IF ONE WORD WERE TO BE USED to describe the life of Keane over the past year or two, 'change" would probably be the most apt. Ever since the Under The Iron Sea era came to a close with the band's 2007 benefit shows for Warchild and Mencap, Tom, Tim and Richard had started the process of redefining their sound and whole approach to the business of being a band. The most outwardly-visible symbol of this process was Jesse Quin, a musician and friend of the band. Jesse took over the bass guitar duties for the recording sessions that ultimately gave us Perfect Symmetry, allowing the band to rediscover an aspect of the live dynamic that had been missing since the departure of Dom Scott back in 2001. Jesse has also been a pivotal part of the band's re-invigorated live show, with his live bass, synth and percussion work playing a key part in reducing the long-standing dependency on playback from a laptop. Whilst there was initially a degree of resistance to his involvement with band, the fan-base have now firmly taken Jesse to their hearts with a level of adoration and appreciation that rivals that of Tom, Tim and Richard.
Despite all this, Jesse has still remained quite an enigmatic figure, rarely being interviewed or being a part of PR appearances beyond playing live. In order to give an insight into the man behind the bass, Jesse was was kind enough to take time out during the band's recent South American tour in order to answer a raft of questions from Keane Backline. He tells us how he became involved with Keane, discusses his past and present solo musical endeavours, and tells us what he really thinks of those I HEART JQ t-shirts!
Hello Jesse! You've been in the consciousness of Keane fans for over a year and a half now, but you're still quite an enigma! To get started, please tell us "The Brief History Of Jesse Quin".
Well, I was brought up in a small town in the country. I have a mother, father and sister. We spent every summer building and taking down a festival that my Dad was the site-manager for. It obviously made a strong impression on me and as much as I love the country as soon as I finished school it was the city (one big festival) for me. I moved to Bristol and lived above a pub that mainly had old jazz bands playing but all sorts of other interesting stuff too. I spent a lost year there staying up all night drinking and playing music and it was amazing. Everyone needs a year of doing whatever they hell they like in their life and not worrying about careers or bills. Then when I realized that the party was coming to and end and I needed to get on with things I looked at where I was and realized that if I carried on I'd probably become a real mess and it was time to leave Bristol. I didn't have any money so my friend Diana lent me the train fair up to London (I still haven't paid her back!) and I turned up on the doorstep of the first person I could think of (my friend Heather) and lived on a mattress behind her sofa. I collected money off the pavement and borrowed a bit off my mum until I found a job. I remember only eating bread for a week. That was depressing. But it was all very exciting. I started a band called Unit On and fell in love with a girl who broke my heart and I guess that's where my life in London began.
You seem to come from quite a musical family - were you surrounded by music from an early age? Did your parents actively encourage to follow music as a career path?
I have a photograph of my mother singing to 20,000 people two days before I was born - I couldn't really not be a musician. No one forced me to. My parents were and are very, very supportive. They let me have a drum kit set up in the house that I practiced on for about two hours every day! I spent most of my childhood at gigs sitting on the effects rack next to the monitor mixing desk. My dad came to the Keane show in Manchester and turned up while we were sound-checking and I just saw him walking across the arena towards the sound guys with open arms and them walking back towards him. Clearly they went way back. It made me laugh. Put it this way, I think it would have been a shock if I had ended up working as an accountant!
Your musical roots seem to based as much in the celtic/folk scene as rock or hip-hop - who were/are your main musical inspirations?
I suppose your musical roots lie in what your parents play you. My mother's Irish so I got a lot of the folk thing from her. My dad's pretty much a rock'n'roll fan. They spoon-fed me a lot of great music as a kid. I got a lot of black music from my Mum as well. She gave me my love of an interesting beat and my Dad gave my love of a loud beat! I guess the result of everything they listened to is definitely a good, eclectic blend. These days I think I probably pick up on whatever I'm listening to at the time and pretty much all of my friends are musicians, so I copy them a lot!
You seem to have played with numerous different bands over the years, in lots of varying musical styles. You clearly became renowned on the London music scene - do you consider yourself as a bit of a musical nomad or "musician-for-hire", or do the different bands and artists you've played with simply offer you an outlet to indulge your diverse range of creative influences?
