Just after Klaxons touched down in Sydney earlier this month, I received an unexpected phone call from guitarist Simon Taylor. Good thing I’m a fan! We had a little chat about the new album, Surfing the Void, their then upcoming shows in Sydney and Melbourne – and of course their appearances at Falls Festival and Field Day this New Years! Read on…
You’re playing the Enmore tomorrow night, are you in Sydney yet?
I actually arrived about 5 hours ago? We’ve already done a radio session and all kinds of stuff. I’m at that stage now where I’m beginning to wonder what time it is back home, which is never a good frame of mind to be in. But I’m alive still… struggling a bit, but I think I’m going to be alright.
So this is your second headline tour of Australia, or third if you incude NeverEverLand – is it nice to be back?
Everytime we’ve been here it’s just been completely nuts, every aspect of it has been mad. Modular Records are amazing, and they always take really good care of us- the NeverEverLand tour which we were on last time we were here, that was just ridiculously wild. All the bands we played with were great. Cut Copy played with us on that tour, and I think they’re going to be in Melbourne the few days that we’re there. So it’ll be nice to see them. It’s just cool. Everyone’s just really nice in Australia. The shows have always been really cool here. The crowds have always been cool, and excited, up for having fun. Yeah, we really like it here.
And not only are these your first shows in Australia since releasing the new album, they’re pretty much your first shows ANYWHERE since releasing the new album…
Yeah they are. We played Reading and Leeds Festivals this weekends. We headlined the second stage there which was absolutely insane. They were the first shows, but the record had only been out for 4 or 5 days, so I don’t know if any of those people had actually heard it, or digested it. It certainly didn’t really seem that way. I mean they knew kind of Echoes and Flashover, but the majority didn’t really know the other stuff. So it really is going to be the birth of the record in Australia. Which is great. We’ve come a long way from home to show it to the world, but what a good place to do it. And we’ve been playing in Eastern Europe all Summer which has been amazing. We’ve been playing festivals in the Balkans… so we’ve been quietly rehearsing ourselves to quite a professional and enhanced level. The live shows really great, so we’re just excited to play.
How are you finding the new tracks to translate in the live environment, so far? I imagine Echoes is going off already though…
Yeah it’s kind of true about Echoes. It’s one of those odd things about being in band, it’s such a strange thing to try and get your head around the psycology of people and their reactions to songs. We played in Switzerland last week, and we’d only played in Switzerland once before, and the show then was just awful, nobody was moving… this was a couple of years ago… I think we might have just been really bad that night. But certainly our experience with the show was “oh, what a boring crowd”. So when we arrived in Switzerland, for this festival, we’re like “oh we know what this is going to be like!” – but there was a circle pit for every tune! It was absolutely nuts! So it shows we never really know.
But the reaction has been about 50/50 so far. Some people just go absolutely insane and mosh to every tune, old or new. And then sometimes you can see people actually listening, mouthing some of the words. I really like both. I really like when you see people are listening, and enjoying it. But it’s cool when people go nuts too!
People seem to really be into it. It’s only after Reading and Leeds that I’m noticing the difference in vibes between this record and the last. I think this one’s got a slightly different rythym to it. Songs like “Twin Flames” show a different side to us.
You went into the tour of the first album riding such a wave of hype – which has to be difficult for any band starting out. Are you finding there to be less pressure this time? Klaxons 2.0 perhaps?
Yeah it feels like … you know when you move to high school for the first year and you’re the new kids and nothing really fits properly? A little bit like “what on earth is going on?” And then the following year you make sure that all your clothes fit you, and you know what you’re doing a bit. It’s kind of like that, we’ve graduated from babies into a proper band. Your motivations for doing it begin to fully form. It’s not just a lunatic wild ride anymore… I mean it is, but we’ve already demoed stuff for the next record. Our heads are very much in being the best band we can be. We really care.
It’s not that we haven’t done before – but I mean we’ve played shows pissed up before, and we were all over the place. But now we just want to make the band amazing, and we want to play great, and get better a writing. So we’re just in a really good headspace at the moment. I hate the word matured, but I think we’re a bit more considered now. It’s cool to be able to take our time, too, with making sure we get our videos right, and booking time to start writing again. We seem to know what we’re doing now.
I read an interview with Jamie which was saying that with the first record, you weren’t really a band – but you are one now.
Yeah that’s it, and it helps that we’re in such an exciting place now. As long as continue to excite people as I think we’ve achieved on this record, there’s still a place for us to make as much music as we can. It’s just good to get better. And I think that record has got that progression, as musicians and as songwriters. I think that’s natural – and I hope we continue to. And we’re so excited to get to play it live, because it was recorded as a four piece band, and writeed as a four piece band. So it’s really easy to play – we’re already rehearsed when we come out of the studio!
It is a difference between the two records – I often sat there wondering how Myths of the Near Future was going to come out live…
… and often times it didn’t! *laughs* Yeah, we’re definitely dialled in the live show now.
And rumour has it there’s a wicked light show to accompany the performance?
Yeah, the lighting rig is ridiculous. We have a man called Ed Forever who’s set up the lights. He’s a phenomenal lighting guy. I was watching back yesterday some of the stuff from Reading and Leeds, and it looked amazing.
So I know you’ve been talking people ears off about it, but we are obliged to talk about the time between albums. Most of what we’re heard has been rumour, rather than fact, but what was the material you recorded that hasn’t seen the light of day?
Between touring we did a couple of different sessions with James Ford. One of them in Milan, one of them in France. Both sessions were wildly different. One of song based, the other a strange weird jam that we made. To be honest, we just didn’t have an albums worth of material. We didn’t go into them expecting a record, either. Before these sessions the only time we’d been in the studio was to record the 35 minutes of Myths. There was no other time we’d had in the studio… so we thought we’d go and have a laugh and see what happened. Make up some songs on the spot, flesh out some ideas, and we did that. And we made some really beautiful music. But it wasn’t enough for a record. And we also felt like we’d skipped forward a little bit. We went, hang on a minute, this is all really good, but it’s not what we want to put out now and go on tour with next year. It was too different.
But with the front session, there were 5 tracks that came out of it that we all agree on that we really like, and hopefully they’ll come out as an EP at the beginning of next year. It’s cool though that we have all this music that we can hopefully do some exciting stuff with… like a live performance of it… there’s all kinds of things. And then there’s the other stuff we recorded with James in Italy… but just didn’t want to stick a bunch of material together that came out not feeling like a record. Why glue it all together when it’s not all relevant, or from the same breath of air? But we played it to Polydor, who ironically were the ones who abslolutely loved it, and tried to get us to release it.
The funny thing is that we gave them all this music just before we came to Australia in 2008 (for the NeverEverLand tour), and then when we got back home, Jamie did this interview and went “oh, we haven’t heard from Polydor yet” – and of course it was Christmas – “yeah they’re probably going to reject all the music!”
And that’s where it all began…
… all began. So we got this call from Polydor – “why the fuck are you telling the press that we rejected your record?” when they’d already told us they loved all this music. So now this is what we get to talk about all day every day.
Now I feel even worse for bringing it up! But it is a good story.
It is a good story isn’t it?
And it kept the buzz alive between albums as well.
Yeah, it was nu-rave on the first record, rejection on this one. Maybe this time we’ll have a clean slate. But that would be boring wouldn’t it?
Indeed! Well best of luck with the shows this week and then we’ll see you back here on New Years for Field Day and Falls. Have you checked out the Field Day lineup?
Yeah I just looked at it today – it’s MASSIVE! We’re essentially headlining it aren’t we? And playing with Sleigh Bells, who are phenomenal live – such great energy. We’ve seen them a few times over the Summer. I’m really excited to see The Rapture play, because I haven’t seen them in about 6 years. There’s some great bands on it – and I’ve heard rumours that it’s a pretty wild day. It’s going to be a big one isn’t it?
Don’t miss the amazing Klaxons when they return to Australia over New Years for Field Day and Falls Festival. Tickets are on sale now, but Falls in Lorne (VIC) has sold out! Best get tickets to Marion Bay (TAS) quick fast before it sells out too!
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Field Day Tickets can be purchased here: http://bit.ly/eS4VNe
New Years Day, Sydney Domain, Midday – 11pm
More information about Field Day can be found here: http://www.fuzzy.com.au/
