2008年11月Teletext采访Keane

2008-11-09
Keane’s Perfect world

By John Earls – “From the moment of the first demos, I’ve felt nothing but excitement. There was no fear at all.”

Keane can afford to relax, after new album Perfect Symmetry entered the chart at No 1 in the most competitive release period for years. For Tom Chaplin, there were never any doubts.

“I’d get home from recording in Berlin, play the demos, and be incredibly excited about what I heard,” he says.

When Tim Rice-Oxley last spoke to PS 15 months ago, he said the album was shaping up to be a hip hop record.

“Soon after, lots of songs came along that were a lot different – and a lot better,” admits Tim.

“It wasn’t that us going hip hop wasn’t going to work, it was purely quality. It was instinct that led us to go more down the Bowie, Prince, Talking Heads route rather than scrapping any plans.”

Richard Hughes believes a large part of the new sound was down to recording the album in Paris and Berlin.

“Going away together felt like an adventure, and it’s made for an adventurous record,” he says.

“We were away from everything we were used to, and that was such fun that you almost forget that at the end of it all it’s going to end up with a record that other people will get to hear.”

That adventurousness included working in the studio with Jesse Quin. Long a live member on stage, is he now a fully-fledged member of Keane?

“We’re seeing what happens,” shrugs Tim. “There’s no rush. We’ve been mates for so long, it’s a weird thing to have to consider officially. But he’s been invaluable, for his views and skills.”

Tom adds: “He’s juvenile enough to fit in. He’s as puerile as the rest of us.”

Although Jesse can play guitar, recent gigs have seen Tom on guitar too, for the first time since their early days.

“It’s interesting to keep people guessing,” says Tim. “Like when you see Radiohead with loads of instruments on stage – ‘What will they pick up next?’

“I sing most of the time I’m playing guitar,” says Tom. “So I’ve not had a chance to practice any gurning axe hero faces. Well, maybe a little bit…”

The hip hop phase made a re-appearance during one song in the final sessions.

“Being so disorganised, we forgot about this one song,” admits Richard. “It’s a wicked song, and it’s got an enormous gap that’s perfect for a guest rapper.

“It’ll be a really interesting song for us to do. We don’t know who, depends on which rapper we bump into next. Maybe it could be Madonna. She can recreate her fantastic Mini Cooper rap…”

2008-11-10
Keane’s symmetrical views

By John Earls – “We long ago realised that trying to be cool was b*****ks.”

Yet, so unconcerned is Keane’s new album Perfect Symmetry with any notions of cool, the trio are in danger of becoming fashionable. The record has been praised by the likes of The Killers, Kaiser Chiefs and Razorlight.

“Our only criteria is ‘Is it any good?’” says Tim Rice-Oxley. “It’s nice when other judge us on that basis.”

Richard Hughes admits he’s now baffled by the notion of the taste police.

“Some of my friends are guilty of it,” he says. “They say ‘Oh, I don’t know if I should like this song.’ Er, it’s up to you, mate!”

Tom Chaplin adds: “There does seem to be a more generous-spirited attitude by bands to us now, which is great.” Richard butts in: “Yeah, but they could just be taking pity on us…”

Not that the band are averse to hanging out at cool parties.

“We go to one about every four years, to see how ridiculous they are,” says Tom. “The best was after the Grammys – me, Bono, Bruce Springsteen and Billie Joe Armstrong huddled in a corner.”

Richard adds: “Yeah, I had to tell Dr Dre to move when I was playing pool as he was in the way of a shot. ‘Hey, fool! Get out the way! Er, please…’”

Much has been made of the album’s ’80s sound, which Tim puts down to them recording in Berlin and Paris.

“We had such fun being away, that we started to indulge our inner children,” he smiles. “As we all grew up in the ’80s, it’s spilled on to the record.

“I remember going to roller discos in Hastings, hearing all these great songs like Take On Me. They’ve been buried deep for years and are coming out now!”

It was during the writing of Spiralling that Tim realised the ’80s influence was coming through.

“I’d tried to have the spirit of late ’70s Bowie,” he recalls. “That mutated into the exuberance of Prince.

“The lyrics on Spiralling – and much of the record – tackles some dark subjects. But in an optimistic way; it’s working through big themes to see how we can make them more beautiful.”

That mix of darkness and optimism found a natural home in Berlin.

“It’s where we did one of our earliest gigs abroad,” says Tom. “It was at a very gothic looking club, yet the atmosphere was so celebratory.

“It’s perfect, because the city is so creative, so full of artists, that even if you’re just walking around the town centre to do some shopping, you go back to the studio buzzing with enthusiasm.”