On the eve of their Australian tour, inthemix caught up with James Righton of nu rave pioneers the Klaxons to talk broken limbs, their meteoric rise to stardom, and the Mercury Music Prize.
The Klaxons have had a massive journey over the last two years; they’ve gone from being an obscure UK outfit, to going on world tours, receiving this year’s Mercury Music Prize, and even undergoing a brief line-up change due to stage-diving injuries (the reason for the cancellation of their August tour of Australia). It seems that the boy’s simply take it all in their collective stride, even with a broken leg. It becomes apparent quickly when talking to James that, even now whilst enjoying a short break from touring, the achievements over the past two years still haven’t really sunk in. “It’s all been a real blur on the most part, we really haven’t had a chance to reflect much… if we did I think it would probably be a bit overwhelming to be honest.”
Discussing the recent Mercury Music Prize, which the boys won – beating Amy Winehouse, Arctic Monkeys and Jamie T, as well as fellow Modular signing the New Young Pony Club – one would have to wonder if this was somewhat intimidating or nerve-wracking. “I wouldn’t say nervous so much as excited. We don’t really get nervous anymore… We used to, but it’s a really big honour to be nominated and we’re really happy to be included.”
So it’s been a great year so far, but, to quote their recent single, “it’s not over, not over, not over yet”... Their massive tour schedule doesn’t look like it’s about to end anytime soon. Although gruelling at times, James insists, “it’s our job being in a band and it [touring] comes with the territory… we’ve been really lucky because we get to do something we love and travel the world doing it.”
Touring, however, has seen a few notable problems arise, such as the temporary loss of drummer Jamie Reynolds when he broke his leg in a stage diving incident. “It was a really big gap that he jumped, absolutely huge, I think it was about 12 feet from the stage to the grass… We didn’t realise how serious the injury was at first, but it was a massive break. He snapped the tibia bone in his shin. He’s [Jamie] been in a wheel chair for most of the past 5-6 weeks.”
On their rescheduled Australian tour, which kicks off this week, James asserts, “it’s almost been a blessing, as this time round we’ve got the chance to play Brisbane and Adelaide, cities which we weren’t originally going to play. We were only doing Sydney and Melbourne. Now we’ve got a couple of extra Sydney dates and the chance to play to a lot more fans.” Will Jamie’s leg be better in time for the tour? “Yeah, he’ll be there, he just might not be as mobile as he’d like to be.”
The Klaxons kick off their sold out Australian tour this weekend:
Oct 20 – The Forum, Melbourne
Oct 21 – HQ, Adelaide
Oct 23 – Capitol, Perth
Oct 25 – Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Oct 27 – Tivoli, Brisbane
Take a squiz at this video clip of the band performing live on Conan O’Brien:
Dollbaby says...
Klaxons aren't nu rave. Ya get me?