2011年4月21日环球音乐国际部日记：Keane在北京——愉快的一周

Keane in Beijing – An Amazing Week with Keane
2011-04-21 15:01:07
来源：http://site.douban.com/widget/notes/2279574/note/146674836/

Dear all,
It is our great honor to have talented band Keane in town for their 2 shows and promos in Beijing last week. Here’s the full story:
Keane arrived in Beijing, China on the afternoon April 11th, Monday to start their first visit ever to China. On April 12th, the band went to Great Wall to shoot Burberry Acoustic Session. (Burberry Acoustic Session is the special campaign from the brand for this year. The brand invited young bands all over UK to record the acoustic versions of their singles. They want to build a much younger and cooler brand image through this campaign.) They recorded “Somewhere Only We Know” for this session. The video is streamed on Burberry.com and Youku.com.

On April 13th, the band did an amazing mini-concert for Burberry event in Beijing. Near 800 celebrities and guests showed up at the event. Keane totally lit up the venue. Almost everyone sang along with the artists. The concert was live-streamed by Burberry.com and their other video website partners. It’s also live-streamed by their ‘Burberry Retail Theater’ system to over 50 retail stores all over the world. It’s probably the most exciting fashion brand event of the year so far.

After an exciting night with fans, arranged by UM China, the 3 band members from Keane went to visit National Traditional Orchestra of China on the after of April 14. As contemporary western musicians, the band members also very interested in traditional Chinese music and instruments. They watched the rehearsal, interacted with China musicians. The musicians from NTOC played a short jam session for Keane and introduced traditional Chinese instruments to them. All the band members were really fascinated by beautiful traditional Chinese music.

At night, Universal Music China took the whole tour party to dinner at a traditional Chinese restaurant. During the dinner, the band met Sa Dingding, our Chinese artist from Universal China. They talked about a lot of things on music, including the possibility of collaboration in the future. After the dinner, they toured Nan Luo Gu Xiang, an old Beijing Hutong (alley).

The band took a day-off on April 15th. On the afternoon of April 16th, the band went to HitFM, the host of their send showcase in Beijing for a two-hour promo session. This promo session includes: photo call, group interview, 1-on-1 interview and 30-minute live radio show. 15 media attended at the press junket.

After the press junket at Hit FM, the band went to the venue of Hit FM 8th Anniversary showcase venue. Before the show, they met the winners of Keane Album Artwork Design Campaign on Douban.com. This event was held by Universal Music China International Department on Douban.com. Douban group for Keane is the biggest online Keane fan base in China. This campaign encouraged the fans to recommend album cover artworks for Keane. The winners would get the access to the showcase. Top 3 winners could meet the band face to face at the backstage. This campaign got 400+ uploads within 3 weeks.

9:30 pm April 16th, Keane played on Hit FM 8th Anniversary Showcase. 1500+ fans showed up. And the venue was totally packed. Both the artist and fans enjoyed the show a lot. All the audience were looking forward to see them again in China. Before the event, over 7000 fans send application text to Hit FM for the tickets. 200 CDs are sold out on site.

2011年4月20日搜狐音乐专访Keane：不介意和Coldplay比较

专访英国乐队Keane：不介意和Coldplay比较
作者：朱尔摩斯 2011年04月20日16:58
来源：http://music.yule.sohu.com/20110420/n306155959.shtml

Keane，这支从英国小城巴特勒成长起来的乐队，从上世纪90年代末组建开始就一直被歌迷和媒体们拿来与Coldplay作比，虽然同为一线乐队，但被拿来互相比较依然有些许的尴尬。在这次采访中，Keane面对Coldplay的问题并不避讳，不仅大方谈论Keane和Coldplay的渊源，还开玩笑的吹捧了一下自己乐队的键盘手 Tim。在旋律上，Keane几乎可以与同是以旋律见长的Coldplay媲美，更因为他们舍弃吉他，以钢琴为主导乐器的乐队配置，让他们在英国同时期乐队里异常独特，至今依然是各大音乐节的抢手乐队。

要不是Hit Fm的8周年庆典，这场Keane的音乐大餐恐怕只有为数不多的一些时尚人士可以享用，京城再一次在这样的机会面前显示出了自己帝都的优越性，外地的歌迷在网络上的各种羡慕和懊悔在他们错失Bob Dylan后又一次的爆发。

