Klaxons life and biography

Klaxons are a British indie rock band, based in London. The band consists of Jamie Reynolds (bass, vocals), James Righton (keyboards, vocals) and Simon Taylor-Davies (guitar) with drummer Steffan Halperin being officially added in 2007.

Reynolds, Righton and Taylor-Davies formed the band in New Cross, London, United Kingdom, in 2005 Their debut single, “Gravity’s Rainbow” was released on 29 March 2006 as a 500 copies limited 7-inch vinyl, decorated by the band themselves. Their first first EP, Xan Valleys, was released on 16 October 2006, and contained their first two singles alongside some remixes.

Following the release of numerous 7-inch singles on different independent record labels, as well as the success of previous singles “Magick” and “Golden Skans”, the band released their debut album, Myths of the Near Future on 29 January 2007. The album won the 2007 Nationwide Mercury Prize.

After headlining their first tour (the 2007 NME Indie Rave Tour), as well as playing numerous festivals and headlining tours worldwide, the band started working on their follow-up album in October 2007.

HMV describes Klaxons as “acid-rave sci-fi punk-funk”, a phrase lifted directly from Tim Chester’s Radar feature in NME, while their MySpace page touts ‘Psychedelic / Progressive / Pop’. However, they are one of the isolated acts being referred to as ‘Nu Rave’, a genre term coined by Angular Records founder Joe Daniel, who released the trio’s first single. Though the band’s sound is decidedly art rock, they draw upon some less common influences - notably the rave culture of the 1990s, which they appropriate and redefine in a post-modern fashion. Their influences are perhaps most represented in their covers of rave hits “The Bouncer” by Kicks Like a Mule and “Not Over Yet” by Grace. Both tracks have since been released by the band, the first as part of a double a-side with “Gravity’s Rainbow” in March 2006 and the latter as a single on June 25, 2007 titled “It’s Not Over Yet”.

While the band are consistently hailed as the defining act of the sparsely-populated Nu Rave movement, Klaxons have worked to avoid being typecast as champions of the disputed genre that may or may not exist. Indeed, it is questionable whether or not the style referred to as “New Rave” is even appreciably different from the older genre dance-punk. Even so, Klaxons member Jamie Reynolds expressed no regrets at the dubious honor, saying that “…it’s great that it started as an in-joke and became a minor youth subculture”

At the beginning of 2009, the band played a small club show at Madame Jojo's in London, their first in the capital since the NME Big Gig the previous year. During the set, the band featured new songs "Imaginary Pleasures" and "In Silver Forest", together with the previously aired "Moonhead" and "Valley of the Calm Trees". In March 2009, it was reported that the band had been told to re-record parts of their second album, after it was rejected by label Polydor. The Sun newspaper confirmed that the label deemed it "too experimental" for release, with Reynolds stating that "...we've made a really dense, psychedelic record" and that "it isn't the right thing for us [the band]".

Their second album Surfing the Void was released on 23 August 2010, and includes the single "Echoes", which was released one week prior.On December 25, 2010, the band released on their website a free EP of material that was worked on for the album in 2007-2008, entitled Landmarks of Lunacy.

In January 2012, Klaxons announced on their Twitter account that they were to begin recording their third album on January 30. NME reported that the album was "expected to be released later" in the year and that the band were working with James Murphy and The Chemical Brothers.

Current members:
-Jamie Reynolds - bass, vocals (2005–present)
-James Righton - keyboards, vocals (2005–present)
-Simon Taylor-Davies - guitars (2005–present)
-Steffan Halperin - drums (2007–present)

Discography:
-Myths of the Near Future (2007)
-Surfing the Void (2010)

Read more