’I’m not trying to be Freddie Mercury but looking at your shoes and playing isn’t good enough’

predecessor This Is All Yours into the US Top 10. And Gus, rather than lead vocalist Joe Newman, has come to the fore live. “When we started out playing live we were pretty shoegazey,” he says. “The first year of gigging we used to play sitting down.

“Our songs are quite complicated. There’s not a lot of space to mess up when you play an Alt-J song live. But now I’m the person who talks to the crowd. Joe doesn’t do that now.”

“It’s still difficult to do the ‘how you guys doing?’ or getting everyone to clap... so embarrassing.