2007年9月Q杂志10月刊：Tim Rice-Oxley [PIANO MAN]

Tim Rice-Oxley [PIANO MAN]

Q Magazine issue of October

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“Superman talented” is how Gwen Stefani described Keane’s 31 year old pianist, lyricist and songwriter after they collaborated together. The array of awards he’s amassed – an Ivor Novello, two Brits and a Q award – suggest she’s right. A card carrying pop fan, he’s as likely to enthuse about A-ha as Kanye west. “People are disappointed” he says. It doesn’t fit with the idea of what a British indie band should like.

What was the first song you ever wrote?

I got into trying to write my own songs when I was 13 years old and I already knew both of the guys. I remember swapping songs with Tom. There was one called Refrain. “Refrain / from breaking my heart / again”. It was ****.

Are you from “musical stock”?

My parents were both very into classical music. My dad was always singing in choirs and playing piano – we had a small honky-tonk piano I was supposed to practise on but never did. I saw all sorts of operas when I was a kid. And I remember watching [Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers classic] Top Hat. I got into a lot of Fred Astaire and from there into a lot of Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern and all those Gershwin numbers. Until I was about 12, the only pop music I was aware of was Buddy Holly, Simon and Garfunkel and The Beatles.

What changed?

The first time I really got into pop was when my friend Owen had a copy of the Now 11 compilation on double cassette. It had some great stuff on it: Belinda Carlisle, Billy Ocean..but the one I really liked was the cover of Always on My Mind by the Pet Shop Boys. I played it over and over. My dad told me it was an Elvis song, and I went back and listened to the Elvis version…it sounded really boring. I became hooked on that pop energy.

How do you write? Which comes first, words or music?

I would say music. The idea of writing a song is to either sit down at a piano or guitar, and a nugget comes. Songs are normally focused on a great hook, and that hook is always lyrical as well as musical. If you took All You Need Is Love and replaced it with something about shopping for vegetables, it wouldn’t be as good. You know, you get those moments when a little genius phase, musical or lyrical comes out. Then you’ve broken the back of a song. And that can happen in five seconds. And the rest of the time that’s what you’re searching for.

How does your mood affect your songwriting? Is it a bad day for you a good day for songs?

Definitely. Even when I first started writing that was true. A lot of that teenage angst worked its way into songs. “Why do pretty girls hate me?” Exactly. That’s basically the same today, one way or another.

Are there particular circumstances in which “the muse” is more compliant?

The best high in life is when you sit down in the evening and the hours just go, and you get that magical thing when it’s just flowing out. You spend a lot of time searching [for that]. That’s what makes it such a great thing. I get massive mood swings that are pretty much defined by how my song writing is going.

Who is the greatest songwriter ever?

Paul Simon. He’s shown this incredible hunger for different things, from enormous pop smashes such as Mrs Robinson to Still Crazy After All These Years- an incredible song, the feeling of loss and regret that song has, which people think of as easy listening – right through to Graceland, which is a million miles from that. He did personal songs in a much more direct and honest way than someone like Dylan who’s constantly referred to [as great].

Tom sings the songs you write. Does that allow you to write words that you wouldn’t have the nerve to sing?

My view of writing songs is that you should never hold anything back. The rawer the better as far as I’m concerned. It’s probably easier for me knowing that Tom is going to be the one who has to stand up there in front of 20,000 people and articulate that. I think I’m instinctively aware of the fact that he’s going to be singing the stuff: we’ve been making music together for the last 20 years. I’m very lucky. He always takes a song up a lot from the way it sounds when I write it.

Hamburg song was written about the relationship between you and him….

I’ve never done that before. And with Hamburg Song I started writing almost about myself. The first verse I’d written about my wife, about what she must feel about me sometimes (“I’d like to bring a little light/to shine a light on your life/to make you feel loved”), once all the crazy band stuff kicked off. And then we got into the studio and it all poured out and turned into a song that was really about [the] friendship [between Tom and me]. I did think, “This is going to be quite awkward.” But if it’s painful to write or to play, then that’s a kind of job well done.

Will Tom’s problems with drink and drugs influence your songwriting?

I’m sure it will. I hope it influences us in something other than 12 songs about rehab. There are songs that I have written in the really dark times last year…I can think of one song in particular that was about Tom, which was a pretty angry song, but as time went on I started to think, “Well, there are two sides to this story”, and turned it into a song that was more about my own mistakes, as much as anything. It was really just a miserable time all round.

How do the new songs sound?

We’ve got one that’s Kanye West-ish. I think it sounds pretty enormous, moving forward beyond the straight indie music that everyone else is doing. You want that instant punch in the gut. It goes back to the Pet Shop Boys. They made a brilliant three minute pop song that gets you first time and stays with you a lifetime. It’s about changing someone’s life in three minutes. Amazing if you can do it. That’s the thrill of the chase.

What’s your secret?

To try to articulate the thoughts that are the most painful to articulate. It’s a hard thing. The great mystery of music is that no one knows why it affects people all over the world. I’ve learnt more about the world listening to pop music that I have from anything else.

TAKE 5

Tim Rice- Oxley on his best songs

Bedshaped

“I love this one. One of those songs I don’t really know where it came from”

Is it any wonder?

“It articulates something that a lot of people have felt over the last few years; being powerless and totally misrepresented”

Atlantic

“A very different song for us. The drums make the song. It’s very primal. About the terror of dying alone.”

The Frog Prince

“There’s something about the bubbling cauldron feeling, the atmosphere of tension, that I was pleased to be able to put into a song”

Fly to me

“Probably nobody’s ever heard it, but it’s the one Keane song guaranteed to reduce me to tears every time”