2010年5月14日Daily Mail采访：Keane谈论身不由己的名声大噪

How reluctant stars became
Keane on fame

By Adrian Thrills

Keane’s last world tour was a huge success. Launched on the back of 2008′s career-reviving Perfect Symmetry album, it found the trio playing to packed houses across 28 countries.

But even the biggest global ventures have their humdrum moments. Some bands ease the boredom by turning to drink and drugs. Keane, having fallen into that trap once before, were determined to do something more useful with their spare time.

‘Touring is great fun, but it can also be lonely,’ says songwriter and keyboardist Tim Rice-Oxley. ‘You spend a lot of time alone in a hotel, living off room service. You might do some sightseeing, but usually end up doing nothing. Before you know it, the day has gone.’

Keane, however, are on a creative roll. One of Britain’s most celebrated new acts when their first album Hopes and Fears sold six million, they stumbled in 2006 when singer Tom Chaplin was treated in The Priory for cocaine and alcohol addiction, but have since swaggered back in real style.

Now they are reiterating that new-found confidence with a mini-album, Night Train, which was written and recorded entirely on the road.

Kaleidoscopic and full of surprises, its eight new tracks experiment with blues rhythms, electro-pop and hip-hop.

The record also finds the group working with two unlikely new collaborators in Somalian-Canadian rapper K’naan – ‘a big Keane fan and a sucker for a good melody’ – and Japanese female singer Tigarah.

‘Some bands stop being creative when they go on tour, but we found it refreshing to spend time in various studios,’ says Rice-Oxley. ‘We also learned how to work quickly. In the past, we’d agonise over songs. When you have just one day to finish a track, you can’t do that.’

‘We didn’t set out to make an album,’ Chaplin adds. ‘That’s why the eight songs are so diverse. We thought we might make a low-key single with K’naan, but the whole thing grew into something completely different.’

Chaplin, 31, and Rice-Oxley, 33, are chatting to me over lunch in a restaurant near London Bridge. The following night they will play a celebratory London concert with K’naan, while the summer sees them embark on a series of UK gigs in spectacular woodland locations as part of the Forestry Commission’s Live Music series. After that, they are making a two-month trip to America.

For bandmates who are often said to have an uneasy relationship – Tom is a singer who doesn’t write lyrics, Tim a songwriter who hardly ever sings – the pair are looking forward to spending the next few months together.

There is certainly no sign of tension between them. Then again, they do go back a long way. Along with drummer Richard Hughes, Chaplin and Rice-Oxley were childhood friends who attended the same primary school in Battle, east Sussex, and boarded together at Tonbridge school in their teens.

Their big break in 2004 might have read like an overnight success, but they’ve been writing songs for 20 years.

‘People say Tom and I have a fractious relationship, but there’s not much truth in that,’ says Tim, with a smile.

‘We’ve made three albums, but we’ve been friends for 30 years. We’re not like a new gang who are all best mates. We had that when we were six or seven. We’re more like a family.’

Tom agrees. ‘Tim was one of the few friendly faces who looked after me when I was bullied at boarding school. He took me under his wing and taught me some chords on the guitar.’

Keane’s small-town roots are important to them, too, and Rice-Oxley’s lyrics – occasionally melancholy but fortified with an inner resolve – reflect his rural upbringing.

‘Our background has had a big effect,’ he says. ‘Our songs are about the passions and fears of small-town life. But I think that’s a hallmark of great English pop. You can also hear it in Pink Floyd and Blur.

‘But there’s a fine line between exploring the melancholy areas and being depressing. We have slipped over the line sometimes, but generally we feel pretty good about life.’

The success of Hopes and Fears, which won two Brits, caught the band by surprise.

Tim admits the three old friends ‘started to go a bit mad’, while Tom’s stay in The Priory came after a stormy period in which the group nearly split. Looking back, the singer still has mixed feelings about that time.

‘When we made Hopes and Fears we had plenty of youthful ambition,’ he says. ‘But nothing prepares you for the challenges of fame – the hype and the adulation – and I found it hard to adapt.

‘It was a dark, claustrophobic time and my problems were part and parcel of that. But we got back onto the horse after falling off. The touring became fun again, and that spurred us on for Perfect Symmetry and Night Train.’

A lean and healthy Chaplin is also looking forward to a summer that could elevate Keane to the stadium-rock status of U2 and Coldplay. With Night Train picking up rave reviews ahead of the band’s US tour in July, the omens are good.

‘For the first time in our lives, we feel like an established group,’ Tom says. ‘When we toured as U2′s support act in 2005, we were in awe of them. They had 11 albums to choose songs from. We’re now beginning to reach a similar position.’

Night Train is out now. Keane’s UK tour begins in Thetford Forest, Suffolk, on June 10. For details, visit keanemusic.com.