The XCERTS have marked their return with “do it to myself,” a high-octane, grunge-laden single that serves as their debut release for FLG Records. After exploring more polished pop textures on recent projects, the Aberdeen-formed trio, Murray Macleod, Jordan Smith, and Tom Heron, have pivoted back to the raw, cathartic urgency that first defined them. The track was written collaboratively in a single room, a process that captures the band’s rare 20-year creative bond and delivers a sense of immediate, shared energy. It’s a bold reintroduction for a group that remains one of the UK’s most resilient and emotionally consistent alternative acts.
The single leans into a deliberate tension, pairing bright, jagged guitar work with a vulnerable lyrical performance that explores themes of fragility and internal conflict.
Murray Macleod describes the track as a moment of self-reckoning:
There’s a desperate urgency about this song. It’s an admission of my fragility and tendency to self-sabotage when things aren’t good as they are. It’s a hard indie rock song, but the lyrics and vocal delivery are really vulnerable. That conflicting feeling was intentional – we wanted it to feel uncomfortable, honest, and human.
