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Klaxons

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Klaxons

Klaxons are an English band, currently based in London. The word 'klaxon' is derived 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 English towns of Bournemouth (Jamie Reynolds) and Stratford-Upon-Avon (James Righton and Simon Taylor). They are currently signed to Rinse Records, their own branch of Polydor Records in the U.K. They are also signed to Geffen/DGC Records in the United States, Modular Records in Australia and Because Music in France (who also act as licensee for Jarvis Cocker & Faithless).

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. The album was produced by James Ford, of Simian Mobile Disco (who also provided the drums and percussion for the album, on all tracks with the exception of "Atlantis To Interzone" which was done by Steffan Halperin). On July 17, 2007, the album was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.[1]

Klaxons headlined the NME Indie Rave Tour starting in February 2007, which sold out the Hammersmith Palais in London in just two days. They have also had promising early success in Europe, Japan, and Australia selling out tours in November 2006. The band has recently completed their own sell-out tour of America and then continued to do the same on their UK tour throughout May 2007. The band are currently taking part in a number of UK and Ireland Festivals, such as Glastonbury, T in the Park, Oxegen, the O2 Wireless Festival and Reading and Leeds. They also recently played Rock Werchter in Belgium on June 30, 2007 and Roskilde Festival in Denmark on July 6, 2007.


History

Formation (2005 - 2006)

Simon Taylor-Davis 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 bands Thermal and Real/Sweet/Deal. 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)"[2].

James Righton, like Simon, grew up in Stratford-Upon-Avon, working every summer on the river cruise and hire 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. Alongside members of Pull Tiger Tail (whom they had shared a flat with in New Cross) James and Simon had previously been in a band together called 'Hollywood is a Verb' which was very briefly active during the summer of 2004.

The lineup was recently bolstered with the addition of drummer Steffan Halperin (former drummer Finnigan Kidd left to focus on another band, Hatcham Social [3]), who was 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 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 briefly in the 2007 re-release of "Gravity's Rainbow".

Angular/Merok/Modular Records (2006)

Klaxons' debut single, "Gravity's Rainbow" was released on March 29, 2006 on Angular Records. Only 500 copies were released, and all were printed on a 7" vinyl decorated by the band themselves. Radio 1's Steve Lamacq was the first DJ to play the band and band recorded a Maida Vale session for his show on the strength of 'Gravity's Rainbow'. The band's second single, "Atlantis to Interzone", was released on June 12 of the same year. It was their first release for new label Merok and led to further coverage in the NME. The song enjoyed even more radio coverage including play from Zane Lowe and daytime BBC Radio 1 plays from disc jockey Jo Whiley, who repeatedly, and mistakenly, called the song "Atlantic To Interscope". Zane Lowe also wrongly credited the song as "Atlantis To Interscope"[4].

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

Polydor Records (2006 - present)

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

In August of that year, 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 glowsticks, seemingly giving credit to the "New Rave" (see below) bandwagon label. This term was coined by Angular Records founder Joe Daniel and later used by NME to describe the burgeoning scene.

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 alone, two weeks before the official release of the CD. It climbed to #14 the next week, eventually peaking at #7 after the CD release. On January 24, Klaxons performed on the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge, performing "Golden Skans" and a cover of Justin Timberlake's "My Love", to great acclaim from Jo Whiley[5].

Their debut album, titled Myths of the Near Future, was released on January 29, 2007. It entered the UK Album Charts at #2, beaten only by Norah Jones's album Not Too Late.

The band have recently collaborated with The Chemical Brothers on the track "All Rights Reversed", taken from the duo's new album We Are the Night and have expressed on several occasions an interest in working with Dr. Dre or Snoop Dogg on their follow up album (plans for which have not yet been finalized).[6]

'New Rave'

Klaxons in concert, 2007.
Main article: New Rave

HMV describes Klaxons as "acid-rave sci-fi punk-funk", while their MySpace page touts 'Psychedelic / Progressive / Pop'. However, 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. Their influences are perhaps most represented in their covers of rave hits "The Bouncer" by Kicks Like a Mule and "Not Over Yet" by Grace. Both tracks have since been released by the band, the first as part of a double a-side with "Gravity's Rainbow" in March 2006 and the latter as a single on June 25, 2007 titled "It's Not Over Yet".

While the band are consistently hailed as the defining act of the sparsely-populated New Rave movement, Klaxons have worked to avoid being typecast as champions of the disputed genre that 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"[7]

Musical Style

Klaxons' music is often supernatural and magic-realist in theme, as shown in a number of song titles and lyrical content. Examples of this are "As Above, So Below" (favourite saying of Aleister Crowley), "Atlantis to Interzone" (a William Burroughs reference), "Magick" (Crowley) and "Four Horsemen of 2012"/"Gravity's Rainbow" (Thomas Pynchon references). The original name of Klaxons comes from a line in the art text, The Futurist Manifesto. "Forgotten Works" also contains references and lines from Richard Brautigan's In Watermelon Sugar.

Discography

Albums

EPs

Singles

Date of Release Title Uk Top 40 Chart Position Album
March 29 2006 "Gravity's Rainbow" / "The Bouncer" N/A N/A
June 12, 2006 "Atlantis to Interzone" N/A N/A
October 30, 2006 "Magick" 29 Myths of the Near Future
January 22, 2007 "Golden Skans" 7 Myths of the Near Future
April 9, 2007 "Gravity's Rainbow" (Re-recording) 35 Myths of the Near Future
June 25, 2007 "It's Not Over Yet" 13 Myths of the Near Future

Contributions

Covers

Awards

References

  1. ^ "Mercury Music Prize: The nominees". BBC News. Retrieved 2007-07-19.
  2. ^ "Band Name History". From Klaxons Profile on mp3.com. Retrieved 2007-06-26. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ "Klaxons on FasterLouder". Interview from FasterLouder. Retrieved 2007-06-05. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ . The band recorded a further Maida Vale session for Zane Lowe around the release of 'Atlantis...' and also performed live on his Radio 1 show from Ibiza performing 2 acoustic tracks. "BBC Radio 1 Show". Setlist from when song was wrongly credited. Retrieved 2007-06-26. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  5. ^ The next single to be released by the band is "It's Not Over Yet", which will include the cover of "My Love" by Justin Timberlake. "Band Pictures". From Whiley's BBC Radio 1 Website. Retrieved 2007-06-26. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  6. ^ "Klaxons Want To Work With Dr. Dre". Interview from nme.com. Retrieved 2007-02-08. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  7. ^ "Interview". By The Guardian newspaper, February 3, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-26.
  8. ^ "Gravity's Rainbow cover". by The Central Band Of The Royal British Legion. Retrieved 2007-06-26.
  9. ^ "Klaxons crowned Best New Band at Shockwaves NME Awards". NME.com. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
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