We’re discussing the rapid ascent that the Cambridge via Leeds foursome has experienced since the May 2012 release of their debut full-length, An Awesome Wave. When you consider the exposure that winning the Mercury Prize brought, coupled with appearances on American late-night TV programs and the ridiculous amount of touring they’ve done, (they’ll be touching down in Australia for the third time in nine months) how Alt-J plans on managing and maintaining their success for the long-term all and avoiding overexposure is certainly a quandary worth pausing to consider.
“That’s a constant concern for us, how to manage what we’re doing in this industry,” says Sainsbury calmly on the phone from a San Diego tour stop. “I suppose we forget sometimes what we’re doing; we’re running a business, but you’re trying not to do it with spread sheets or whatever. To me, that’s quite strange.”
“Strange” may be an accurate description for the short career of Alt-J. After forming in Leeds University and arranging their demos in student dorm rooms, they spent two years middling in relative insignificance before releasing a 7” single with Loud and Quiet in October 2011 (that now values around $200) before abruptly arriving as critical darlings with An Awesome Wave. With their fearless dabbling in genres and reluctance to buy into the industry machine, they are being called the second coming of Radiohead.
“I didn’t get into a band to become a well-known face or a well-known personality,” counters Sainsbury. Critics and bloggers alike have struggled to label and compartmentalise Alt-J. Often this leads to an aura of mystery surrounding an act, when one must actually examine their sound instead of simply being told, rather simplistically, what forms their aesthetic.
The frank and humble members of Alt-J, however, in direct contrast to the textured music they release, maintain a level of honesty in interviews and public appearances. Often appearing together as, well, your typical university students, the band have shunned the opportunity to further the mysterious, rock star myth.
You’d be hard-pressed to find Alt-J, rounded out by guitarist/vocalist Joe Newman, keyboardist Gus-Unger Hamilton and drummer Thom Green even in a pair of fashionable skinny jeans. They’re more drab sweater and khakis, if anything. This is a band defined by their reluctance to be embraced and subsequently swallowed whole by the music media and industry.
“I personally have issues with glamour,” says Sainsbury rather adamantly. It’s a notion that is more deep-rooted in the band’s initial lowered expectations for An Awesome Wave.
“I guess I was uncomfortable, in a very naïve way,” continues Sainsbury, “because we put out the record and didn’t expect much of a response to it. It’s still quite a strange thing to be asked about our music and to be stopped on the street by our fans, but it’s certainly important to interact with them.”
With over 400,000 Facebook likes, the stretch of Alt-J’s popularity is becoming wider than they’d ever imagined. I press Sainsbury on the effect their popularity has had on the band as people, though he quickly interjects. Evidently, Sainsbury will only refuse to give thoughtful pause when it’s insinuated that his ego has become inflated.
“It’s important to make sure that your fans know you’re not in any way elevated above them. People have this impression of you as a person just through hearing your record and that can be very weird,” he confesses. As the band attempts to find a balance between the life they led as shy, artistically-inclined students at Leeds University (Unger-Hamilton studied English Literature while the other three member studied Fine Arts) and increasingly exposed celebrities, another pertinent demand begins to creep up. And it’s one that may very well have the most distinguishable impact on their future in the music business.
It’s only been a year since the release of An Awesome Wave, but already Sainsbury admits the band is being pressured to quickly release a follow-up. “I wouldn’t be tempted to go in and bang out another record,” he says. The dreaded sophomore slump can make or break young upstart bands such as Alt-J, but there’s a resistance in Sainsbury’s voice to the very notion that they will continue to be held hostage to standards and methods they see as antiquated.
“To put it into context,” he continues, “it took us four years to record An Awesome Wave, even though we were all studying in university. So to just record a quick follow-up, that’s not really how we work.”
Ah, yes, how Alt-J work. To call An Awesome Wave a layered record would be an understatement, so you would be correct in assuming the four members employ meticulous methods when composing their songs.
Four years to put together a debut album might not be the most shocking statistic, considering Sainsbury and co. were in the midst of also attaining university degrees. What’s more, often it takes young bands those early years to work out the kinks in their inter-band dynamics and find solid footing in terms of direction and sound.
With careful and deliberate consideration into their efforts, Alt-J possess the approach of a band double their age that’s learnt from their mistakes. That is, of course, except touring. Their touring schedule in the last year has been relentless, with appearances clubs, theatres and large festivals getting a taste of the band.
Many acts of Alt-J’s tender age and disposition would adopt a carefree, live fast and die young mentality. Sainsbury notes, in about as salacious comment as I got from him that, “We drank and smoked a lot more of our past tours, we’re trying to watch out for that,” adding with a characteristically calm benevolence that “…exercise is really essential as well.”
Exercise? This is what a man in his mid-twenties has to say about touring the world? It’s all part of their nose-to-the-grindstone attitude and their belief that the work itself will provide more redemption than any glamour might.
“The response that the record has had means that it is our duty to play for our fans around the world that perhaps haven’t had the chance to see us play yet. From my point of view, that’s what it’s about. We didn’t expect this kind of response,” says Sainsbury.
So then, even with a record that finds favour both with critics and fans, Sainsbury still regards touring as more of a duty for the band and less as an opportunity to see the world?
“It’s an opportunity of course,” asserts Sainsbury, after the requisite pause. A great opportunity it may be, but the confidence they now exert not only in graduating to larger venues with every tour but simply stepping on any stage didn’t come easy. Sainsbury has been quoted in the past as stating that he’s “…never been so nervous” as when the band played their first gig at Leeds University, during which one crowd member fainted in the packed audience.
As Alt-J spend more of their time essentially becoming displaced from the life they once knew at Leeds University, Gainsbury begins to feel the strain.
“It is very hard when you go out on tour to maintain a normal life, a normal schedule and try and be a normal person. We’ve had some incredible times though it did take us a very long time to get comfortable playing live. We spent a lot of time before this playing and writing alone.”
Gwil Sainsbury never waxes poetic on modern philosophy or gets political in the slightest. He doesn’t speak ill of his band-mates, though after a year of essentially living together in cramped quarters, he likely has good reason to. Making brazen statements he could very well regret later, even though he could chalk it up to youth, would be the easy way out for Sainsbury. No detail is left unquestioned by the band, both in their music and their public approach. Their calculated aesthetic is refreshing in that it comes from a place of genuine respect for the continuity of their careers and not motivated by sales or target audiences.
Perhaps one day video will unearth of the band abandoning their steadfastness and overindulging to excess. But for the time being, Alt-J is methodical and prudent, their only playful mannerisms coming in their lack of regard for the preordained musical genres An Awesome Wave eclipses with ease.
“It’s important to maintain a playful attitude when making music,” Sainsbury says. “All we can ask from the songs and from each other is to have an open mind.”
BY JOSHUA KLOKE
