Secret of Klaxons new album found in Hackney pet shop

Amhurst Road moggy inspires Mercury Prize winning Hackney-based band to reach for the stars.

A STAR trekking cat from Hackney will hit the music stratosphere after being picked as the cover model of a top band’s new album.

Former Mercury Prize winners Klaxons new album, Surfing The Void, is out on August 23 with Orphee, a Norweigan Blue from ‘The Pet Shop’ in Amhurst Road, Dalston, as the space-bound star.

Jamie Reynolds, lead singer of the band, told the Gazette how his cat, named after his favourite film, came to be the face of their music.

“While we were making our record we’d found an image on the Tumblr community that showed a cat in a space suit,” Jamie said.

“He became something of a mascot for the session and was constantly referred to for all decision making.

“It felt that the nonchalant cat has earned his natural place on the cover but we had to find a suitable replacement and that’s where my boy stepped in.

Resident in Hackney, except Jamie who recently moved from Dalston to King’s Cross, Klaxons consider the borough their spiritual home.

Jamie said: “Our most legendary gig was played in our early days in a disused church in Shoreditch - that was the night where we first starting seeing things happening for the band.

“Droves of people turned up dressed in stupid clothes , behaving just as badly and helping us to live out some fantasy that we were right amongst the second summer of love .

“My current favourite place in Hackney is the Efes snooker hall on Kingsland road.

“I recently had a birthday party in there and the kind owners allowed a couple of hundred people to run amok and create the kind of atmosphere that I can only compare to the end of the TV series lost.”

Surfing The Void took shape once the band finished touring in September last year with a remit of going forwards to create pop music people can dance to.

“I think again our goals are to create music which is firstly for people to have a really good time to. The band’s become stronger ten fold over the last year in the sense that we’re playing better than ever, sounding heavier and have a tighter internal relationship. We’re exactly where we wished ourselves to be.

“By the end of the year we should have hopefully revisited all the parts of the planet that we’ve been to over the last five and again brought the party.

“Next year is going to be really exciting for us in the sense that we’re going to release the music that has appeared to be something of a ‘missing album’ for us and crack on with recording our third whilst touring the second.”

And any plans to play again in Hackney?

“Nothing would make us happier than playing at home. Eyes Open.”