The Xcerts - 2000 Trees Interview

I think that is where that chip on the shoulder comes from, of like, you tell us I can't do something, then I'm gonna fucking do it and I hope Mr. Innes is watching this. Yeah, fuck you. Hey, this is Muddy McLeod from the excerpts, and we're at 2000 Trees Festival. This is very exciting to talking to you cause you are out of all the trees bands, and there are a few, but maybe only a handful, you're one of them, you've got some. Sing singable songs, I've seen you many times this uh over the years, what does this festival mean to you perhaps Murray? Yeah, it's, it means an awful lot to us, uh we have like such a such a history with this festival, they were kind of the first UK festival that really kind of championed our band and uh the very first time we played this festival, they put us on main stage at like midday, and I remember thinking it was like the biggest thing ever. We played to like 18 people, uh, but you know, since then they've just continued to support us and continued to uh put us on various stages, slowly but surely climbing the bill and yeah, for whatever reason. It's become a bit of like, I don't know if it's like lower, I can't say lower, I would say, but like the support at this festival for our band continues to grow and each time we play it's like. Overwhelmingly special, so, uh, yeah, I think there's a lot of like, returning customers and I think word kind of spreads that our show is a big sing-along event, so they bring all their pals, yeah, it's, it means a lot to us, yeah. Remind me of the, the song title because I mostly know it from singalong here, but new Best friend, new haircut. Aberdeen 1987. Just, just that that must have been one of my first years when I first came around 10 years ago, 2016, 201515. Um, you don't forget that. And then you're like, oh, if you don't know it like I didn't to the time, oh, I need to know this song. Otherwise I'm missing out, I'm not part of it, and this is, yeah, this is a festival that, uh, gives a lot more when you become part of it, right? For sure, I, yeah, it's very much, uh, it's all about community here, and what I love about it is that this festival. Is for music lovers, uh, you know, other festivals that we've played over the years, you kind of You're stepping over people who are passed out at midday, not interested in the music, and you know, you know, the, the focus here is on artists and that they're so good with showcasing younger talent, and, and the, the audience and the crowds are amazing at, you know, Actually being mindful of going to check out these artists, which is so important. Oh, and uh the first band every, every day we've been to the main stage is, is the main 1. Uh, 11 a.m. today and yesterday and the crowd's full. Everyone's there for it. Other festivals, people take the selfie and then wander off from the band's, that's it, but bringing it right up to date. Uh, your new album was out July 10th, I believe that was yesterday, but forgive me cause, forgive me cos we've been here four days now. Dates have days have stopped meaning anything unless it's on the gig calendar. Um, but you're playing it in full. Is that correct? Yes, it's a brave thing for any band to do, what that must mean you're confident in this material. Yes, we are confident in the material then that I think's a wonderful thing because it's just been released, so if you've been at this festival all weekend like I, we haven't heard it. So tell us about it, what, what, what makes her confident and material er and what I, what I've asked everyone this weekend is what's her favourite song on the set, for example, what do you predict is gonna be a favourite song on the set? OK, so. The reason behind playing it was just because yeah, we're immensely proud of the album, it had just come out timing wise, it seemed to make sense to play it and we want to showcase this record in full and also we kind of thought that, you know, we've played this festival so many times, if, if we just slipped in a couple of new ones and then played. You know, pulled songs from our back catalogue, it's kind of a similar show and yeah, we're something different. I've seen you a lot of times, I've seen you acoustic only in the forest, the old forest stage, right? That was one of my, one of my favourite moment you came out into the crowd then, yeah, that's right. You, you, if anyone's earned their stripes to do this, I think I think so, I think it's, I think it's good to sometimes be a bit. Selfish and but also given because otherwise there are so many songs that I love from more recent albums than my favourite bands that I know I will now never hear live. Yeah, right, you're at least given an opportunity for fans to hear all these songs live. Yeah, absolutely, and I think as well. In a, in the day and age where we're personally trying to kind of rebel against the use of AI and and stuff like that