“WHEN I see old footage of myself from those days I think, ‘That guy really doesn’t know what he’s doing’.”
Over lunch in a country pub in Sussex, singer Tom Chaplin is reminiscing about the early days of Keane.
He says: “We were a curious mixture of being ambitious, with idols who were very big and successful bands and, at the same time, we were self-conscious, self-deprecating and very unsure of ourselves.
“Thank God there wasn’t social media back then.”
Nodding in agreement, keyboardist Tim Rice-Oxley says: “I cringe too, and we were never organised about how we presented ourselves. We did what came instinctively, but it was such a ride.”
Next week, to mark the 20th anniversary of the release of their debut album, Hopes And Fears, they will put out a special reissue, and tonight they kick off their world tour at the First Direct Arena in Leeds.
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Chaplin, Rice-Oxley, drummer Richard Hughes and bassist Jesse Quin, who officially joined the band in 2007, are looking forward to being out on the road again.
“Touring was very different to how it is today,” says Chaplin. “For the first Hopes And Fears tour we rented a van and I had loads of cushions stacked up around me in the back to stop the equipment falling on top of me.
I remember we played our first gig in Amsterdam and I thought ‘Wow, we’ve gone international’.
“It wasn’t very safe but when you’re that age, you don’t give a s**t.
“Tim and Richard were at the front sharing the driving as I was too young to drive the van. I couldn’t snooze either as I had to make sure the driver was awake.
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“I remember we played our first gig in Amsterdam and I thought ‘Wow, we’ve gone international’.”
Their dream back then was to one day play arenas.
Rice-Oxley says: “We thought that might only happen after ten years, though. In those days we were excited to be playing the [London pub and venue] Bull And Gate.
“I remember in 2004 we played the Kentish Town Forum, which is about 2,000 capacity, and we thought that was massive.
“We thought of it as a process that we were starting and this was the first step, but more and more people kept turning up to our gigs.”
Early songs written for the album included She Has No Time, This Is The Last Time and Bedshaped, but it was only when original guitarist Dominic Scott left in 2001, that Keane found their piano-driven sound.
Rice-Oxley recalls: “We desperately wanted to be Radiohead and Dominic wanted us to be U2.” The Ivor Novello Award-winning songwriter, who had turned down an invitation to be Coldplay’s keyboardist in 1997, adds: “We were a guitar band and I was the bass player, but I only learned the bass to be in the band.
“Keyboards are where I felt most comfortable. It took us a while to find our way together as we were still very young at that point.”
Emotional reach
Chaplin adds: “We were a very conventional guitar band. Like a lot of other indie bands that were on the circuit at the time. But then Dominic left and the new sound became a signature of what we were like.
“It seemed that not having a guitarist was a brilliantly conceived plan, but it was just by necessity. The piano was doing so much of the work that a guitar would normally do.
“When Dominic left, it forced our hands into doing something more unconventional.”
It was signing a record deal with Island Records in the summer of 2003 that “unlocked a whole other layer,” says Chaplin. “It went from nobody really being interested to Steve Lamacq playing the Fierce Panda Records single of Everybody’s Changing on the radio and then it was doing the tour of all the labels and then they were schmoozing us.”
The head of the label told us they expected us to sell a million records by the end of the year. We thought they were having a laugh.
How do Keane feel the tracks on Hopes And Fears have aged?
Chaplin says: “The songs on Hopes And Fears have a grand and far-reaching quality to them. They’re classic songs with an emotional reach.
“Back then hearing it on the radio piped across the airwaves, it sounded great.
“It made us think, maybe we do deserve a place at the table.
“I remember when I first heard This Is The Last Time thinking this is a real step-up for Tim’s writing.”
Rice-Oxley adds: “I remember writing Everybody’s Changing at my mum and dad’s and doing this Thom Yorke-esque whining over the top, and then our publisher loved it and told me to finish that one so that was our homework.”
Island bosses could see Keane’s potential even if the band couldn’t quite believe what they were being told.
Chaplin admits: “The head of the label told us they expected us to sell a million records by the end of the year.
“We thought they were having a laugh. But they clearly knew what they were talking about.”
Singles Somewhere Only We Know and Bend And Break helped Hopes And Fears became the second best-selling album of 2004, behind the Scissor Sisters.
It went nine times platinum and was the ninth highest-selling album of the 21st century in the UK, also earning itself a Brit Award for Best Album.
Rice-Oxley says: “It didn’t feel at all real. The label knew after the first day it was going to be massive.