虽然这不是一次纯粹的Keane巡演，但这场演出肯定对内地的演出市场起到一定的刺激作用。当天晚上因为Keane而变得拥挤的糖果三层，内地演出商不会无视这样的水准，Keane的中国巡演相信也不会再是歌迷们的长久意淫。

搜狐音乐：这是你们第一次到中国，也是第一次到北京，有什么感想？

Keane：当然这是一次非常棒的经历。非常荣幸我们能来到中国，因为并不是有那么多的西方乐队能得到在中国演出的机会，所以我们觉得这是对我们的一个嘉奖。自从我们来到中国， 就受到中国主办方的细致招待，不好意思太劳驾大家了。

搜狐音乐：在北京这几天都去了哪里？

Keane：长城！我们很小的时候就知道它，在百科全书上有长城的不少照片，我们不知道是否可以有一天能亲眼看到长城，当我们站在上面的时候有些让我们不可思议，而且我们的导游也很专业很详细。我们还在长城上玩了一个不插电版的《Somewhere Only We Know》，在长城上演奏那感觉太奇妙了！我们还坐车去了北京一些有特色的地方转了转，还去了中央民族乐团参观，在那里看到了好多我们从来没见过的乐器，听到了很多没听过的音乐，在他们的排练室里听到的音乐太迷人了。还去了天安门广场和故宫，那些古代建筑非常壮观，我们很高兴我们在这里演出的同时还能游览这些地方。

搜狐音乐：Keane刚成立的时候，Coldplay的主唱Chris Martin还邀请过Tim为他们弹键盘，而且你们签约的第一家唱片公司Fierce Panda，他们的老板就是Simon Williams，他曾经就是Coldplay，有没有这回事儿？

Keane：这是一个很长很长的故事，我们很了解Coldplay, 两支乐队的关系也不错，之前我们还一起演出过好几次，这确实是一件很久远的事情了，当时我们两支乐队都还很年轻，差不多是96年97年的时候吧，Tim的键盘弹得非常好，我们一点都不惊讶Chris对Tim做出邀请。Tim可以胜任任何一支乐队，所以他最富有，我甚至认为他如果在Coldplay都是那个最富有的人。

其实发掘Coldplay的人是Caroline Elleray，最早也是她签下我们的。当然Simon的厂牌也非常酷，而且他人也非常友善。

搜狐音乐：你们曾经和日本的乐队Yellow Magic Orchestra有过合作，他们在日本是一支传奇乐队，这个合作是怎么发生的？

Keane：对，我们翻唱了他们一首歌，（You’ve Got to Help Yourself）。他们的音乐很酷，我们也知道他们在日本的影响力相当大。当他们在伦敦演出的时候，Tim和Jesse去看了他们在伦敦的演出，回来后就说告诉我们必须翻唱一首他们的歌，因为实在太棒了。

搜狐音乐：新专辑现在是什么情况了？

Keane：我们只能说，我们正在做这件事。对于目前已经创作出来的那部分我们都非常满意，我们又开始回归创作了，我们想让这张专辑更简单，并且能有一两首大家都特别喜欢的大热歌曲。我们不能保证说今年就能出来，我们估计得明年吧。我们都不着急，也没有谁给我们定一个期限，我们会认真的做音乐人该做的。

搜狐音乐：一些歌迷在网上说你们正在变成一支电子流行乐队，因为你们上一张专辑比之前的所有专辑都更电气化。真的是这样的吗？

Keane：是吗？但其实我们之前的专辑都用了不少电子乐，我们有首歌叫《Everybody’s Change》应该是我们最电子化的歌了，可能是鼓的节奏变化不多，钢琴也很少，所以可能让大家觉得我们有些电子吧。但是我们一直都在保持歌曲的流行度。

搜狐音乐：你们现在已经是一线大团了，能给我们推荐一些新乐队么？

Keane：The Vaccince，他们的专辑非常棒。还有Wild Beasts，好像是谢菲尔德的乐队，是么？我记不起来了。

（采写：朱尔摩斯，图：李伯男）

2011年4月17日网易娱乐专访Keane：首次中国演出很棒 格莱美改革是进步

Keane乐队:首次中国演出很棒 格莱美改革是进步
2011-04-17 21:29:31
来源：http://ent.163.com/11/0417/21/71SEQ53100031H0O.html