Most of the bands I've played with have come from one or two sources. They're all friends with each other. My main problem is that I'm lazy with my own music and never finish anything or push it because I get bored or I decide I don't like it. My other problem is that I don't fit in well with most bands because they don't move fast enough and I get frustrated. I don't mean in the sense of wanting to be famous and successful - I mean that you would be really shocked if you knew how often bands stand in a rehearsal room and basically say, "Let's not try this new song any other way. Our first attempt sounds good enough. Let's go to the pub." It's pretty lame. I guess I probably thrive in bands that aren't afraid to experiment.
One of the more unusual acts you were involved with was The Puppini Sisters. How did that come about and what was your role for the girls?
I'm their Father actually. But they have three different mothers, one of whom ran off with another man, one's in prison and the third works repairing shoes. I made them sing in the street for money when they were younger and then they got a record deal so I traveled the world with them making sure no one tried to rip them off. It was great because I got to wear cowboy clothes.
Ha! So, how did your main project Jesse Quin And The Mets come about? Were you already friends with the other members of the group and decided to form a band, or were you looking to form a band and they were like-minded souls that you crossed paths with on the gig circuit?
The Mets kind of came out of my old band The Ordinance. I met Phil in a pub, Erika is going out with my friend Rich, who is one of my musical heroes and who I kind of grew up with (I was madly in love with his sister). He's also the singer in a band called Laetoli Steps, who are absolutely amazing. As for Jarrett, we went to school together.
I vividly remember first meeting Phil in O'Neill's in Richmond when my flat mate/former bassist was playing with a covers band and Phil got up and played lead guitar on two songs... I was quite pissed and I grabbed him and started hugging him afterwards and telling him that we'd be best friends and he had to join my band. Sure enough! Phil is one of the two main people that really keep me writing and doing my own music because he's so encouraging and such an amazing friend. He works his ass off for The Mets and loses lots of money dropping other gigs when we gig. He's sometimes a bit too honest with whatever I'm working on, but I need that. He's my hero. All the other Mets musicians just come and go. Although I just found out that Erika is moving to Thailand, which I'm deeply upset about but I'm also obviously very happy for her.
The line-up for the Mets seems to be relatively fluid around the core of yourself, Phil, Erika and Jarrett (judging by your own description of "and others who come and go"). What criteria do you then use for involving other musicians? Do you seek out someone to fill a role for a particular song?
I think if I wasn't doing Keane I would certainly get a permanent full line-up together for The Mets but it's very difficult to get people to be committed when there aren't many gigs! If a gig comes up I have about three drummers and four violin players I ask in the hope that one of them can do it. It's always VERY disorganized! Basically though, between six people you can usually make a pretty big noise, which suits me just fine.
Mets gigs seem to have been relatively few and far between... a shame considering the quality of the material that you've produced! Do you find it difficult to be the front-man on-stage in a band and to be the one in the spotlight? Or is it purely due to the fact of the line-up not being set in stone?
That's very kind of you, Mart! I suppose I've always dreamed of getting a band together made up of people I grew up with that was completely diplomatic and everything, but I only got into the singing thing when I moved to London so no one took me seriously and it was a bit late. I've been let down by A LOT of musicians (I've probably let a lot down myself as well) so I decided, Jesse, do whatever music you want and don't worry about it. The only problem is that I absolutely hate being watched when I'm singing and I also can't stand talking into the microphone because my voice sounds stupid. I would quite happily say nothing for a whole gig if I could and maybe let the others talk instead but it would make me look like even more of an idiot.
What is the songwriting process for the Mets? Do you write collaboratively (either by sitting down together or by jamming in a room to see what random ideas come out), or do you write the basic song and then flesh it out with the other members?
It's not very diplomatic, I'm afraid! Quite often I'll write and record the whole thing and then the others will just learn what I played but if there's time then I try and take a couple of songs to them and we all put stuff in. I've been trying more and more to get the Mets in when I'm recording and getting their input. Erika and Phil are usually involved but I need to get poor old Jarrett in. The Mets are all very good musicians so it usually works nicely. They're also immensely patient with the fact that I'm quite pig-headed about music and also that I'm never around!
