How did your tour go with Frank Turner? As your music is slightly different to Franks was it ever weird opening for him? We are currently on tour with Frank and all is good. European crowds are very open minded about music. European crowds just enjoy live music whether you sound similar to the other bands on the bill or not. It would appear once people get over the initial shock that we are a rock band and are very loud, they really get into it.
2011 has clearly been an amazing year for you guys, so at this point can you give us one or two of your personal highlights from the year? Like i said earlier our tour with Manchester Orchestra was a definite highlight of the year. Playing with Biffy Clyro at the Royal Albert Hall was incredibly surreal/mind blowing. T In The Park was also a huge milestone for our band. We were playing on one of the smaller stages and i don't think any of us could have predicted how many people showed up. From the get go the people in the crowd lost their minds, it was a really fantastic moment. We've had quite the year and we are exceedingly thankful for the opportunities we have been given. A huge thankyou to everyone that has continued to support us.
You just recently released an EP for Slackerpop which also features four alternative versions of tracks that you have already done, can you tell us what these alternative versions are like, and how fun were they to re-record? They definitely showcase the more delicate side of our band which we like to present to people. 'Scatterbrain' is a very intense and noisy record so hopefully people will enjoy hearing a few of those songs in a gentler form. We re-recorded those songs with our good friend Paul Steel and i think we spent 2 days recording. We drank too much coffee and watched too many stupid videos on Youtube. Very relaxed, very fun.
How excited are you for your upcoming tour with Brand New and I Am the Avalanche, and what should attending fans expect? I can't even comment because the news hasn't sunk in yet. We may play a new song on that tour and you can expect us to make a whole heap of noise for 30 minutes. Business as usual.
You guys are also doing a headline tour in January with support from Flood of Red, how excited are you for this? Very psyched. We haven't done a headline tour in a long time so it will be nice to play to our own crowds and play for longer than 30 minutes. The fact we are going out with our good friends in Flood Of Red is truly wonderful. They helped us out a lot when we first started touring so it's great that after all these years we are continuing to play shows together.
Have you guys started work on any new material just yet? If so how is it coming along? We have indeed. We are being very militant with the new material which wasn't the original plan but we just want to make sure we write the best record we can. We are really honing in on our songwriting capabilities whilst trying new things. We are exceedingly excited with what we have written so far.
What do you want 2012 to do for The Xcerts? I mean, we are starting the year with a headline tour which is looking set to be great and then we go to Europe with I Am The Avalanche and then join Brand New on tour throughout the UK. 2012 is looking pretty incredible and that's only the first 2 months of the year. Hopefully we will keep growing as a band musically and in stature. We would very much like to be playing bigger venues by ourselves this time next year. We will continue to work hard and just hope that what we do connects with people on a larger scale.