svelte Posted November 30, 2004 Posted November 30, 2004 Biography from KeaneBand.com Keane is: Tom Chaplin - Vocals Tim Rice-Oxley - Piano Richard Hughes - Drums Keane formed in 1997 when they were at school together. In 2002, after the loss of their guitarist and a period of time honing their sound, Keane decided that they needed to get out and play gigs again. They booked two acoustic shows, one at the 12 Bar Club, another at the Betsey Trotwood. Fierce Panda mini-mogul Simon Williams caught the Betsey Trotwood gig, and asked Keane to put out a single on his label. They chose 'Everybody's Changing', a sweeping, majestic ode to feeling utterly lost when everyone else seems to know the score, which was recorded for zero pence. "The recording session was a little rough and ready - the song was literally made in a room in someone's house," Tom laughs. "And we had to go round to a different house to mix it, because the speakers broke." It would be difficult to find origins more desperately indie, yet 'Everybody's Changing' sounded like a Number One chart hit before you even got to the chorus, and it immediately began turning heads. Steve Lamacq decided that it was one of the best singles in Fierce Panda's entire history - not bad for a label, which housed early releases from Coldplay, Idlewild and Supergrass. He declared that Keane were "somewhere between a scuffed Coldplay and a frankly bewildered Beautiful South", hammering the single on his show and eventually calling the band in for a session on BBC 6Music. Xfm were on the case, too, with Clare Sturgess requesting a session from the band, while a Sunday Times profile noted that Keane were responsible for "three and a half minutes of pure pop loveliness". NME wrote that 'Everybody's Changing' was "indisputably mighty" and compared Keane with "'Kid A'-era Radiohead covering A-ha". What all these people spotted - and what the rest of the world will hopefully find out for themselves - is that despite the reference points, Keane's beguilingly beautiful music really isn't like anything else that's out there right now. "Our songs have universal themes and are emotional," Tim nods. "People want emotion. But that seems like quite a rare thing these days. I don't think there are many bands who are making music which actually means anything. There's nothing to identify with." Things, at last, were beginning to gather pace. Keane's first UK tour saw Tom, Richard and Tim performing at venues up and down the country to audiences of between five and 300 people. They didn't look like many other bands - there was no guitarist, a factor which might send some purists screaming into the hills but, Richard says, really wasn't a conscious decision. By the time spring 2003 rolled around, the boys were out on the road again, and labels were already putting offers on the table. "All we were after was the opportunity to make the right record with the right people," Tom shrugs - which is where Island stepped in. "We've never wanted to be a small, cult band," Tom adds. "We want to get our music heard by as many people as we possibly can, because that's why we're making it." Throw in a startling appearance in the New Bands tent at the Reading and Leeds Carling Weekend, more plaudits for the boys' second single 'This Is The Last Time'. And, once again, it sounds like all the bands who've ever meant anything to anyone, but at the same time it only sounds like Keane. "People often say that they wish they'd been around in the 60s," Tom says. "But we're happy just where we are. We love rock's back catalogue, and now we've got a chance to add to it. After all, tunes never go out of fashion." Quote
svelte Posted November 30, 2004 Author Posted November 30, 2004 Discography Hopes and Fears[] Release date: 05.25.04 Label: Interscope Records 01. Somewhere Only We Know 02. This Is the Last Time 03. Bend and Break 04. We Might as Well Be Strangers 05. Everybody's Changing 06. Your Eyes Open 07. She Has No Time 08. Can't Stop Now 09. Sunshine 10. Untitled 1 11. Bedshaped Photographs Quote
