Three things you probably didn't know about alt-J

Image: Facebook.com/altj

Earlier this week, as British rockers alt-J wrapped up their five-city Australia tour, two fans in Canada hit YouTube fame when their parody on 'how to write an Alt-J song' went viral. While most fans would chuckle at the band's sound being compared to mumblings created on a looper while chomping rice cakes (given the indecipherable quality of Joe Newman's vocals), the band too shared a laugh by changing their Twitter picture to the said snack.

Formed in 2007, the band's spacey and mellow folktronica-tinged sound that marries folk with rock and bass-heavy electronica has been featured in shows like Weeds and Suits. Comprising Newman on vocals, Gus Unger-Hamilton on keyboards and Thom Green on drums, alt-J, who are now accompanied by Cameron Knight on bass, have been touring relentlessly this year—they've performed at big ticket festivals like Coachella, and are slated to play Glastonbury and Lollapalooza, Chicago soon.

After playing in Bengaluru this February, the Grammy-nominated, Mercury Prize-winning band returns to perform in Mumbai and Delhi this weekend as part of the Emerge Music Festival.

Vogue spoke to keyboardist Unger-Hamilton on email about a few things that even diehard fans, who can decipher what Newman is singing in "Fitzpleasure," may not know:

Image: Ankita Chandra/Vogue

They may be over the delta sign already: alt-J taught most luddites of our generation that pressing Alt+J command on a Mac produces the greek letter, ∆—the sign they are christened after. At their gigs, fans swap heart-shaped gestures common at EDM shows to raise a triangle-shaped hand sign instead, but this may change soon: "The delta sign was just something we thought looked cool a few years ago. We've definitely stopped pushing it so much on this album campaign. Largely because of all the questions about the so-called Illuminati," says Unger-Hamilton.

They loved the Spice Girls: Possibly the only band in 2015 that lists Spice Girls among their all-time favourites, the keyboardist clarifies that it is no big inside joke. "They [Spice Girls] were the group everyone was into in our early years, so I guess they're in our consciousness somewhere. And we've never shied away from pop," he adds.

They have done many strange things: Playing an occasional round of Jenga before a show maybe one of their quirks, but with alt-J it doesn't end there. One of their weirdest shows, according to Unger-Hamilton, was in Iceland when they were "playing in a viking barn dressed as vikings. It was definitely surreal". He confesses that the one thing the group bonds over is their love for the salty British food spread, Marmite. "We don't have any gig rituals as such, but we tend to wear dark colours because it works better with the light show," he adds.

alt-J performs as part of VH1's Emerge Music Festival in Delhi on May 21 and Mumbai on May 22. Book your tickets here. alt-J are also on Twitter.