日前，英国乐队Keane受邀来华参加某时尚品牌庆典。演出结束后，Keane乐队接受了网易娱乐独家专访。乐队表示，第一次在中国做演出感觉很棒。当谈到对格莱美改革的看法时，Keane坦言格莱美很多类别奖项是不必要的，对于这次改革很赞同，乐队成员认为他们早该拥有一座奖杯了。

网易娱乐4月17日报道 日前，著名英国乐队Keane受邀来华参加某时尚品牌庆典活动。演出结束后，Keane乐队接受了网易娱乐的独家专访。乐队表示，第一次在中国做演出感觉很棒。当谈到对格莱美改革的看法时，Keane坦言格莱美很多类别奖项是不必要的，对于这次改革很赞同，乐队成员认为他们早该拥有一座奖杯了。被问及乐队商业化倾向时，Keane表示乐队只要做好音乐，商业化也未尝不可，并且能带动时尚潮流。

以下是专访Keane乐队实录：

网易娱乐：音乐演出非常成功，你们觉得整体的感受怎么样？

Keane: 太惊人了！演出上表演了多种多样的音乐，包括各种不同的神奇的乐器演奏，我个人尤其觉得那个鼓很特别。听了之后我们当场就觉得或许我们应该尝试将来在自己的音乐中使用这些乐器，因为这些在欧洲你是听不到的，如果能在欧洲演出一定会让人惊喜的。

网易娱乐：你们试过那些乐器吗？你最喜欢的乐器是什么？

Keane：我个人最喜欢那个鼓，前面有一个大大的圆形的面，我猜大概是用什么动物骨头做的吧，看来很很难演奏，但是演奏发出的声音堪称天籁。杰西认为这个鼓和他用过的那个很像，但是我认为还是有点不同。有趣的是演奏出的音乐有内在的意义，我觉得这歌好像是关于两个来自于不同地方的人相会了，然后询问彼此来自于何方。

网易娱乐：你们在星期三参加了Burberry时尚演出，你们觉得演出怎么样？

Keane：演出非常棒，就像每一场时尚演出一样。而我觉得最棒的就是这是我们第一次在中国演出，而在场的听众反响热烈，这种将音乐融入时尚的感觉非常棒。

网易娱乐：新EP《Night Train》的创作灵感来自什么？你们觉得新EP的制作最值得回味的是什么？

Keane：我想关于EP的创作灵感是我们不断的去谈论的过程。在我们进入录音室进行录音之前，我们会到不同的地方去获取灵感，所以《Night Train》的灵感是我们在不同的地方进行转移时获得的，而下一张专辑我们也会用这样的方法的寻找灵感。我们的下一张专辑的灵感来源可能就是会发生从北京前往上海的火车上，或者将来我很希望以后大家能够听到。

网易娱乐：你们对格莱美改革有什么感想？改革后是否能让你们更容易获得格莱美奖项？

Keane：格莱美的改革听起来是个不错的提议，这还是我第一次听到。我们以前曾到过现场，颁奖礼是一个很长的晚会，好像要举行四天才能办完，颁奖礼也是一个接近4小时的晚会。格莱美有很多的类别看起来都是不必要的，我听到这样的改革觉得很开心，这对乐坛来说是一件大事。当然，我们非常想获得格莱美奖。我们以前曾经获得过提名，但是目前还没有获得任何格莱美奖项，我们早就应该得一座奖杯了。

网易娱乐：现在有很多乐迷认为当下很多摇滚乐队不是真正的摇滚乐，他们的商业性质太浓，你们怎么看待这件事情？

Keane：你们指的是乐队经常会参加一些电视节目的演出还是一些类似的事情？

网易娱乐：我们的意思是乐队只希望能红起来，而不太注重音乐本身。

Keane：我为这个状况感到非常抱歉。而我们觉得音乐本身才是最重要的事，其他的事情都只能退居第二位。我们就是生存在这样的世界上，所以很多乐队都是想获得商业利润。但只要音乐本身是好的，我觉得一切都没问题。你可以去做你想要的音乐，你可以非常有创意，非常有个性，你可以在所有颁奖礼上出尽风头。只要有音乐本身的好的，怎样做都没问题。只要你能够打破常规，那么潮流时尚也能随之而至。（编译/may）

2010年11月5日Digital Spy采访Tim，谈及Keane的主音归属和昔日队友Dominic

Rice-Oxley ‘won’t fight Tom for Keane mic’
Friday, November 5 2010, 12:11 GMT
By Mayer Nissim, Senior Entertainment Reporter
来源：http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/news/a286228/rice-oxley-wont-fight-tom-for-keane-mic.html

Tim Rice-Oxley has said that it is unlikely he will fight with Tom Chaplin over lead singing duties in Keane.

