Alt-J have revealed that Miley Cyrus is a fan of the band.

The UK indie group recently unveiled the new song 'Hunger of the Pine' and it turned heads by featuring a sample of the US star.

However, the band's frontman Joe Newman told DIY that the sample came about after Cyrus asked their drummer Thom Green to remix her 2013 song '4X4'.

He said: "I was playing the guitar and Thom was responding to what I was doing on Ableton and before we knew it, we'd come up with this really interesting structure, and I came up with lyrics for it quite quickly.

"Subconsciously - although we weren't aware of it - what we were writing after listening to the remix had the same key as the remix, and the same pace. So, when we had established the boundaries of that song, we looked back on the remix...and that [line] 'I'm a female rebel' just came up and I was like...'Can we try using it?'."

Speaking meanwhile about Cyrus' thoughts on the sample, Newman added:

"She was cool with it. She's been really supportive of us, and she's a fan...For us, it just adds that unexpected element to it."

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Listen to Alt-J's new song below: