Photograph by Rama. Retrieved from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 fr (accessed: January 11, 2022).
Klaxons
Klaxons were a British indie-rock band who formed in London in 2005, originally of members singer and bassist Jamie Reynolds (b. 1980), guitarist Simon Taylor-Davis (b. 1982) and singer and keyboardist James Righton (b. 1983). In 2007 they were joined by drummer Steffan Halperin (b. 1985). Reynolds and Taylor-Davis were the songwriters for the band.
Reynolds grew up in Bournemouth and Southampton, and studied Philosophy at Greenwich University. After dropping out of university and then being made redundant from his job, Reynolds purchased a studio kit, allowing the group to perform and record under their original name of ‘Klaxons (Not Centaurs)’. Taylor-Davis and Righton grew up together in Stratford-Upon-Avon, during which time Righton taught Taylor-Davis to play the guitar. Taylor-Davis went on to study Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University, while Righton studied History and became a teacher. The three eventually met in London, with Halperin joining later in 2006, replacing their original live drummer Finnigan Kidd.
They produced three albums: Myths of the Near Future in 2007, Surfing the Void in 2010 and Love Frequency in 2014. They split in 2015. Their music draws extensively on a large variety of texts and ephemera, including the work of J. G. Ballard (after whose novel the album Myths of the Near Future is named), Alfred Jarry (whose work is referenced in Isle of Her) and Thomas Pynchon (whose novel Gravity’s Rainbow is the name of another song on Myths of the Near Future).
Sources:
Profile at Discogs (accessed: August 4, 2020);
Profile at The Independent (accessed: August 4, 2020);
Profile at Wikipedia (accessed: August 4, 2020).
Prepared by Aimee Hinds, University of Roehampton, aimee.hinds89@gmail.com
Records in database:
