Alt-J have today been announced as one of 12 UK artists to be nominated for the Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize for their stunning debut album ‘An Awesome Wave’. Alt-J are alongside acts such as Jessie Ware, Richard Hawley and Lianne La Havas to be nominated for the coveted prize. The Barclaycard Mercury Awards recognises UK albums of the year, regardless of sales, media hype and mainstream success and chooses artists from a range of genres. The winner of the Album of The Year will be announced at the Awards Show at The Roundhouse on 1 November.
Joe Newman, lead-singer and guitarist in Alt-J, says of the nomination “it’s pretty amazing actually, I’m pretty stunned. To be in that screenshot of great British albums from 2012… to be involved in that is great. We’re just really stoked. We can’t wait to go to the party, get pissed and have a great time; enjoy everyone’s company and soak it all up.”
The nomination comes after a hugely successful year for Alt-J. Their critically acclaimed album ‘An Awesome Wave’ crash landed into the Top 20 in June whilst peaking at #3 on iTunes, making it one of the biggest debuts of the year so far. Live wise the band are going from strength to strength seeing them rapidly sell out both their headline Autumn UK tour and two dates at O2 Shepherds Bush Empire in January. Alt-J have also recently announced a new UK tour for May 2013 seeing them play their biggest headline show to date at London’s O2 Academy Brixton on 16th May, 2012. This summer Alt-J have been in high demand playing a plethora of UK and international festivals including T in the Park, Latitude, Green Man, Bestival, Ibiza & Mallorca Rocks and Reading and Leeds. Alt-J have just embarked on a huge North America tour through September and October before returning for their Autumn UK dates.
alt-J are Gwil Sainsbury [guitar/bass], Joe Newman [guitar/vocals], Gus Unger-Hamilton [keyboards] and Thom Green [drums].
