Speaking to Murray Macleod about the journey he's had the past couple of year, it helps explain why the three singles The Xcerts have released from their upcoming album have been soaked in happy-go-lucky love-lust. "It's been hard on the heart", he recalls. The aptly named 'Hold On To Your Heart' is due out at the start of 2018 and after their haunting previous album, 'There Is Only You', the Brighton-based nostalgia lovers are bringing out the hopeless romanticism in our cold, worn hearts.

Speaking over the phone only a few days before they head out on tour with Nothing But Thieves through Europe, Murray is trying to keep his feet on the ground after coming off the most successful headline tour the band have ever embarked on. “Our biggest headline show to date was in Glasgow, and we sold that out. Then we played London and we almost sold out a 1,100 capacity room. That whole tour felt like this is all definitely happening. It was nice not to worry about ticket sales.”

After the undeniable success of ‘There Is Only You’, you’d think the band would be expected to fill out rooms like Scala with no problem, but The Xcerts’ trajectory has been opposed by an industry refusing to accommodate a band trying to retain total control.

The band’s debut, ‘In The Cold Wind We Smile’, saw a homegrown attempt at arena songs inspired by the romantic mundanity of small-town coming of age and was met with a positive response. The follow up to this was ‘Scatterbrain’, described by the band as a ‘Marmite record’. Twisted and cold, the album confused fans and labels who struggled to pigeonhole the band. “While touring ‘In The Cold Wind We Smile’, we never played big venues so that affected our songwriting. Then when we got bigger slots, we started to see that certain songs didn’t carry in these big rooms. ‘There Is Only You’, was a slight reaction to that. I feel like somewhere within us we were asking ourselves what works in the big rooms? Because that’s where we want to be.”

“We’re a really organic band, we’re not calculated people. We’re full of fire and hunger and vision. We wrote those songs for ‘Scatterbrain’ because those are the songs that were in us at the time. I hear so much trivial stuff from bands. To me, rock and roll isn’t rocket science. You write the songs, you record them and make them as great as possible. Records are a snapshot in time and of course, we’re proud of ‘Scatterbrain’. Every song we’ve ever written has led to where we are now.”

The five-year relationship that fell apart during the making of ‘There Is Only You’ turned the record into a hopeless love letter to a dark and difficult time. The events that followed tested Murray’s perseverance and strength to create the band’s most focused record yet.

“‘Hold On To Your Heart’ was actually formed from a way darker time than ‘There Is Only You’. Basically, we had to make this album. For the longest time, going into the practice room with my boys was my safe space – a place to have and create. It’s where I’d completely forget the outside. Obviously, halfway through the making of ‘There Is Only You’ my five-year relationship ended. During the months after the record, I lost my grandmother and one of my best friends.”

The death of ex-Architects guitarist Tom Searle after a long battle with melanoma in August 2016 left Murray at a loss. The two had gone to college together and stayed close friends through the success of both bands. Murray paid his respects by covering ‘Gone With the Wind‘ to raise money for Martlet’s Hospice where Tom was cared for. “It was a deep depression that I’ve never had to deal with before in my life.” Murray continues, trying to maintain a positive tone. “I was completely miserable in my day-to-day. I just wasn’t living, I wasn’t a human being, I was like a shell. So, I was now walking to the practice room miserable, playing miserable and leaving miserable. I just wrote miserable songs and it was horrible. It affected practice too. I was being horrible to the guys, I was treating them really badly, just trying to find a scapegoat for all this anger and confusion that I was dealing with. Basically, I was in this tiny flat, covered in mold and just surrounded myself with darkness. I was getting smothered with love from all angles and it just made me realise I had to force myself out of this position.”