The songwriter and pianist already sings backing vocals in the band but both he and bassist Jesse Quin perform lead vocals on their Mt. Desolation project.

Asked if the experience could lead him to push for a lead singing role on Keane’s next record, Rice-Oxley told DS: “I doubt it. Tom’s such a great singer that it’s just a pleasure to listen to him. He certainly makes it look so easy!

“I think I feel more confident about maybe singing the odd song. I do a lot of backing vocals already but I feel more confident about doing that now and pulling my weight a bit more in the vocal department.”

Asked if he would ever work with founding Keane guitarist Dominic Scott – who left the band in 2001 – again, Rice-Oxley added: “We’re still in touch, but I’ve not seen him for a few months. He’s got his own band called Roundstone who are actually really, really good and I think they’re starting to do things which is great.

“It’s weird those things. It’s tempting to do stuff together – I hope we do get a chance to do stuff together again. We’ll know when the time is right.”

Mt. Desolation released their self-titled debut album on October 18 and the band recently toured the UK and US.

2010年10月The Blender采访Tim，透露Keane新专辑动向和Mt. Desolation灵感

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Tim Rice-Oxley of Mt. Desolation
Posted Thursday 10/21/2010 11:00 AM in Blender Blog by Conrad Doucette
来源：http://www.blender.com/blender-blog/95098/exclusive-interview-tim-rice-oxley-mt-desolation.html

It started, as many ingenious ideas do: over a few, or maybe more than a few, drinks at a cozy bar—specifically, a Dublin pub. A little more than a year later, Tim Rice-Oxley and Jesse Quin, pianist and bassist respectively in Keane, had a new project, a new album, and a new tour on their hands.

Mt. Desolation take their name from the fictional mountain in Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums, and the music reflects that nominal starting point, even if the American-style country it aims for often comes off (wonderfully) more Kinks than Cash—more Muswell Hillbilly than Virginia hillbilly. The self-titled album, made with members of Mumford and Sons, Noah and the Whale, and the Killers, is an understated gem, full of melody, brisk storytelling, and barely concealed excitement—no wonder Rice-Oxley was in such a pleasant mood when he spoke to Blender.

So, the now-famous band origin story. You and Keane bassist Jesse Quin are in a bar, and…

Well, Jesse and I spend a lot of time sitting around drinking and talking about music, which is basically my favorite way of spending an evening. On this evening in question I’d gotten around to talking about country music, and even more strangely, about making a country album. We thought it would be a challenge to make a pastiche-y country album, seeing as how we’re two pasty English guys.

Once we started writing the songs, it developed into something we were much more excited about. And we began drawing some friends into it.

Did you and Jesse write together or separately?

We wrote the songs individually, but once we had gathered up the collection of demos we had, then we’d kick ideas back and forth, tweak lyrics, say, or a song’s bridge. There was a lot of finessing that was collaborative. But the initial ideas for songs were definitely individual.

The album is so enjoyable because not only does the music come from a country place, but so, too, do the lyrics.

The challenge was to write lyrics that had that country spirit of not being afraid of emotion, and of telling stories, but to do it in a way that felt real to us—in a way that wasn’t just us pretending to be American. There were times when it was difficult, but it was a pleasure to dig in and write songs that were meaningful to us.

It’s interesting that you keep bringing up your Englishness as outsider status, because there are lot of elements of English folk and traditional music in American country. I don’t see two Englishmen making a country album as a huge stretch of the imagination as others might.

I don’t either. But, country music is such a huge part of American culture, yet in the UK, it still seems to have a sort of stigma attached to it. There’s still a sense, even with the great songwriters, that it’s a bit of a guilty pleasure for people… and it’s difficult for people to get over that. And to me, it seems rooted perhaps, in xenophobia [laughs]! I think that opinion is gradually being eroded, which is a good thing, of course. And I think that Nashville songwriters are the best in the world.

