Klaxons

Klaxons

17 August, 2010
by: Domzig

Turn and face the strange

In a funny sort of way, I’m kind of glad I managed to see Klaxons before I’d really heard anything about them. I can be a pretty judgemental guy and I think if I’d read any of the new rave hype about them, my mind would've prevented me from seeing them for the awesome live band they’ve always been.

Then again, back in 2007 neon face-paint and glow-sticks seemed like a complete novelty, but roll on three years of Skins, designer drugs, and a legion of bands, DJs and hipsters who took the joke way too seriously, and the whole new rave thing is so passé it hurts. That’s all well and good if you’re some goof-ball who lives down in Shoreditch; you can just raid your older brother’s wardrobe, dig out his Dinosaur Jr T-shirts and declare to the world loudly that you’ve been into alternative rock since your were four, but if you’re the band who unintentionally started the whole thing, re-invention is just that little bit trickier.

For Klaxons, the way forwards has been by getting weirder. In a move that has come completely from left-field for a self-professed dance act, their new album ‘Surfing The Void’ has been recorded with legendary metal producer Ross Robinson, the guy famous for making Korn’s Jonathan Davis cry like a little girl and driving At The Drive In to the point of murder before letting them record. The result has been an album that, whilst delivering up the party bangers that keep the fans happy, is a brilliantly diverse alternative rock record with just enough ethereal psychedelic folk and shamanic musings to keep things really interesting. You can still dance to it, but ‘Atlantis to Interzone’ it ain’t.

I caught up with James Righton at Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes a couple of days ago. He totally kicked my ass at ten-pin...



It’s been three years since the last album. What have you guys been doing?

James: Touring mostly. During 2007 and 2008 we didn’t really stop, we went to South America and Central America in the end of 2008 as well. As you can imagine that took up a lot of time.

I don’t think we’ve been away for an outrageous amount of time. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs always take 2-3 years to come up with an album, The Arcade Fire the same, but for some reason British bands like Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand seem to be expected to pump out albums every 18 months. 

What was it like working with Ross Robinson? Isn’t he a complete nutcase...

He’s an amazing psycho. We moved in with him in Venice Beach for 6-7 months, and you get to be a part of his life, and you pick up all of his interests, which are mainly Motocross and crazy sports. He’s literally broken every bone in his body. I mean he’ll be there playing about with pedals one minute, and the next his leg will have popped out and he’ll be screaming in agony for someone to put his leg back into place.

That said, he definitely gives you a lot of confidence. When you’re with him you can’t hide anything from him. You have to open up to him and allow him to be your therapist.

Is the pressure on with this album?

We want it to do really well. We want it to be heard by loads of people and we want people to be really into it, so there’s pressure there, but it’s really from within. It’s not like all the talk about what happened in the past influenced what we do.

We’ve only ever done what we’ve always done – make accessible pop music that isn’t for just a few select people.

This record is called ‘Surfing the Void’ right? Does it continue the space themes of the last record?

It’s not trying to be cosmic. Even on the cover we’re trying to say here’s a cat that’s come back from space, and it really doesn’t care. It seems indifferent to the whole space thing.

There were a lot of space references three or four years ago, and after our first album it seemed like a lot of other artists seemed to take on the whole cosmos/triangles thing. We’re trying to get away from that on this album and write about more personal themes. It’s a record more about inner space than outer space.

So you don’t think there’s life on other planets.

Oh no, there is, definitely. With all the numerous galaxies and stuff out there it’s unfathomable to think that there isn’t life on other planets out there. Plus, me and Jamie saw a UFO once...

Oh really, where?

On a flight back from Australia, over the North Sea, we were looking out the window, and we saw this object coming towards us and making all these manoeuvres that a plane could never had made. I tapped Jamie on the shoulder, and he had a look and there was nothing there, but then it came back and started flipping around again.

We were both really petrified by this time; it was like it was trying to hit us. We spoke to a stewardess who tried to reassure us that it was nothing, but we were really freaked out still so we talked to the captain when we landed and he was really coy about the whole thing.

That’s weird.  I think pilots call them Foo Fighters...

Yeah it definitely made me a believer. What’s weirder is that our engineer at the time actually worked on the second Foo Fighters album.

Spooky...

Surfing the Void is due for release on the 23rd of August through Polydor. You can buy the debut single 'Echoes' now. Klaxons are also headlining a show at Heaven on the 25th of August.

http://www.klaxons.net/

Click here for more live music in London.

Domzig