Klaxons Interview
By: Music Staff |
Sunday April 01, 2007 |
| Klaxons Slay "Myths" |
| London's Klaxons (Greek for "to shriek") have set off a revival of the
UK's late 80s rave scene, even going as far as to dub what they and other
artists in their class toil in as "nu-rave."
Whatever you want to call what Klaxons do, their music has seized people's interest in a substantial way. Klaxons' Simon Taylor answers questions posed by Static Multimedia's music staff via e-mail. Static Multimedia: Are there any current trends in music that excite or repulse you? Simon Taylor: It's hard to see trends through the teeth of nowhere. Nothing repulses us. Brooklyn psyC noise seems like a good pool for swimming. How did the band form? Fish and chip tab K cider Red light bulb The day before bonfire night 2005 How did the name of the band come about? Klaxons is to toot to be a loud intrusive noise to disrupt. K is the magic letter. What were some of the challenges you encountered while making this album? Juggling games of pool and perfection. What are you most proud of about the album? Holding it. That this child is real and takes up space in the world. What is your favorite song on the album and why? 
"Isle Of Her." Just musically I think it's the furthest we pushed it on
that record, with guitar tunings and effects and melodically and
structurally it's my favorite, it was just one of those things that came
from nowhere.
Jamie made this demo in the studio on his Juno, with the melody. Then we layed the drums down, James added this John Foxx-esque synth line which wed tried to sneak in somewhere, then doom one-note tuned guitars through modulators and stuff. It just had this aquatic feel. "Rowwww." We then stole the story from Alfred Jarry and... Were there any songs that didn't make it to the final cut that you really wish had? There was this one called "Viewed Remotely," or "Remote Viewing." It was knocking around for a while, it started out as this loop and guitar picking part that I made on a 4-Track that we called "Snoop Dogg," it had that bounce. We sampled it into the desk, and the tunings were all over the place and we couldn't recreate it. We wabbled and wandered over it with Erol Alkan once, and it turned into this jock rock track, then when we did it with James Ford. It (turned) into this kind of Air-like space jam. Snoop Dogg to jock rock to Air. Wer'e gonna go back to it soon. What direction do you see the band/yourself going in next? It flickers daily between psyc noise and doom prog jams. Maybe a double album with both. What plans do you/the band have for the near and distant future? Touring nonstop, no clock until the end of the year. Time and maps for new recordings in the next few months. Album 2 out January, 2008. I wanna call it "Sircus of Cituation." While most artists want to be known for doing something original, every musician has likely been influenced by another band or artist. Who has been your biggest influence or what band/musician do you most admire? Over the test of time Bowie, Eno, I think contemporary Liars have constantly excited me with their consistency of making mind blowing records and jumping on The Chameleons back. Do you have any touring plans for the near future? Every night forever. Describe any life experiences that show up in any particular song(s). Real life is absent at all stages of conception. Do you plan on doing any collaborating in the near future or for your next release? Jamie and James have just finished a track with The Chemical Brothers. Do you plan to stay in this particular genre or do you wish to branch your sound out? I don't really know what "genre" we live in. What box holds us. Whatever it is we'll stay outside, Knock, knock, knocking on nowhere's door. |
