We Are Scientists is a New York City-based indie rock band that formed in Berkeley, California, in 2000. It consists of guitarist and vocalist Keith Murray and bass guitarist Chris Cain.

The band’s breakthrough success came with their first studio album, With Love and Squalor, which sold 100,000 copies in the first six months. Their second album, Brain Thrust Mastery, charted at number 11 in the UK album chart, with two top-40 singles, “After Hours” and “Chick Lit”. Album three, Barbara, was released in June 2010. Their fourth album, TV en Français, was released on March 3, 2014, and returned them to the UK top-40. Their fifth album Helter Seltzer was released on April 22, 2016.

They have also starred in their own series of comedic television shorts, Steve Wants His Money, made for MTV UK in 2009.

Table of Contents

History

Formation and Safety, Fun, and Learning (2000–2004)

We Are Scientists members Keith Murray and Chris Cain met in 1997 at Pomona College, in Claremont, CA, but initially enjoyed a friendship based on attending stand-up comedy. In early 2000, after graduating and moving to Berkeley, CA, they hatched the idea for the band. Their roommate and fellow Pomona College alum Scott Lamb was a co-founder, and the original guitarist for the band. Keith was on drums, though he also sang roughly half the songs, not unlike Phil Collins in Genesis. Keith and Chris moved back to the L.A. area in late 2000 (without Scott) and recruited drummer Michael Tapper, whom they’d known during their time at Pomona, and who was in his last year at adjoining Harvey Mudd College. In 1999 the members moved to Berkeley, California for a short period of time, becoming We Are Scientists full-time, a name which the band have stated a number of origins for, most notably the song “We are Scientists!” from the pivotal ’90s band Cap’n Jazz. They have also given the following story: they rented a truck from U-Haul. When they returned it, the inspector, after looking them up and down and assessing their wardrobe, asked if they were scientists.

The band moved to Brooklyn, New York in 2001 and began recording their debut album on November 10, 2001. The band finished recording in January 2002, completing 12 tracks – two of which credit former member Scott Lamb. The album’s title was announced on March 14, 2002 on the band’s official website as Safety, Fun, and Learning (In That Order) for release in April 2002 through the band’s own label, Devious Semantics. Due to issues with setting up their own label, it wasn’t until June that the band were able to release the record. The summer saw them reunite with original vocalist Scott Lamb. In October after several months of performing in California and New York, amongst other places the band recorded their first EP, available originally only at live shows Bitching! was released on October 14, 2002, and featured 6 tracks. Later Bitching! was made available online on January 16, 2003. In March 2003 the band announced they would be heading to the recording studio with Paolo DeGregorio on April 1 to record a second EP; In Action, which was released through MotherWest records in October 2003, featuring 6 tracks.

A year after recording In Action the band headed once more to the recording studio with Los Angeles-based producer Chris Fudurich, where they recorded rough versions of “The Great Escape”, “Scene Is Dead” and “This Means War”, which would make up half of the band’s final independently released EP The Wolf’s Hour, other tracks included “Callbacks Under The Sea”, “Inaction” and “Nobody Move, Nobody Gets Hurt”. The EP was released on November 26, 2004.

With Love and Squalor and breakthrough success (2005–2006)

On January 11, 2005 the band began the recording of their second full-length album in Los Angeles with Ariel Rechtshaid and engineering from Rob Brill. The band ended their time in the studio on February 23, throughout their time in the studio the band posted blogs on their official website, many of which told of a cat called Lewis, which would later be used on the album’s artwork. Having recorded the album, the band decided to sign to Virgin Records to handle to release. On May 15, 2005, the first single from the album was aired in the UK, “Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt”, this came after a number of dates in the UK with Editors. “Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt” was released later on June 27 at the same time as their own headline Summer 2005 UK tour.

In July the band shot a music video for their second single, “The Great Escape”, as well as appearing on MTV2 for the first time to plug their upcoming release. The band also appeared on at Reading and Leeds Festivals for the first time, performing on the Carling Stage, and later the band released the album With Love and Squalor in the United Kingdom on October 17, 2005 celebrating with an album signing session and intimate gig in London’s Selectdisc on Berwick Street.

