It’s hard to believe that it’s been more than 2 years since Alt-J’s buzzing debut An Awesome Wave won the mercury prize and pretty much the heart of every indie pop kid. Following the bands success, band founder and bass player Gwil Sainsbury departed the band leaving many to ponder where the band would go from there. Five months later the band would announce the follow up to their successful debut in the form of This Is All Yours. Not long after the band would release the first single off the album. Sampled from a Miley Cyrus song and accompanied by a video that pays homage to The Hunger Games, Hunger of the Pine gave fans what they wanted, a fresh new song that is yet typical for Alt-J. The recent release of their second record, This Is All Yours, sees the band head on their biggest headline tour to date.
Alt-J (∆)’s name takes a little explaining. Pronounced “alt-J”, the delta sign is created when you hold down the alt key on your computer keyboard and punch ‘J’ on a Mac computer (that goes for QWERTY keyboards, mind you). While the greek letter delta (∆) has become an identifying symbol for every hipster out there, it has a deeper meaning for the band, “in mathematical equations it’s used to show change,” and the band’s relatively new name came at a turning point in their lives. In fact, it’s a rather telling name because their music is an indie pop game changer.
