Anonymous Stars

"It's a pretty cool piece of gear.” Keyboardist Gus Unger-Hamilton is intrigued by the interview recording gadget. Lead vocalist Joe Newman peers over to check it out, “Yeah, I've seen that before, I love those things.” A close-to-perfect introduction to the inquisitive and relaxed nature of the duo – one half of British outfit Alt-J (∆).

The success of Alt-J (∆) came at lightning-bolt speed once they dropped their debut – now stamped with the Mercury Music Prize seal of approval – An Awesome Wave in May 2012, which has just been re-released as a two-CD deluxe edition with bonus live, acoustic and remix tracks. During their first trip to Australia in October last year, Newman explained how though the buzz had kicked in, they still didn't get recognised on the streets.

“No one recognises us anywhere unless we've just played a gig and we're outside the venue. I like where it is at the moment, where we stand. So you'll get recognised in the area that you are playing, but that's about it. People won't stop you in the street.” Unger-Hamilton continues on that train of thought, “I don't expect it to change.”

Considering the amount of success and attention Alt-J (∆) have garnered over the past nine months, the inevitable hype does not phase them in the slightest. “I'd say I answer that question more than I have to deal with hype. It seems like more something that people asks about than happens, do you know what I mean?” explains Unger-Hamilton.

When the idea is brought to the table for discussion, the duo fall into an intense analysis on the nature of hype – completely dissecting its value and meaning. “Hype's kind of invisible. It's kind of tasteless,” muses Newman. “We don't actually know where it is and when it is, and when you're kind of being exposed to it. Especially if you're in another country and the hype is happening back in England. But we're good at dealing with hype because, I mean, at the end of the day it's working on the songs. The songs are the key kind of thing. So, if we keep the songs strong we can deal with the hype.”

Though the duo carry a complex and in-depth thought process – analysing questions rather than answering them – it's surprising to see that much of their creative choices bear no real depth or meaning. Like the Alt-J symbol (∆) for instance…

“Well, it's a lot more shallow than what people think; it just kind of looks cool,” Unger-Hamilton admits. “I mean, we came up with the name Alt-J, you know, we thought it was quite neat. It looked quite good when it was written down, and a lot of people kind of like really expect us to give great explanations about it or think that we're Illuminati or something. But I don't know – it's kind of – we just enjoy it, we enjoy the way it looks, and it's a good way to brand yourself, which I guess is kind of important.” So there are no real links to anything then? “No, there's no links. There's never links (laughs). We just pick things that sound cool,” he chuckles.

The four members – including guitarist/bassist Gwil Sainsbury and drummer Thom Green – met while attending Leeds University in 2007. Newman reflects on the day they all first met. “We were in halls together and some guy, I think he was called Mickey…” “Oh Mickey, I remember Mickey,” interjects Unger-Hamilton. “Was it Mickey or Mike?” asks Newman, and the two get lost in fast-paced banter, as they attempt to uncover the fine details of their first meeting; the banter reflective of their long-term friendship. “There was definitely a Mickey in my block,” affirms Unger-Hamilton. “I think he was called Mickey C,” clarifies Newman. “Yeah he was!” laughs Unger-Hamilton.

“Basically,” Newman continues, “I had made friends with one of my roommates who there was a complete lack of chemistry. And so we were like 'Let's go to the student union.' We didn't know where it was but we knew it was close, so we were just walking away from our halls and some guy just shouted out the window 'Come to my room, we're having a party!' just like randomly. And that was Mickey C. And there I met you, and I remember you coming into the kitchen, 'cause we were congregated in the kitchen.” “Looking scared,” Unger-Hamilton chimes in. Newman confirms, “You looked very, very scared. You're eyes were sort of just completely sort of like…”

“I think it was just completely new,” interrupts Unger-Hamilton. “I mean I went to university [and] I had turned eighteen about ten days before, so I really wasn't used to – I came from quite a sheltered background – and I wasn't really used to parties and stuff so it was quite overwhelming. And everybody seemed a lot older than me because they had done gap years so everyone was like twenty and I felt like I was still seventeen, so seeing Joe in there looking fairly approachable and not sort of, you know, drinking Jack Daniel's through a funnel, I was like 'I'll go talk to this guy.'”

It was during university that the four sat down to pen An Awesome Wave, over a five-year period. Unger-Hamilton explains: “We had band practice like three nights a week, so that took up all of our time. And we kind of enjoyed spending time together and getting to know each other.” “I don't think we liked going out,” reveals Newman. “We liked drinking and we still like drinking. I mean, you know, we've got that bug, but the way we did it was different. We didn't like going out and dancing and meeting up with girls – we talked about meeting up with girls, but actually didn't ever end up meeting up with girls.

