We Are Scientists is a New York City-based rock band that formed in Berkeley, California, in 1999. It consists primarily of guitarist and vocalist Keith Murray and bass guitarist Chris Cain, with drummer Keith Carne joining the band in the studio and for live performances since 2013.
The band has released eight studio albums, not including their early release Safety, Fun, and Learning (In That Order), which the band has gone on to describe as more of a rough draft, than a proper album. The band's breakthrough success came with their debut studio album, With Love and Squalor, which sold 100,000 copies in the first six months. This was followed by the releases of Brain Thrust Mastery in 2008, Barbara in 2010, TV en Français in 2014, Helter Seltzer in 2016, Megaplex in 2018, Huffy in 2021, Lobes in 2023, and Qualifying Miles in 2025.
As well as music, Murray and Cain are known for their comedy, often injecting humor into their interviews, press-releases and off-the-cuff jokes at their live shows. This has been carried over as part of producing many of their own music video treatments and their 2009 series of television shorts Steve Wants His Money made for MTV, as well as a podcast series titled Dumpster Dive in 2020.
History
1999–2004: Formation and Safety, Fun, and Learning
Keith Murray and Chris Cain met in 1997 whilst attending Pomona College in Claremont, California. Murray had just transferred to Pomona and Cain was holding a Dawson's Creek viewing party and bonded over a mutual love of stand-up comedy, film and television. In late 1999, after graduating and moving to Berkeley, California, they hatched the idea for the band. Murray and Cain, along with their roommate, Scott Lamb, a fellow alum from Pomona College, cofounded the group. Lamb originally played guitar and provided vocals, whilst Cain played bass and Murray played drums as well as handling vocals. The three of them chose the name We Are Scientists, after renting 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. Some publications later claimed their band name to be a reference to a Cap'n Jazz song of the same name, whilst others believing it to be a homage to the Guided by Voices track "I Am a Scientist", both of which the band have unequivocally denied. Touching on the subject in their Dumpster Dive podcast, Cain jested "I can say that pretty unequivocally that if we had known of Cap'n Jazz at the time of naming our band, we would not have named it We Are Scientists." When it came to songwriting, Keith, Scott and Chris' were particularly influenced by films, comic books, with many of their earliest songs about fighting monsters.
Murray and Cain moved to the Los Angeles area in late 2000, without Lamb, recruiting Michael Tapper, whom they had known during their time at Pomona, and who was in his last year at adjoining Harvey Mudd College. Tapper took drums over from Murray, who was the band's vocalist and guitarist, while Cain continued playing bass. Moving again, the band relocated to Brooklyn, New York in 2001 and began recording material in November, 2001. The band finished recording in January 2002, completing 12 tracks - two of which credit former member Scott Lamb. The releases 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.
2005–2006: With Love and Squalor and breakthrough success
On January 11, 2005, the band began the recording of their first, proper 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 the 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 debut 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 US 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.
2007–2008: Departure of Michael Tapper and Brain Thrust Mastery
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.
2009–2011: Steve Wants His Money TV shorts and Barbara
In October 2009, Chris Cain and Keith Murray co-created a short television series for MTV, titled Steve Wants His Money. The series premiered on October 25, 2009, during the Lil MTV was created with MTV production company Ja Digital. The series focuses around We Are Scientists playing fictional versions of themselves, 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. The band had hoped to make a second series, however it ultimately did not materialise.Lil' MTV › Episodes › We Are Scientists mtv.co.uk, November 18, 2009C: ...that last night's episode of SWH$ was the *penultimate* -- not final -- episode. (We're 80% sure.) Chris Cain on Twitter, November 30, 2009
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 third album; however after Burrows left his band Razorlight, he became their permanent drummer. 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.