KEANE are:
Tom Chaplin – vocals, etc.
Tom Chaplin – vocals, etc.
Richard Hughes – drums, etc.
Tim Rice-Oxley – piano, etc.
Keane se formó en 1997 en un instituto de Hastings.
En 2002, tras varios años de experimentar con su sonido, Keane decidieron que necesitaban salir a tocar en directo. Cerraron dos conciertos acústicos, uno en el 12 Bar Club, y otro en el Betsey Trotwood. Simon Willians, de Fierce Panda estuvo en el concierto de Betsey Trotwood, y les pidió a Keane que publicaran un single con su sello.Eligieron Everybody’s Changing, una oda arrasadora y majestuosa y cuya grabación costó cero peniques. "La sesión de grabación fue un poco dura - la canción se hizo literalmente en una habitación de la casa de alguien," ríe Tom. "Y tuvimos que irnos a otra casa para mezclarla porque los altavoces se estropearon". Sería difícil encontrarle un origen desesperadamente indie, no obstante, ‘Everybody’s Changing’ ya sonaba como un Número 1 de las listas de éxitos, antes incluso, de llegar a los coros, razón de más para que inmediatamente llamara la atención de muchos.
Steve Lamacq decidió que era uno de los mejores singles en toda la historia de Fierce Panda - nada malo para un sello, entre cuyos primeros lanzamientos estaban Coldplay, Idlewild y Supergrass. Lamacq declaró que Keane era "algo entre unos desgastados Coldplay y unos Beautiful South francamente desconcertantes". Después de dar a conocer el single en sus conciertos, por fin la BBc los llamó para hacer una sesión en 6Music. Xfm también se interesó por ellos y Clare Sturgess pidió una sesión de la banda, por otra parte, el Sunday Times declaró que Keane eran responsables de "tres minutos y medio de pura belleza pop". NME escribió que ‘Everybody’s Changing’ era "indiscutiblemente poderosa" y comparó a Keane con la ‘era Kid-A de Radiohead con reminiscencias de A-ha".
"Nuestras canciones tienen temas universales y son emotivas" afirma Tim. "La gente quiere emoción. Algo que parece muy raro hoy en día. No creo que haya muchas bandas que hagan música que realmente signifique algo. No hay nada con lo que identificarse".
La primera gira de Keane en el Reino Unido sorprendió a Tom, Richard y Tim tocando en lugares de todo el país ante audiencias de entre cinco y trescientas personas. No se parecían a ninguna otra banda - no había guitarrista, un factor que podría hacer que los puristas se rasgaran las vestiduras, dice Richard, aunque no fue una decisión premeditada.Para cuando llegó la primera del 2003, los chicos estaban de nuevo en la carretera, y los sellos empezaron a poner sus ofertas sobre la mesa. "Todos nosotros buscábamos la oportunidad de hacer el disco adecuado con la gente adecuada", afirma Tom -y eso es lo que Island consiguió.
"Nunca hemos querido ser una pequeña banda de culto", añade Tom. "Queremos que nuestra música la escuche cuanta más gente mejor, porque para eso es para lo que la hacemos".Presentes en la fabulosa carpa de de Nuevas en festivales de la talla de Reading y Leeds Carling Weekend, el segundo álbum de los chicos, This Is The Last Time, recibía elocuentes aplausos. Suena como esas bandas que nunca han significado nada para nadie, pero al mismo tiempo suena como sólo pueden hacerlo Keane."Hay mucha gente que dice que les gustaría haber nacido en los 60s," dice Tom. "Pero nosotros estamos contentos donde estamos. Nos encanta el catálogo rock del sello y ahora tenemos la oportunidad de formar parte de él. Después de todo, las canciones nunca pasan de moda".
En 2004 aparece Hopes & Fears, precedido de un single de lanzamiento de los que no dejan indiferente Somewhere Only We Know.Hopes and Fears vendió más de 5.5 millones de copias en todo el mundo. Ganamos dos Premios Brit en 2005 (Artista Británico Revelación y Mejor Álbum); Mejor Álbum para la Revista Q, y fuimos nominados a los Grammy en la categoría a Mejor Nuevo Artista, pero la gira se cobraba su precio – necesitábamos regresar al estudio y a casa. Durante todos los descansos que pudimos encontrar desde 2004, habíamos grabado pedazos de canciones, y en Octubre de 2005 nos metimos de nuevo en el estudio para las nuevas sesiones con Andy Green, y terminamos en Diciembre.