In December 2005 the band made their U.S. Network television debut on the Late Show with David Letterman where they performed “Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt”, as well as announcing the release of their second album, With Love and Squalor which would be released on January 10, 2006, although in January the band would be in the United Kingdom on the NME Shockwaves Tour with Mystery Jets, Arctic Monkeys and Maxïmo Park, before embarking on their own headline tour in April and releasing “Its a Hit” on February 20 and re-releasing “Nobody Move, Nobody Gets Hurt” on May 3. In September a co-headline tour across the USA with Art Brut and a new split single with Art Brut covering W.A.S single “The Great Escape” and in-turn We Are Scientists covering Art Brut’s “Bang Bang Rock & Roll”. With their ongoing success in the United Kingdom the band embarked on another full 15 date tour, with two nights at Brixton Academy in London due to demand, it was on this tour that the band released Crap Attack, a compilation album of b-sides and covers, as well as a DVD featuring music videos for all of the tracks on With Love and Squalor and live performances.

Departure of Michael Tapper and Brain Thrust Mastery (2007–2009)

In January 2007 Murray announced that he had begun working on the band’s follow-up to With Love and Squalor in Brooklyn, New York, previewing “Impatience” and “Spoken For” later that month. During a UK tour that February they debuted the songs “Dinosaurs”, “Chick Lit” and “Best Behavior”. Recording of the new album began on June 11 in California with Ariel Rechtshaid and ended on July 19. That August the band made their second appearance at the Reading and Leeds Festivals, performing on the Radio One Stage.

September 2007 saw the band hire Max Hart as an additional guitarist and keyboard player for live performances. The addition of Hart was to fit the larger arrangements of new material. Days before the tour was due to start, drummer Michael Tapper quit the band. Gary Powell and Adam Aaronson took over from Tapper for the remainder of the tour. For eight of their November tour dates the band acted as their own support act, conducting “self-improvement seminars” under the name Brain Thrust Mastery.

After Virgin merged in 2007, the band were now signed to EMI. Murray stated that the band had to deal with a lot of bureaucracy recording the new album, with EMI unhappy that they were working with producer Ariel Rechtshaid; who at the time was relatively unknown. EMI instead tried setting the band up with various “cheesy, cheesy, big producers who we didn’t like at all”. Ultimately, against their labels wishes the band did record with Rechtshaid and in March 2008 the band announced that Brain Thrust Mastery would also be the name of their new album. Garrett Ray handled drum duties for the album. The first single from the record, “After Hours”, was to be released on March 3 in the UK. The album was previewed a week before its UK release on NME.com. It came out in the United States on May 13.

“Chick Lit” was released as the second single from Brain Thrust Mastery on June 9, coinciding with performances at The Great Escape Festival, Oxegen Festival Glastonbury Festival, T in the Park and Reading and Leeds on the main stage, and a consequent North American tour in July. In the latter part of 2008 the band toured the US as support to Kings of Leon in the USA. “Impatience” was the final single from the album, released on October 27.

Barbara (2010–2011)

Having worked with a number of different drummers since Michael Tapper’s departure in 2007, the band announced that Andy Burrows would be joining them for recording and touring. The band had originally intended on using a succession of drummers on their fourth album; however after Burrows left his band Razorlight, they decided to purely use Burrows. In February 2010 they announced that their new record would be titled Barbara and would be released on June 14, 2010. This would also be the first release through the band’s own label, Master Swan Recordings, with distribution handled by PIAS Recordings.

Burrows made his live debut with the band at a surprise NME awards show at Camden Barfly on February 21, 2010. Demonstrating the more stripped-back guitar-centric sound of Barbara, the band were now performing predominately as a three-piece, without Max Hart, although Hart amongst other musicians would occasionally feature at live shows for performances of “After Hours”. As Burrows was involved in a number of other projects, the band hired Danny Allen to perform and tour with them, with Allen occasionally handling keyboards at shows where Burrows was drumming. The band released their first single from Barbara on April 5, 2010, titled “Rules Don’t Stop”, which peaked at number 14 in the UK Singles Chart. A second single “Nice Guys” was released on June 7, the week before the release of album Barbara. The band would make appearances at a number of major festivals that summer, including T in the Park, Glastonbury Festival and Reading and Leeds Festivals. Days after the album release on June 10, 2010, the band released their World Cup Anthem “Goal! England!” in support of the England national team’s campaign in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

In August 2010, We Are Scientists and Ash notably co-headlined two show in Australia as well as performing at Splendour in the Grass in Woodford, Queensland. At their two co-headline shows the bands came together to form WASH; performing a number of covers together as an encore set. A year later the two bands came together again to release a cover of a track called “Washington Parks” by Robert Manning. The track was covered to help raise money for Multiple Sclerosis Society. The final single to be taken from Barbara was “I Don’t Bite” which was released on October 11, 2010.