“Mmm… yeah. But when you're at university there's so much pressure to kind of really be into going out and stuff,” agrees Unger-Hamilton, directing his words to Newman, “and I think like meeting you, and then Gwil and Thom, I opened my eyes to the fact that not everyone at university is there just to like get smashed and do fancy dress like five nights a week.”

Now a full-time touring band, Alt-J (∆) are slowly becoming familiar with their new lifestyle. “We don't have many cool band friends really, like we try,” admits Unger-Hamilton. “We tried to meet up with Bombay Bicycle Club in – was that in Houston?” he asks Newman. “Yeah somewhere in Texas,” he responds. “And like I don't know, it was quite a funny story 'cause we were tweeting them – I was tweeting them – and I was like 'Oh, I'll just DM you the band's phone number.' Thought I DM'd it, actually just tweeted it to like tens of thousands of people (laughs). So then we got to the bar where they said they were, and they had left, and we were like 'Oh, okay, we'll just have a beer then.' So it's not as glamorous as you might think, but we're doing our best.”

Now winners of the prestigious Barclaycard Mercury Prize, the two friends had much to say about who they would've liked to have seen win – as we chatted prior to the announcement. “Well I mean I'm a big fan of – there's a jazz band who are nominated called Roller Trio – they're a fantastic band and I really enjoyed their album,” explains Newman.

“Everyone talks in this really snide way about 'Oh, the token jazz nomination' every year,” continues Unger-Hamilton. “But that's totally not the case, because you know everybody is nominated on merit, there is no kind of tokenism involved. So, you know they are nominated for a good reason, because they've got a great album. And you know, a few years ago a band called Portico Quartet were nominated, another jazz group who you know, I don't remember who actually won that year, but I'm sure they deserved it.” “Ummm… it was Elbow,” responds Newman. “Yeah, and that Portico album was amazing,” continues Unger-Hamilton. “So you know it would be quite nice if a jazz group won it just to kind of show people that it's not all about making up the numbers. [But] Django Django, I think would be worthy winners, they've got a really wicked album.” Newman adds, “Lianne La Havas, she's got a great album, um…” “Just name all the nominees,” laughs Unger-Hamilton.

Returning to Australia for St Jerome's Laneway Festival, the two picked out some of the artists on the bill they're most looking forward to catching on the day. “I wanna see El-P, this rapper, who I think is – his new album, Cancer 4 Cure, it's a fucking great album, it's really good,” responds Unger-Hamilton. While Newman shares his love for Brooklyn duo Poliça. “[Give You The Ghost] is a real grower. That album, at first I was really struggling to digest it and after a while you digest it and you feel really good.”

BEFORE ALT-J

Prior to the Alt-J (∆) moniker, the four-piece had gone through two other band names. The first of those two was Daljit Dhaliwal – which is the name of a female Al Jazeera news correspondent.

“It's really an odd thing,” explains Newman, “I don't think any of us were fascinated with her. But basically when I was younger I used to watch [the Australian television show] Neighbours and at the end of the show, you'd have after the credits roll, you'd have the production logo and the end of the song, which was kind of always taped to the back of Neighbours, and it always used to go (sings staggered descending notes) “di di – di di di” and it had the same rhythm and the same amount of syllables as Daljit Dhaliwal.”

“So as a kid I'd always used to be like (sings) “Daljit Dhaliwal” and that's it. That kind of scorched my memory as a child and I've always remembered it and like when we were thinking of a band name, I was like 'Well, what about Daljit Dhaliwal?' and that's really it.”

Shortly after they settled with Daljit Dhaliwal as the official band name, they changed it to Films. The stories within their songs make a number of references to films – in particular the song Matilda, which was based on Natalie Portman's character in the film, Léon. Unger-Hamilton explains: “I would say that we didn't consume sort of films and books at any greater rate than we normally would [during the album-making process], but I think we have an [attitude] to songwriting where nothing is off limits in terms of what you can write a song about. So, you know, we weren't sort of like going to the library at university and watching loads of obscure Polish films in this kind of effort to consume culture; it was more just that, you know I think we realised writing songs, or you know you realised that the consumption of things like film and books is great material for songwriting as much as personal experiences or feelings or whatever.

“Stories in film are better than stories in real life (laughs); that's why we write songs about them,” he concludes.

Alt-J (∆) are playing the following dates:

Friday 1 February - Laneway Festival, Brisbane QLD
Saturday 2 February - Laneway Festival, Sydney NSW
Sunday 3 February - Laneway Festival, Footscray VIC
Friday 8 February - Laneway Festival, Adelaide SA
Saturday 9 February - Laneway Festival, Perth WA