Alt-J fans finally find out what band's name means after nearly two decades

Daily Mirror

4 days ago

Alt-J have been making music for almost two decades and have won a number of awards - but some fans are only just learning the meaning behind their unique band name
Alt-J enthusiasts might have been bopping to their tunes for years, yet many remain clueless about the meaning behind the band's name. The indie rockers, who formed in 2007 and consist of Joe Newman, Thom Sonny Green, Gus Unger-Hamilton, and previously Gwil Sainsbury, have made waves in the music scene.
Their first album, 'An Awesome Wave', scooped up the prestigious 2012 British Mercury Prize, catapulting them into stardom across Europe and the States. Hits like 'Fitzpleasure', 'Deadcrush', 'Something Good', 'Breezeblocks', 'Tessellate', 'Taro', and 'Interlude II' have become anthems for many, but the origin of their enigmatic name has left some fans on Reddit utterly gobsmacked upon discovery.
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The truth is, Alt-J' s real moniker is the delta symbol ∆, a nod to change in mathematical terms. Mac users can replicate this by hitting Alt-J on their keyboards.
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Gus Unger-Hamilton revealed to FMQB the quirky genesis of their name: "Gwil discovered the alt-J shortcut on his computer, which creates the 'delta' symbol, and he thought we should call our band just the delta symbol, which is a triangle in the Greek alphabet."
He added, "That was kind of our band name, but we chose to pronounce it alt-J because we knew being played on the radio, you need to really give your band a name that is spoken and not just written.
"So it was going to be said 'alt-J' and written like a triangle or a delta. But now the delta symbol remains as sort of a masthead for the band."
A Reddit user was left impressed after realising the indie band Alt-J (∆) got their name from the Mac keyboard shortcut for the delta sign, stating: "Today I learnt the band Alt-J (∆) was named after the command for making a delta sign with a Mac computer."
Another chimed in with a fun fact about keyboard layouts: "On the Danish keyboard layout, they should be called Alt-k. Alt-j makes an arrow and not the delta sign."
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One fan expressed their enthusiasm for the Leeds-based outfit, saying: "I really like Alt-J. Love both of their albums and I am really excited for their next one. Probably too early to say but 3WW might actually be my favourite song of theirs (it was Nara before, and Taro before that)."
Throwing in their two pence, another added: "I remember when Alt J was first getting big that they were always getting compared to Radiohead and at one point they even bragged about being better than Radiohead, because they started off making a better album than Radiohead did."
They continued: "Anyway, I think they are pretty good but not really a favourite band of mine since I mostly only dig their debut album which is phenomenal. I will listen to their next album, but the lead single was a bit boring to me and their second album was underwhelming, so my expectations are not very high (I'd love to be pleasantly surprised though...)".
Finally, a third user couldn't help but gush over the band's first major release: "I love Alt-J! One of my absolute favourite bands. An Awesome Wave is a work of art from start to finish, probably my favourite debut album from any band. As for This Is All Yours, there's some filler in there in my opinion but the stronger songs on it are superb, namely 'Nara' and 'Intro'.
"New album got me pretty hyped, and I liked 3ww a lot. Extra awesome was the fact they worked with Ellie Rowsell from Wolf Alice which for me is a very cool collaboration. Certainly an interesting direction for them to go in, it seems. Could be the album that defines them."