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alt-J
alt-J performing April 2013
alt-J in 2013. Left to right: Gus Unger-Hamilton, Joe Newman, former bassist Gwil Sainsbury, Thom Sonny Green.
Background information
OriginLeeds, England
GenresIndie rock,[1] art rock, experimental rock, indie folk, folktronica, electronic
Years active2007–present
LabelsLoud And Quiet, Infectious, Atlantic, Canvasback
Members
  • Joe Newman
  • Thom Green
  • Gus Unger-Hamilton
  • Cameron Knight
Past membersGwil Sainsbury
Websitealtjband.com

alt-J (also known as ∆) is an English indie rock band formed in 2007 in Leeds, England, by Gwil Sainsbury (guitar/bass), Joe Newman (guitar/lead vocals), Gus Unger-Hamilton (keyboards/vocals) and Thom Green (drums).

The band's debut album An Awesome Wave was released in May 2012 in Europe[2] and September 2012 in the United States, and won the 2012 British Mercury Prize. Gwil Sainsbury amicably departed the band in early 2014. Their second album, This Is All Yours, was released on 22 September 2014 and went straight to UK number 1. As a replacement for Sainsbury, Cameron Knight will be a support member for alt-J's live shows, playing guitar, bass and sampler.

History

Formation and early years: 2007–2010

alt-J (∆) was formed when Gwil Sainsbury (guitar/bass), Joe Newman (guitar/lead vocals), Gus Unger-Hamilton (keyboards/vocals) and Thom Green (drums) met at Leeds University[3] in 2007. Unger-Hamilton (younger brother of Ferdy, head of A&R for Polydor Records) studied English, the other three Fine Art. In their second year of studies, Newman showed Sainsbury a handful of his own songs and, inspired by his guitar-playing dad, the pair began recording on GarageBand in their hall rooms with Sainsbury acting as producer.[4] The band's unusual sound stems from the fact that due to living in student halls, where noise had to be kept to a minimum, they were unable to use bass guitars or bass drums. The Band was originally called "Daljit Dhaliwal" after a British TV presenter of the same name.[5] Thom Green suffers from Alport syndrome, a rare genetic disease which causes hearing and kidney failure. As a result, he is now about 80 percent deaf.[6]

An Awesome Wave and touring: 2011–12

After graduating they moved to Cambridge, where they claimed Jobseeker's Allowance, spending two years rehearsing before signing a deal with Infectious Records in December 2011.[7] Their self-titled first 4-track EP ∆, was recorded with producer Charlie Andrew in London and showcased the tracks "Breezeblocks", "Hand-Made", "Matilda", and "Tessellate". A 7" single containing "Bloodflood" and "Tessellate" was released by Loud and Quiet in October 2011. Their first 2012 release for Infectious Records was the triangle-shaped 7" "Matilda"/"Fitzpleasure", followed by "Breezeblocks" as an advance of their first album An Awesome Wave, which was also produced by Charlie Andrew and recorded in Brixton, playing tracks as it fit into the recording studio's spare time. Their debut album was released on 28 May 2012 in the UK, Europe, and Australia, and on 18 September 2012 in North America via Canvasback Music.

The band's symbol is the delta sign, ∆, which is traditionally used in scientific study to indicate "change" or "difference". The ∆ symbol can be typed on an Apple Mac with the key sequence alt + J (on certain keyboard layouts). "alt-J" were formerly known as both "Daljit Dhaliwal" and "Films",[8][9] but were later forced to change to "Alt-J" because an American band called "The Films" already existed.

alt-J supported Wild Beasts in April 2012 and started a small concert tour in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The tour kicked off on 24 May 2012 at Dublin Academy and ended on 1 June when the band headlined Bristol Cooler.[10] The band played a large number of the summer festivals in 2012, including Latitude, Tramlines, Bestival, Reading and Leeds, End Of The Road, In The Woods Festival, Milhões de Festa, T in the Park, Green Man,[11] Pukkelpop,[12] Lowlands,[13] and Into The Great Wide Open.[14] alt-J played the main stage of Clockenflap Multimedia Arts & Music Festival in Hong Kong on 2 December 2012, and behind Bob Boilen's desk at National Public Radio (NPR) in a Tiny Desk Concert on 17 December 2012.[15] The band completed another small headline tour of the UK starting in Manchester on 27 October 2012 and taking in Birmingham, Brighton, London, Oxford and Bristol, before the final gig of the tour in London on 19 January 2013.[16] They also performed a small concert tour in the United States in December 2012.[17]

Departure of Sainsbury and This Is All Yours: 2013–present

alt-J played a host of festival shows throughout 2013, including Reading and Leeds Festival, Bonnaroo festival, the Optimus Alive! festival in July 2013 and the Australian 2013 Laneway Festival, which visits five cities in Australia and New Zealand as well as one date in Singapore during one week in late January/February.[18] They played Lollapalooza 2013, Coachella 2013, Bonnaroo 2013, Sasquatch! 2013, Bilbao BBK Live 2013, the Other Stage at Glastonbury Festival 2013, the Tent Stage at Open'er Festival 2013, Best Kept Secret 2013, Rock Werchter 2013 in "The Barn" and Osheaga Festival in Montreal, Quebec, in August 2013. They performed as a main stage act at the Rocking The Daisies music festival in South Africa in October 2013, opening for The Hives and Skunk Anansie.[19] On 7 December 2013, alt-J performed in the annual Live 105 concert, Not So Silent Night, in Oakland, California, at Oracle Arena.[20] The next day, alt-J performed in the annual 91X concert, Wrex the Halls in San Diego, California [21] Six European dates and a full U.S. tour also filled 2013, beginning on 2 March in Boston and ending on 10 April in San Francisco. Many of alt-J's shows have been sold out or have had a venue change due to high demand to see them live.[22] Alt-J also completed a ten-date UK tour that kicked off on 5 May at O2 Academy Birmingham and ended on 17 May at Brixton Academy,[23]

Gwil Sainsbury left alt-J as of 13 January 2014. It was announced on Twitter that he had decided to leave, but the band would continue, stating that they were still best friends with Gwil.[24] In early June 2014, alt-J announced a 2014 tour to take place in North America over October and November.[25] The 23-day tour started in Vancouver, B.C. on October 14 and ended in Washington, D.C. on November 19.[26] On 9 June 2014, they announced their second album This Is All Yours, that was released on 22 September 2014. This Is All Yours went straight to Number 1 on the UK's Official Albums Chart.[27]

Contributions

The band produced the song "Buffalo" for the David O. Russell film Silver Linings Playbook, starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence.