I think the qualities that make great American country music so well-loved are fundamental things that make beautiful songs. The ability to bring emotion into songs, and to wear your heart on your sleeve is crucial, as is the ability to bring humor into very sad songs—to tell tragic stories in a catchy song. Those are qualities that pop and rock songwriters are always striving for. But I think in the genres that I’m more used to, people are afraid of doing things this way—we’re always being knocked off course by other agendas. It seems like there’s less bullshit surrounding country music.

So you had the songs written, and then it was time to hit the studio. How were the songs recorded? Were they cut quickly?

Pretty quickly, yeah. The original idea was to do it live, or as live as we could. We had a core band of six players: Tom Hobden from Noah and the Whale was there for a lot of it, John Roderick from The Long Winters was there for a lot of it… We had a core of six or seven or eight of us, and a producer as well. And then others would just drift in and out.

We did all of the basic tracks live, and then we’d add bits accordingly when people could make it down to the studio. We did things fairly quickly, as we didn’t have much time, and we didn’t have much money to spend. So there were those constraints, but also I’d never made an album that way, so it was a challenge for me. I’m not a technically great musician, but it was exciting to do it this way, and I hope that comes across on the record.

How did you decide who would join you on the record—are these people friends?

Yeah, absolutely! All people that we knew and loved, and wanted to make music with, but hadn’t had a chance to. Part of the purpose behind the album was to create a context to put all of these people in a room together—to make music together.

It started off with ‘Well it’d be great to have some fiddle, as we’re trying to do a country record.’ So we called up Tom Hobden. Then it became, ‘Well, we could use a banjo,’ so we called up Winston [Marshall, from Mumford and Sons]. And from there it spiraled out of control. Soon people we’d bump into a gigs, or see out, were coming down to the studio, adding guitar lines or backing vocals or whatever. It became very loose, and the album evolved in that way… which was really fun.

In the official Mt. Desolation bio, Ronnie Vannucci of the Killers is credited with drums and ‘vibes.’

[Laughs] Ronnie was one of the many people that came in and did small parts here and there. He added some nice drums and percussive touches in the middle of “Departure,” as well as hitting an anvil and coming up with other strange effects. He’s so used to being responsible for all of the drum parts on an album that I think it was quite nice for him to be able to experiment and throw down little things. And I think it was like that for everyone who was a guest contributor, if you will.

So you set out to make a country record. What are some of the touchstones, the names from the record collection that came to mind when making the album?

Well it’s hardly a music snob’s country album [laughs]. I mean, people would expect us to say names like Dolly Parton, for example, and yes, that’s there, but there was a lot of influence from West Coast rock, for example—Fleetwood Mac were quite a big influence on this record. Also Springsteen, Petty, and a lot of what you’d call alt-country, for example Wilco, as well as The Band, Neil Young, and Dylan.

And we brought our English influences, of course. When I played what I thought were very American sounding demos to John Roderick, he said it sounded like the Kinks! [laughs] So I don’t think however hard we try that we are ever going to sound American.

What has the reaction to Mt. Desolation been from Tom [Chaplin] and Richard [Hughes] from Keane?

They’ve been lovely—really good, really encouraging. Jesse and I are very focused on Keane, and very excited about making the next Keane record. We’ve fit Mt. Desolation around Keane, so it’s not like there’s been a clash of schedules. And they love the music. Tom’s been to quite a few Mt. Desolation gigs, even the first two tiny ones, just to support us, really. They’ve been brilliant about it; it hasn’t caused any problems at all.

Both of those guys appreciate escaping from the Keane thing for a few weeks, getting back to normal life, which I think is very sensible, whereas Jesse and I are obsessives that need to be making music every moment that we’re awake.

It might be too early to ask this, but what is the future of Mt. Desolation?

I don’t know. We’re very lucky that we don’t feel the pressure to push it for all it’s worth. Our plan is to do this tour and then go back to the UK and start making the next Keane album straight away… and I’m sure that will take up the next two years of our lives!

We have a very strong sense of wanting to continue Mt. Desolation, but it’s hard to know yet when or how we will continue. But it’s nice to put it aside while there’s still a hunger to do more. We really enjoyed making the record, which is important. It’s been so fun making it, so fun being on tour. We just did three weeks in the UK, and now we’re living the dream bringing the tour to the States. It’s been amazing, and I’ve learned so much from it. I would love to do it again, and I’m very excited to take everything I’ve learned back to writing for Keane. It’s been a real education to me—a real eye-opener.