svelte Posted November 30, 2004 Author Posted November 30, 2004 Tour DatesDate - Venue - Location11/13/2004 - Southampton Guildhall Southampton, ENG, United Kingdom 11/14/2004 - Cambridge Corn Exchange Cambridge, ENG, United Kingdom 11/16/2004 - Brixton Academy London, ENG, United Kingdom 11/17/2004 - Brixton Academy London, ENG, United Kingdom 11/18/2004 - Brixton Academy London, ENG, United Kingdom 11/27/2004 - Elysee Montmarte Paris, France 11/28/2004 - Halles De Schaerbeek Brussels, Belgium 11/29/2004 - Paradiso Amsterdam, Netherlands 12/02/2004 - The Fillmore San Francisco, CA, United States 12/05/2004 - The Arena at Gwinnett Center Duluth, GA, United States 12/06/2004 - Crystal Ballroom / Lola's Portland, OR, United States 12/08/2004 - Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, BC, Canada 12/09/2004 - Key Arena Seattle, WA, United States 12/16/2004 - Zepp Fukuoka, Japan Fukuoka, Japan 01/24/2005 - Gypsy Tea Room & Ballroom Dallas, TX, United States 01/25/2005 - La Zona Rosa Austin, TX, United States 01/26/2005 - The Meridian Houston, TX, United States 01/28/2005 - Coca-Cola Roxy Theatre Atlanta, GA, United States 01/29/2005 - House of Blues - Orlando Lake Buena Vista, FL, United States 01/30/2005 - Centre Stage at the Plex Charleston, SC, United States 02/02/2005 - Hammerstein Ballroom New York, NY, United States 02/04/2005 - Electric Factory Philadelphia, PA, United States 02/05/2005 - Orpheum Theatre Boston, MA, United States 02/12/2005 - Metropolis Montreal, QC, Canada 02/13/2005 - Kool Haus Toronto, ON, Canada 02/15/2005 - House of Blues - Cleveland Cleveland, OH, United States 02/16/2005 - Michigan Theater Ann Arbor, MI, United States 02/17/2005 - Riviera Theatre Chicago, IL, United States 02/19/2005 - The Pageant Saint Louis, MO, United States 02/20/2005 - Eagles Ballroom Milwaukee, WI, United States 02/21/2005 - Quest Minneapolis, MN, United States Quote
svelte Posted November 30, 2004 Author Posted November 30, 2004 Keane: Kings of KeyboardsThe "Somewhere Only We Know" band aren't Coldplay clones; they're piano-pumping softies.Thu. September 16.2004 "So you want to be a rock and roll star?" asked the Byrds back in 1967. "Just get an electric guitar/ Then take some time and learn how to play." Nobody told that to Keane. When their guitarist left the band, Tim Rice-Oxley's expressive piano became the lead instrument. Now, in their native Britain, the three-piece are very big rock and roll stars indeed.Their debut album Hopes and Fears entered the Brit charts at No. 1, and its string of singles, with their typically British blend of melancholy and uplift, established them as arena-filling successors to Coldplay. Some critics have derided their lack of edge, but Keane's populist appeal is undeniable. Hope and Fears bristles with the kind of choruses that sound best coming from a crowd of thousands.With their first single "Somewhere Only We Know" climbing the American charts, it's our turn to be seduced by their passionate pop and the tinkling of Keane's piano. So get your Kleenex ready. Singer Tom Chaplin and drummer Richard Hughes joined Rice-Oxley in a chat with VH1. We talked about writing great songs, the bands they see as brothers, and why they won't be singing Beatles tunes anytime soon.VH1: Why did you call the album Hopes and Fears?Richard Hughes: Hopes and Fears came from a line in a B-side called "Snowed Under." Everybody's lives are made up of the hopes and fears they have every day. That's what life's little dramas are made up of, basically. We were trying to find a way of getting a sense of balance, because it's not an album full of really happy or really sad songs. We try to talk about the grey areas within each song. VH1: Your music really wears its heart on its sleeve. Tim Rice-Oxley: We all believe that you can't have a great song if you don't have great words that really speak to you. It took us so long to get anywhere as a band that we got to the point where we didn't really have anything to lose. We weren't writing about being cool or what we look like, or what people might think of us as people. We just wanted to be honest. When you take that mental step of saying, "We're not gonna hold anything back," then you're giving a lot to people who listen to your music.VH1: With all these guitar bands in Britain, how did you fit into the musical landscape?Richard: People liked what we were doing for what it was rather than trying to anticipate the next industry trend. We changed quite a lot over the course of working out the