High Hopes: Xander and the Peace Pirates

Meet Stu and Keith, AKA Xander and the Peace Pirates, a pair of guitarists operating at the sharp end of soul, blues and rock. Despite being a new name to many, they've already shared space onstage with rock glitterati like Buddy Guy, Bon Jovi, Vintage Trouble, The Temperance Movement, Eric Bibb and The Fabulous Thunderbirds.

Xander and the Peace Pirates are also the resident band at a little club in Liverpool called The Cavern, which has something of a history where it comes to launching careers.

We tracked them down to ask a few testing questions.

Where are you from? Liverpool but originally from London and Essex

How did you meet? We’re brothers, so it’s our mum’s fault

What do you sound like? Like the sound of disaffected planet singing in harmony against the global elite with a bluesy, soulful rock ‘n roll vibe

Where will you be in five years? We’ll be headlining Glastonbury (amongst many other festivals), running our own artist-led label, and dominating the charts while telling Jay Z to do one when he begs us to work with him!

Tell us a joke: Why are the Peace Pirates called the Peace Pirates? ‘Cause they arrrrrrrrrghh!

**Tell us something about the band you’ve never told anyone else: **Keith’s favourite singer is Michael Bolton and we were formed when we became aware that the world was ruled by shape shifting inter dimensional reptiles.

Xander and the Peace Pirates - Fire Session

Like what you hear? The band are currently raising funds to record an EP with Eddie Kramer (yes, that Eddie Kramer) in Los Angeles. The details are at Pledge Music.

Fraser Lewry

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 38 years in music industry, online for 25. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.