James Nicholas Righton is an English musician. As well as singing, he was the keyboard-player of the London-based new rave band Klaxons, which disbanded in 2015. In March 2016, Righton announced his new project Shock Machine with a video directed by Saam Farahmand. Righton released his first solo album ‘The Performer’ on Soulwax’s Deewee label in March 2020.
Early life
Righton was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Righton's father, a musician, encouraged him to be a part of several bands that performed regularly while he was still at Stratford-upon-Avon High School.
Career
While attending the High School at Stratford-upon-Avon, Righton met Simon Taylor-Davis and taught him to play the guitar. While working towards a career as a performer, Righton worked as a music teacher. He attended the Benicàssim festival, where he again met Simon Taylor-Davis, and soon after that the two met Jamie Reynolds in New Cross, London. When Reynolds lost his job, he bought a studio kit with his redundancy money. The three men began to record and perform live under the name of "Klaxons ", a name inspired by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's The Futurist Manifesto. In 2005 this band played with Finnigan Kidd as drummer, until Kidd left and Steffan Halperin joined in 2006, Around this time, the band began using the shorter name of "Klaxons". Klaxons signed to Polydor Records in 2006. After many successful tours, they announced in 2014 that their current tour would be their last. James Righton signed to /House Anxiety in 2016 under the moniker, Shock Machine. Righton's new project was announced in March with the release of the video for the first single, Shock Machine, directed by Saam Farahmand. The eponymous introduction to this project was recorded in a cabin in the south of France with producer James Ford. The first single Shock Machine, released on 8 March 2016 with accompanying video directed by Saam Farahmand, was featured on his four-track debut EP Open Up The Sky. After the release of the EP, Righton released the single Lost in the Mystery. Remixes of Open Up the Sky and Shock Machine by Soulwax, and Beyond the Wizards Sleeve were also released. Shock Machine's debut album was released on 25 August 2017.
Righton scored the short film William by Simon Amstell in 2015. He worked alongside Tom Rowlands for The Life of Galileo, directed by Joe Wright at the Young Vic in 2017. In 2018 Righton scored the film Benjamin by Simon Amstell. Benjamin premiered at the 2018 BFI London Film Festival. Righton is the composer for the 2019 Netflixstand up special "Set Free".
Other musical contributions
Righton co-wrote "All Rights Reversed" from 2007's Grammy Award-winning album We Are the Night by The Chemical Brothers. He co-wrote "Deeper" by Riton. He contributed guitar, piano, and wurlitzer to Arctic Monkeys "Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino". James co-wrote the lead single "The Third Degree" from Honeyblood's 2019 album In Plain Sight. In 2020 James co-wrote "This Moment Forever" from Hinds third albumThe Prettiest Curse.
