Supersweet

Interview

Klaxons

From left to right: Steffan, James, Jamie, Simon

Finally, a band with a name to match the sound has arrived! Alarming, witty, sharp, loud, and commanding. The most exciting thing you’ll ever hear this year? Nah, we’re not the kind of people to say stuff like that, but SUPERSWEET can at least promise that Klaxons will definitely take you out of everyday world!

Armed with superbly rich and ridiculous words like “Your tears leave trails of Tik, Van, Loof, Droom / Autonoma: the rubix groom hoom”, coiled around scattered pieces of music that are schizophrenically stitched together like childhood days’ collage with a fully-matured and crafty twist, Klaxons have somehow uniquely create a world of their own for us to live in.

“It’s not about people at the bus stops or waiting for the train, it’s quite the opposite. It’s an escapist pop record,” Simon Taylor, the lyricist and guitarist of the band talks about their most anticipated debut album Myths of the Near Future due to come out early next year. (James Righton (keyboards, vocals): We’ve got eleven big songs: ten originals, one cover.) “It’s kind of non-sensical wandering surrounding parts of different worlds,” he emphasises, “It’s definitely not an everyday record.”

Things have happened a little fast for the band, within one year of formation; it is what Simon describes as “life on fast-forward”. “We literally haven’t had a day off to even think about it,” Jamie Reynolds, the bass player and vocalist recalls the surreal and animated life Klaxons have been having since day one, “We just get on with things and there’s always something different to do everyday, we just crack on with it.”

“Oh wait, we’ve got a few days off next week!” reminds James.  

“Yeah, I know and I might start thinking about it and I might just have a nervous breakdown!” A subtle and terrified laughter comes out at the end of Jamie’s response.

Despite their latest single Magick being on a major record label Polydor, nothing much as interfered with the band’s ethics, “We have all the good support from them to deal with promotions,” notes Simon, “But as far as day to day we’re still fortunate enough to be left to our own devices.” He pauses before jokingly pointing at James, Steffan (Halperin, drummer) and Jamie respectively, “You look really good at the moment, Steff looks great, and you look a bit older though!”

“We haven’t changed as people,” James points out.

“Nothing’s ever been done with money so it hasn’t changed whoever, and no one’s ever had it so we’re still doing it on the cheap,” insists Simon.

“Everything pretty much stays the same,” elaborates Jamie, “In terms of the equipments and in terms of the attitude and in terms of the way that we put things together and the way that we still write in a tiny place and cut and paste and chuck things together.”  

Up until now Klaxons have got three successful singles under their belt along with a huge following that has caused quite a stir in the stylistic worlds of the cynical thing called fashion. And maybe this is what all that ‘New Rave’ label is really about. Sadly it has tagged along with the package and probably has less to do with the contents of music itself – the glow sticks, the Bodyglove’d up colour scheme and, most particularly, the Cassette Playa’s fashion that gets featured in their video and photoshoots and somehow the images have stuck and painted a landscape for the current music scene.

“[Cassette Playa’s designer, Carri Mundane] came to the video shoot, We borrowed some of her clothes. But we just carry on wearing generally dark colours,” Simon explains. “I think fashion and music sort of try to latch on to each other and we have no intention of becoming a fashion band whatsoever,” Jamie confirms, “We’re not involved in the fashion world in any way.”

Another element many people seem to have overlooked is how dark their music is, both musically and lyrically. Songs like ‘Magick’ and ‘4 Horesmen of 2012’ are perfect examples that illustrate the obscurity and mysteries that envelope their work – infused with visions of someone being chased and running away from paranoia and his own state of mind while entering an entirely unpaved territory – all of this is pretty much owed to the well translated production of James Ford.

“We actually started with James Ford and went to try with someone else,” James recalls, “We tried Erol Alkan and then Paul Epworth which was great; lovely people and great producers and we learned quite a lot of them as well. We just already thought the relationship with James Ford was working and we just tried flirting with the others as an alternative and it didn’t better the relationship that we already had with him.”

“We’re quite fortunate that first person we tried clicked. There wasn’t any need to go and try with any other people then realise that that’s what we had,” Simon admits.

“His magic was missing definitely out of the room when we tried somebody else,” Jamie continues, “He’s just there, he’s just got the presence that you miss when he leaves. And he just brings the room to life. He produced the first Simian album which was fucking great and I’d always liked that and I was in awe from the day when I met him. And all of his remix retro stuff is great.”

James adds, “He gives a really comfortable environment where you could all work easily within, and he’s got really good ideas and he’s good with experimenting with sounds and he’s really good to hang around with as well. Good company.”

Speaking of good company, what else do Klaxons have in common apart from their love of music? Location, vocabulary, divorced parents, same books they come to share and read are a few things they throw in. Having studied subjects like History, Philosophy and Art at college, surely they must have had other aspirations before becoming musicians?

“I just had aspirations to do other things, but only when I thought it wasn’t possible to be a musician,” Simon muses. “I liked the idea being part of the Foreign Service because of the traveling, but there’s quite a lot of traveling in this job any way,” James says.

“We are the Foreign Service,” reminds Simon.

He smiles and agrees, “Of course, we are the Foreign Service, our own service... to the world!

Photography: Heike Schneider-Matzigkeit