Issue 155

Keane

14th May 2007

Following the massive success of their first two albums, Keane have the world at their feet. Hopes and Fears was the second best-selling album of 2004, while Under the Iron Sea shifted 250,000 copies in its first week of sale.

But the last year has not been entirely clear sailing for lead singer Tom Chaplin though, admitting in August 2006 that he had admitted himself to a treatment clinic for drink and drug problems.

Now though the band is back touring, and working on a third studio album, rumoured to be titled Flower's Dept.. Reportedly fifteen songs have been written for the album, and the band are slowly coming around to the idea of guitars.

Chalpin describes the band as "slowly caving in on the subject", joking that the next album "will probably sound like hard rock act Def Leppard."

Guitars are an instrument that band have thus far studiously avoided, priding themselves on their 'piano rock'. Headlining with piano has undoubtedly given Keane a sound significantly different to many of their rock contemporaries, and the use of distortion and synthesizers has become a common feature of the Keane sound.

Last summer's difficulties put aside, Keane have a busy summer ahead of them, playing the Live Earth concert on 7 July, before arriving in Swansea for the Fflam Festival hosted in Singleton Park on 13-15 July.

Bringing with them dark and heavy recent hits such as Is It Any Wonder? and Crystal Ball from Under the Iron Sea, and modern classics such as Somewhere Only We Know and Beshaped off of Hopes and Fears.

Composer, bassist and pianist Tim Rice-Oxley - previously offered a role in Coldplay by Chris Martin - is the brain child behind the Keane sound, citing The Beatles, U2, Oasis, R.E.M. The Smiths, Radiohead and Queen as influences. Using synthesizers allows the band to disuguise the piano sound, ensuring that it is not always immediately recognisable, and thus giving an extra range and element to the instrument. Most of Keane's work are acoustic and power ballads, though increasingly the band is exploring alternate themes, such as a the relationship between Chaplin and Rice- Oxley, and in Is It Any Wonder? and Bad Dream considering the impact of war.

Keane have enjoyed generally positive critical review, although have on occasion been compared unfavourably with Coldplay, who have also created a piano based sound.

Perhaps more significant are the public spats that the band have enjoyed with other artists, in particular The Darkness, The Libertines and Noel Gallagher.

Gallgher famously dismissed the band by saying that "traditionally speaking, the three biggest twats in any band are the singer, the keyboardist and the drummer. I don't need to say anything else."

Rice-Oxley retorted that while Oasis had had their day, Keane were now the superior group.

Keane's early work, from the band's original creation, remains available online, including tracks such as their first single Call Me What You Like, sold to fans after gigs in small venues, and released on the band's own label, Zoomorphic.

Tim Sculthorpe