AltJ Press Photo

Alt J: They’re Not Nerds

AltJ Press Photo

Gaining fans and friends worldwide at a profound speed, the blow-up UK band, Alt-J takes a minute to chat with us and invite us to watch their picture perfect live show at Los Angeles’ Bootleg Theater. Watching this foursome is like watching history in the making. With sounds reminiscent of Radiohead mixed with old Irish folk hymns, these low-key kids from Cambridge are on a sure path from indie praise to mass stardom.

Despite the fact that their debut album, An Awesome Wave was just released in the US last month, the turn out was staggering and the crowd mouthed every lyric like each song were their own national anthem. If the success hasn’t created fame quite yet, that won’t last long. The fanship is growing and Alt-J is worthy of the recognition.

 

TL: You’re given the choice to collaborate with Thom Yorke, Timberlake, or Kimbra: Who do you choose?

 

Alt-J: Thom Yorke. Sure.

 

TL:I’m deep in love with the album, but I must know who the hell came up with idea for using tessellate as a sexual term in the lyrics for your song, “Tessellate?” (On that note: Who’s the biggest nerd in the bunch?)

 

Alt-J: We all learnt about tessellation in primary school. A lot of people from different age groups to us don’t know what it means but we were just taught about it in math classes. We aren’t sure why this is – perhaps it was only included in the UKs national school curriculum for a short amount of time. Joe writes the lyrics and he turned it into the aforementioned sexual analogy. Interestingly Joe is definitely the jock of the band. He can throw really far.

It depends on your standard and definition of nerds. To some we might seem nerdy but in comparison to competent, computer-science, minecraft experts we are nothing.

 

 

 

TL: What is your favorite song on An Awesome Wave, and why?

 

Alt-J:We all have different favourites but “Taro” is maybe the most fun for all of us to play live.

 

TL: Can you recall the moment in which you realized Alt-J was gaining success? Do you remember the first blog post? First air play? Must have been thrilling. Can you describe the experience?

 

Alt-J: I think we had our first radio play on late night radio 1 when we were unsigned and touring the UK. We were on a long drive back from a gig and “Tessellate” came on at about 2am. We didn’t know it was going to be played and it was a very surreal experience to hear it coming out of the tour van’s tinny speaker system.

 

 

TL: Ideally, what does the next year look like for Alt-J?

 

Alt-J: Tour, tour, write, tour, tour, tour, write.

 

More information www.altjband.com / www.facebook.com/altJ.band &www.soundcloud.com/alt-j/




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