Following an explosive rise to prominence which saw them release an epochal debut album in 2007 with Myths Of The Near Future, it might seem as though Klaxons have been disturbingly quiet in the time that’s passed. Not so according to the bodaciously coiffed guitarist Simon Taylor-Davis who got on the blower with inthemix to set the record straight.

Hey Simon mate, what’re you up to today?

“I’m actually in bed as it turns out. Today we’ve got a day off and it’s actually the first time I’ve seen it rain here in ages. I don’t know if you’ve heard but England has taken this summer very seriously, it’s scorching hot, it’s like Australia. And before we came home we were touring a lot and there wasn’t any rain to be seen, so I’m really excited about the rain. It’s great to just be at home with the rain outside listening to Roxy Music and watching films.”

And when you recorded Surfing The Void you were in Los Angeles, so I guess that would’ve been more of the same weather, right?

“Yeah, it was lovely out there, we recorded it at Ross Robinson’s house on Venice Beach.”

Do you think any of that spatial setting seeped into the record at all?

“I don’t know if it’s that noticeable in the sound of the record, but definitely with us as a band and the vibe we had when were recording it, I think the location played a big part of it. Venice Beach is pretty amazing, it’s got a very different feeling to the rest of LA, it’s certainly not Hollywood. There’s people out on the street rollerblading and they all just seem to love each other. It was a really nice place to be in.”

I heard that Ross Robinson had you guys under some sort of regime while you were there. What’s that all about?

“I heard that too, but honestly I don’t know what that’s about. Another interviewer seemed to think that Ross had us training for a marathon and it was like boot-camp for us, which is just ridiculous. Ross’ place is literally right on the beach, so in the morning we’d get up and get straight into the water, because why wouldn’t you if you could, you know? It was us enjoying ourselves more than anything.”

Weird! Well, don’t I feel embarrassed now.

“It’s cool, these things just seem to take a life of their own when somebody says one thing and then it snowballs from there.*

So, let’s talk about Ross Robinson, who produced the record. I thought that was a really interesting decision for you guys, firstly because it’s not James Ford or Erol Alkan or another super-hip producer that people would expect from you guys, and also because it’s Ross Robinson who has produced all these big records that’ve been really incredible but also some stuff that people kind of turn their nose up at. It’s not an obvious decision at all.

“No, it might not seem that way but it was definitely obvious for us once we met with Ross. He’s got this great intensity about him, and within five minutes of meeting with him and discussing the record we knew that we wanted him to do the job. Being able to name-drop bands is really not important to us, so when people were like, ‘uh, the guy who did Slipknot?’, it didn’t affect us, Ross made us feel really great about it. And we loved his work with Blood Brothers and At The Drive-In too.

Before we even started working with Ross on this record, we were recording songs with James Ford without any intention of putting them on an album, they were just songs we had with us and it was a cathartic thing to get them out. Somehow that became a big thing and people were saying that our label had rejected a full album of music from us.”

I was going to ask about that too, it seemed like a really weird thing to hear. So it wasn’t true?

“No, not at all. It wasn’t an album, it wasn’t the first version of this album, and it was never knocked back by our record company. We’re still going to release those tunes, we’re going to do an EP with them next year, but they’re completely separate to this album.*

I’ve managed to spin through Surfing The Void a couple of times now and I think Ross did a great job on it, it sounds really beefed up and ambitious.

“Thank you, I think we’re all really proud of it and couldn’t be happier with what Ross did. People have been talking a bit and I think trying to label us that we’re purposely trying to go ‘heavier’ with Ross’ involvement, but I don’t know, it just feels like the record we wanted to make and it’s not worth listening to all that other stuff.”

Yeah, I’ve noticed a bit of that on the internet too. But really, I think it’s a pretty natural growth for you guys. It doesn’t seem forced.

“I hope that comes across. People have been asking for a while now, ‘oh, where have you guys been for the last three years?’ and the answer is we’ve been right here. We were basically on the road from 2006 up until the end of 2009, touring constantly and then we got back into the studio. This is the headspace that we’re in right now.”

After Surfing The Void comes out in a few weeks you guys will be in Australia for a couple of shows. Are you excited to return for, I think, the fourth time?

“I know it might sound like a wind-up but Australia has always been one of favourite places to visit. Modular is a really great label and they’ve always looked after us there, and we’ve got a really great following with fans in Australia. We first came there before our first record was even out and I think people just really like us and like coming to our shows when we’re there.”

There’s only two dates on this tour—

“Yeah, I know. I actually just found that out yesterday and I was pretty disappointed, I thought we were going to spending a few weeks there this time. But we’re actually going to be back in January for your summer, so that’s exciting too. Really, I’m just looking forward to taking this record outside of Europe and Australia will be one of the first places to hear us play it.”

Klaxons’ Surfing The Void is released through Modular and Universal on August 20th. Be sure to check out the concert dates for Klaxons’ September tour below and become a fan over at the All About Klaxons page.

Klaxons 2010 Australian concert dates:

Thu Sep 2 – Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Fri Sep 3 – Palace Theatre, Melbourne