Second's out – Klaxons hope for a winner

After Klaxons won the Mercury Prize 2007 with their debut, Myths of the Near Future, they decamped to France to begin work on their second album.

But when they presented their new album to their record label, it was rejected on the grounds of not being good enough.

So goes the legend anyway, giving rise to all sorts of rumours about the band not having another album in them and being one-trick ponies who got lucky with their debut.

As is nearly always the case, the truth is actually much less dramatic than the myth. But thanks to the wildfire way of the web, one wrong word in an interview

quickly turned into a misunderstanding and then an oft-repeated piece of wisdom – which became almost impossible to correct.

"We didn't have the album rejected," says Klaxons bass player Jamie Reynolds, responding to a familiar question.

"I was talking to a journalist and used the word 'rejected', but with the intonation that I was joking. That doesn't come across when the word's written down. There's only one way to understand that word, but we've lived the last three years in the public eye and get asked about it all the time."

What really happened, as Jamie is only too happy to explain, is that they went off to France to work on their second album, but for one reason or another, didn't quite come away with songs they were happy with.

The general consensus among the band members here today, Jamie, James Righton (keyboards and vocals) and Simon Taylor Davis (guitar) – their newly-joined drummer Steffan Halperin is elsewhere – is that there's nothing wrong with the songs they did record, just that they weren't suitable for a second album.

"We're having all those songs remixed at the moment and they'll be out next year," says Simon.

"The biggest shame about this whole story is that it makes it sound like we're not in control of what we do," adds Jamie, "but everything about the band is our music and ideas, and it also suggests the label aren't supportive.

"Actually, they've always been wonderful and the truth is their support, love and nurturing has been amazing from day one."

The band seem a bit fed up of this issue now, but it doesn't dampen their spirits. Today is Jamie's 30th birthday and we're sitting in a pub near their management company's office where, only two nights previously, the band played their first London gig in some time.

They say it was "absolutely amazing" in unison, still feeling worse for wear from the surprise birthday party they threw for Reynolds on their tour bus after the gig.

Poor James is still feeling so poorly he can barely manage his orange juice, while Simon can just about pick at a bowl of olives.

Hangovers aside, it seems a good time to be in Klaxons land. After that stalled session for what would become their second album, Surfing the Void, released on August 23, they met new producer American rock and metal specialist Ross Robinson and re-evaluated what they wanted to do.

"We just took ourselves away," says Jamie. "We'd been rehearsing in a place where loads of bands rehearse, which wasn't good – we just needed to be on our own, so we went to south London and had 10 days in a room, and a lot came out."

That was September last year, and after making the decision to stop touring and go into a studio, they began to make genuine progress.

"When we decided that Steff was going to drum on the record, and we were going to be a proper four-piece, it all slotted into place and started to make sense," Jamie says, beaming a big smile. "We were just in a room making a big old racket."

"We stopped indulging and started making music for ourselves. We made the music naturally, so it came out really easily," James joins in, for the first time.

"It's actually never been easier than it is right now. We went to Wales for three days a few weeks back and came out with eight tracks. It's just so easy."

The resulting album is, indeed, a natural progression from their 2007 debut.

Surfing the Void is still identifiably Klaxons, but it has a more concise, powerful sound. Where Myths of the Near Future spilled over with glimpses of ideas, the new album sounds better realised and more cohesive.

"It's definitely more powerful," says Jamie. "We're a new force, and we've figured out how to play our instruments better and make everything a lot simpler.

"It was really great to take everything back to basics. We stripped it back to being four guys in a room writing music and I think that was a basic evolution for the band."

The trio speak very highly of Ross Robinson, who in the past has worked with the likes of Korn, At The Drive In, Slip Knot and The Cure, and credit him with a new approach to music.

"We had a connection straight away, and respect him like we've not had for anyone for a long time," says Simon.

"He only listens to Elton John and, only if it's raining, Disintegration by The Cure," says James. "He has this other tape of an old LA hardcore band called Drunk With Power, but that's it. We didn't have any musical reference points for the album," he adds.

"Ross taught us a lot about the feeling of ecstasy in music, without having to be intoxicated. It's just a pure feeling of playing music, and we all want to give and express and have a good time."

With that, talk turns to this year's Mercury Prize, the award scooped by the band in 2007.

"Winning that was just a big cherry on a massive cake," says Jamie. "We knew people were into the album, so

that was even more trying to dive into it and understand this crazy monster we'd created."