Business Casual and TV en Français (2011-2014)

A new album was first teased by the band at The Isle of Weight Festival 2011, where Murray suggested the band would be recording in Autumn that year. It was in 2012 that the band actually began recording new material, working with producer Chris Coady in New York City, where both Keith Murray & Chris Cain reside. The band worked in a number of New York studios, predominately The Magic Shop, DNA Studio and Ash’s home studio Atomic Heart. In December 2012 that drummer Andy Burrows confirmed that they had finished work on their new album, with intent to release in early 2013.

Due to the fact the band had recorded without a record label, and had also fired their management after Barbara, the band then spent a lot of 2013 label shopping and looking for new management. Realising they would be unable to put the album out that year, the band released a two-track single featuring the songs “Something About You” and “Let Me Win”. The single was released through their own record label Master Swan Records and Neon Gold Records on July 16. New material was further previewed across a string of UK tour dates in July. Eventually the band signed to release the finished album with 100% Records, putting out a teaser EP titled Business Casual on October 14, 2013. The EP includes lead singles “Return the Favor” and “Dumb Luck” along with album off cut “Good Answer”, a demo of new track “Courage” and a cover of Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away” – which features occasional scientist Max Hart on pedal-steel guitar. Andy Burrows had recorded drums for the album and subsequent EP and singles, but by the time the band were eventually able to release and tour Burrows was busy with his solo-career. This led to Keith Carne taking over the majority of live commitments, with Burrows stepping in for occasional dates, depending on his availability.

In January 2014, the band announced that the album would finally be released on March 3, 2014 through 100% Records and would be titled TV en Français. Accompanying the album announcement was the music video for new single “Dumb Luck”. Soon after the announcement the band revealed another new track titled “Make it Easy”, which was made available to download to those who pre-ordered the album. The band appeared for a third time on The Late Show with David Letterman on May 21, 2015, performing single “Make It Easy”.

In support of their co-headline tour with Surfer Blood, the band recorded a new track titled “Distillery” which would accompany a new Surfer Blood track on a split-single, available at shows on the tour.

As part of Record Store Day 2015 the band would release TV en Français, Sous la Mer through Dine Alone Records. TV en Français, Under the Sea would feature eight reworked tracks from TV en Français, with a stripped back arrangement. The reworked version “Overreacting” was released as a music video on 8 April 2015.

Helter Seltzer (2015-present)

From around April 2015 the band have been recording new material with “occasional-scientist” Max Hart. In November 2015, the band announced that they would be playing Handmade Festival in Leicester and Live at Leeds (festival), both in April 2016.

The band’s fifth studio album, Helter Seltzer, was released on April 22, 2016. Subsequently, music videos for Buckle, Too Late, Classic Love (which was animated by lead singer Keith Murray), and In My Head were released to promote the album.

The band later appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on June 30, 2016, performing their lead single “Buckle”.

Style and performance

Keith Murray has cited the influence of such performers as The Rapture and David Bowie on their debut album. The band has noted that tracks on With Love and Squalor were largely written to be performed live, whilst Brain Thrust Mastery was a more specifically studio effort. Older influences include Brian Eno, Velvet Underground, My Bloody Valentine and David Bowie’s Berlin era as well as Hall & Oates and Fleetwood Mac.

Murray and Cain are known for incorporating comedy into their live performances, music videos and when giving interviews. Their live and interview “banter” is always off-the-cuff, with Murray insisting that the thought of ever rehearsing or reusing material makes him “cringe”.

The band come up with all of their music video concepts themselves, with the exception of “I Don’t Bite” which was conceived by their friend Dan Monick. Earlier in the band’s career they frequently collaborated with Akiva Schaffer of The Lonely Island.

Steve Wants His Money

Steve Wants His Money is a 7 episode series of television shorts, created by Keith Murray and Chris Cain. The series premiered on October 25, 2009 during the Lil MTV program on MTV UK and was created with MTV production company Ja Digital. The episodes were made available to watch on MTV.co.uk on November 18, 2009. Murray and Cain have stated that a second series is likely.

The series focuses around We Are Scientists owing an American man Steve money and consequently running away to England where they attempt to sell off various marketing ideas to musicians, journalists, music DJs and promoters.

Members

Timeline

Discography

• Safety, Fun and Learning (In That Order) (2002)
• With Love and Squalor (2006)
• Brain Thrust Mastery (2008)
• Barbara (2010)
• TV en Français (2014)
• Helter Seltzer (2016)