and push the conversation about human connection and human spirit. I think performing our record at a festival. is an amazing way for somebody to hear the album for the first time, because That moment isn't ever gonna happen again. That's the magic, you know, you can't get the first time again. No, exactly, and it's our first time witnessing people react to it, in real time and face to face, so, it, it feels important for us to do it to, yeah, for us to kind of. Have our, have our voice heard in being like, you know, we want to support human creativity and human connection. I couldn't agree more, I'm gonna push you for a couple of song titles cos we, we don't know, sorry, favourite song on the set, what do you foresee? Uh right now it's a song called Breathing What Was, it's kind of our finally done, we've finally taken influence from our shoegaze. Yeah, that's back in force, man, we've just actually. Come from Primave and is it My Bloody Valentine and Slow Down both on the lineup, the kids love it, and a lot of younger bands as well, like Dive and yeah. I can't believe that something like that has come back in fashion. No, I know, well My Bloody Valine like Loveless is just a timeless record, um, and I guess you know it's so cyclical like the nature of music, but it is a bit surprising that lo fi shoegaze is back, but it it's. Again, you AI would not come up with that. 100%. And it's one of those if you know, you know, and it's a real badge of honour for those people, but taking it back to perhaps nineties bands or whoever you loved growing up, I've got to ask you, what, what was your first song or riff you learned on guitar? Uh, I believe it was a Nirvana song. Yeah, I'm not 100% sure what it was, it was, it was actually something from Unplugged. Yeah, I mean, yeah, because that was their their biggest out we have to as much as Nevermind changed everything, ever so many of my, um, you know, followers have even people I've taught 1 to 1 are like Nevermind is our comforter, we'll always listen to that and I want to learn every song off that. There's a few covers on there as well to be fair, David Bowie and the Vaselines, but I remember that was kind of my first introduction to Nirvana and I was just, I mean that the footage of. The band is just mesmerising, it's so beautifully shot and er I've seen that guitar as well last year it was on, it was on display. Yeah, yeah, so I was inches from it but er no really magical and songwriting because again I've trust me, I've put my hours in with songwriting. If er you know, everyone that can't, they teach. Is, is the truth, is absolutely the truth. If I could get everyone, not even at this fair, just at any gathering of people singing along to all my lyrics louder than I sing, I would. You have that knack, I do not. When did that journey start for you? When were you like, I need to write some lyrics and come up with my own stuff? Yeah, well this is the interesting thing, it was around the time that I saw Nirvana Unplugged, so that's we had um. This old beat up kind of small scale uh Spanish acoustic in the house. It was so, it was nylon string, nylon string that's where they gave those guitars away with cornflakes in the 80s, yeah, 80s and 90s. So, um, I saw that and basically from the off I, I started writing my own music. So kind of almost one of the first things I ever played was a song that I wrote that was ripping off a Nirvana Unplugged type song. And yeah, I, I kind of didn't really, I got into tabs and stuff like that to learn basic like Offspring songs and stuff like that, but really from the off, I don't know why I was interested in writing my own music, so yeah, um, which is, yeah, kind of not normal when you're like, I think I was like 11. Yeah, at that age you start to think that, but it's not often encouraging schools, especially in Scotland or the north of England, if you think you're going to be the front man of a band and a songwriter, everyone's like, yeah, unless you're football or rugby or something, it's the same as the north east of Scotland, yeah. Often people are like, we don't want to, we we're not going to pick that up. Totally. But but that does lead to resilience, which is what you need as as a songwriter and a band, right? Absolutely, yeah, well that's the thing, we, we have this enormous chip on our shoulder. Not entirely sure where it comes from, but I, I, I think we've had conversations recently about the fact that in school. There was no support, and it was, it was seemed, it was almost kind of like. A joke, the kids wanted to play which is awful, but we we we often grew up with these films where you know the American dream of it where the, you know, the, the kid comes up and plays his song and the whole crowd goes wild and it's his dream come true. That did not happen for us in school, we literally had to, you know, you make it yourself, you make it afterwards, you make it outside