The Exies were an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1997 by vocalist and guitarist Scott Stevens, who was born in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin and came to music through a childhood rooted in brass instruments before discovering rock. Stevens named the band from a John Lennon biography — Lennon's own term for the art-student existentialists the Beatles encountered in Hamburg in the 1960s. The founding lineup brought together Stevens on vocals and guitar, bassist Freddy Herrera, and drummer Thom Sullivan, with guitarist David Walsh completing the group that would carry them through their commercial peak.
After a debut release on independent label Ultimatum Records, the band signed with Virgin Records and released Inertia in January 2003. The album launched the single My Goddess into heavy rock radio rotation nationally and drove the video into the top ten at MTV2. The band performed on David Letterman and Last Call with Carson Daly, toured for over a year, and established themselves as a serious presence in post-grunge rock. Head for the Door (2004) followed and produced the single Ugly, which became a theme song for WWE programming and reached rock radio audiences across the country. The two Virgin Records releases combined to sell over 400,000 copies.
After Virgin dropped the band, they signed with Eleven Seven Music and released A Modern Way of Living with the Truth in 2007, recorded with producer James Michael. The band continued performing and releasing material until Stevens departed in 2010 to focus on songwriting and production. He went on to co-write songs with Theory of a Deadman, David Cook on This Loud Morning, and Halestorm on The Strange Case Of, establishing himself as one of rock's more quietly prolific behind-the-scenes collaborators. The Exies reunited in January 2023 with the release of Spirits High, their first new song in fifteen years.
Wayne Dennon photographed The Exies during the years when they were earning their audience the hard way — club tours, relentless radio pushes, and a live show built to convert casual listeners into committed fans. Their catalog holds up as a solid document of early 2000s Los Angeles hard rock at its most melodically focused.
