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 They’re
probably responsible for increasing sales of glowsticks. New Cross noise
makers, Klaxons have also been dubbed leaders of the ‘new rave’ scene. Although it was singer/bassist Jamie Reynolds
who jokingly coined the term, keyboardist James Righton explains that ‘new
rave’ is about more than just a musical style.
"New rave as a tag was something that
from day one I was never that interested in. The connotations that come with it
are pretty negative, “he says. “But
there’s an aspect to it which I like which is the atmosphere at our gigs and
trying to make them into an event and less focus on the band and us. That’s the idea. People go to these places to
enjoy themselves. That element was what it was, but to define the music that
way, kind of missed the mark”.
A
lot has happened for the trio (including guitarist Simon Taylor) since the conception of the band twelve months ago.
They’ve independently released 7“singles Gravity’s Rainbow and Atlantis to
Interzone, and are about to release their third one, Magick. They’ve also been
gigging non stop, having recently headlined the NME Presents Tour as well
playing storming sets at Reading and Leeds festivals.
There
were several record labels wining and dining the buzz band of the moment, desperate
for them to sign them. But in the
end it was Universal label Polydor that won them over.
“It’s all about who’s going to be looking
after your record when you’re going to be putting something else. Who are you
going to trust with your record? Who do you think is going to do the best job
for it? Who’s going to work as hard as they possibly can to make it work? We really got a strong feel of that from the
team at Polydor. The offices when we met them, they came with two guys and two
girls,” explains James. “It might
sound weird but when you meet most of these record labels they’re all male
dominated, it’s depressing. There’s something about sensibility or something
like that, it’s good to have women there for a start. It’s a good for the
mindset. It’s just how things work. It’s
a bit weird to think about a record that’s going to be plugged by a load of men
in an office – it’s a bit boys’ club”.
They’re
putting the finishing touches to their eagerly awaited debut album Myths Of The
Near Future, due out early 2007. It was recorded in Hastings
(“We got away from London
because there were too many distractions”) with producer du jour and one half
of Simian Mobile Disco, James Ford.
“We kind of spent the days watching MTV2 and
playing ridiculous amount of pool. We spent virtually the night recording. The
album was virtually done before we went in there, but there were a couple of
tracks that we kind of recorded in the studio that we brought in and worked out
there. It was good because we had a couple of times where we could experiment a
little bit more and just sat around making noises with each other,” recalls
James. “It was just very comfortable, the
atmosphere he [James Ford] created in the studio and he’d try things out and
stuff and if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.
He’s got good taste in music as well, we learnt a lot off him. He’s got
the studio techniques down to a T and he knows what he’s doing”.
They’re also well aware of what people might be
expecting.
“Some people might stand there and say it’s not
a rave record, but that was never its intention. What we set out from day one to say we’re a
pop band making pop music and trying to do something interesting and different,
pop music as subversive kind of dark pop music. It’s so funny because some people
are like ‘it’s not this, it’s not that’. That’s beside the point,” says
James. “The point is: do you like it? Is it music you enjoy? It’s not about what is should be, that’s all
bullsh*t. We set out to do eleven pop
songs, eleven songs that show all different sides and a balanced album as a
whole”.
So
it appears to be a particularly busy time for the neon clad heroes. Although Magick has barely had time to warm
the store shelves, they’re due to film the video for their next single soon.
“We’re going to be on trampolines bouncing
and singing the lyrics. The backdrop is going to have a real Jackson 5 ‘Can You Feel’ it vibe and we’re
going to have shadows,” enthuses James.” We’re going to shoot it using a similar camera to the one they use in
nature documentaries, takes loads of shots, and the effect is that it looks
rally beautiful and delicate and the movement’s are really precise. It’ll mean
that we’ll spend all day bouncing on a trampoline so I can’t wait”.
Magick is out on the 30th October.
For more info: www.myspace.com/klaxons
Words: Helen Duong
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