En 2006 llega Under The Iron Sea. Se grabó en The Magic Shop en el Soho de New York, y también en los Estudios Helioscentric, cerca de Battle."Al hacer este disco hemos intentado enfrentarnos a todos nuestros peores miedos, analizarnos a nosotros mismos de forma implacable, analizar la relación de unos con otros, con los demás y con el mundo entero, y además hemos hecho un viaje a los lugares más oscuros que podemos encontrar"."La atmósfera creada durante la composición y la grabación del álbum fue increíblemente intensa, y las canciones y el sonido resultantes los reflejan muy bien. En las canciones creamos una especie de siniestro cuento de hadas sin final feliz, un sentimiento de confusión y aletargamiento que está representado por un oscuro lugar que se halla bajo un impenetrable mar de hierro. Para expresar todo esto hemos creado canciones con un sonido completamente nuevo, poniendo un viejo piano eléctrico y varios sintetizadores análogos a través de varias combinaciones diferentes de efectos de guitarra vintage, creando así paisajes musicales que van desde la percusión a enormes y opresivos muros de distorsión"."Compusimos, cantamos y actuamos con una intensidad, un ímpetu y una furia que es casi irreconocible en nuestra música anterior. Fue importante que este álbum tuviera además una importante presencia visual, y el comienzo de ello fue la colaboración con Irvine Welsh en ‘Atlantic’, que encontró su propia inspiración en nuestra música. Su película se hace eco de la importancia de esa identidad visual por la que nosotros hemos luchado".
"Escribimos "Under The Iron Sea" porque necesitábamos un disco que nos hiciera sentirnos vivos de nuevo".
Keane wound up the Under The Iron Sea tour on August 5, 2007. A couple of charity gigs aside, they then took time out for family, friends and a well-earned breather, not reconvening again until mid-January 2008. It was to prove the right decision. “With the second record we went straight off the road into the studio when we really needed a break and that sowed the seeds for a lot of problems which have been quite well-documented. We learned from that this time.” says Hughes.
Pooling the first batch of ideas in their ‘Barn’ studio in southern England (somewhere that’s provided a bolthole for the last few years) Keane then decamped to Paris in mid-February, having booked a couple of days recording time with Jon Brion, the maverick producer as regarded for his soundtrack work as that with US pop acts. Though Perfect Symmetry would end up being almost entirely self-produced, Brion’s input in that short time proved revelatory. “We looked at hip-hop records where they have multiple producers and you never get that with pop or rock records,” says Hughes. “That was part of the thinking there, so Jon came to Paris to work with us for three days before setting off to work on the soundtrack for the new Charlie Kaufman movie.”
“Jon coming onboard was a massive influence,” says Rice-Oxley. “We were in a good place already but he gave us the confidence of not thinking; of not self-editing. We were saying that the records we love are the records that, as a musician, you think ‘God, it must have been amazing to be at that session; it must have been really fun’ and his theory was you only get that by just going for it. Not worrying what people are going to think, or even what you’re going to think! Let’s face it: the worst that can happen is that it’s an idea that doesn’t work.” Consequently, Brion and Keane soon found themselves rooting around in the back of the studio for obtuse percussion instruments and recording vocals in all manner of peculiar ways. You can hear the results on the stellar You Haven’t Told Me Anything, one of the most musically ‘out there’ tracks the band have produced to date.
From then it was back to the UK for a couple of weeks before decamping to Teldex Studios in Berlin. It’s a lengthy journey… if you undertake it by train. “We all got on the overnight train and that journey becomes part of the experience,” says Hughes. “You get to go to the bar and just hang out. It was really, really enjoyable, fun and different. We’re desperate to make sure we get out there again as soon as we can, by train.”
The city that had previously inspired them so much on tour – not to say produced such landmark albums in Keane’s formative years as U2’s Achtung Baby and Bowie’s Low – provided another vital cog in the process. Teldex, a massive former ballroom, would help root Perfect Symmetry with its sense of tragic grandeur. It was during this initial visit that Rice-Oxley wrote standout first single proper The Lovers Are Losing and Stuart Price lent his deft production hands for three days, most audibly on Again And Again. A very different worker to Brion, Price proved equally inspirational in underlining that when it comes to experimenting in the studio, basically, there are no wrong answers.
Further songs fell into place between The Barn, Berlin and London’s Olympic Studios over the next few months, with ideas coming so thick and fast that the song Pretend That You’re Alone was being written and recorded in one studio while other album tracks were being mixed in the next.
The result is a huge record made up of songs in the tradition of happy-sad classic British bands from The Beatles onwards. Or, as Hughes has it, “songs that are not that happy but that sound happy.” Pop music that’s anything but throwaway.
Some have already detected an Eighties influence on parts of Perfect Symmetry. If that’s the case, Keane say, it’s in the spirit of adventure, boldness and Big Pop of those times, rather than any attempt at retro pastiche.