best way to get our music across. We just learned to trust our own instincts. Eventually we got the chance to put out this little indie single we recorded ourselves and that kicked everything off for us.VH1: What bands do you guys see as your peers?Tim: We've been around such a long time it's always hard to know which bands you should consider as being your contemporaries. One of the first gigs we ever played we were supporting Coldplay, and we were swapping demos and stuff with them back in 96-97 or something. There were loads of bands on the London scene at that time. I suppose it's more the young bands like the Zutons, Delays, Franz Ferdinand, and Snow Patrol. There are lots of really good British bands at the moment, which is pretty cool.VH1: What's the inspiration behind "Somewhere Only We Know"?Tim: I can remember writing it at home in [my hometown] Battle on my mom and dad's piano. I was trying to get something that was really driving and pumping piano chords like David Bowie's "Heroes." The song that came out was "Somewhere Only We Know." It kind of wrote itself quite quickly which is good because ...Tom: [interrupting] It saves time. [Laughs]Tim: Yeah. It saves time and effort. But it's good 'cause then it's really natural.VH1: What have you been working on since the album came out?Tim: We're actually doing a cover of the Walker Brothers' "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)," but it's completely unfinished at the moment. We always like playing cover versions when we're messing around, especially when we do acoustic gigs. We did Elton John's "Your Song" and we even did "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" once. We did "Dinner at Eight" by Rufus Wainwright.Richard: We covered "Paperback Writer" in our first gig ever. It probably sounded hideous. Tom: There were four of us at the time, so we all did the four-part harmony for it. Richard: It was the only time I've ever sung in public I think. Let's just say, I won't be doing it again. Tom: Disgraceful! Quote
svelte Posted November 30, 2004 Author Posted November 30, 2004 Just Because A Piano Can't Move Doesn't Mean Keane Don'tBrits have been known to rock so hard onstage they need an oxygen tank.Fri. October 22.2004 England's Keane have been known to rock out so hard onstage that sometimes they have to reach for an oxygen tank.While playing the song "Bend and Break" in Mexico City, the piano-driven alt-pop trio's lead singer, Tom Chaplin, was "puffing away on the oxygen as a preventative measure," he said." 'Bend and Break' is one of the big rockers we play early on, and for us it's a pretty physical experience," said pianist Tim Rice-Oxley. "And I guess for the crowd it's sort of loud and fast and exciting to watch."Energy and onstage antics may not be what you'd expect from a band comprised of a pianist, drummer and vocalist. Still, the British band — who released their debut, Hopes and Fears, earlier this year — works hard to keep the energy level high and connect with fans."I think people are blown away by the amount of energy we have when we play live," drummer Rich Hughes said. "Onstage we absolutely love rocking out. We have a sort of physical reaction to playing. ... On a good night, you get that sort of [energy] bouncing off the crowd as well. It's a physical thing as well as an emotional thing."Keane sought to record an album as memorable as their shows. "We set out to make a record that people would connect with," said Hughes, "not just get their toes tapping, but connect with emotionally, and we feel that's happening, so that's incredibly satisfying."Hopes and Fears has garnered Keane a strong following of listeners drawn to their thick piano chords and romantic, reflective lyrics. Notoriety came slowly for Keane, though, who began as a cover band in 1997 (at the time, joined by guitarist Dominic Scott), gigging around Sussex, England. In 1999, after moving to London, the group began recording, and in 2000 Keane self-released their debut single, "Call Me What You Like."Scott parted ways with Keane the following July, and the band opted not to replace him. Now a trio, Keane spent the rest of 2001 and most of 2002 developing their new sound, testing it out at two London shows in December. Fierce Panda founder Simon Williams (whose