MUCH like David Hasselhoff, although thankfully without the leather trousers, Glasgow four-piece the Twilight Sad are better known outside their native country than in it. The Hoff's soft rock has endeared him to Germany's mullet fans without winning much of an American audience. By contrast, the Twilight Sad, who, also thankfully, sound nothing like the ex-Baywatch actor, have played more gigs and have a higher profile in the States than in their UK home.
That looks set to change as they launch their debut album, Fourteen Autumns And Fifteen Winters, with a gig at Glasgow's Classic Grand this Saturday. Mixed by Peter Katis, who is also responsible for albums by Interpol and Mercury Rev, it's a widescreen, multi-layered record that mixes brutal slabs of guitars with nagging piano lines, enigmatic lyrics and the odd spot of accordion. It sounds big.
Not in an anthemic Snow Patrol, moby phone-waving way, but violently epic. Had label mates Sigur Ros been weaned on Mogwai albums on Scotland's west coast rather than pixie dust in the volcanic fields of Iceland then the band from Reykjavik might have sounded like the Twilight Sad.
Just one hour off the plane after a six-week slog around North America, the surprisingly chipper Andy MacFarlane, guitarist and chief music writer for the band, is still a little bemused by all the attention.
"We started out at South By South West in mid-March and have been out ever since," he says. "We went up through Alabama, New York through Canada and then back down the West Coast. It's been a solid six weeks.
The gigs in New York and Toronto were so busy. They kept on making us do encores."
Not least of the band's attractions for the Americans has been singer James Graham's strong Scottish accent.
"He sounds just like groundsman Willie from The Simpsons," noted one American fan site approvingly, if not altogether accurately. Not so long ago, received Brit music biz wisdom had it that forceful regional accents were the kiss of death on sales (the Reid twins had some sort of special dispensation) but the success of bands such as the Kaiser Chiefs and Arctic Monkeys suggests otherwise.
"It seems harsh for someone to say that a band won't work because of a Scottish accent," says MacFarlane.
"No one blinks when they hear a Cockney accent singing. The Americans like the Scottish accent and are really into it."
It is unusual for a Scottish band to have played more concerts in the States than at home but it has been circumstance rather than a rigid game plan which has brought the situation about.
The band came together in 2003, a mix of school friends and random meetings at bus stops. They played a couple of times at Glasgow's 13th Note to decide what they enjoyed doing and then retreated back into practice rooms to develop their sound. "We didn't want to keep it going in a half-arsed way," says MacFarlane.
"It's easy to keep on doing something you think is all right but not what you would really like. We wanted to work at it and then come back and play when we were happy with what we had. I always try and listen to our stuff from an outsider's point of view.
As if to ask, would I like this if it wasn't me who had written it?"
They recorded a demo, sent it to Fat Cat Records, also home to Vashti Bunyan, and were promptly signed at the conclusion of their third gig. "We have had the easiest time in a band.
Ever," admits MacFarlane.
Subsequently, the mundane facts of Fat Cat's release schedule, the diary of their American office and the dates of the CMJ and SXSW music industry festivals all meant that the majority of the band's live work has been in the States. While stopping short of the more esoteric sound of mathrock bands, the Twilight Sad don't fight shy of sonic experiments.
Fellow Fat Cat artist, classically trained composer and founder of the Piano Circus, Max Richter, helped the band work on their eponymous, US-only debut EP. They have also demonstrated their boffin-rock tendencies by contributing to Brilliant Noise, a 'soundfilm' by Brighton duo Semiconductor which was conceived during their artists' residency at the Nasa Space Science Laboratories. MacFarlane's credits on the Fourteen Autumns album extend to guitar, accordion and "noise".
"I can't actually play the accordion," he confesses. "I just found one once and thought I would give it a bash and then I put it all over the album. Because it is recorded I could make as many mistakes as I like and then just redo it.
I bought a saw and bow recently so I'm going to try and get that all over the next album. Anything that makes a strange wee noise, I'll get it on there somehow. I just like messing about.
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Fourteen Autumns And Fifteen Winters is released May 7. The Twilight Sad play the Classic Grand, Glasgow (0141-847 0820), May 5 and 13 and free at the Mono store on May 20 (8pm).
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