The keane resource page

Keane are a piano rock and alternative rock band from Battle, East Sussex, in South East England.
Their first two studio albums, Hopes and Fears and Under the Iron Sea both immediately achieved number one status in the United Kingdom upon release and have achieved very high sales worldwide, notably in Europe.
The current members are Tim Rice-Oxley, composer and pianist, Tom Chaplin, on lead vocals and organ, and Richard Hughes on drums. Former members include guitarist, Dominic Scott, who left in 2001.
They are notable for using a piano as their lead instrument instead of using guitars, unlike most rock bands. However, they do make use of effects pedals and synthesizers, giving them a wide range of sounds not limited to traditional piano tones.^[1] Tom Chaplin's vocals, which often make use of falsetto, are also considered to be a notable part of the band's style.^[2]^[3]

They have cited bands such as The Beatles, U2, Oasis, R.E.M., The Smiths, Radiohead, Queen, The Pet Shop Boys and Paul Simon as influences.^[4]

Tim Rice-Oxley and Dominic Scott were the main writers of the band's songs during their early years.^[2] When Scott left in 2001, Rice-Oxley became the main composer.^[5] However, Rice-Oxley credits the rest of the band on all compositions, so that royalties for song credits are shared.^[5]

Keane are managed by Adam Tudhope, who is also involved in film production through his company, White House Pictures and has contributed to some British films such as Love Actually.^[6] He was friends with Rice-Oxley at college.

Although the band's vocalist is currently in drug and alcohol rehabilitation, Rice-Oxley and Hughes continue to work on future releases, like upcoming single "Nothing In My Way".

History

(1995-1998) Early years

Rice-Oxley's brother — also called Tom — was born in the same hospital on the same day as Chaplin, on March 8, 1979. Their mothers became friends, as did Chaplin and Rice-Oxley.^[2] Both attended Vinehall School (and, later, Tonbridge School in Kent) where they met the third member of the band, Richard Hughes. The desire to form a band appeared while Rice-Oxley was still studying at secondary school. However, being a sports-related school, he and Hughes found very difficult to make an impression. Hughes said ""the idea of trying to form a band in that sort of environment is quite challenging. If there's no bat and ball involved, you're seen as borderline insane."^[3] Finally, while studying at UCL for a degree in classics in 1995, Rice-Oxley formed a rock band with his friend Dominic Scott and invited Hughes to play drums. They began as a cover band, playing songs by their favourite bands, including U2, Oasis, and The Beatles, and rehearsing at home.

Although Hughes and Scott were originally opposed^[2], Chaplin joined the band in 1997, and took on both vocal and acoustic guitar duties. Chaplin's addition to the band also marked a change of name from "The Lotus Eaters" to "Cherry Keane", after a friend of Chaplin's mother, whom Rice-Oxley and Chaplin knew when they were young.^[7] The name was shortened to "Keane" soon afterwards.^[8]

In an interview with The Irish Times on June 2, 2006, Rice-Oxley was quoted as saying that the band had originally been named "Coldplay"^[9], but he later denied that he ever made the comment to the interviewer. ^[10]However, after listening to Rice-Oxley's piano playing during a weekend at Virginia Water in Surrey, Chris Martin invited him to join the early Coldplay but Rice-Oxley declined since he didn't want to leave Keane: "I was seriously interested, but Keane were already operational and Coldplay's keyboard player idea was dropped."^[3]

With several songs of their own to play, Keane made their debut live appearance at the "Hope & Anchor" on July 13, 1998^[2]. After this gig, throughout 1998 and 1999 the band performed on London's pub gig circuit. It was around this time that Chaplin made the decision to quit his art history degree and move to London, in order to pursue a full-time musical career.^[3]

(1999-2003) Early releases and Scott's departure

In late 1999, and without a record deal, Keane recorded their first promotional single, "Call Me What You Like". Released on CD format, it was sold after the gigs at the pubs where they used to play during February, 2000. Five hundred copies were reportedly sold.^[11] Some tracks can now be found illegally on the internet. The band has declared they are not against fans sharing tracks that are unreleased on CD, like "More Matey" and "Emily", with Chaplin commenting "They most likely see those recordings as an interesting extra to get hold of - I don't see it causing any damage. If it was the album we have coming out leaked early (Under the Iron Sea) then I'd probably feel differently."^[12] The EP was reviewed by Bec Rodwell from eFestivals, who listed "Closer Now" as the best song of the record.^[13] The CD was released through Keane's own label, Zoomorphic. Four months after the "Call Me What You Like" re-recording in February 2001, their second single, "Wolf at the Door" was released. Only fifty hand-made copies are known to have been made, using CD-Rs.^[14] Both singles are considered highly valuable collectors' items by fans. In particular, "Wolf at the Door" has been known to fetch over £1000 on ebay.^[14]