of it. That's it, it's not a career. There is no music is not a career and. Yeah, I was here we are, yeah, exactly, so I think that is where that chip on the shoulder comes from of like. You tell us I can't do something then I'm gonna fucking do it and I hope Mr. Innes is watching this. Yeah, fuck you. That's fair play man. I do wanna ask you, what do you think's changed in your songwriting, cos you've definitely have different um, you know, it's like Feels like Falling in Love and stuff like that and and the first couple of albums you've, it seems like a slightly different result, so there must have been a different approach. What are you doing different on this album? er on this one, you know, we kind of wanted to get back to. The feeling the the the collective feeling we had when we were like 17. When all we did was write with purity, and we wanted to get back to that place without the the baggage of somebody chirpsing and saying, well, you did this, maybe your career could go this way, you know, none of that, so we just, just got in a room together and we were like, let's just turn the amps up and whatever comes out, comes out and let's not go against the grain of what we would do. Let's lean into everything that feels comfortable for us because yeah, it was time to kind of recapture. Like the defining sound of our band, and er yeah, it it took some time to get there but that was the approach on this one, just, let's have fun, this is fun, let's be fucking kids again, but you know right from an adult perspective. Absolutely, and speaking of gear, is there one bit of gear that, Uh, the excerpts as a whole couldn't live without you, you mentioned an amp there, you know, it, it, it could be a 10 pound pedal that just is amazing, something you press record. I mean, is it one bit of gear you can't live without. Oh, what comes to mind? I mean, the obvious answer is a boss tuner. Yeah, yeah, oh, underrated, underrated. I know a lot of bands still have the Boss to you too. They don't break. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's 20 years old, 25 at the end. The boss, boss, the world, the land will be filled with boss tuners. Um, so honestly like I, I, I couldn't, you know, I could live without it, it's, it's the most creative but correct that, there's no wrong answer there and that is true. This is I've got the TU3. This, this is a fun one, so I just got the new boss Polly shift. OK, and so, yes, and they've, that's one if, if not the most accurate, uh down tuner, de tuner, yeah yeah yeah whammy pedal. Yes, I, I basically, I'm very much a capo user. I've always been a capo user and find the romanticism in. You know, putting the cap on, the whole thing going out of tune, and you know, quickly I'm a fan of so many bands at this festival, but I'm like when I jam along to their songs I'm like I'd capo everything and they're like recorded everything or like that's what you know, maybe that's songwriter probably because you have to find your key for your voice and you're like I've got this little thing, let's try it here. Such a big tip for any aspiring, you know, people wanna sing, they're not used to capo 100 capo hunting I call it, that's great, you're literally trying to find your key cos you change, it's not the same key every time, it depends on the melody. Exactly, and then, uh, especially with like, what you can do with the open, open strings, uh, it can like the amount of times I've written a song and thought. It's a bit, it's a bit deadheadish or dull, and then as soon as I've, I've, you know, redo it with a cap on in a, in a, a different placement, it just completely opens the doors. But the polish of pedal, I've, I've had to get one because our new record has too many different tunings. Yes, and you'd be swapping guitars. I don't have enough guitars, honestly, so it would be too much for the tech as well. Exactly, well we don't have one, so this is another reason because of the music industry, we can't afford one. So, um, well there you go, it's not because of the music industry, it's because we haven't written it. Hi. So you know I mean yeah you've, you've got the longevity of hits they count. It is the um I think you have more than 1000 true fans, I'll be honest, but the 1000 true fans who'll buy the album, buy the vinyl, buy the, that that's what actually makes it much more than having a hit and then the transient pop on 100%. I agree. So fair play, it's been wonderful to talk to you Marty, thank you so much for talking to you. Uh I'm looking forward to checking out the new album properly and uh I wish you guys all the best. You're not only a trees band, you know, you know, you guys are around Brighton these days and we'd er just enjoyed your music over the years so much. You've given so much more than you've ever taken for something like this, so thank you so much for that appreciate it. Thank you so much. Excerpts, check them out.