The Xcerts (stylised as The XCERTS) are a Scottish alternative rock band, originally formed in Aberdeen, Scotland in 2001. They have released four studio albums, with their latest being Learning How to Live and Let Go (2023).
Biography
The Xcerts were originally formed by 13-year-olds Murray Macleod and Jordan Smith after meeting in the headmasters room at Robert Gordon's College 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, England 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.
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.
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.
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 Xcerts' third album There Is Only You was released on 3 November 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.
In 2017, The Xcerts appeared at a number of festivals, 2000 Trees (Cheltenham), Reading, 2Q (Lincoln) and Neighbourhood (Manchester) included.
The band released the songs "Feels Like Falling in Love", "Hold On To Your Heart" and "Daydream" in 2017 and "Drive Me Wild" in January 2018, all taken from their fourth studio album Hold On To Your Heart, which was released on 19 January 2018.[6]
To support the release of Hold On To Your Heart, a short run of intimate instore shows were announced across Scotland and in Kington, London for January 2018. These shows were in a break in the Nothing But Thieves European tour, for which The Xcerts were the main support (with Airways as the opener). Shortly after this, they embarked on their 12 date UK and Ireland tour, also with Airways as support) across February and March 2018. The Cardiff show was later postponed to April due to severe weather.
In late April and May, the band set out on their first European headline tour. They also appeared at Live at Leeds, 2000 Trees and Reading festivals in the summer.
The band have been announced to support Biffy Clyro and You Me At Six later in 2018.
On 15 January 2021, the band released their covers EP So No One Told You Life Was Gonna Be This Way.[7][8]
Cover art
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. All three members feature on the cover of their fourth album, Hold On To Your Heart.
"Kick It" taken from the album There Is Only You is played at halftime during home matches for the band's hometown football team, Aberdeen FC.
