Bio

Under the nom de plume Xander Harris, Justin Sweatt records his suspenseful yet playful electronic music equally indebted to '80s horror film soundtracks, Italo-disco, and darkwave. His acclaimed 2011 debut, Urban Gothic, was a low-budget approximation of a vintage horror soundtrack, evoking moments of terror while maintaining a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor. He refined his sound with ambitious full-lengths such as 2013's The New Dark Age of Love and 2018's Villains of Romance.

A veteran of various noise and shoegaze projects since the early 2000s, Sweatt adopted the Harris moniker in tribute to a character from the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer and began releasing music under the name in 2011 with the Contamination cassette. Shortly after, the Los Angeles label Not Not Fun released Harris' full-length debut, Urban Gothic, inspired by Brian Keene's novel of the same title. The album was very well received, eventually charting in FACT's Top 50 albums of the year. NNF's dance offshoot 100% Silk released a 12" single featuring an extended disco mix of the album's single "I Want More Than Just Blood." In 2012, he appeared on a split 7" single with Dylan Ettinger, released by Moon Glyph. He also released a cassette album titled Chyrsalid on Dallas label Pour Le Corps and a digital album called Snow Crash (later released on vinyl by French label Desire Records).

In 2014, Mogwai's Rock Action label released Harris' 7" single "Cry Havoc." Two years later, the label released his full-length California Chrome. Termination Dust was released by Data Airlines in 2017, followed by Villains of Romance, issued by Burning Witches in 2018. At the end of 2018, Sweatt took a brief hiatus due to personal issues.  During the hiatus, the first album under the given Sweatt name, Say Your Goodbyes, was issued on vinyl in 2019 by Austin label Night Rhythms. SFI Recordings out of Seattle have picked him up with an expected releases forthcoming.  After a long absence, Sweatt is currently working on several new Xander Harris LPs.

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