Everything about Keane Band totally explained
Keane are an
English rock band, first established in
Battle,
East Sussex in 1995, taking their current name in 1997. The group comprises
composer,
bassist, and
pianist Tim Rice-Oxley,
lead vocalist Tom Chaplin and
drummer Richard Hughes. Their original line-up included founder and
guitarist Dominic Scott, who left in 2001.
Keane are known for using a
piano as their lead instrument instead of
guitars, significantly differentiating them from most rock bands. The inclusion of a distorted piano effect since 2006 and various synthesizers are now a common feature in their music that nowadays combines the pure
piano rock sound used during their first album and the alternative rock sound which developed during 2005. Acoustic and
power ballads are also a highlight in the group's music and have evolved into many fan favourite songs such as "
On a Day Like Today" and "
We Might As Well Be Strangers".
Keane's first two
studio albums,
Hopes and Fears and
Under the Iron Sea achieved great success in the
United Kingdom upon release and very high sales worldwide: their multi-award-winning debut was the best-selling British album of 2004 and their follow-up sold 222,297 copies during its first week on sale in June 2006.
History
Early years and formation
Rice-Oxley's brother — also called Tom — was born in the same hospital on the same day as Chaplin, on
March 8,
1979. Their mothers became friends, as did Chaplin and Rice-Oxley. Tom's father David was the headmaster of Vinehall School in
Robertsbridge (owned by Chaplin's family) for 25 years, the school both Rice-Oxley and Chaplin attended. Both of them later attended
Tonbridge School, where they met
Dominic Scott and
Richard Hughes. The four of them discovered their liking for music (Chaplin had also learnt to play the
flute) but none of them had considered it as a proper career.
While studying at
University College, London for a degree in
classics in 1995, Rice-Oxley finally managed to form a
rock band with Scott, and invited Hughes to play drums. The Lotus Eaters started as a
cover band, playing songs by the members' favourite bands, including
U2,
Oasis, and
The Beatles, and rehearsing at home. Adam Tudhope took managing whom Rice-Oxley met and became friends with at University. Tudhope is also involved in film production through his company, White House Pictures and has contributed to some English films such as
Love Actually. The band composed a song for the film, but it wasn't used.
After listening to Rice-Oxley's piano playing, during a weekend at
Virginia Water,
Surrey in 1997,
Chris Martin invited him to join the early
Coldplay. However, Rice-Oxley declined because he didn't want to leave Keane, stating "I was seriously interested, but Keane were already operational and Coldplay's keyboard player idea was dropped." At her death due to
cancer, she'd left money for Chaplin's family. Chaplin commented "I used some of the money to see me through the harder times with the music." The name was shortened to Keane soon afterwards.
Chaplin departed for
South Africa in summer 1997 to work as a volunteer during his gap year. Chaplin's early experiences there would later be reflected in the band's position for the
Make Poverty History campaign. Returning a year later on
July 3,
1998, Hughes's first words when the band picked up Chaplin at the airport were "We've got a gig in ten days." The tracks, however, can now be found on the internet.
The band members have declared they're not against fans sharing tracks that are unreleased on CD, such as the "
More Matey" and "
Emily" demo tracks. Chaplin has commented "they most likely see those recordings as an interesting extra to get hold of - I don't see it causing any damage. If it was the album we've coming out leaked early (
Under the Iron Sea) then I'd probably feel differently." The EP was reviewed by Ben Rodwell from
eFestivals who listed "
Closer Now" as the best song of the record - one that's particularly enjoyed by fans today.
Four months after the "Call Me What You Like" re-recording session in February 2001, their second single, "
Wolf at the Door" was released. Only fifty hand-made copies are known to have been made, using unlabelled
CD-Rs.
Both singles are considered highly valuable collectors' items by fans. In particular, "Wolf at the Door" has been known to be sold for over
£1000 on
eBay. Before this, in November 2000, Keane were invited by record producer James Sanger to his recording studio at Les Essarts, France, where the band recorded a number of tracks from August to November 2001, including "
Bedshaped" and "
This Is the Last Time". It was during these sessions that the idea of using a piano as lead instrument began to emerge. Sanger received a shared credit for four songs that appeared on Keane's debut album
Hopes and Fears, including the song "
Sunshine", the only one composed there.