Several of their tracks, including "Something Good" and "Fitzpleasure", have been used for BBC 2's channel idents. "Fitzpleasure" was also featured at the end of the season 8 episode, "Allosaurus Crush Castle" of the television series Weeds. In mid-2013, Nokia used the track "Fitzpleasure" in their commercial for the Lumia 925 in Europe and Lumia 928 in the United States. "Fitzpleasure" was also used in the UK trailer for The Way, Way Back, and was featured in an episode of the television series "Broad City" Season 1 Episode 1. "Tessellate" was featured at the beginning of Sons of Anarchy Season 6 Episode 5. Their songs were used in multiple episodes of Scrotal Recall, with "Breezeblocks" and "Left Hand Free" in the second episode and "Every Other Freckle" in the third.

In February 2013 the band announced they would be composing the soundtrack for Toby Jones' new film Leave To Remain.[28]

The song "Something Good" was also used for the soundtrack of the 2015 video game Life Is Strange.

Awards

In 2012, alt-J's debut album won the British Mercury Prize.[29] alt-J were also nominated for three Brit Awards (British Breakthrough Act, British Album of the Year and British Group of the Year).[22] An Awesome Wave was announced as BBC Radio 6 Music Album of the Year 2012. Three of the tracks from this album gained entry into the Australian 2012 Triple J Hottest 100, with "Something Good" at number 81, "Tessellate" at number 64, and "Breezeblocks" coming third overall.[30] In 2013, An Awesome Wave won Album of the year at the Ivor Novello Awards. This Is All Yours received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Alternative Music Album at the 57th Grammy Awards, and for IMPALA's European Independent Album of the Year Award.[31]

Discography

Main article: alt-J discography
Studio albums
ЕPs
  • ∆ (Demo EP) (2011)
  • iTunes Session (2013)

References

  1. ^ Monger, James Christopher (2012). "Alt-J". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
  2. ^ Sam Wolfson. "Alt-J: a cut above". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  3. ^ "Facts and figures". Leeds University. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  4. ^ "Alt-J - Concert - Net Events" (in Dutch). Netevents.be. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
  5. ^ Perez, Ashley. "23 Things You Really Should Know About Alt-j". Retrieved 14 October 2014.
  6. ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/how-alt-j-sold-a-million-records-and-made-miley-a-fan-20141127
  7. ^ Monger, James Christopher (2012). "Alt-J". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
  8. ^ "Alt-J's name explanation". Archived from the original on 18 July 2012. Retrieved 18 July 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ "Alt-J Announce 'An Awesome Wave' Headline UK Tour Dates & Tickets accessdate=1 September 2012". {{cite web}}: Missing pipe in: |title= (help)
  10. ^ "Alt-J announce autumn tour of the UK, NME.com, 26 June 2012". Nme.com. 26 June 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
  11. ^ Paul Lester (24 May 2012). "New band of the day: Alt-J, The Guardian, Paul Lester". London: Guardian. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
  12. ^ "Pukkelpop, Alt-J in concert, 7 July 2012". Pukkelpop.be. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
  13. ^ "Programma, Lowlands 2012,A campingflight to Lowlands paradise". lowlands.nl. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
  14. ^ Programma ITGWO12 web
  15. ^ "Alt-J's NPR Tiny Desk". Retrieved 18 December 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  16. ^ "Alt-J Tour Dates & Concerts". Retrieved 14 August 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  17. ^ "Alt-J Tour Dates & Concerts". Retrieved 29 November 2012.
  18. ^ Triple J. "2013 Laneway line up announced". ABC. Retrieved 26 September 2012.
  19. ^ "Main stage - Rocking The Daisies". Rockingthedaisies.com. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  20. ^ "Not So Silent Night « LIVE 105". Live105.cbslocal.com. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  21. ^ [1]
  22. ^ a b "alt-J Nominated For 3 Brit Awards". Retrieved 21 February 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  23. ^ "Alt-J Search". Retrieved 21 February 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  24. ^ "Δ (alt-J) on Twitter: "With regret, Gwil is leaving alt-J. This is purely a personal decision and as our best friend we support him completely."". Twitter.com. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  25. ^ "Alt-J announce new album & tour (dates & presale)". Brooklynvegan.com. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  26. ^ "- alt-J - This Is All Yours". Altjband.com. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  27. ^ Kreisler, Lauren. "Alt-J score first Number 1 album with This Is All Yours". www.officialcharts.com. Official Charts Company. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
  28. ^ "Alt-J to score Toby Jones film". 3 News NZ. 21 February 2013.
  29. ^ Topping, Alexandra (2 November 2012). "Mercury prize celebrates 20 years with award for alt-J's debut album". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 21 February 2013. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  30. ^ "#3:alt-J - Breezeblocks Hottest 100 - 2012". abc.net.au. Retrieved 30 January 2013.
  31. ^ "23 albums up for European Independent Album of the Year Award". IMPALA. 29 January 2015.


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