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Klaxons

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Klaxons

Klaxons are an English band, currently based in London, with a large underground following. The word 'klaxon' derives from the Greek verb klazō, meaning "to shriek".

Their original name of Klaxons (Not Centaurs) comes from a line in the art text the Futurist Manifesto.

Their debut album, titled Myths of the Near Future, was released on January 29, 2007 following the single "Golden Skans", which was released on January 22, 2007.

Although often tagged as a "London band", the three core members actually hail from the provincial UK towns of Stratford-Upon-Avon (James Righton and Simon Taylor-Davis, who attended school together in the town), and Bournemouth (Jamie Reynolds).

Klaxons headlined the NME indie rave tour starting in February 2007. The London date at Hammersmith Palais sold out in two days. They have also had promising early success in Europe, Japan and Australia, selling out tours in November 2006, and upcoming sell-out headline UK dates in May 2007.

Formation

The band formed almost by accident, through mutual acquaintances of both Simon and Jamie.

Simon Taylor grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon. He was taught guitar by James, who was in the year below him at school. He studied Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University and was approached by Jamie Reynolds, the boyfriend of one of his housemates, to form a band.

Jamie Reynolds, grew up in Bournemouth and Southampton and was active in several bands from his early teens, most notably the band Thermal. The bands quickly dissolved, however, and he dropped out of school to work in record shops over the next few years, studying philosophy at the same time. He moved to London after he was made redundant, spending his redundancy money on a studio kit in order to record with Simon and James under their early guise of Klaxons (Not Centaurs).

James Righton, like Simon, also grew up in Stratford-Upon-Avon, working every summer on the canal boats in Stratford-upon-Avon. His interest in music was fuelled by his musician father. After studying history and politics at Cardiff University, he spent some time in Madrid teaching English, arriving back in the UK on the invitation of Simon to join the band as they needed another vocalist/instrumentalist.

The line up was recently bolstered by the addition of drummer Steffan Halperin, originally recruited as a drummer for their live gigs after he recorded the drums for the track "Atlantis To Interzone" on their album (the rest of the percussion on the album was recorded by the album's producer James Ford). As of early 2007, he has been, more or less, the official fourth member, listed on the band's myspace page[1] and present in several interviews. He is, however, mostly absent from the band's music videos, appearing only in the early video "Atlantis to Interzone" and briefly in the 2007 remake of "Gravity's Rainbow".

Band members

  • Jamie Reynolds (Born 1980)

Vocals, bass guitar

  • Simon Taylor-Davis, also credited as Simon Taylor (born 1982)

Guitar, backing vocals

  • James Righton (born 1983)

Vocals, keyboards/synthesizers, bass guitar

  • Steffan Halperin (born 1985)

Drums, backing vocals

Angular / Merok Records

Their debut single, "Gravity's Rainbow" was released in April 2006 on Angular Records. Only 500 copies were released on 7" vinyl decorated by the band themselves. The band's second single, "Atlantis to Interzone" was the first release for new label Merok and led to further coverage in the NME and even had BBC Radio 1 daytime play from Jo Whiley, who repeatedly, and mistakenly, called the song "Atlantic To Interscope".

They released their first EP, Xan Valleys in the UK on October 16, 2006 with Modular.

Polydor Records

In 2006, they signed to Polydor Records. Their first single for the label, "Magick", was released on October 30, 2006 and reached #29 in the UK Top 40 the following week.

In August 2006, Klaxons played at the Reading and Leeds festivals, playing in the Carling tent on each festival site. The Carling tent, at both festivals, is the smallest stage and as a result large numbers of people were forced to watch from outside the tent. Fans sounded "Klaxons!" and cheered loudly between songs, brandishing glo-sticks, seemingly giving credit to the "new rave" bandwagon label. This term was coined by Angular Records founder Joe Daniel and later used by NME to describe the burgeoning scene.

On January 24, 2007, Klaxons performed on the UK BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge, performing their single "Golden Skans" and a cover of Justin Timberlake's "My Love", to great acclaim from disc jockey Jo Whiley.[2]

The first single from their debut album, "Golden Skans", was released on January 22, 2007. It reached #16 in the UK Singles Chart on download sales on January 14 (two weeks before the release of the CD) and climbed to #14 the next week, eventually reaching #7 after the CD release.

Their debut album, titled Myths of the Near Future, was released on January 29, 2007 and produced by James Ford. It entered the UK album charts at #2.

Style

HMV describes Klaxons as "acid-rave sci-fi punk-funk", while on their MySpace page they are described as 'Psychedelic / Progressive / Pop'. they are one of the bands dubbed part of the 'New Rave' movement, a term coined by Angular Records founder Joe Daniel who released their first single. Although the accessible side of their sound shows the influence of the art rock explosion of the 2000s, they draw upon some less common influences, notably the rave culture of the 1990s, which they appropriate and redefine in a post-modern fashion. This is most evident in their cover version of the novelty rave hit, "The Bouncer" by Kicks Like a Mule and a further cover of 'Not Over Yet' by Grace. They also have a taste for the supernatural and magic-realist, as evidenced by songs names such as "As Above, So Below" (a Grant Morrison Invisibles reference), "Atlantis To Interzone" (a William Burroughs reference), "Magick" (Aleister Crowley) "4 Horsemen of 2012" and "Gravity's Rainbow" (a Thomas Pynchon reference).

Band member Jamie stated that there weren't any regrets for coining the term "new-rave" to the band - "...it's great that it started as an in-joke and became a minor youth subculture."[3]

Discography

Albums

EPs

Singles

Compilations

Music Videos

Awards

The band won the Best New Band award at the 2007 NME Awards.

Trivia

  • Members of Klaxons used to share a house with Pull Tiger Tail in New Cross, South-East London.
  • Simon Taylor-Davis and James Righton, alongside members of Pull Tiger Tail, were in the band Hollywood Is A Verb, who were very briefly active during the summer of 2004.
  • The album cover featured in the 2006 version of the video clip for "Gravity's Rainbow" (during the babies scene) is an album by Frankie Valli and his band The Four Seasons.
  • Dominic Howard and Matthew Bellamy of the band Muse are big fans of Klaxons, according to an interview in the NME, and have been to a number of their gigs. They also recently asked Jamie of Klaxons if they would support them for their two Wembley stadium concerts to which he reportedly replied "nah, we don't support anyone" (as reported by the band on a recent Drowned In Sound podcast). The band, who afterwards expressed regret stating alcohol to be a factor in their refusal of the support slot, have since been re-approached and confirmed that they in fact do wish to play with Muse. Matthew Bellamy has re-opened his offer to Klaxons to support them at the upcoming Wembley gig, when he became aware of the confusion he told NME: "Is that what they've said? Well OK, if they're still up for it, we'll bring them on!"[5] They have still not been confirmed as one of the three bands to support them on both dates.
  • Their promotional video for "Golden Skans" was directed by Saam Farahmand and heavily influenced by the video for 'Can You Feel It' by The Jackson 5.
  • Their song "Gravity's Rainbow" appears in the videogames Tony Hawk's Project 8 and Project Gotham Racing 3.
  • Simon studied Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University, where he received a First Class Honours Degree. He was also head boy at his secondary school (as mentioned on Jo Whiley's Show on BBC Radio 1 during their Live Lounge session [6]).
  • James studied History and Politics at the University of Cardiff.
  • Jamie started, but did not complete, a Philosophy degree at Greenwich University.
  • James Ford, of Simian Mobile Disco, provided the drums and percussion on the majority of the songs (excepting Atlantis To Interzone) on their debut album, on top of his producing duties.


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