Xander Harris

Austin native Justin Sweatt produced suspenseful yet playful electronic music under the Xander Harris alias, drawing equally from '80s horror film soundtracks, Italo-disco, and darkwave. His 2011 debut Urban Gothic earned acclaim as a low-budget recreation of a vintage horror soundtrack, conjuring terror while preserving a tongue-in-cheek humor. Further refinements appeared on the ambitious full-lengths The New Dark Age of Love in 2013 and Villains of Romance in 2018.

Active in various noise and shoegaze projects since the early 2000s, Sweatt chose the Harris name to honor a character from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and began issuing music under it in 2011 with the Contamination cassette. Not Not Fun in Los Angeles soon issued the full-length debut Urban Gothic, which took inspiration from Brian Keene's novel of the same name; the album received strong praise and placed in FACT's Top 50 releases of the year. The label's dance offshoot 100% Silk followed with a 12" single that included an extended disco mix of the album track "I Want More Than Just Blood." In 2012 Harris shared a split 7" single with Dylan Ettinger on Moon Glyph, while also issuing the cassette album Chrysalid and the digital album Snow Crash, the latter later pressed on vinyl by French label Desire Records.

Harris returned to Not Not Fun in 2013 for the ambitious full-length The New Dark Age of Love, alongside the digital EP Black Moon and an "Ultimate Edition" of Urban Gothic that added numerous extra tracks from the original sessions. Mogwai's Rock Action label released the 7" single "Cry Havoc" in 2014 and the full-length California Chrome two years later. Termination Dust appeared on Data Airlines in 2017, and Burning Witches issued Villains of Romance in 2018. At the close of 2018 Sweatt retired the Xander Harris name and began recording as J Sweatt.