Alt-J On Gwil Sainsbury Split: He Thought Industry Was Bullshit

22 September 2014 | 2:05 pm | Staff Writer

"He was almost opposed to being successful as a band in a way."

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British indie outfit Alt-J have spoken out on former bassist Gwil Sainsbury's shock departure, claiming that he never really enjoyed the lifestyle and success that went with being in of the band.

Speaking with The Music recently, keyboardist Gus Unger-Hamilton said he believed Sainsbury "was almost opposed to being successful as a band in a way" and that he thought the industry goings-on were "bullshit."

“[It was] just the whole lifestyle, really: it was the touring aspect, it was the music industry aspect, he didn’t enjoy doing interviews at all, he didn’t enjoy having to go out for dinner with people from the record label, he didn’t enjoy going on tour, he didn’t enjoy that kind of thing, having to shake hands with radio programmers after gigs and things," said Unger-Hamilton.

"I think he just thought the whole thing was bullshit, which it sort of is, but I’m okay with that. We don’t have to do it too much. You’ve just got to play the game up to a point. The three of us still in the band understand that, he doesn’t feel like that, and that’s fine."

However there's no ill feeling from Unger-Hamilton and his other two bandmates(Joe Newman and Thom Green) towards their former comrade, admitting they felt the same from time to time.

“We definitely would feel the same way as him on occasion. Obviously sometimes you finish a gig in the middle of a really long tour and you’re tired after the gig and you just want to be by yourself and then suddenly you’re presented with the head of the station for the local radio station in your dressing room and they don’t leave. Everybody feels that, like, ‘Oh my god, please fuck off.’I think overall we’re quite understanding people and we’re quite friendly people and we enjoy going on tour, we’re okay with meeting people like that, because ultimately they’re playing our records and so we do have to be nice to them because they’re largely responsible for the success we’re having.

"I think Gwil was never really about success, he was almost opposed to being successful as a band in a way. We were sort of thinking, ‘Well, I’ve got to go shake hands with this guy and have a chat to him and whatever but that’s okay because frankly, if his radio station hadn’t been playing our track we wouldn’t have sold out this massive venue in this town.’ I think Gwil was sort of thinking, ‘Well, I’m not interested in selling out the venue in the town.’”

Read the rest of our chat.