Jump to content

Klaxons

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Scam (talk | contribs) at 10:31, 3 April 2007. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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, and most commonly refers to air-raid sirens or other warning devices. The core band members hail from the provincial UK towns of Straford-Upon-Avon (James Righton and Simon Taylor) and Bournemouth (Jamie Reynolds).

The band's debut album Myths of the Near Future was released on January 29, 2007 following the release of single "Golden Skans" on January 22 of the same year.

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.

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

Formation

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

The lineup was recently bolstered with the addition of drummer Steffan Halperin, originally recruited for live gigs after appearing on the track "Atlantis To Interzone" (the rest of the percussion on Myths of the Near Future was provided by the album's producer James Ford). As of early 2007 Halperin had become a quasi-official fourth member of the band, being listed on the Klaxons myspace page[1] and present in several interviews. However, he remains mostly absent from the band's music videos, appearing only in the early video "Atlantis to Interzone" and the 2007 re-release of "Gravity's Rainbow".

'New Rave'

HMV describes Klaxons as "acid-rave sci-fi punk-funk", while their MySpace page touts 'Psychedelic / Progressive / Pop'. They are one of the isolated acts being referred to as 'New Rave', a genre term coined by Angular Records founder Joe Daniel, who released the trio's first single. Though the band's sound is decidedly art rock, 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 perhaps most evident in their cover of novelty rave hit "The Bouncer" by Kicks Like a Mule and 'Not Over Yet' by Grace.

The lyrics and music are often supernatural and magic-realist in content and theme, 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). The original name of Klaxons comes from a line in the art text the Futurist Manifesto.


While the band is consistently hailed as the defining act of the sparsely-populated New Rave musical movement, Klaxons have worked to avoid being typecast as champions of a genre that, depending on who you ask, may or may not exist. Even so, Klaxons member Jamie Reynolds expressed no regrets at the dubious honor, saying that "...it's great that it started as an in-joke and became a minor youth subculture."[2]


Discography

Albums

EPs

Singles

Compilations

Music Videos

Awards

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

Angular / Merok Records

Klaxons' debut single, "Gravity's Rainbow" was released in April 2006 on Angular Records. Only 500 copies were released, and all were printed on a 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 enjoyed 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.[3]

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.

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 played alongside members of Pull Tiger Tail in the band Hollywood Is A Verb, which was 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 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!"[4] They have still not been confirmed as one of the three bands to support them on both dates.
  • The 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 Klaxons' Live Lounge session [5]).
  • 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.


Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Klaxons&oldid=119940484"