MC: Are any of you ever surprised in the studio by what you go in with and what you come out with?
Newman: We expect songs to come out taller, stronger, better than when they went into the studio. We know that working with Charlie we’re able to beef-up our songs in this particular alt-J way. We know that with him we can try several different things.
MC: How involved is the band with mixing and mastering?
Unger-Hamilton: Mixing is something that we’re very involved with. It’s an important process to experience. But mastering is something that’s so technical that we wouldn’t be able to contribute much to it. When our first album was about to go into mastering, someone suggested that we attend the session because it would be the best that we’d ever hear our record sound. So we went and it’s true: you’re listening to your record in a room that’s built exclusively for the perfection of sound. That was a cool thing to do.
MC: Infectious Records was acquired by BMG Rights Management in September. How do you guys feel about that? Will it be an advantage?
Newman: It’s not a big consideration for us. We were surprised [by the acquisition] but if Infectious is happy, then we’re happy. We don’t want to get too involved in the business side of things. We’ll be working with the same people at Infectious, so hopefully things won’t change; it’ll be a seamless move.
MC: There is a This Is All Yours app that allows access to the album when the user is in specific locations. Whose idea was that and how did it come about? Why only specific locations?
Unger-Hamilton: That was suggested to us by Infectious. They took the idea from [the late English singer/songwriter] Ian Dury. There’s a bench in London that gave him his favorite view of the city. He’d go there and listen to his music. We thought we’d do something like that, but with a bunch of benches. We found a company called Blast that would allow us to stream our record to specific geographic locations.
Newman: As a band, we like to be ahead of the curve on things like that. We did a similar thing last year at our concerts where we allowed fans to purchase a high quality, professionally edited video of the show they’d just attended. We like to be early adopters of new technology.
[Note: In 2002, a “musical bench” was placed in one of Dury’s favorite vantage points in Poets’ Corner in Richmond Park, southwest of London.]
MC: Founding member and original bassist Gwil Sainsbury left alt-J earlier this year. We understand that Cameron Knight is now a support member, but not a full member of the band. What led to this choice?
Unger-Hamilton: We needed another musician for our live shows. We couldn’t do it with just us three. We held auditions and Cameron was our first guy. We got on really well and he learned all of the material. Also, he was a similar height to the rest of the group, which was nice because Gwil was tiny. It was a good match and he’s now on tour with us in a purely session-musician kind of role. That’s how we’ll do it from now on: the four of us on the road and the three of us [including drummer Thom Green] in the studio.
Newman: We’ve been a band for seven years now. You can’t find [a replacement] at the drop of a hat and say, “You’re now in the band.” We feel strong enough to continue as a threesome. Cameron is our session musician who joins us on tour.
MC: What are your thoughts about the future—for the band and for the industry in general?
Newman: The industry is too big for people to freak out over the Internet. At the moment, the industry is finding its feet again and realizing how to make money from the Internet, which has been its biggest challenge over the last 10 years.
Unger-Hamilton: The profits filter down and there are ways that artists can make money. It works at both ends for everyone. And now people can access music so much easier than they ever could and that’s the main thing; you can always make money from that. But we’re kind of making it up as we go along. Things are changing so fast that there’s no proper plan in place. It’ll be interesting to watch things develop.
Contact Jim Merlis via http://bighassle.com
