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Keane Biography
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In 2002, following several
years of experimenting and honing their sound, Keane decided that they
needed to get out and play live. They booked two acoustic gigs, one at the
12 Bar Club, another at the Betsey Trotwood. Fierce Panda mini-mogul Simon
Williams caught the Betsey Trotwood gig, and asked Keane to put out a
single on his label.
They chose ‘Everybody’s Changing’, a sweeping, majestic ode to
feeling utterly lost when everyone else seems to know the score, which was
recorded for zero pence. “The recording session was a little rough and
ready – the song was literally made in a room in someone’s house,”
Tom laughs. “And we had to go round to a different house to mix it,
because the speakers broke.” It would be difficult to find origins more
desperately indie, yet ‘Everybody’s Changing’ sounded like a Number
One chart hit before you even got to the chorus, and it immediately began
turning heads. Steve Lamacq decided that it was one of the best singles in
Fierce Panda’s entire history – not bad for a label, which housed
early releases from Coldplay, Idlewild and Supergrass. He declared that
Keane were “somewhere between a scuffed Coldplay and a frankly
bewildered Beautiful South”, hammering the single on his show and
eventually calling the band in for a session on BBC 6Music. Xfm were on
the case, too, with Clare Sturgess requesting a session from the band,
while a Sunday Times profile noted that Keane were responsible for
“three and a half minutes of pure pop loveliness”. NME wrote that
‘Everybody’s Changing’ was “indisputably mighty” and compared
Keane with “‘Kid A’-era Radiohead covering A-ha”.
What all these people spotted
– and what the rest of the world will shortly find out for themselves
– is that despite the reference points, Keane’s beguilingly beautiful
music really isn’t like anything else that’s out there right now.
“Our songs have universal themes and are emotional,” Tim nods.
“People want emotion. But that seems like quite a rare thing these days.
I don’t think there are many bands who are making music which actually
means anything. There’s nothing to identify with.”
Things, at last, were beginning to gather pace. Keane’s first UK tour
saw Tom, Richard and Tim performing at venues up and down the country to
audiences of between five and 300 people. They didn’t look like many
other bands – there was no guitarist, a factor which might send some
purists screaming into the hills but, Richard says, really wasn’t a
conscious decision.
By the time spring 2003 rolled around, the boys were out on the road
again, and labels were already putting offers on the table. “All we were
after was the opportunity to make the right record with the right
people,” Tom shrugs – which is where Island stepped in. “We’ve
never wanted to be a small, cult band,” Tom adds. “We want to get our
music heard by as many people as we possibly can, because that’s why
we’re making it.”
Throw in a startling appearance in the New Bands tent at the Reading and
Leeds Carling Weekend, more plaudits for the boys’ second single ‘This
Is The Last Time’. And, once again, it sounds like all the bands
who’ve ever meant anything to anyone, but at the same time it only
sounds like Keane.
“People often say that they wish they’d been around in the 60s,” Tom
says. “But we’re happy just where we are. We love rock’s back
catalogue, and now we’ve got a chance to add to it. After all, tunes
never go out of fashion.”
Keane Links
Keane's
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