The remaining members of the band returned to England in November 2001. Soon after, they signed to
BMG to publish their music, but at this time they didn't have yet a
recording contract.
2002 was a hard year for Keane. All recording or live performances were stopped and Scott's feeling of going nowhere was starting to emerge in Rice-Oxley and Chaplin as they stood at home smoking and listening to records.
As a result of the attention created by this release, a bidding war for the band ensued between major labels, with the band deciding to sign with
Island Records in summer 2003. The band released "This Is the Last Time" on Fierce Panda, in October 2003, as the final release on that label.
Hopes and Fears
With the release of their first major single, Keane began to achieve recognition in the
United Kingdom (UK) and the
United States (U.S.), where "This Is the Last Time" was released and remained as the only single sold there until "Crystal Ball" in late 2006.
In January 2004, Keane was named the band most likely to achieve success in the coming year in the BBC's
Sound of 2004 poll; additionally, this year is popularly referred to as one of the best years for new British music.
A month later, Keane's first release on Island was "
Somewhere Only We Know", which reached number three on the
UK Singles Chart in February 2004. On
May 4, a re-release of "
Everybody’s Changing" followed and featured new cover and
b-sides; it reached number four in the UK Singles Chart.
Keane's
debut album,
Hopes and Fears, was released on
May 10,
2004 in the UK, just a day before the band started their first
world tour. It debuted at number one on the
UK Albums Chart and went on to become the second-biggest selling album of the year in the UK, only losing the top spot to
Scissor Sisters on the last day of the year.
The album has sold approximately five and a half million copies worldwide. In the UK, it stayed in the top 75 of the UK Albums Chart for 72 weeks, appearing again on its 115th week.
The band won two awards at the 2005
BRIT Awards in February; Best British album for
Hopes and Fears and the British breakthrough act award, as voted for by listeners of
BBC Radio 1, defeating bands such as
Muse or
Franz Ferdinand. Three months after, Rice-Oxley received the
Ivor Novello award for songwriter of the year.
As members of the
Make Poverty History foundation, Keane performed "Somewhere Only We Know" and "Bedshaped" at the
Live 8 concert, which took place in London on
July 2,
2005. Keane are also patrons of
War Child, and in September 2005, they recorded a
cover version of
Elton John's "
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" to the charity album . Previously, the band also had recorded a cover of
the Walker Brothers' "
The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore", which was available as a
download-only track from the War Child website. It was later released as a
7" single as a gift to members of the Keane e-mailing list.
As the 1985 version,
Band Aid (now called
Band Aid 20) recorded a new version of "
Do They Know It's Christmas?". Rice-Oxley and Chaplin both contributed vocals.
During the year, the band achieved minor recognition in the U.S. due to their extensive touring, which culminated with a series of gigs as the opening act for
U2. The group were also nominated for a
Grammy in the Best New Artist category along with
Sugarland,
John Legend,
Ciara, and
Fall Out Boy, but ultimately lost out to Legend.
Under the Iron Sea
In April 2005, in the middle of the
Hopes and Fears Tour, the band began recording their second album,
Under the Iron Sea with producer Andy Green, who also worked with them previously on
Hopes and Fears and they later recruited
Mark "Spike" Stent for mixing duties. Recording took place in Helioscentric Studios,
Rye, East Sussex, where
Hopes and Fears was recorded. Additional recording was done at The Magic Shop Studios in
New York City. The band revealed the title of the album on
March 14,
2006 by posting a handwritten note on their official website.
Drawing style differences from their previous album,
Under the Iron Sea takes its name from the eighth track and third single "
Crystal Ball", in which "under the iron sea" is a lyric. Following a
fairytale-oriented style, drawings representing every song on the album are on the box of the
CD+DVD version. This has been described by the band as a "sinister fairytale-world-gone-wrong".
