alt-J

Alt-J (stylised as alt-J or Δ) are an English indie rock band formed in 2007 in Leeds. Their lineup includes Joe Newman (guitar/bass/lead vocals), Thom Sonny Green (drums), Gus Unger-Hamilton (keyboards/vocals), and formerly Gwil Sainsbury (guitar/bass).

Their debut album An Awesome Wave was released in May 2012 in Europe, and in September 2012 in the United States, and won the 2012 British Mercury Prize. Sainsbury left the band in early 2014. Their second album, This Is All Yours, was released on 22 September 2014 and went straight to number one in the United Kingdom. In June 2017 the band released their third studio album Relaxer, followed in February 2022 by their fourth studio album The Dream.

Name

Alt-J started with the name "Daljit Dhaliwal", after the BBC newsreader and television presenter, who the band grew up watching in the 90s. The band then renamed itself to "FILMS", but were later forced to change their name because an American band called "The Films" already existed.

The band's "actual" name is the triangle-shaped symbol ∆, the capital Greek letter delta which is used in mathematics for the difference operator to denote "change". On Mac computers, that symbol can be typed by pressing the keys Alt-J, hence the name Alt-J.

Then-member Gwil Sainsbury explained this by relating the meaning of "change" to the renaming happening "at a turning point in their lives."

The band often makes references to triangles.. The song "Tesselate" mentions "triangles are my favourite shape", and they make triangle symbols with their fingers during concerts), which they say is just due to it being a visually appealing shape.

The cover art of the band's debut album An Awesome Wave shows an overhead view of the Ganges Delta, in reference to the Alt-J's "delta" name.

History

2007–2010: Formation and early years

Alt-J (∆) were formed when Gwilym (Gwil) Sainsbury (guitar/bass), Joe Newman (guitar/lead vocals), Augustus (Gus) Unger-Hamilton (keyboards/vocals) and Thomas Stuart (Thom Sonny) Green (drums) met at University of Leeds in 2007. Unger-Hamilton (younger brother of Ferdy, head of A&R for Polydor Records) studied English, the other three Fine Art. According to Newman, "I basically went to art school to start a band."

In their second year of studies, Newman showed Sainsbury some of his own songs and the pair began recording on GarageBand in their hall rooms with Sainsbury acting as producer. The band's sound arose in part from living in student accommodation, where noise had to be kept to a minimum, as well as limited access to instruments. At the time, Green used a very limited drum kit, Unger-Hamilton a cheap keyboard, and Newman an acoustic guitar.

2011–2012: An Awesome Wave and touring

After graduating, the band moved to Cambridge where they spent several months working on their music before signing a deal with Infectious Music in December 2011. Their self-titled 4-track demo EP, ∆, was recorded with producer Charlie Andrew in London and featured 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 Music was the triangle-shaped 10" "Matilda" / "Fitzpleasure". It was followed by "Breezeblocks" which preceded their first album. An Awesome Wave was also produced by Charlie Andrew and compiled at Iguana Studios, Brixton, where the band recorded tracks during the studio's spare time.