WINNER'S of Zane Lowe's Fresh Meat, bigged-up by radio jocks Colin Murray and Steve Lamacq, and about to go into the studio to record their first album with Dave Eringa (Manic Street Preachers, Idlewild), these are exciting times for young trio The Xcerts.
It all started seven years ago in the headmaster's office of a school in Aberdeen.
Murray MacLeod and Jordan Smith, both 13 years old, met for the first time. MacLeod was so impressed by the size of the file that held Smith's school records that h
e asked this apparent badass whether he could play bass guitar. The answer was a resounding yes.
The fact that Smith couldn't actually play bass mattered not – he knew he had to join this band with Smith and made sure he got one for Christmas that year. And so The Xcerts were formed.
They picked up the third member, Tom Heron, at the start of 2006 in Brighton when their former drummer quit the band.
"It had got to the point when we had to decide if we were going to take it seriously or not," explains MacLeod, whose band come to Cabaret Voltaire on Wednesday.
"We'd been playing around Aberdeen for a couple of years, and it really was all or nothing at that point.
"It was either use our grades and go to university and pack in the band, or see how far we could take it," he adds. "The music scene in Aberdeen is pretty good, but why would an A&R man go anywhere past Glasgow? Or anywhere past London for that matter?"
So they packed their instruments and left the Granite City behind. "Having decided to take the band seriously, we moved to Brighton because we didn't really fancy going to London," says MacLeod. "In that time our original drummer had left the band, but we met Tom through friends in Brighton and he joined us."
The decision to uproot seems to have been a wise one. As well as all the plaudits they've had heaped upon them from influential Radio One DJs, the band have had a barrage of high-profile support slots with the likes of Bat For Lashes, Biffy Clyro, Make Model, Cage the Elephant and Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly!
"We had the novelty of getting riders for the first time on our last tour," says Smith, who explains the band are not the party animals some have them pegged as. "There was free food and booze and you tend to run with it and go too far by getting drunk every night. But the novelty wears off after a couple of shows by which point you're feeling like s*** and you're playing like s*** and it's absolutely not worth it.
"We're not exactly librarians," he quickly points out. "We do like to go to aftershows, as long as there's free wine and books."
The Xcerts take playing live seriously and are keen to give a good account of themselves when they return to Edinburgh next week, having gone down a storm here when they opened for Sam Duckworth's Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly! at the Liquid Room in February.
"It was quite hard to get people along to gigs when played in Edinburgh in the past," says MacLeod, "But I think this one is going to be a lot busier because our name is out there now.
"We're confident people will enjoy seeing us - we think we are pretty damn good live," he adds.
With their combination of striking pop songs and ferocious live energy, The Xcerts could become your new favourite band when their anticipated debut album is released next year. So jump on the bandwagon early.
• The Xcerts, Cabaret Voltaire, Blair Street, Wednesday, 7pm, £6, 0131-220 6176The full article contains 638 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
