It’s been a pretty mad year for Alt-J, by all accounts. Catapulted from obscurity to worldwide acclaim in a matter of months following the release of their debut album, An Awesome Wave, the group have picked up the Mercury Prize, an Ivor Novello for best album and been selected as BBC Radio 6 Music’s album of the year, as well as embarking on a major worldwide tour.
Genre-wise, it’s often said that they’re virtually impossible to put a label on. Their sound is certainly distinctive, blending folk sensibilities, delicate melodies, trip hop sounds and heavy synthy bass with poetic, almost confessional lyrics, peppered with film and literary references. The album is full of contrasts, from the shuddering bass of Dissolve Me to the dreamy guitar riffs of Matilda, right the way through to the Gregorian-like chanting of Fitzpleasure and the gentle Bhangra rhythms and stirring strings of Taro. Art rock, boffin rock, folk-step, whatever you call it, there’s no denying it was an extraordinary first album.
“We all have very different tastes in music,” muses drummer Thom Green when I catch up with him backstage at the Corn Exchange on the night of their performance there. It’s a homecoming gig of sorts for Alt-J, who until recently all lived together in Cambridge (guitarist Gwil Sainsbury still does).
“It’s weird to be back under these circumstances. When you’re touring it’s a bit of a blur, you never really feel that connected to the different cities – so I feel like a bit of an outsider. It’s nice though, and I’m really looking forward to having a walk around.”
The four-piece, who take their name from the Mac keyboard shortcut for delta (the hollowed-out triangle symbol which appears time and again in the band’s videos and artwork), met at Leeds University back in 2007, making the move to Cambridge after completing their degrees.
“We knew that when we finished we all wanted to live together, to make our music and concentrate on it properly,” he explains. “Cambridge seemed like a nice halfway point. You can easily get to London, it’s quiet, and nobody knew us here; it was amazing and I really loved living here – it was just so nice and peaceful. I don’t ever get that attached to places, but I do miss it, yeah. This will always be the place that we finished the album.”
It’s something of a cliché to comment on how down-to-earth a band seem, but Alt-J appear genuinely bewildered at their sudden meteoric rise to fame. Thom speaks excitedly about hanging out with other musicians, ‘as though we’re on the same level or something’, shaking his head. And whilst they’re clearly overwhelmed with gratitude that their music has been so well received, it’s also evident that they’re very much still adjusting to their newfound fame.
“Things have definitely changed for us,” says Thom. “It wasn’t long ago that we were on the dole and we had to have meal plans so that we knew we were going to eat – it’s not like that now. This level of success makes you more comfortable and that’s probably one of the biggest changes that I’ve had to learn to deal with.
“I’m quite self-conscious as well,” he admits. “If it was up to me there‚ wouldn’t be as many photos. And I don’t think I’ll ever get used to meeting the fans. “They don’t really see me as me, obviously, they just see me as part of Alt-J. They’re often very excited to meet me and if I’m a bit reserved or a bit taken aback I always feel guilty that I’m not providing them with what they want. It’s a bit hard sometimes, but not all fans are like that. It’s great when you meet people who just genuinely want to let you know what they think of the music. I know what that’s like. That’s really reassuring and it’s nice to know that we’re entertaining people.”
Whatever the downsides of success though, they’ve been far outweighed by the band’s achievements – and, for Thom at least, taking home the Mercury was the standout moment so far.
“That was the highest point, definitely,” he grins, recalling the moment they heard the news. “We’ve been really lucky. To even be nominated – that’s all we wanted, and even then, we didn’t ever aim for that. Just having that recognition, we still can’t believe it.”
With a summer schedule packed full of tour dates and a number of festivals to play, the rollercoaster shows no signs of slowing down for now. They recently completed creating the score for Bruce Goodison’s forthcoming film, Leave To Remain, and they’ve already succeeded where so many bands fail in ‘cracking’ America – where they will be touring for much of the summer.
“I’ve never worked this hard in my life!” laughs Thom. “I’ve never wanted to work this hard in my life – but now I am, I feel completely happy doing it. There are so many things that I want to do and it’s given me a lot of opportunities.”
The frantic zigzagging around the globe is making finding the time to write new music tricky for the band, but the fans are all eagerly awaiting the second album – and the question on everyone’s lips is when can we expect to hear some new Alt-J material?
“Next year some time,” says Thom. “Ideally the people who have a say want the next album out in May. We would put stuff out now if we could. We’ve only got one album and people want to hear more. We know what that’s like. But at the same time, we don’t want to put anything out that we’re not completely happy with. We’ve got studio time booked in now and again over the summer, but we finish touring in October and then we’re going to concentrate properly on it.”
Other than that, the band seem keen to just keep doing what they’re doing and keep hold of that incredible synergy which has served them so phenomenally well so far.
“I hope that we manage to survive the tour,” says Thom, when quizzed about his hopes for the future. “Touring is hard, and after a while you get pretty run-down as it’s so intense. But then you get time off, and you just want to go and do it again. I hope we create a space to be able to write again too, and we don’t have too much pressure, and that we just keep the great dynamic that we have now.
“The crew we have is amazing, we’re all like best friends, and the whole production is perfect… Stuff has happened that I never in a million years thought would happen. It’s everything I’ve always wanted, so I don’t know how it could get any better.”
