Artist tours can’t be like a ‘two-week-long party’ where bandmates get up to movie-style antics, The Xcerts bassist Jordan Smith (second from right) tells The Great Escape.
Smith, along with the band’s singer and guitarist Murray McLeod (middle), was discussing their career so far with BBC Radio 1’s Phil Taggart (right).
He said: ‘When you start touring for the first time, you think it’s a big party and get really drunk all the time. But then you don’t eat properly, you feel terrible and you play a terrible show the next day.
He added: ‘You think of it as a two-week stag party, or what you see in the movies, but it isn’t like that and it can’t be like that if you want to be good. Some people can do it, but we learned pretty quickly that we can’t. It’s a job – we go to work.’
He made the comments on a panel alongside the band’s producer Dave Eringa and their long-time booking agent Olivia Sime from ITB Agency.
Sime added that The Xcerts’ early tours shaped what the band has become, offering a fertile training ground for every on-stage situation.
She said: ‘Doing those sorts of shows where you play in front of one man in Doncaster – and everything in between – is really important. It’s how a band like The Xcerts have crafted their performance today.’
Sime went on to explain a recent performance where the PA cut out, but McLeod grabbed an acoustic guitar and incited a sing-a-long while the issues were fixed.
Producer Eringa added: ‘These guys have done a thousand gigs and it takes that many to get that confident.’
The In Conversation panel was presented by PRS Foundation, PRS for Music and PPL to celebrate five years of the former’s Momentum Music Fund.
The Xcerts were supported by the fund to tour and release their fourth album, Hold On To Your Heart.
Smith, along with the band’s singer and guitarist Murray McLeod (middle), was discussing their career so far with BBC Radio 1’s Phil Taggart (right).
He said: ‘When you start touring for the first time, you think it’s a big party and get really drunk all the time. But then you don’t eat properly, you feel terrible and you play a terrible show the next day.
He added: ‘You think of it as a two-week stag party, or what you see in the movies, but it isn’t like that and it can’t be like that if you want to be good. Some people can do it, but we learned pretty quickly that we can’t. It’s a job – we go to work.’
He made the comments on a panel alongside the band’s producer Dave Eringa and their long-time booking agent Olivia Sime from ITB Agency.
Sime added that The Xcerts’ early tours shaped what the band has become, offering a fertile training ground for every on-stage situation.
She said: ‘Doing those sorts of shows where you play in front of one man in Doncaster – and everything in between – is really important. It’s how a band like The Xcerts have crafted their performance today.’
Sime went on to explain a recent performance where the PA cut out, but McLeod grabbed an acoustic guitar and incited a sing-a-long while the issues were fixed.
Producer Eringa added: ‘These guys have done a thousand gigs and it takes that many to get that confident.’
The In Conversation panel was presented by PRS Foundation, PRS for Music and PPL to celebrate five years of the former’s Momentum Music Fund.
The Xcerts were supported by the fund to tour and release their fourth album, Hold On To Your Heart.