You mentioned last year that you were tinkering with an album of Mets material in your (limited) spare time. Do you think this will see the light of day soon? How many Mets songs are there in the canon?
It definitely won't see the light of day for while. There's a lot of writing and recording going on when I get time. I'm starting to think the idea of the album is dead. I think I'd like to just make ME-Ps. It's a medium length recording, not an EP, not an album. Get it?! I think six or seven songs every six or seven months is the way to go. You could download a ME-P3 from iTunes! Although I'd love to make a double album! Oh boy! There are hundreds of songs in the depths of my computer and dictaphone, but unfortunately a good 90% of them aren't very good or need the lyrics finished. I hate writing lyrics. I'm crap at it.
The London folk scene seems to have come to the fore in the public eye over the past year or two, notably through artists such as Laura Marling, Noah And The Whale and Mumford And Sons. Is it gratifying to see so many of your friends finally receiving critical acclaim and recognition on a wider scale? Would you like to take the Mets further into the public eye, or are you happier to stay under the radar and be more of a cult band?
There's a definite reason why those guys are suddenly becoming successful: it's because they are brilliant at what they do. In every sense. They tick every box. Great melody, great voices, great lyrics, great production, they look good. They've got it all. Plus they work hard at what they do. The days of scrappy indie bands are over. They're a waste of space. 90% of them have this irritating, smug, arrogant nature about who they are and what they do but few of them can do much more than play G, D, and C and play a basic drum beat. Plus, the sheer amount of plagiarism out there is frankly vile. Half of them don't even know how to re-string a guitar (can you tell I feel strongly about this?!). Then you get someone like Laura Marling who has an incredibly beautiful voice, writes lyrics that W.B. Yeats would envy and is teaching herself about production as she goes along.
As for The Mets - would I like to see us become successful? Of course I would, but I just don't know how it would work alongside Keane. I'm definitely spending a lot of time with a pen and pad trying to work out a plan though. Hey, who knows... maybe we're not good enough anyway. I think we could be, if we locked ourselves in a room for a month and practiced like wild.
You seem to be a talented multi-instrumentalist, playing guitar, bass, drums, ukulele and harmonica amongst other things (Tim jokingly described you as "an annoying genius" in that respect!). Did you make a conscious effort to build up a broad range of experience (rather than being tied to guitar, for example), or do you just try to pick up a new instrument as and when you feel the need (e.g. when writing a new song)?
I think that's a wild exaggeration! I can play the basic instruments that necessitate a pop or rock band to a level where I can record them or play them live without too much hard work, but ask me how to play a specific chord, read a piece of music or take a solo and you're in for a big disappointment I'm afraid! Tim didn't say that, did he?! I really see us both as very similar musically. We both have a drive to make music that cannot be tamed. Neither of us could ever quit, even if we wanted to. Neither of us knows any fancy scales or anything, but we'll keep working away with whatever it is we're trying to achieve until we get it right. The only difference is he always gets it right and I usually get it completely wrong! Don't underestimate that man's genius.
You recently mentioned that you were going to be mixing some demos for your friends, Brigade. Is the technical side of recording and studio work something you'd like to become more involved with? Have you done other production work previously (beyond your own demos)?
I recorded a very rough demo with Will a few years ago when he was first starting Brigade. It was our friend Fimbo from back home on drums, me and Will played guitar, Will's brother Charlie played bass and obviously Will was singing. I've wanted to have another go and do something sonically much better ever since. I have a great love of pulling other people's songs apart and rearranging them and stuff because it's much less pressure than doing my own stuff. I'd definitely like to get into production a bit more. I'm not sure how good I'd be though!
A quick look at your MySpace page reveals at least two other side-projects... The Wedding Guests and 5 Monkey 12. Are these active, or are they simply some past remnants of creativity? Do you have any other non-Keane work planned on the horizon?