“The boldness of that time is something that’s really frowned upon today,” notes Rice-Oxley. “We’re living in a time when it’s cool to be ‘Eighties’ in a retro way, but I don’t think that spirit and unashamed energy of great 1980s pop is particularly prevalent today. If this record sounds like that, it’s probably because I associate some of those songs – Pet Shop Boys, Salt N’ Peppa, Mel & Kim – with a fun, innocent time. I absolutely do not care what is considered to be fashionable or cool or tasteful – it’s much more about following our own instincts.”
Pooling the first batch of ideas in their ‘Barn’ studio in southern England (somewhere that’s provided a bolthole for the last few years) Keane then decamped to Paris in mid-February, having booked a couple of days recording time with Jon Brion, the maverick producer as regarded for his soundtrack work as that with US pop acts. Though Perfect Symmetry would end up being almost entirely self-produced, Brion’s input in that short time proved revelatory. “We looked at hip-hop records where they have multiple producers and you never get that with pop or rock records,” says Hughes. “That was part of the thinking there, so Jon came to Paris to work with us for three days before setting off to work on the soundtrack for the new Charlie Kaufman movie.”
“Jon coming onboard was a massive influence,” says Rice-Oxley. “We were in a good place already but he gave us the confidence of not thinking; of not self-editing. We were saying that the records we love are the records that, as a musician, you think ‘God, it must have been amazing to be at that session; it must have been really fun’ and his theory was you only get that by just going for it. Not worrying what people are going to think, or even what you’re going to think! Let’s face it: the worst that can happen is that it’s an idea that doesn’t work.” Consequently, Brion and Keane soon found themselves rooting around in the back of the studio for obtuse percussion instruments and recording vocals in all manner of peculiar ways. You can hear the results on the stellar You Haven’t Told Me Anything, one of the most musically ‘out there’ tracks the band have produced to date.
From then it was back to the UK for a couple of weeks before decamping to Teldex Studios in Berlin. It’s a lengthy journey… if you undertake it by train. “We all got on the overnight train and that journey becomes part of the experience,” says Hughes. “You get to go to the bar and just hang out. It was really, really enjoyable, fun and different. We’re desperate to make sure we get out there again as soon as we can, by train.”
The city that had previously inspired them so much on tour – not to say produced such landmark albums in Keane’s formative years as U2’s Achtung Baby and Bowie’s Low – provided another vital cog in the process. Teldex, a massive former ballroom, would help root Perfect Symmetry with its sense of tragic grandeur. It was during this initial visit that Rice-Oxley wrote standout first single proper The Lovers Are Losing and Stuart Price lent his deft production hands for three days, most audibly on Again And Again. A very different worker to Brion, Price proved equally inspirational in underlining that when it comes to experimenting in the studio, basically, there are no wrong answers.
Further songs fell into place between The Barn, Berlin and London’s Olympic Studios over the next few months, with ideas coming so thick and fast that the song Pretend That You’re Alone was being written and recorded in one studio while other album tracks were being mixed in the next.
The result is a huge record made up of songs in the tradition of happy-sad classic British bands from The Beatles onwards. Or, as Hughes has it, “songs that are not that happy but that sound happy.” Pop music that’s anything but throwaway.
Some have already detected an Eighties influence on parts of Perfect Symmetry. If that’s the case, Keane say, it’s in the spirit of adventure, boldness and Big Pop of those times, rather than any attempt at retro pastiche.
“The boldness of that time is something that’s really frowned upon today,” notes Rice-Oxley. “We’re living in a time when it’s cool to be ‘Eighties’ in a retro way, but I don’t think that spirit and unashamed energy of great 1980s pop is particularly prevalent today. If this record sounds like that, it’s probably because I associate some of those songs – Pet Shop Boys, Salt N’ Peppa, Mel & Kim – with a fun, innocent time. I absolutely do not care what is considered to be fashionable or cool or tasteful – it’s much more about following our own instincts.”
So that’s Keane in 2008: the big gigs, big chart success and big awards we know about; now here’s the album of their career. A big, bold, shiny pop monster that’s as likely to appeal to hearts and minds as it is to feet.
“Because we nearly lost it all, we nearly lost the band and we could have gone our separate ways,” says Chaplin, “we had this reinvention as people. You know, ‘We might not have this, so we might as well enjoy it’. That affected everything that we did with this album.”
No wonder it starts with an ‘Oooh!’
“Because we nearly lost it all, we nearly lost the band and we could have gone our separate ways,” says Chaplin, “we had this reinvention as people. You know, ‘We might not have this, so we might as well enjoy it’. That affected everything that we did with this album.”
No wonder it starts with an ‘Oooh!’
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