The album's release was preceded by the release of "
Atlantic", a download-only
music video and the lead single "
Is It Any Wonder?", which reached number three on the
UK Singles Chart. The album had a worldwide release date of
June 12,
2006 (see the album's article for exceptions), and was at number 1 in the
UK Albums Chart for the first two weeks of its release. As of
May 22,
2007, it had sold more than 2,200,000 copies. The album has met with critical acclaim, with press referring to it as "dark and heavy", and commenting that it may attract a new, wider audience. The third single from the album was "Crystal Ball", with Chaplin describing it as "one the catchiest and memorable songs on the record". The single was released on
August 21,
2006, reaching number 20 in the UK singles charts. The fourth single from
Under the Iron Sea was "
Nothing in My Way", released on
October 30,
2006, which received particular success on
Mexican commercial radio, charting on Top 3 in
January 13,
2007 and staying a month on that chart. The band released the single "
The Night Sky" in aid of the charity
War Child. The song is written from the perspective of a child about the war-torn devastation around them, and became available via War Child's official website on
October 22 before going on general release on
October 29.
Even before the release of the album (in May 2006), Keane had started their
second world tour that would promote the album. However, due to the extensive touring, on
August 22,
2006, Chaplin announced he'd admitted himself to a clinic for drinking and drug problems. This initially resulted in the cancellation of three gigs and postponement of their September US tour. The entire North American tour was later cancelled outright to allow continued treatment. As a result, the upcoming UK and European tours - scheduled for October and November 2006 - were considered to be liable for possible postponement depending on Chaplin's treatment. Chaplin left the Priory Clinic in London on
October 6, but to date he's still receiving treatment. The tour reached for the first time South American countries (
Argentina,
Chile and
Brazil) and saw the band's third visit to
Mexico in late April with four dates, playing at the downtown
zócalo in
Mexico City, as well their first visit to
Monterrey and
Guadalajara. On
July 7,
2007, Keane played at the
UK leg of
Live Earth at
Wembley Stadium, part of a series of gigs similar to
Live 8, to highlight the threat of
global warming. They performed "Somewhere Only We Know", "Is It Any Wonder?" and "Bedshaped". The
Under The Iron Sea tour was brought to an end with performances in
Oporto,
Portugal, and at the Natural Music Festival in
El Ejido,
Spain, on
August 3 and
4 respectively.
In early October,
Concert Live
announced they were releasing a limited edition 9-CD set (1000 per concert) of every Keane live performance in the UK during October 2006 under the name
Keane Live 06.
Third studio album
In a March 2007 video interview, Chaplin and Hughes spoke of wanting to take a more "organic" approach on album three, but played down guitar suggestions, referring to it as "a fun part of the live set" at present; however, their cover of "
She Sells Sanctuary", became the first song recorded since "The Happy Soldier" (2001) including the instrument.
Tracks mentioned for the third album in a recent Q Magazine interview include "Perfect Symmetry", "Black Burning Heart" and "Playing Along". Recording sessions have recently taken place in
Paris and
Berlin, with new bassist and guitarist Jesse Quinn. A tentative release date has been given as
September 2008.
Collaborations
In late October 2006, Rice-Oxley collaborated with
Gwen Stefani as a co-writer of the song "
Early Winter", released later in 2007 as a single, from her album,
The Sweet Escape, as well as two more tracks. Stefani had been wishing to work with the band since 2005 and Rice-Oxley responded by saying "we might give it a go".
Musical style and themes
Tim Rice-Oxley and
Dominic Scott were the main writers of the band's songs during their early years. When Scott left in 2002, Rice-Oxley became the main composer. However, Rice-Oxley credits the rest of the band on all compositions, so that royalties for song credits are shared. The band has been known as "the band with no guitars", due to its heavily
piano-based sound. By using
delay and
distortion effects on their piano sound, they often create sounds that aren't immediately recognisable as piano. Rice-Oxley said during an interview in
Los Angeles that they tend to think piano-related music is boring and what they really wanted to do was try something different. He referred to the piano as an odd instrument to form part of a rock band instrumentation, comparing it to The Beatles' set of instruments. Rice-Oxley's aforementioned distortion piano has set most of Keane's multifaceted style, varying from
hip-hop on "Dirtylicious" to
house on "Tyderian".
