiso
Nov 18th: Brussels, BE – Botanique
Nov 27th: London, UK – Bush Hall
Nov 29th: Edinburgh, UK – Liquid Rooms