Riding The Wave

"I think when I was younger I had the opinion that if I was making music and art that my parents appreciated, I was probably doing a bad job,” smiles wryly Gwil Sainsbury, guitar noodler and bass boffin for Alt-J, aka the band with the most anti-square shape of the moment, ∆. “And my parents really love our record, so maybe I've just done a bad job.”

If this philosophy were to be followed through, having won a Mercury Prize and received three BRIT Award nominations for their album An Awesome Wave, Sainsbury and co. deserve a thorough spanking. Actually, Sainsbury's dad wasn't impressed with the album title when he first heard it. “He thought it was arrogant, like we were saying the album was an awesome wave,” recalls Sainsbury. “I suppose you can easily interpret that as being it, but the context of the album mainly, for us, was something we completely stole from American Psycho.”

Though Alt-J's parents must now surely be full of praise for their world-conquering sons, one more serious criticism aimed at Alt-J came near the end of last year from one of the fathers of art-rock cool, Bryan Ferry. The Roxy Music maestro described Alt-J as a “celebration of normality”, even commenting that they were “one step from the dole queue”. In some ways this attack seems to be indicative of people's inability to effectively describe Alt-J's music, with common references to Coldplay and Radiohead both seeming rather misleading.

“It's not like we set out to make the next groundbreaking contemporary record,” Sainsbury shares. “Our intentions were maybe quite selfish. My intention was to make a record with my friends that I really liked, and that if we were gonna tour it, we'd not get sick of touring it. It was just about making the best thing we could make, and if the best thing you could make is a celebration of normality, we can't really help but do that.

“I'm perfectly happy for Bryan Ferry to have his opinion. Also, normality, I would consider that a very loaded word and I think he kind of used it in a very naïve way, in a way that he was sort of saying that we were kind of nice middle class kids, but I think normality is a lot more complex than being middle-class nice and I wouldn't like to think they we were normal in a way that I would interpret normal. So I think he might have used it in a flippant, naïve way.”

Ferry might not be a fan, but they've got oceans full of Alt-J lovers all around the world to make up for it now. In fact, they've somewhat struggled to come to terms with the awesome tidal wave of adoration crashing their way. It's understandable when you look how quick their rise in success been. It was as fine art and English lit students at Leeds University that the members met in 2007, Sainsbury producing some of vocalist/guitarist Joe Newman's early songs on GarageBand, apparently inspired by drugs and Snoop Dogg. Their questionable beginnings progressed through various name transitions – Daljit Dhaliwal and Films – finally settling on ∆. The Delta symbol from the Greek alphabet, ∆ can also be achieved on a PC by pressing the Alt and J keys at the same time, hence them more commonly being referred to as Alt-J, particularly by Mac users. It wasn't until late 2011 though that they released their eponymous debut EP, yet it contained enough material – including singles Breezeblocks and Tessellate – to see the hype machine's wheels turning faster than the Roadrunner's legs after a bowl of dexies.

In effect, the band went from being nobodies to everybody's fave within the blink of an eye. Releasing An Awesome Wave mid last year, their debut album rated highly in most music tastemaker's lists, including coming it at number three in Street Press Australia's. Since then it's been a constant stream of touring as headliners and playing the world's biggest festivals, this also coming with a constant stream of surprising reactions.

“At Coachella, there were people on people's shoulders just crying when you play songs – it's pretty funny, it's pretty weird and it's not something we're used to,” considers Sainsbury. “One show, from the beginning of the set, people were just crowd-surfing right to the very end, even in the quiet songs. We've never really had that before, like those kind-of fanatical fans – it's very new and it's definitely weird for someone to know who you are without you ever having met them, and for them to already, in a way, have a relationship with you in their heads because you've made something that they're attached to.”

He also points out that the record has become something far greater than the “kind of obscure” one they felt they were releasing. “It wasn't like signing to a major label and having an album's worth of pop hits,” Sainsbury explains. “But yesterday I was walking with my girlfriend down the street and this car full of guys just sort of stopped and were all looking at me. I was a bit freaked out and they all got out of the car and… so I just signed their CDs and stuff, but it's quite weird. It actually kind of reminds me, I grew up in a really rural place and my dad was the local doctor and everywhere I went I wouldn't know who the people were but they'd all know me and would always report back to my dad what I was doing, who I was with and stuff, and [it's] just a scaled up version of that. I'm never gonna escape it!”

Speaking of festivals, Alt-J toured Australia for Laneway earlier this year, but the upcoming tour will be their first as headliners. Despite having only one album to their name, you can expect their sets to be taking proceedings to all new levels. “You keep trying to perfect your set and make things more interesting, change the energy pattern a bit,” Sainsbury says before revealing, “We'll be doing a few covers and extra songs.”

They'll also be bringing an appetite Down Under. “I think I had the best Mexican food I've ever had in Australia. Which is quite strange, but it was incredible. I'm just trying to think of where it was… It's called Mamasita, and it might have been in Melbourne.” Spot on. And if you're a restaurant looking for potential plugs in future interviews as well, they're willing and able to eat at yours.

“We've been invited to restaurants and things where they've given us a free meal 'cause they wanted us to try out their restaurant and they were fans of ours, which is amazing,” he laughs. “It's something I'd really like to encourage 'cause it's great, getting a free meal. And in Australia, I think we were really shocked about how incredibly good the food was!”