Sitting in a small room with a beer and the faint sound of Vistas sound-checking in the background, I was lucky enough to be chatting with The XCERTS before their sold out SWG3 show.
“It is great to be able to come back and play a weekend of shows in Scotland!” exclaimed front man Murray. “It is always comforting and feels homely to be back in Glasgow. So yeah, psyched”
Having just finished touring arenas with Busted, it has already been a pretty mental 2019 for the band. Arenas definitely differ from smaller gigs in a number of ways. Murray explained how he personally found the massive change.
“It is really bizarre. I didn't realise how lonely an arena can be. You can’t see anything, it is kinda like a vortex. You can hear them but you can’t see them. There's also the playing element like everything has to be so precise. In an arena, you can’t randomly thrash out or do a random solo. Everything is timed to perfection.”
Tom, The XCERTS drummer, then went on to explain the after-effects of coming off a touring that big, and how it felt jumping into the normal, small gig setting.
“We went straight from Wembley Arena to play Leeds Key Club the day after. Don’t get me wrong it was a great show but on that tour, we had dressing rooms the same size as that venue. The cool thing was that in the front row there was a couple of guys with Busted t-shirts on, so in some way, it all worked out.”
After the release of their incredible album Hold on To Your Heart in 2018, these shows were a sort-of send off. Having toured all over the UK and Europe for a couple of years promoting the album, what is next for The XCERTS?
“We are gonna try and write two new records I think” explained Murray. “We also have the 10 year anniversary of In The Cold Wind We Smile (the band's first album) coming up so we have to nod to that I think. We are definitely going to tour that album, do six or seven shows and see what the demand is.”
Guitar music has been on a slow decline for a while, whether you like it or not. The charts rarely feature any sort of “rock” band and festivals are totally changing up their lineups to cater to what people listen to. What do The XCERTS want to do to get guitar music back in the mainstream?
“We aren’t going to do anything. We are ditching the guitars, getting face tattoos and starting a SoundCloud! Seriously though, I think it is just a case that guitar bands have to think a little, whereas for generations they didn’t really have to. Now as well other genres aren’t looking towards guitar bands for inspiration it’s the guitar bands looking elsewhere for new ideas. It is adapt or perish, to put it bluntly.”