During their early years most songs were about love or broken relationships (most notably "
She Has No Time" and "
On a Day Like Today"). However, other themes — including the relationship between Rice-Oxley and Chaplin — have emerged in more recent compositions. Other themes have been explored; for example, "
Is It Any Wonder?" and "
A Bad Dream" are both about war.
Criticism
Due to the piano-based music and the alternative sound of the debut album, critics first regarded Keane as
Coldplay imitators; the media however, in supporting Keane, started calling them the "new Coldplay", with reference to their recent commercial success. Newer bands such as
Morning Runner and
The Fray have been compared to both Keane and Coldplay for the piano-oriented sound of their music.
Notable feuds with other artists were held with
The Darkness,
The Libertines,
James Blunt and
Oasis;
Noel Gallagher famously dismissed them saying "Traditionally speaking, the three biggest twats in any band are the singer, the keyboardist and the drummer. I don't need to say anything else." Keane have however stated that they've never had a feud with
The Darkness or
The Libertines and the story was misinterpreted by the media.
Live and studio instrumentation
After Scott departed, Rice-Oxley started using a
Yamaha CP-70 piano, a quality instrument especially designed for touring that he read about in a
Beatles book written by their producer,
George Martin. A Nord Lead 3
synthesizer is currently used to play solos and located during the gigs on the top of the main piano.
Main instrumentation includes:
Yamaha CP-70 electric piano
Fender Rhodes electric piano
Hammond organ
Clavia Nord Lead 3 synthesizer
Yamaha S90 ES
Various synthesizers
Fender basses
Yamaha Drums
Rice-Oxley's PowerBook G4 is used to play back pre-recorded bass tracks during live performances. The computer software includes an electronic click-track transmitted wirelessly to the three members' Sennheiser earphones to aid accurate playback. It also controls the extra synthesizer sections that would be impossible to play live with the current line-up.
In October 2004, when "Hamburg Song" and "Nothing in My Way" debuted, Chaplin played a Hammond MK2 organ, having played no instrument in the live band since 2001. Following this, in 2006 he started to play a distorted CP60 (an upright version of the Yamaha CP70) for some songs like "The Frog Prince", Try Again and "A Bad Dream". Recently they've been using a Yamaha S90ES for their on-stage piano and Rhodes sounds.
Since October 2006's UK tour, Chaplin has also played acoustic guitar during gigs, particularly during "Your Eyes Open" which was performed in an acoustic set-up. For the band's Christmas in-store gig at the Apple Store in London's Regent Street on December 12, 2006, this was expanded to include the songs "A Bad Dream" and "Is It Any Wonder?". During this performance, Rice-Oxley also played a bass guitar live to accompany "This Is the Last Time", while Chaplin took the lead performing a new piano arrangement of the song on the CP-70. The band have often claimed that this is to put something different into live tracks. They have ensured it won't be permanent either.
Members
Tim Rice-Oxley – piano, keyboards, bass, backing vocals, lead vocals (before 1997)
Tom Chaplin – lead vocals, live keyboards, organ, acoustic guitar (before 2003; used since 2006 in live performances)
Richard Hughes – drums, live backing vocals
Former members
Dominic Scott – electric guitar, keyboard, lead vocals (1995–1997), backing vocals (1997–2001)
Members for live performances
Jesse Quin - bass, electric guitar (2007 - )
Discography
Studio albums
Hopes and Fears (2004)
Under the Iron Sea (2006)
Untitled third album (2008)
Tours
Promotional performances (1998-2003)
Hopes and Fears Tour (2004-2005)
Under the Iron Sea Tour (2006-2007)
Awards
| Year |
Award |
Category |
Country |
For |
| 2004 |
Q Awards |
Best Album |
United Kingdom |
Hopes and Fears |
| 2004 |
Premios Onda |
Best International Band |
Spain |
Hopes and Fears |
| 2004 |
Ivor Novello |
Composers of the Year |
United Kingdom |
Tim Rice-Oxley |
| 2005 |
BRIT Awards |
Best Album |
United Kingdom |
Hopes and Fears |
| 2005 |
BRIT Awards |
Best Breakthrough Act |
United Kingdom |
Hopes and Fears |
| 2006 |
GQ Awards |
Band of the Year |
United Kingdom |
Under the Iron Sea |
Further Information
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