"We're just simple guys from Leeds who got to know each other, started a band and then muddled through it and magicked a Mercury award," says Gus Unger-Hamilton, keyboardist with British band alt-J. But that's just the short, and quite understated, version.
I'll go out on a limb here and refer to them as the most famous band you might not have heard of, and not just because I was similarly handicapped a month ago: Billboard recently included them in its article "Grammys 2015: Meet the lesser-known nominees". The trio may have lost the Grammy for best alternative music album to St Vincent, but that does not take away from the wave of success they have been riding since 2012, when they won the Mercury Prize, a coveted honour won earlier by the likes of Suede and Arctic Monkeys. And next weekend, the band, whose fans include Miley Cyrus and Ellie Goulding, will be performing in Gurgaon and Bengaluru, as part of the Emerge music and art festival.
The band's name comes from the keyboard combination for the delta symbol on a Mac, a machine they bought jointly in 2007 while attending university at Leeds. At that time, it was a four-member band of Joe Newman (guitars and vocals), Gwil Swainsbury (bass guitar), Thom Green (drums) and Unger-Hamilton. Last January, Swainsbury reportedly quit because he did not want the celebrity baggage that comes from becoming popular. They have not inducted a permanent replacement, as of now.
Alt-J's music is described as indie folk rock and folktronica, among others. The band members themselves are reluctant to put themselves in any one genre. "It depends on who asks. If it's a cab driver, I'll say it's indie guitar music. If it's a friend, I'll try to refer to different bands. I'll usually say, it sounds a bit like Radiohead with a bit more hip-hop drums - that kind of thing. Or it's guitar music with some electronics added to it," says Green, adding that he was not too worried about not being able to label it. "I think the fact that we don't have a particular name for our genre is the best way to be as a band."
Try listening to their music and you wouldn't be too bothered about the genre either. The music stays with you and you want to listen to it on loop, whether it's the haunting tunes of "Taro" or the edginess of "Hunger of the Pine" where their fan Miley Cyrus can be heard singing "I'm a female rebel".
Green, the drummer, says he listened to a lot of grunge and metal growing up but it's now mostly electronic, hip-hop and experimental music. Incidentally, he suffers from a rare genetic disorder that has affected his hearing. "I'm about 80 per cent deaf," he had said in a 2014 Rolling Stone article. Unger-Hamilton's early influences were from the indie music scene, like The Strokes, while Newman says he used to listen to a lot of hip-hop and trip-hop. The band has released two albums so far - their first, An Awesome Wave, sold over a million copies and scooped up the Mercury Prize while their latest, This Is All Yours, topped the charts in the United Kingdom.
"The Indian audience is increasingly looking at alternate music and new sounds. We're also being a bit ahead of the curve by bringing in a band like alt-J," says Jaideep Singh, senior vice-president at LIVE Viacom 18, which is organising the music festival. Singh is expecting a crowd of 8,000-10,000 and says Emerge would be looking at having two festivals a year, apart from club tours.
As for alt-J, they say they are looking forward to their first trip to India. "We are super excited to come there. Cannot wait to try some of the much talked about Indian cuisine," says Newman.
Alt-J will be performing on February 28 in Bengaluru and on March 1 in Gurgaon. The Emerge festival will also host other artistes, such as Rudimental DJ, Daniel Waples featuring The Petebox, Parvaaz and Advaita.
Details available at www.liveatemerge.com/festival
