Interview: Alt-J
9th February 2012
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Alt-J are among the UK’s freshest new bands, with their mesmerising blend of soulful, heartfelt vocals, skittish beats and future bass taking indie into new realms.
With high praise across the board from Radio 1 DJs, their second single set for release on the 27th February, and an upcoming tour and album, they are undoubtedly ones to watch for 2012.
TNS caught up with keyboard player Gus Unger-Hamilton in the lead-up to the tour to see what he makes of their growing success.
The band was formed during your time at Leeds University, but how exactly did it all come about?
Joe and I were in halls together, and then Joe met Gwil and Tom on his art course. We're all creative people – not to sound too wanky! Joe wrote some songs and we all got involved from there, really.
You’ve been through a few name changes before settling on Alt-J. You were originally [massively struggling to pronounce] Daljit Dhaliwal; is that right? Yeah, that’s it. Basically, as a child, Joe used to watch Neighbours and at the end of the soundtrack he’d sing those words, which we found quite funny. We always knew we’d have to change the name – we found it hard to remember ourselves! We changed our name to Films, but that was a problem as it was already pretty much taken. Gwil came up with Alt-J when we were messing about on the Mac. It comes up as a delta triangle when you type it, and we just thought it would make a pretty cool image. It’s a very memorable name, and you’ve accrued a lot of interest already. I'm sure there are new uni bands forming nationwide who would love to know how you got your material out there. Any tips? To other people, I guess it seems like it's been really quick, but we’ve been together for over three years. We started out with MySpace, but it didn’t do much for us – we just thought that was what bands did. We’ve just worked very hard. We were never on a mission to get signed, just out there doing our thing. In the end, we were actually approached by a representative who showed interest, had contacts, and wanted to help us to get our stuff heard. I guess that’s led to a lot of support from the likes of Radio 1 DJs, which is a great platform. How was it playing your tracks at the Maida Vale studios? That was amazing – it’s so steeped in history and was one of the first things we did. It was like we didn't even feel like a proper band, but knew that that was how we’d be perceived from then on. We were practising super, super hard for weeks. Every bit of the day was cool, even down to eating in the canteen with the photos of everyone like the Beatles who had been there before us. We were like, ‘whoa, what are we doing here?’
You’ve been through a few name changes before settling on Alt-J. You were originally [massively struggling to pronounce] Daljit Dhaliwal; is that right? Yeah, that’s it. Basically, as a child, Joe used to watch Neighbours and at the end of the soundtrack he’d sing those words, which we found quite funny. We always knew we’d have to change the name – we found it hard to remember ourselves! We changed our name to Films, but that was a problem as it was already pretty much taken. Gwil came up with Alt-J when we were messing about on the Mac. It comes up as a delta triangle when you type it, and we just thought it would make a pretty cool image. It’s a very memorable name, and you’ve accrued a lot of interest already. I'm sure there are new uni bands forming nationwide who would love to know how you got your material out there. Any tips? To other people, I guess it seems like it's been really quick, but we’ve been together for over three years. We started out with MySpace, but it didn’t do much for us – we just thought that was what bands did. We’ve just worked very hard. We were never on a mission to get signed, just out there doing our thing. In the end, we were actually approached by a representative who showed interest, had contacts, and wanted to help us to get our stuff heard. I guess that’s led to a lot of support from the likes of Radio 1 DJs, which is a great platform. How was it playing your tracks at the Maida Vale studios? That was amazing – it’s so steeped in history and was one of the first things we did. It was like we didn't even feel like a proper band, but knew that that was how we’d be perceived from then on. We were practising super, super hard for weeks. Every bit of the day was cool, even down to eating in the canteen with the photos of everyone like the Beatles who had been there before us. We were like, ‘whoa, what are we doing here?’
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