The Xcerts

The Xcerts
The Xcerts at The Ironworks, Inverness
Background information
Origin	Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
Genres	Alternative rock, power pop
Labels	Raygun Music
Website	[http://www.thexcertsband.com/ Official Website
Members	Murray Macleod Jordan Smith Tom Heron
Past members	Ross McTaggart

The Xcerts are a three piece rock band originally formed in Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom. They have released three studio albums, with their latest, There Is Only You (2014), peaking at #96 on the UK Albums Chart.

Biography

The Xcerts were originally formed by 13-year-olds Murray Macleod and Jordan Smith after meeting in the headmasters room at their school in Aberdeen. When school friend Ross McTaggart joined on drums, The Xcerts went on to record two EPs at the local recording studio Captain Tom's.

In order to progress, the band moved to Brighton in 2006, where Macleod went to college with future Architects vocalist, Sam Carter, and would later become roommates with Architects bassist Alex Dean.^[1]

Shortly afterwards, The Xcerts parted ways with their old drummer McTaggart. A replacement was found in Tom Heron, originally from Exeter, who was living in Brighton with a mutual friend and had also become close friends with Murray and Jordan. With the newly formed trio created, the band began writing the songs that would start to spread the word of The Xcerts nationally.

The Xcerts then went on to release two singles through One Records in Glasgow. Breathtaking Fight, which was recorded at Ridge Farm with Ben Watkins, was then followed shortly after by My Book Laughs. After the success of these two singles, the band were headhunted by Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly frontman, Sam Duckworth, via MySpace who subsequently released two further singles – Just Go Home and Do You Feel Safe? – through his label, Mannequin Republic.

Recorded at The Dog House by Adam Whittaker, Just Go Home received regular airplay on MTV2, and the band recorded three acoustic tracks for MTV's Spanking New Sessions series. The band have also recorded sessions for Tiscali, BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio Scotland, XFM Scotland and XFM London. Cover versions of Radiohead's "All I Need" and The Pixies' "Gigantic" featured in the XFM Scotland and XFM London sessions respectively.

'Do You Feel Safe?' was recorded with Dave Eringa (Idlewild, Manic Street Preachers) and released in early 2008.

The Xcerts have toured with Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, Make Model, Fighting With Wire, Fightstar and Twin Atlantic, and performed at numerous festivals in 2008 including T in the Park, RockNess, Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival, Zoo8, Offset and Connect Music Festival.

On 22 January 2009, The Xcerts confirmed that their album, In The Cold Wind We Smile would be released on 23 March 2009 through Xtra Mile (Reuben, Million Dead, Frank Turner) and King Tuts Recordings (The Dykeenies, Twin Atlantic). This date was however pushed back to the 30th. They also confirmed that they would release the single "Crisis In The Slow Lane" on 9 March at the end of their tour with Copy Haho.

The Xcerts debut album, In The Cold Wind We Smile, was released on 30 March 2009 through Xtra Mile. It was produced by Dave Eringa.^[2] On 1 August 2009 they played at the inaugural Hevy Music Festival held in Folkestone, UK.

In 2010 they completed another headline tour, supported The Get Up Kids and played many festivals notably playing the main stage at Rockness. They will also be embarking on a tour With Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, as well as a September tour supporting Futures.

The Xcerts announced on their Facebook and Myspace in July 2010 that their new album would be named "Scatterbrain" and released in October. This album was recorded by Mike Sapone in his home studio in America, The Xcerts are the first Scottish Band to work with Sapone.

The second single from Scatterbrain was "Young (Belane)" starring actor Jamie Campbell Bower as an obsessed fan who kidnaps the band. Jamie has acted in such films as Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007 film), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

In 2012, The Xcerts toured extensively supporting Brand New, Manchester Orchestra and Taking Back Sunday on their UK tours. They were also due to open for Guns N' Roses at the Glasgow, Birmingham and London dates of The Up Close and Personal Tour.^[3] However, due to "logistical reasons" all the opening support bands, including The Xcerts, were forced to drop off of the tour.^[4] The Xcerts would go on to open for Cursive and Kevin Devine instead.^[5]

In 2014, vocalist Macleod appeared on the track "Youth Is Wasted On The Young", from the album Lost Forever // Lost Together by Brighton metalcore band Architects. He has also appeared live on stage with the band to sing his segment of the song during UK shows.

The Xcert's third album There Is Only You was released on November 3rd, 2014, through Raygun Music. It was produced by Dave Eringa, with additional orchestration by long-term friend and producer Paul Steel. Within its first week of release it reached number 96 in the UK Album Chart and number 8 in the Rock Album Chart.

Trivia

One of the recurring theme within The Xcerts is each band member featuring on the front of the artwork for each album they have released. Drummer, Tom Heron is on the cover of 2009's In The Cold Wind We Smile, Scatterbrain features bassist Jordan Smith on the cover and Murray Macleod appears on the cover of their third album There Is Only You.

Band members

Discography

Albums

• In the Cold Wind We Smile (2009)
• Scatterbrain (2010)
• There Is Only You (2014)

EPs

• One Time Too Many (2001)
• The X-certs EP (2003)
• Stairs to Noise (2011)
• Live Like This (2014)
• I Don't Care (2015)

Singles

Live albums

• Live At King Tut's (2009)

Other appearances

• I Hate The Way You Dance – features on Fat Hippy Sampler Vol I, released 17/10/05
• Weather Warning – features on Fat Hippy Sampler Vol II, released 04/12/06
• Do You Feel Safe? – features on Fat Hippy Sampler Vol III, released 29/09/08
• I See Things Differently – features on Cider Smiles Vol III (Hide and Seek Records) released 01/07/10
• Helena (My Chemical Romance cover) - features on Kerrang! Ultimate Rock Heroes!, released 02/06/15

Unreleased tracks

The following tracks have featured in live performances and/or been made available as demos online:

• "I Hate The Way You Dance"
• "Dark Paths"
• "Old Folks"
• "Pretty People"
• "Monkey Solves Puzzle"
• "Our Friend, the Tree Talker"
• "Ghost in the Water"
• "There Will Be No Miracles Here"
• "Growing Old"
• "Fragile Skin"

References

External links

• Official Xcerts website
• Clean Slate Music Exeter 2012 Gig Review
• Stereokill Interview: 1 April 2009
• Stereokill Gig Review: King Tut's 8 March 2009
• Review of the third single and live video
• Bio and interview
• News article on base players 2009 arm break