5 Monkey 12 was my old high-school band with Simon from Prego on bass, Plant from Brigade on guitar, me on drums and a genius chap called Tom Hodgkinson on vocals and guitar. We never play together any more but it'd be very fun to get back together one day.
As for other stuff - we have some new Wedding Guests songs that are nearly finished and then I have two other small things that are kind of in the pipeline but need some work. Just for fun! I've just started trying to learn how to do a good remix too. I've been begging Keane to let me do one... I think they're probably too worried I'd expect them to release it, ha ha!
You first came to the attention of Keane fans at the Warchild shows when you played bass on Under Pressure, but you appear to have been involved behind the scenes before that (credited as a Production Assistant on the Under The Iron Sea UK arena tour). How did you first get involved with the boys?
I was working at a place called Matt Snowball Music who hired equipment to Keane and stored their gear and I became good friends with some of the crew. After I left Snowball's I was touring with The Puppini Sisters and we had a break for a few weeks. Keane's production manager called and asked if I fancied being production assistant for the UK arena tour... and the rest is history.
I dealt with a lot of bands, big and small, when I was working at Snowball's but I remember the first time I met Keane thinking that they were by far the nicest band I'd ever met. Richard came up to me on the first day of production rehearsals and started chatting to me and I felt very welcome. But you already know what gentlemen they are!
Was it a daunting prospect to step up from working behind the scenes to going on-stage at the Warchild and Mencap shows in 2007? You've obviously played with numerous bands, but Keane is probably the most widely known, playing to the largest audiences. How did the idea of getting you to play bass live for those shows first come about?
Well, I remember being pretty nervous. I had to play on Under Pressure and the bass part is one of the main musical hooks so I knew if I fucked it up I'd be in trouble! I stumbled through it OK, I think. I went with them for the first show in Manchester but Tom was too ill to perform the full set, so my first appearance with Keane was at Brixton Academy... which as I'm sure you can imagine was a bit of a baptism of fire! All I remember was thinking I'd upset Brendon Benson right before the two of us went on because I was talking to his girlfriend and I think he thought I was chatting her up. I also vividly remember being very conscious of the movement of my feet on stage. Ha ha!
Tim had previously stated that the process of getting you on-board for the album recording happened pretty naturally, rather than being a pre-planned thing. How did it seem from your side of things? To many fans, it seemed quite radical that Tom, Tim and Richard would bring in someone else to help them with making the album - did you have any reservations about getting involved, given that some fans were (inexplicably) vehemently opposed to the idea of a Keane album involving anyone other than TTR?
Well, I think I was cheeky enough when we first started rehearsing the album that it broke the ice pretty quickly. It was just the four of us in a pretty small room FULL of equipment. I remember it being quite stressful emotionally as I was really thrown in there without much of an idea what the plan was, and I obviously had to get to know the guys as musicians and people. They made me incredibly welcome though and we had great fun. Although I remember us playing Playing Along literally a hundred times and changing the tempo and key a little bit each time and then changing it back. That was tiring. That was probably when I had my first taste of what making a record really involves... although it must have worked because Playing Along sounds amazing.
I think my only real role in the whole recording process was just to help three old friends get into a room together and play some music. It's very difficult with just drums and a keyboard to hear what the finish result might shape up like so you need the bass there. There's also an old musician's saying - "A band that plays together, stays together". I think it seemed to do the boys a lot of good to be able to experiment and jam and work quickly without having to keep stopping and Tim recording a bass line down.
In terms of the fans, it was very difficult for me seeing all the negative feedback I initially got, because I hadn't joined the band: I was just a musician being paid to play and I'd been thrust to the attention of this group of incredibly passionate people who wanted to know what was going on. In all honesty, to begin with I thought they must have all been completely mad. but I quickly learned just how amazing Keane fans are and that all they were interested in was the welfare of a band that meant so much to them and that they had spent so much of their hard-earned money on with buying tickets, albums, travel etc. I feel totally welcome now though!
Your role during recording the album was primarily the bass guitar, but you seem to have also played a number of other instruments as well... can you tell us what you actually played during the sessions? Are there any notable non-bass parts in the final mix of the songs that were played by yourself?