The result of the arduous torture is an album motivated entirely by the dominating fear that comes from knowing how the darkest days almost stopped you. “The first song that we made for this record to make us realise exactly where we needed to be was ‘Daydream’. We just had to make an uplifting record full of love and positivity. There’s definitely dark stuff on there – depression, darkness and grief. But I wanted to make a record that made people feel invigorated and freeing. It’s a record that made me just want to put my headphones on and run, I didn’t know where, but I just wanted to live my life.”

This runaway romantic theme that’s synonymous with iconic musical moments from the ’80s is pumped right into the record’s heart and has lead to songs like ‘Drive Me Wild’ and ‘Cry’; Bruce Springsteen inspired numbers filled with a soulful brass section bringing a hint of blues to an otherwise pop-inspired record. The record has the power to sound like ‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)’ in one instance, and ‘Jessie’s Girl’ the next. “That’s the exact point of the record,” explains Murray. “With a record, I normally think we have to be so dark. I feel like I need to exercise the darkest parts of me to be a happy person. That’s how we’ve always been, but that’s not a reflection of real life. It’s dark and it’s light, it’s up and it’s down. We wanted to make a record that showed that life is beautiful, but it’s really terrifying.”

A lot of fans will have fallen in love with the gut-wrenching sadness lurking within ‘There Is Only You’ and in many ways, ‘Hold On To Your Heart’ is the band’s second chance at a sophomore record, so why would the band choose to move away from this? Again it comes down to maturing as a band and as people, without external influences.

“That’s the weird thing with ‘There Is Only You’. Halfway through the campaign we saw this sudden shift. So many more people came on board. It was either a blessing or a curse, I can’t figure out which one”, Murray states through nervous laughter. “Our campaign seemed quite confusing to people on the outside. We thought to ourselves: “well, we have to play every show we possibly can now because there’re so many more people coming out to see us.” The other thing was that we’d never just had a simple time with a label. With ‘There Is Only You’ there was a huge amount of uncertainty as to the release date. Nobody wanted to touch us. I think after ‘Scatterbrain’ people were put off. Our management company set up a label in order to release ‘There Is Only You’, it was that bad. Then, the label got picked up by The Orchard, which used to be Sony RED, so it’s now an imprint of that. So this was the first time we’ve had a team behind us and helps explain why things have taken a bit longer.”

Despite support from Radio 1’s Fearne Cotton for the single ‘Shaking In The Water’, it was the end of ‘There Is Only You’ that’s responsible for this second wave of fans. The title track and final song on the album was the most mature offering the band had created at that point. A layered symphony crescendos from a soft ballad on a piano to an orchestra of electricity as Murray screams like a tortured soul through distorted guitars. “I think that might be one of my favourites we’ve ever done. We’re all really proud of that song. It’s just interesting because we’re told regularly that nobody listens to records as a whole and that it’s all about the singles. But that’s the last song on the record so it seems like people are actually getting the whole way through.”

‘Hold On To Your Heart’ picks right up where ‘There Is Only You’ left things with the album’s introduction track, ‘The Dark’. “‘The Dark’ was meant to be a foreword to the rest of the record because it doesn’t quite match the tone. We have had an intro track on every record but then we clocked that it had some weight to it. We just said to ourselves “This should be a song”, so we fleshed it out.” The ominous sound of lacklustre piano and offbeat vocal melody make the song sound like the confessions of a lonely man at the end of a long night’s drinking, building towards the frustration and depression Murray had described to me as the song comes to an end, repeating the line “Tell me when the worst is over,” as he sinks back into the comfort of the dark.

“‘There Is Only You’ ends with that piano, it made so much sense. I mean, that title-track was a declaration to my partner at the time, saying I’ve been through all of this but there is only you. For me, the meaning of it has completely changed. It was meant to be this uplifting thing, but you know what? That didn’t work out and things got bad. ‘Daydream’ is my way of saying, “Look how great it can be.”

‘Hold On To Your Heart’ is released January 19 2018.

You can pre-order bundles for ‘Hold On To your Heart’ right here.

You can get tickets for their UK tour here.