“I remember one exec saying, ‘Oh by the way, the album has already gone platinum’. After the first day.”
By that point the band had been together almost ten years, having formed while still at school in 1995.
Chaplin says: “It was a very heady feeling. People thought we’d suddenly just arrived fully formed, but it was after years of being s**t. We’d learned how to get better.
“We were used to bad news and knockbacks, so to be bombarded with all this good news felt absurd and surreal.”
Rice-Oxley cites the 2004 Glastonbury Festival and going to the US as favourite memories from the album’s release.
He says: “Glastonbury was such a big deal because you could see people in the crowd, which you can’t in a dark venue. They were definitely there. And going to America we were meeting all these names because we were signed to Interscope.”
Bulletproof
Chaplin says: “We got schmoozed by [label founder] Jimmy Iovine and hung out with Trent Reznor at his house.”
Rice-Oxley refers to this as the “golden period” when Keane could do no wrong. But they found it tough when criticism inevitably came their way.
Chaplin says: “The way people laid into us for being posh and calling us bedwetters is funny now, but back then we were thin-skinned.
“What does music for bedwetters even mean?
“I think we were true to ourselves and people thought we were posher than we were.
I remember the first time I’d heard anything bad about us… the reviewer said, ‘I am sick of bands who want to be another Radiohead’.
“I was criticised because of the way I looked and it’s something you only get better at dealing with with age. We weren’t bulletproof then and were much more sensitive.”
Rice-Oxley adds: “It’s all about wanting validation. You’re on the radio, on TV and even in the cool magazines then suddenly you reach critical mass and people turn on you.
“I remember the first time I’d heard anything bad about us, I was sat listening to a radio roundtable with my mum and dad and the reviewer said, ‘I am sick of bands who want to be another Radiohead’.
“We were fair game.”
Chaplin, who in the past struggled with drug addiction, added: “For me, there was a dangerous cocktail of stuff that happened so fast.
“I was so insecure and thought the success of the band would fix the way I felt inside. In some ways, it does. But it’s temporary.
“As well as the adulation, there’s also the paranoia. I remember thinking everywhere I went that people were talking or laughing about me, which is unnerving.” As well as dark times, there has been plenty of fun along the way.
Chaplin says: “We’ve had loads of high points, Live 8 was pretty mad. Macca at the side of the stage singing along and then touring with U2 and the Grammy’s after party, which was mad.
“I was holding court with Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Eminem, Dr Dre and Green Day. I may have been a bit pissed and talking absolute crap but it was fun.”
Special magic
Rice-Oxley says: “Whenever we go out together, we are laughing and now it’s the best time to be in Keane. We all feel good about the band.”
Songs from Hopes And Fears are still a huge part of Keane’s live shows, but not just the biggest hits.
Chaplin says: “I love Bend And Break. It’s our battle cry. It reminds me of not being sure of what was going to happen with the band.”
Bedshaped is particularly special to Rice-Oxley, who says: “It takes me back to when we were playing bigger shows. You’d have groups of big lads, like the football fans, and they loved Bedshaped.
“They’d have their arms around each other at the end of the gig. Slightly scary-looking dudes all bellowing at the top of their lungs and crying. I love that. There is something about that song that has a light to it.” Chaplin adds: “There’s always been a special magic to Keane through Tim’s writing and my singing. And I’m singing better than ever.
Streaming has opened our music to a younger audience. When I look out there’s a new layer of fans. And there are about 100 new songs already.
“Friendship is central to this band and the difficult times, the fallouts, the resentments — a lot of the baggage has been offloaded.
“I can really see why so many bands implode but my friendship with Tim is such a fundamental relationship in my life.”
It’s been five years since Keane released comeback album Cause And Effect, after a four-year hiatus. Is a new album on the horizon?
Chaplin answers: “We were slightly circumspect about doing 20 years of Hopes And Fears as we are slightly cautious about nostalgia.
“Streaming has opened our music to a younger audience. When I look out there’s a new layer of fans. And there are about 100 new songs already.”
Rice-Oxley adds: “As much as we’d love to make another album, we are too busy touring. And I’m always very torn because I feel a lot of imposter syndrome. I never think, ‘I’m just going to pop in the studio and turn out a couple more hits’.”
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Chaplin smiles: “That’s the thing with Tim, though, he always does.”
- Keane’s UK tour starts tonight at Leeds First Direct Arena, playing two nights at London’s O2 on May 10 and 11. Keane’s 20 Hopes And Fears album is released on May 10.
