Alt-J on tackling “harrowing” experiences on new album 'The Dream'

Alt-J have opened up about the dark themes they explored on their upcoming fourth album ‘The Dream’.

The record has so far been previewed with lead single ‘U&ME’, which is about “having a good time, togetherness, and the feeling in life that nothing could be any better than it is right now”.

During a new interview with The Guardian, however, Alt-J spoke about how their forthcoming LP takes a “doomy, dramatic” turn, as the outlet described it.

“We experience a lot of harrowing things in our lives,” explained frontman Joe Newman. “They build up and you write about them in time, and you come up with ideas that fit those emotions and you put it all together.”

‘Losing My Mind’ was inspired by a traumatic experience Newman went through in his teens, with the singer delving into the mind of a serial killer for the track.

“I try to avoid talking about it too much, but a friend of mine’s sister was murdered,” he explained. “It was really a horrible thing to go through as a group of friends, but I think I’ve always been kind of drawn to that in some kind of weird, traumatic way.”

As for the upcoming single ‘Get Better’, Newman revealed that the song was written about the death of a partner and “the true horrors of what COVID-19 could do”.

Elsewhere, the conversation turned to the frontman’s fascination with true crime podcast My Favorite Murder.

“Feeling unsafe is something that’s quite foreign for men,” he said. “I think learning about these kind of things and being a fraternity of people that can gain ways of understanding how to protect yourself or stand up for yourself, I think it’s really empowering.”

Alt-J’s ‘The Dream’ is set for release on February 11 – pre-order/pre-save it here.