[Interview] alt-J: the relaxed and cerebral pop of the English

We met Alt-J 2 hours before his appearance on the stage of the Fête du bruit in Landerneau. We discussed their music and experience with humor and without complex. The English are as welcoming as their music is atypical. They have this trick, to make emotions shiver with unexpected notes, both in a quiet and catchy piece. And always under their clearly identifiable signature. 

Gus and Joe stand up, shake my hand before sitting on the red couch in their dressing room.

Good evening Alt-J, where is Thom [drummer]?

Joe [singer, guitarist]: Thom concentrates before the show. He is visualizing his battery, he jokes (or not, difficult to say since he seems to breathe the second degree like others oxygen).

"Influence is everywhere."

Joe: I like your t-shirt, what is it?

Sylak, a hardcore and metal festival. In any case, yours, I know where it comes from!

Joe wears a T-shirt from the Montreux Jazz festival, which he will keep to play two hours later.

He smiles.

Joe: That's cool huh!

Gus and Joe, during the last concert on Friday, August 17 in Landerneau (photo credit: La Fête du Bruit)

Where do you get your influence from in contemporary music?

Gus [keyboard, vocals]: It's hard to say, we love listening to music and the influence is everywhere. It is inevitable.

Do you listen to the radio?

Gus: I listen to the BBC. Musically, old and new things…

Joe: No, I'll be streaming more on platforms like Spotify. I listen to everything.

Which of your music do you prefer to play?

Joe, without hesitation: The new album. 

Gus: Breezeblocks. It's always the last piece of the set. That means that after Breezeblocks, I drink a beer!

"We made 2 first clips for Matilda."

Breezeblocks is also my favorite song. About the success of the first album [An Awesome Wave, 2012], I have a pretty specific question, about the video clip of Matilda. What is the link between the clip, where we see your faces to all 4 (Gwil Sainsbury left the group in 2014) transform to successively take the form of that of others, and the music on Matilda, character of the film Léon by Luc Besson?

Gus: It's funny that you ask, because there's a story behind it. We made two videos before, they were super expensive, and we didn't like them at all.

Joe: They were too naïve, too cliché. It was crap, you write that, huh, you write that those first two videos were.

Gus: We didn't have any more money to spend on the Matilda music video so we made the video you know, which didn't cost us anything.

And then you like that one.

Joe: Not even that. She's just less crappy than the others. Those two clips were really crap.

"I would do a cricket album."

Do you have personal projects next to Alt-J, or even solo career?

Gus: At home, we all do a bit of personal stuff. But it's not meant to be shared with an audience, not yet yet. We'il see. If I made an album by myself, I would do it on cricket. I don't play cricket, but I love it. Do you play cricket in France?

Rather golf.

Gus: Yes it's pretty close.

… And then football. [intervention by Titi, official translator of the Fête du Bruit]

Joe: You're not even too bad at it.

Alt-J has any new plans after the tour?

Gus: Not really, when the tour is over, we take a break.

Joe: Yesterday we were home, tomorrow [August 18] we play in Hamburg. The Fête du Bruit is our last date in France.

So far, what is your best tour memory?

Joe: I love being on tour. There are rarely ups and downs, it's a bit the same all the time… A better memory? I would say Glastonbury.

Gus: Glastonbury.

And your worst tour memory?

Gus: At the beginning of our career, we did a show and nobody came to see us. P E R S O N N E. Besides, it was my birthday.

Joe: It's fun to think about it in hindsight, but in the moment, it's much less fun.

There weren't even your moms?

Joe: No, they couldn't come to all the shows.

"We're talking about essential topics that don't get old."

Thom during the concert in Landerneau, with a Marilyn Manson t-shirt (photo credit: La Fête du Bruit)

Alt-J in three words each?

Joe: Angry. No, I'm kidding. Cerebral. Experimental.

Gus: It's pop heritage.

I said one after the other.

Joe, without listening to me: That's it, out of time. We are talking about essential subjects, which do not age. Drink, love…

Gus: Fantastic, absolutely brilliant. [laughs]

Joe: Cerebral, experimental, timeless.

We're going to keep those three. Real teamwork, just like making music together.

Joe: Exactly!

Thanks to Alt-J and the organization of the Fête du Bruit in Landerneau for this meeting.