Due to the limited success they were having, Scott decided to leave the group a month after this single was released, in order to continue his studies at the LSE.^[15] Shortly after this, Keane were invited in July, 2001 by record producer James Sanger to his recording studio at Les Essarts, France, where they recorded a number of tracks, including "Bedshaped" and "This Is The Last Time". It was during these sessions that the idea of using a piano as lead instrument began to emerge. Sanger received a shared credit for four songs that appear on Keane's debut album Hopes and Fears, including the song "Sunshine", composed there.^[16] They returned to England in November 2001. Soon after, they signed to BMG to publish their music but at this time they did not have a recording contract. In December, 2002, the band decided to go back to performing live. One gig, at the Betsey Trotwood in London, was attended by Simon Williams of Fierce Panda Records. Williams offered to release the first commercial single by the band. This release was "Everybody's Changing", which Steve Lamacq went on to name single of the week on Lamacq Live on April 19, 2003; the CD Single was released on May 12, 2003.^[17] As a result of the attention created by this release, a bidding war for the band ensued between major labels ^{citation needed]}, with the band deciding to sign with Island Records in summer 2003.

After signing with Island, the band released "This Is The Last Time" on Fierce Panda in October, 2003 between "Everybody's Changing" and their first major-label release.

(2004-2005)Hopes and Fears

With the release of their first major single, Keane began to achieve recognition in the United Kingdom and the United States, where "This Is The Last Time" was released. In January 2004, Keane were named the band most likely to achieve success in the coming year in the BBC's annual Sound of Music poll. ^[18].

A month later, Keane's first release on Island was "Somewhere Only We Know", which reached number three on the UK Singles Chart in February 2004. On May 3, a re-release of "Everybody's Changing" followed and featured new cover and b-sides; it reached number four in the UK Singles Chart.

Keane's debut album, Hopes and Fears, was released on May 10, 2004 in the UK. It debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart. The album went on to become the second-biggest selling album of the year in the UK, only losing the top spot to the Scissor Sisters on the last day of the year. A day after the release of the album, they embarked on their first world tour.

The album has sold approximately five and a half million copies around the world. In the UK, it stayed in the top 75 of the UK Albums Chart for 72 weeks, appearing again on its 115th week.^[19]

The band won two awards at the 2005 Brit Awards in February; Best British album for Hopes and Fears and the British breakthrough act award, as voted for by listeners of BBC Radio 1. Three months after, Rice-Oxley received the Ivor Novello award for songwriter of the year.

As members of the Make Poverty History foundation, they performed at the Live 8 concert, which took place in London in July 2. Keane are also patrons of War Child, and in September 2005, they contributed a cover version of Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" to the charity album Help: a Day in the Life. Previously, the band also had recorded a cover of the Walker Brothers' "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore", which was available as a download from the War Child website. It was later released as a 7" single as a gift to members of the Keane e-mailing list.^[20]
At the 1985 Live Aid concert, Band Aid (now called Band Aid 20 recorded a new version of "Do They Know It's Christmas?". Rice-Oxley and Chaplin both contributed vocals.

During the year, the band achieved minor recognition in the United States due to their extensive touring, which culminated with a series of gigs as the opening act for U2. They were also nominated for a Grammy in the Best New Artist category along with Sugarland, John Legend, Ciara, and Fall Out Boy, but ultimately lost out to Legend.^[21]

(2006-present)Under the Iron Sea

Keane began recording their second album, Under the Iron Sea, in April 2005 with producer Andy Green, and later recruited Mark "Spike" Stent for mixing duties. Recording took place in Helioscentric Studios, Rye, East Sussex —where Hopes and Fears was recorded — and later in New York City. The band revealed the title of the album on March 14, 2006 by posting a handwritten note on their official website.

