There’s clicking and rustling on the line, and then silence, then eventually a bleary “hello?” The Klaxons guitarist James Reynolds has been rudely awoken to fulfil his press obligations at 9am London time, and his way of coping with the early intrusion is to take the call on a mobile, from his bed (and who can blame him?) Consequently, to be honest, I don’t think we’ve caught James at his most eloquent. However, eloquence isn’t required to make timely and chaotic indie rock/pop and that is something James can certainly lay claim to. Band-of-the-moment in the UK’s notorious taste-making magazine NME, the Klaxons have been packaged and pushed as the face of “Neu Rave”, alongside other ‘neu’ bands Shitdisco and Sunshine Underground, in a London based 2006 redux of the original summer of love, complete with smiley faces, glow sticks and airhorns added to contemporary indie-electro “happenings”. It’s frenetic, energetic and crowds can’t get enough of it as ‘the kids’ reclaim their own personal right to rave.
The Klaxons’ first 2 singles ‘Gravity’s Rainbow ‘and ‘Atlantis to Interzone’ fuelled this smiley renaissance, using blatant samples of early 90s rave – the airhorn, the sped up vocals, urgent sirens, and alongside this they’ve done a damn-near genius rework of ‘The Bouncer’ as well as ‘Grace’s ‘It’s Not Over Yet’. All this in under a year, and now their brand of ‘neu-rave’ is coming to Australia for Modular’s ‘Unfair Christmas’, with more hype than a Bono guest appearance. So I was armed to the teeth with PLUR looking to do some ‘91 bonding with James: there’s only one catch: the band are no longer slaves to the rave. “Look, the rave thing is quite misguided. If you wanted to define our music I think rave is the wrong word to describe our music for a start. You’ve got the lyrics… I mean, they’ve got literary references in them, writing our songs is a very kind of cut up process: a kind of cut and paste and lots of pastiche and literary references in the lyrics.”
As a case in point their new single, ‘Magick’ is a diversion from formula, and the rave is noticeably missing. In fact, ‘Magick’ is a straight up indie-dance track, with mystifying references to Aleister Crowley, the Golden Dawn and other seemingly odd occult motifs, giving one the impression they’ve been reading way too much Aldous Huxley or something. The track ‘Gravity’s Rainbow’ is named after Thomas Pynchon’s novel of the same name, and ‘Atlantis to Interzone’ is also a literary reference. How do they come up with these references? And indeed why? “It’s just a process… what we started and what we do, there aren’t really elements of realism to what we do that was always the plan, there’s a lot of bands doing that. The lyrics are escapist. It’s all that idea of just us trying to create a world and everything we do is from an escapist kind of angle and it’s quite a long way from reality what we do.”
Certainly the Klaxons see themselves as a band with wider references and influences, and in fact when asked for comparisons, James doesn’t even name check any post-rave electronica at all, plumping for indie pop and, oddly, Krautrock. “I think we sound like elements of Krautrock and pop. It’s like TV On the Radio, New Order, Psychedelic Furs. It’s hard for us to really sit back and listen to it and say what it sounds like. Our upcoming album is quite heavy, not like heavy metal, it’s quite heavy, quite atmospheric I think.”
Produced with the help of Simian Mobile Disco, the Klaxons see the upcoming album, to be released in early 2007, as a real progression in their sound. Its release will certainly come with pressure to perform, now that they are hoping to discourage the novelty rave angle which has driven much of their hype so far. However, their reputation as a live act continues unabated. Recorded work is easier to pigeonhole, but a great live show is just that no matter what the form, and review after review shows the Klaxons know how to give it up on stage. Even Lilly Allen (aka the Myspace girl) who hired them as support for her recent UK tour has been quoted as saying “I think they’re a great band. It certainly feels like something really special is happening with them. I’m a bit jealous of them because people go absolutely insane at their concerts. Maybe my next album should be new wave/rave.” But it wasn’t always the way, in fact their fast road to fame came by accident before they were even ready.
“I joined the band, we got a gig and we had a week to write some songs and rehearse for it. We were a support band but the main act pulled out, so our first gig we ended up headlining with only about 3 songs and without being able to play our instruments! And it was just a mess, it was just chaos but it was fun. People enjoyed themselves, I think people really laughed at us but they got into it. And from then on it’s just been constant, it’s been non stop. On the back of that we got another gig and then… We have played in Europe quite a lot, we’ve played in Ibiza, Berlin twice, Paris, we’ve played around Europe but we haven’t played outside Europe except a show in New York.”
Such an intense year, going from hanging out at home recording on his 8 track to touring the world, is something James doesn’t take for granted. He knows that despite the dizzying hops from hotel room to hotel room that he has it lucky in a way most of us would give our right guitar pick for. “You know there are times when it’s a bit kind of disorientating the whole process, and it’s a bit weird when you do fly around the world and just sit in a hotel room, it’s frustrating at times that you never get to see the country: but we’re here to play not here on a holiday. If you want a holiday you book a holiday and go away for a week and see a country but you know it’s a great position that we’re in, we’re lucky enough to go around the world and play to people and we’re fortunate to be in that position. The best thing is you get to go to these countries and actually get to meet the people that are in them it’s great.”
The Klaxons EP ‘Xan Valley’ is out now through Modular/Universal. They play their ‘neu rave’ (or not) sound on the Modular and Ksubi ‘Unfair Christmas Party’ tour this weekend:
Fri Dec 1 – The Forum, Sydney
Sat Dec 2 – The Espy, Melbourne