Well, they was certainly an enormous sense of everyone mucking in with the recording and apart from me laying down the bass, there were a lot of great sessions recording backing vocals and percussion together. I remember us all being set up in the big hall in Berlin doing the percussion for Spiralling and I was hitting this big old mic stand with a drumstick and then a tambourine, and we all kept swapping around. It was great fun! I do remember the first time I heard The Lovers Are Losing on the radio being shocked about hearing my backing vocal being really loud in the break-down... that really made me register the whole thing properly for the first time. It was like, "Hey, I played on that!".
Basically Tim, Tom and Richard are so good at what they do that they don't need anyone else's input, but they're all gracious enough that you can shout, "That synth sound is terrible!" and they don't tell you to leave, ha ha! I remember Uli, the intern at Teldex (who was the assistant to the assistant engineer), standing in the middle of the control room and telling everyone, "This song is getting worse instead of better". If you said that in any other studio with any other band, you would probably never work in music again! As it happened, I think everyone just laughed and told him he was probably right!
I also remember having this mad idea that I wanted to open and shut a pair of scissors over and over again like a weird shaker at the very end of You Haven't Told Me Anything and Tim and Jake (the engineer) going, "Bloody hell Quin, what are you talking about?! Go on then". I'm incredibly proud that it's still there in the final version, ha ha! But it's certainly testament to how open and free the recording sessions were.
On one of the video updates during recording, Tom described you as a blend between Ricky Gervais and Chris Martin... In that spirit, do you have any humorous anecdotes from the sessions that you can share?
Don't go on about it! Well, Tim, Tom and Rich are all bloody funny and I suppose I'm just very light-hearted in general, I guess. There's always a lot of jokes and fun going on. I remember on about the second week I was working with the boys I made a joke album cover and emailed it to Tim, Tom and Richard. It was basically an old press shot of the three of them and I stuck things over their faces in Photoshop! It was just a bit of mischief, but it broke the ice pretty well and paved the way for a pretty fun working relationship.
Ha ha, I just read that back and it doesn't sound very funny at all. I guess you had to be there!
What is your favourite bass moment on the Perfect Symmetry album, and why? And your favourite moment on the record in general (if it's different)?
My favourite bass moment on Perfect Symmetry is the bass line for You Don't See Me... I really love it. Ooh, I've changed my mind, it's Pretend That You're Alone! Tim actually wrote the whole of that bass part and it is almost too much fun to play.
My favourite moment on the album is when it ends. Ha, just kidding! Well, Tim will hate me for saying this but Spike who mixed the album did a very short edit of Love Is The End, which made me want to cry like a baby. It got axed though. I really love the whole album madly if I'm honest.
When it comes to rehearsing the "old" (i.e. Under The Iron Sea and Hopes And Fears) Keane songs, there was an additional burden on you to recreate Tim's bass parts that previously came off the laptop. How did you go about addressing this? Assuming that the main focus of the pre-tour rehearsals was on figuring out how to tackle the new songs live, were you given homework to figure out the parts on your own, or did the four of you sit down together to work it out?
The boys wrote a long list of songs that they thought might be played live and gave it to me, then I went home and tried to learn them all. Tim's keyboard tech, Thom very kindly sent me the audio track of just the bass for some of the more muffled parts. I think A Bad Dream was originally made with some kind of loud delay on the bass, while This Is The Last Time switches between a weird synth sound and a real bass. It took me a little while but I'm getting there... I know all the parts but it's easy to get caught up in the moment live and forget to concentrate! They're not all completely second nature yet.
How much input did you have into the design and set-up of your bass rig for the shows?
It was my design in terms of the equipment I wanted to use and the order it went in, but then Adam (genius guitar tech and all-round legend) made the whole thing work and added the radio systems and the system that switches between them and stuff. Although it's been giving off a bit of a weird hum lately. But we can't work out what it is. He made an amazing rack that sits behind the bass amps that has all me and Tom's radio systems and effects and stuff. I bloody love Adam!
