Next week’s Electric Fields festival will take place in the beautiful surroundings of Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfries and Galloway.

Yet you wouldn’t blame the Twilight Sad if they found the area a little ordinary – as they’re heading there fresh from playing some of America’s greatest venues.

It’s been a quiet year on the home front for the intense Kilsyth rockers, and next Saturday’s show is their only remaining Scottish gig this year.

Further afield, though, the band have supported some of their idols, as they opened for the Cure in America, with a European run to follow in the autumn.

“Walking on at the Hollywood Bowl or Madison Square Garden was something that you’d never think possible for a bunch of guys from Kilsyth,” admits their singer James Graham, sounding like he still can’t believe it.

“We were talking to some of the Cure’s guys backstage at Madison Square Garden and there was just pictures everywhere of famous boxing fights and all the gigs there.

“Someone said ‘just picture all the folk who’ve walked on that way or been in that dressing room’, and I was like, ‘cheers for that, I was nervous enough!’ At the Hollywood Bowl there were all these pictures of the Beatles – we didn’t even know we’d still be a band two or three years ago, and doing stages like this was surreal.”

The band had approached their 2014 album Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave thinking it could be their last. Two years later, they’ve been able to celebrate not just a great record, but one that has spring-boarded them to an emotional Barrowland gig last Christmas, and to the attention of Cure legend Robert Smith.

He covered the group’s There’s A Girl In The Corner last year, and then invited them on tour. His support and advice has been a huge inspiration for James.

“He was watching our sets from the side of the stage and he’s someone that we can call a friend now,” says the singer.

“He’s got a belief in our band and wants to help us be heard by as many people as possible… it was pretty amazing to see him each night when we came offstage. He’s been so kind to us over the past couple of years and you can only be inspired by him. We learned so much from that tour.”

The band also picked up some new fans, with their Facebook page featuring plenty of praise from Cure fans who’d discovered the band for the first time. James looks after the Twilight Sad’s social media himself, and admits that the band have been fortunate to avoid the vitriol often found there.

“I think people can see with social media that it’s me doing it, whereas with some bands it can be like faceless management or the record label,” he says.

“But it’s me just talking to people like I’d talk to anyone. That whole thing is a scary world, but at the same time we’re very lucky that the people who do talk to us tend to be very kind rather than folk having a go.”

Unlike the past few years, the group aren’t playing a December Glasgow show this time around, meaning the only chance to catch them in Scotland will be at Electric Fields, before they resume writing a new album.

The boutique festival has a cracking line-up, with Primal Scream and the Charlatans headlining, and the likes of White, Everything Everything, the Sugarhill Gang and Honeyblood on a diverse bill.

“We did a surprise acoustic set at it last year, so we got to see the grounds, and we got to see what it’s like,” adds James.

“I’m looking forward to seeing Wild Beasts and to seeing Primal Scream, who I haven’t seen in a long time – we grew up listening to them!”

Electric Fields, Drumlanrig Castle, Friday August 26/Saturday August 27, day tickets £55.