The album's release was preceded by the release of "Atlantic", a download-only music video, and lead single "Is It Any Wonder?" — released on 29 May 2006 — which reached number three on the UK Singles Chart. The album had a worldwide release date of June 12, 2006, and was at number 1 in the UK Albums Chart for the first two weeks of its release. As of October 3, 2006, it has sold more than 1,600,000 copies. The album has met with critical acclaim, with press referring to it as "dark and heavy"^[22], and commenting that it may attract a new, wider audience.^[23]

The second single from the album was "Crystal Ball", released on August 21, 2006. The single reached number 20 in the UK singles charts.

On August 22, 2006, Chaplin announced that he had admitted himself to a clinic for drink and drug problems. This initially resulted in the cancellation of three gigs and postponement of their September US tour. The entire North American tour was later cancelled outright to allow continued treatment.^[24] As a result of this, the upcoming UK and European tours - scheduled for October and November 2006 - are considered to be liable for possible postponement depending on Chaplin's treatment.

The next single from Under The Iron Sea is to be "Nothing In My Way", set for release on October 30, 2006. An unconfirmed rumour is that "A Bad Dream", considered a fan favourite and referred to by Chaplin as "the best song we've ever written"^[25], will be a future single.

Controversies and criticism

Due to the piano-based music and the alternative sound of their debut album, critics first regarded Keane as Coldplay imitators; the media supporting Keane, however, started calling them the "new Coldplay"^[3]. Other bands such as Morning Runner have been compared to both Keane and Coldplay for the piano-oriented sound of their music.^[26] They have also had some run-ins with another bands, most notably, The Darkness and The Libertines. British newspaper The Guardian has repeatedly criticised Keane, notably in the articles We're gonna make you a star^[27], saying the band were styled, and Not so Keane now about Chaplin's cocaine addiction and how he "ruined the drug's reputation".

Musical style and themes

Keane have been known as "the band with no guitars", due to their heavily piano-based sound. By using delay and distortion effects on their piano sound, they often create sounds that aren't immediately recognisable as piano.^[22]Revista Mixup. Mexico, July 2006</ref> Rice-Oxley said during an interview in Los Angeles that they tend to think piano-related music is boring and what they really wanted to do was trying something different. He referred to the piano as an odd instrument to form part of a rock band instrumentation, comparing it to the sitar used on The Beatles' "Within You Without You". ^[26]

During their early years, lyrically, most songs were about love (most notably "She Has No Time" and "On A Day Like Today"). However, other themes - including the relationship between Rice-Oxley and Chaplin - have emerged in more recent compositions.^[28]. B-side "Maybe I Can Change" - composed by Chaplin - gives his side of the story, including the lyrics "...but still somehow I have to say I'm on my way gone". Other themes have been explored; for example "Is It Any Wonder?" and "A Bad Dream" are both about war.^[29]

Live and studio instrumentation

After their guitarist departed, Rice-Oxley started using a Yamaha CP-70 piano, a quality instrument especially designed for touring. A Yamaha CP60 is currently used as an electric piano and located during live performances on the top of the main piano. Main instrumentation include:

Rice-Oxley's PowerBook G4 is used to play back pre-recorded bass tracks, and is sat on a bench next to the main piano during live performances. The computer software includes an electronic metronome sound transmitted via Bluetooth to the three members' Sennheiser earphones to aid accurate playback. It also controls the extra synthesizer sections that would be impossible to play live with the current line-up. In October 2004, when "Hamburg Song" and "Nothing In Your Way" debuted, Chaplin played a Hammond MK2 organ, having played no instrument in the live band since 2001. Following this, in 2006 he started to play a distorted CP60 for some songs like "The Frog Prince" and "Crystal Ball".

Awards

Discography

There are a few differences between Keane releases in different territories. On Hopes and Fears, the song "On A Day Like Today" was excluded from the international version of the album but remained on the British and Japanese records. However, "Allemande" appears on the latter as a bonus track. For Under the Iron Sea no songs were excluded but "The Iron Sea" appeared as a hidden track on the international version. The b-side "Let It Slide" was included as a bonus track on the Japanese version.

Members

Former members

Contents

History

(1995-1998) Early years

(1999-2003) Early releases and Scott's departure

(2004-2005)Hopes and Fears

(2006-present)Under the Iron Sea

Controversies and criticism

Musical style and themes

Live and studio instrumentation

Awards

Discography

Members

Former members

See also

Notes

References

External links