We've previously discussed the gear set-up you've been using but I think its been changed a little bit since then (your pedal board is different, and the white P-bass has been modified). Any updated information you can give would be great!
I don't think much has changed, I'm afraid! Adam put a black scratch plate on the white bass because I thought it would look cooler. I've got 4-way switch on the pedal board now: I hit it when I swap basses. Um, that's it I think. Oh, the Moog Voyager keyboard had a meltdown so there's a new keyboard on the way apparently. The Moog looked really cool and all the options for new synths look horrible. Not a fan!
You seem to have an ever-increasing collection of trinkets on top of your bass amp (dolls, soft toys, model bus, small plastic cow etc.). Are these lucky charms for you, or simply the mark of an eccentric genius?
Richard gave me the little bus and Ant gave me the Barbie... after that, lots more bits started appearing. I have far too many now and Adam says I'm not allowed any more because there's nowhere for them to live! It just makes stage feel a bit more fun I guess.
In addition to bass, you've also played acoustic guitar, synth, concert bass drum, claves, bongos and shaker over the past few months of touring. Are we likely to see you diversify further? Perhaps even some piano or electric guitar?
Well, the white Telecaster Tom plays in The Lovers Are Losing is actually mine and I have a guitar set-up on the road but we've never used it. Maybe it would be a bit of fun one day. There was talk of a Keytar at one stage. No way man, not ever!
The rhythm section of any band is crucial to developing a tight, funky sound, so it's brilliant to see that yourself and Richard manage to lock-in perfectly together. Did the two of you click together right from the start, or was it something that took a little bit of time to gel?
I've never played the bass seriously in a band before, so it took me a long time to learn to really concentrate on what Richard was doing. He makes it a lot easier by being the most musical drummer on planet Earth and also being a master of the little details. I secretly like playing songs like Is It Any Wonder?, where he just starts the song and I cling on for dear life! Songs like Better Than This or Perfect Symmetry are definitely a little more difficult. We often have a bit of a cheesy funk jam before gigs to get warmed up and it definitely gets us a bit more synced up before we go on. He seems to listen to what I'm doing a lot as well, which is flattering because most of the time I play like a ham-fisted idiot.
Is it flattering or scary to see people proudly wearing their Backline I HEART JQ t-shirts? ;)
I just think about the number of heroes I've had in my life that I've decided after a while weren't that great after all. I'm not saying I'm anyone's hero - far from it! But if people embrace me, it's only because I'm something new and I'm sure they'll get bored of me pretty quickly. Keane fans are the least fickle in the world, but at the end of the day, TTR are the talent! It's always nice to feel loved though! I really believe that the way you treat and love other people is the most important thing in life, so I always just want to come out at the end of every gig and say thank you to all the people that make me feel so welcome! It makes my life very happy. The t-shirts are just a bit of fun, but yes, it's definitely a weird feeling seeing them! I'm sure there are more than a few 'I Heart Mart' shirts out there. It's certainly got more of a ring to it!
As already discussed, your musical endeavors don't start and stop with Keane, but the touring schedule for the band is likely to keep you occupied for much of 2009... do you think it will be difficult to balance your work with Keane with finding the time to pursue your other projects?
Well, I'm very lucky because my job is immensely fun and doesn't really feel like a job, so Keane and The Mets and everything blurs into one for me. I was sitting by a swimming pool in Mexico yesterday thinking, "There's no way I can have the audacity to try and disguise what I do as a proper job". Doing Keane is a big deal to me, but so is The Mets and everything else I get involved in. The thing that's fun about music isn't the size of the venue or the country (although obviously that helps!)... for me there's nothing that beats being in the middle of gig with a group of friends and thinking, "We're making a beautiful big piece of art that is enriching people's lives". This great big noise is coming out of all this electricity we're creating and blasting out of those speakers. The ratio of time spent between musical projects means nothing when I look at Tim throwing himself around behind that old CP70, or I look at Jarrett swinging his bass around with his eyes shut. Then I look down at the crowd having a great time and I know that's all that matters... everything else, like band politics or record sales, is irrelevant and I never want to do anything else.