label's roster has also included fellow piano enthusiasts Coldplay, as well as Death Cab for Cutie and Polyphonic Spree), was in the audience and asked them to put out a single on his label.Keane chose the instrumentally catchy, lyrically melancholy track "Everything's Changing," garnering the attention of several U.K. labels, including Island, which the band signed to in mid-2003.Hopes and Fears, their first album on the label, is a series of sweeping, epic odes by way of swelling piano chords and prolonged vocal notes, as exemplified in their current U.S. single, "Somewhere Only We Know."The band will next shoot a video for "This Is the Last Time," which Chaplin said "is about being in a situation where you're very close to someone but you feel there is something more out there, or you have a dream where you really want to be properly in love and you feel like you're not quite getting that. It's about going out there and trying to find something more magical." That search for something magical also applies to the band's approach to its next record."We've got some stuff we're really proud of that we're just starting to work on now, and we don't want to rush into another record for the sake of it or something cheesy like that," said Rice-Oxley. "We want to make sure we don't sell ourselves short, so we're going to work out ways of developing and pushing ourselves forward and writing the best songs we can and making exciting sounds and just seeing what we can actually do as a band." Quote
Guest Posted November 30, 2004 Posted November 30, 2004 Cheers Svelte for some great info on a great band Quote
Lolita Posted September 8, 2005 Posted September 8, 2005 great band, but their music is so sad. the lyrics ugh, don't listen to it if you have broken up with someone or depressed. Quote
jdurangosgirl Posted October 28, 2005 Posted October 28, 2005 I've hear a lot about this band. I will have to check it out Quote
red_ed Posted October 29, 2005 Posted October 29, 2005 You should, they're awesome. Beautiful music. Quote
Barry Posted October 29, 2005 Posted October 29, 2005 they're good but there are better bands around at the moment Quote
red_ed Posted October 29, 2005 Posted October 29, 2005 Example? I'd like to listen I like slow relaxing stuff. Acoustic is good to listen to Quote
Monkey Posted October 30, 2005 Posted October 30, 2005 I'm pretty sure I saw them play at the MTV Video Music Awards on TV.They sucked major ass. Quote
Barry Posted October 30, 2005 Posted October 30, 2005 Example? I'd like to listen I like slow relaxing stuff. Acoustic is good to listen to <{POST_SNAPBACK}> i don't know what your musical taste is. i meant that there are lots of good new bands. personally i'm currently into 'the thrills' (they're awesome. saw them in concert last year), 'hard-fi', 'british sea power', 'athlete', 'the arcade fire' (are quite different but pretty darn good), 'bloc party' (amazing but nothing like keane. if you like relaxing stuff you might not like them. you'd like 'tulips' though. you can download that for free off their website), 'the bravery', 'jack johnson', 'james blunt', 'maroon 5' (a bit), 'morrissey', 'snow Patrol', 'travis' and 'the wallflowers'. keane are good but can get a bit monotonous. 'bedshaped' enrages me . . . Quote
red_ed Posted October 30, 2005 Posted October 30, 2005 I love bedshaped I listen to Jack Johnson... it's good beach music! You can lie on the beach and listen to that all day long! Quote
Barry Posted October 30, 2005 Posted October 30, 2005 I love bedshaped I listen to Jack Johnson... it's good beach music! You can lie on the beach and listen to that all day long! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> the bedshaped video is even more irritating . . . do you like 'the thrills'??? Quote
red_ed Posted October 31, 2005 Posted October 31, 2005 never heard of them... then again I don't download too much music... Quote
Barry Posted October 31, 2005 Posted October 31, 2005 never heard of them... then again I don't download too much music... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> listen to' whatever happened to Corey Haim?', 'don't steal our sun' or 'the irish keep gate-crashing'. i reckon that you'd like them. Thrills Page Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.