2008年10月About.com采访Tim Rice-Oxley

Keane Interview
With Tim Rice-Oxley
Oct. 10, 2008
By Bill Lamb, About.com

http://top40.about.com/od/m/a/keaneinterview.htm

I caught up with Keane’s songwriter and keyboardist Tim Rice-Oxley on October 10, 2008 to talk about the band’s third album Perfect Symmetry and being Keane.

Bill: First, I would like to say congratulations on your Q Award last week!

Tim: Yeah, it was very, very exciting…always an honor.

Bill: In listening to the new album, it’s obvious it’s a signfiicant change from the first 2 Keane albums. If you were talking to fans of Keane, what would you say they should expect in listening to Perfect Symmetry?

Tim: I hope that people expect great songs from us, for a start. I kind of hope people expect a sense of musical adventurousness, creativity, I suppose. I would like people to associate Keane with records that are exciting, records that are exciting for music fans. I think that even though this record has quite a few moments that are different from the first 2 records, I think it’s the best record we’ve ever made by a long way, and the songs are better and the lyrics better, and it’s more exciting sonically. For me as a music fan that’s kind of what I’m always hungry for. I hope that our fans enjoy that.

Bill: What does the album’s title Perfect Symmetry refer to, if anything?

Tim: It’s kind of about the theme that sort of runs through the whole record. It’s about the sense that we could do much better as people. I’m talking about humanity in general I guess. This record in general has much more of a sense of hope and sympathy, I think, than the first 2 albums that we did. That kind of positive feeling is something that’s reflected in this kind of recurring theme of, how can I explain it…I feel like there’s a big distance between this dream of what we want to be as people and the reality of what we actually are. So the symmetry that I’m talking about is an imperfect symmetry. It’s kind of an ironic title, and the hope is that we can inspire a dream of something much more, to actually achieve something more positive and more beautiful as people.

Bill: For that theme, was there a particular inspiration?

Tim: A lot of things. We’re always absorbing a lot of influences from around. To be honest, it’s just a sense of looking around us and the world the way that it is. I think there’s a sense of it being a dangerous time for humanity, but our particular mindset when we were making the record was a very positive one. We really believe in people. I believe in people much more than I believe in anything else, and I think that rather than just despairing, I think we want to inspire certain people to actually do something better, to kind of dream of better things and aspire to better things rather than just accepting the slightly sort of grim state of affairs that we seem to be getting ourselves into.

One thing that definitely had a big influence on that was being in Germany, in Berlin. We recorded a lot of the record there, and that’s a city that’s been knocked down and divided up as much as any city on earth in the last 100-odd years, but it’s constantly rebuilding itself and healing, and it’s a very modern, forward-looking city, and it really embraces people and is a very creative city. It’s a city that’s full of hope and a sense of healing and looking forward. I think that’s something we really absorbed in the spirit of making this record.

Bill: Also, in making this record, you made a significant change in producers. You worked with Jon Brion and Stuart Price. Was choosing them a deliberate effort to go in a different direction?

Tim: Absolutely. We actually basically produced the record ourselves, but Jon came in quite early, and he was someone we wanted to work with because of the fact that he’s worked with such a variety of people. We didn’t want someone who would come in and just say let’s use my classic drum sound or whatever. You know something sort of geeky like that. It was much more of a broader sense..Jon had produced Kanye West, but he’s also produced Fiona Apple and great film soundtracks. We wanted someone who was going to pull us out of the world of just kind of earnest white rock and roll and into something that was different and more exciting. We didn’t know what that was gonna be, but he definitely filled us with confidence to try new things. It helped us to not be so fearful of being judged or judging ourselves. He actually gave our ideas a chance if that makes sense.

The same with Stuart. A very different kind of a guy but equally inspiring. We actually specifically brought him in because we had all of these new sort of quirky songs like “Spiralling” and “Better Than This” and “You Haven’t Told Me Anything” and so on, but we also had a couple of older songs that we were really kind of struggling with. We loved the songs, but we felt like we were sort of stuck in an old key mindset with them. Stuart came in and surely shook them up. Again, he inspired us to try new things. We kind of made this pact with him that we were gonna deliberately try to do the opposite of whatever was considered sensible.

Bill: Your band has quite a lofty status with fans in the UK. Does that put any pressure on you when you begin to work on a new album?

Tim: I think it did the first time around when we were recording the second album. I think we were aware that we had sort of created a sound inadvertently. We had created a sound that was in danger of becoming a typecast or pigeonholing situation, and we really wanted to break out of that. I think that can be good, but it can also be bad. You start trying to second guess what other people are gonna think. On this record I don’t no why, but we, from the outset, we were just sort of consumed with having fun and making music that the 3 of us absolutely loved. That just became our only criteria for judging ideas and judging songs and sounds and so on. It probably sounds sort of too good to believe, but really we had such a joyous time making the record we sort of forgot that anyone was gonna hear it. I actually think that really made for a great way of working, and I think you can feel that excitement and joy in the songs. That’s something you can’t contrive or fabricate. It’s gotta be there in the room, and I’m really proud we had that.

Bill: What can we look forward to on this side of the Atlantic for promoting the album?

Tim: We haven’t confirmed anything yet. We are still waiting on the dreaded visa application and so on at the moment. Once that’s in place we can’t wait to come over. People have been so good to us in the states it’s ridiculous. It’s very hard for a British band coming over to America. When we started we always loved the idea of touring in America. When we first started we just came over so many times. I think we did like 7 or 8 tours on our first album. Each one was starting in tiny clubs playing to like 20 people and ending up playing to thousands of people. People have just been so welcoming to us. That’s one of the better things about being Keane.