FAQ: Technical questions

Does Tim sing at all?

Yes. (Let me know if you think you hear more!)

• Sunshine - lead vocals in the verses, and with the exception of the first chorus, backing vocals in the following choruses
• On A Day Like Today - backing vocals in later choruses and outro
• Untitled 1 - backing vocals in the 2nd chorus
• Fly To Me - backing vocals in the choruses
• Something In Me Was Dying - backing vocals in the choruses
• The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore) - backing vocals in the last 2 choruses
• This Is The Last Time - demo - lead vocals

• Atlantic - backing vocals throughout the song
• Nothing In My Way - backing vocals in choruses
• Leaving So Soon? - backing vocals in verses
• Put It Behind You - backing vocals in choruses
• Crystal Ball - backing vocals in choruses
• Broken Toy - backing vocals in bridge(?)
• Atlantic - demo - lead vocals
• Leaving So Soon? - demo - lead vocals
• A Bad Dream - demo - lead vocals
• Crystal Ball - demo - lead vocals
• Broken Toy - demo - lead vocals
• The Frog Prince - demo - lead vocals in verse

He's also been singing live since around October 2004.

Does Richard sing at all?

Richard sings on the studio recording of Under Pressure, and also the album Perfect Symmetry. He also begun singing live in 2006.

What equipment do they use?

Please note that this section is mostly centred around the 2004 setup, with some details from the 2006 setups. keanebackline.info promises a comprehensive guide to all gear over the years when it launches (but don't hold your breath ;))

Tim

Tim's main piano is a Yamaha CP70B Electric Piano. Click here for the CP70B manual. Other users of Yamaha CP70s have included U2, Radiohead, Peter Gabriel, John Paul Jones, Billy Joel and the Buggles (watch the video for Video Killed The Radio Star carefully). Tim has been known to use other very similar models, such as the CP70M for the Saturday Night Live performance. (Essentially the same, but with a MIDI output, 2 effects loops and active 7 band EQ). It's been revealed that Tim actually has 10 CP70Bs: 2 performances ones in US, 2 in UK; then 4 more for practice and recording, and 2 others for spare parts, including the original one.

• 2003 - April 2004: For the solo of "Sunshine", he used an Arp Pro DGX synth sat on top of the CP70, which was also used on the album for the "She Has No Time" solo. I believe it was taken off the road as it's such a rare synth and so valuable.
• April 2004 - October 2005: Tim added a Yamaha S90 (on a Rhodes sound) to his setup facing towards the audience which was used it for "She Has No Time" and "Sunshine". For the solos of these songs, a Nord Lead 3 synth (sitting on a stand above the S90) was also added. The S90 has also been used a few times as a backup piano, as previously strings in the CP70B have snapped during gigs, causing it to buzz and feedback.
• May 2006 - present: A Nord Lead 3 synth is now on top of the CP70, along with an increased rack for effects. There is now also Rhodes Stage 88 facing the audience, with another Nord Lead 3 synth of top of it. It has been revealed that the Rhodes case has been stripped and fitted with a Yamaha S90 electric keyboard (which is used to imitate a Fender Rhodes, amongst others) for reliability. More details and pictures at http://www.elecedge.com/before%20and%20after%20photos/Keane/keane.html

On stage amps and effects - A Fender "Twin" amp was briefly used in early 2004, and appears to have made a comeback in 2006. As of 2006, Tim uses two racks mounted with six Line6 Pod XT Pros and other effects. A Line 6 FBV Shortboard foot controller is used to control the rack-mounted XT Pro (facing at 45 degrees to the CP70, on Tim's left). Thanks to Mart for this info.
Bass guitars - Tim uses Fender Jazz and Fender Precision bass guitars.
Synth basses - On "Hopes and Fears", Tim reportedly used a Yamaha CP35 keyboard for the basslines of Your Eyes Open and Untitled 1 (the link features scans which are in English - you may have to scroll down! Any other sites with info would be welcomed...), and a Yamaha DX-7 for the bassline of Bedshaped.

Richard

Richard uses a white Marine Pearl Yamaha "Maple Custom Absolute Nouveau" kit (12" rack tom, 14" and 16" floor toms, 13" snare, 22" kick) (Source), with Sabian HHX cymbals: 14" groove hats, 21" dry ride and 18" crash; as well as a hand hammered 17" crash, a groove wedge and a tambourine. (Source). He also has used other kits for American tours, and a variety of 'shaker' percussion for acoustic shows.

As of 2006, it appears the tambourine has moved to Richard's left, above a new third floor tom. There is also a new type of Yamaha drum mic (thanks Tom!).

Tom

• October 2004 - October 2005: Tom has showcased his further talents by beginning to use a Hammond XK2 organ for the ending of Nothing In My Way, and during Hamburg Song.
• May 2006 - present: Tom uses a Yamaha CP60M for extra synth parts. This is basically the same as Tim's CP70, but with added MIDI feature, and in an upright case (thanks Avenida!). Where it is not possible to transport the CP60, a digital stage piano is used (model to be confirmed).
• October 2006 - present: Takamine electro-acoustic guitar. Model unknown, please contact me if you have any info!

On stage amps and effects - Similarly to Tim, in 2006 Tom began to use a Fender "Twin" amp for keyboards; and a smaller effects rack (4 bays; 2 of which are Line6 Pod XT Pros).

Studio and live setups

Studio setup - Andy Green (album producer/engineer/programmer) was interviewed for Sound on Sound magazine's August 2004 issue: click here for a transcript. This excellent article tells of the recording process in some detail and is 'geek heaven' (describing the type of tapes used for recording, microphones and setups used).

Live setup - For Tom and Tim's vocals, Sennheiser e935s are used. Also, Sennheiser e604s and e602s are used on the toms, e614s on overheads and hihats, and an e609 on the tambourine. Also used are a Shure 57 on snare top, Beta 57 on snare bottom, and a (Shure Beta?) 91 and Sennheiser 421 on kick. (Source). Click out that link for more information about the Front Of House and monitor setups.

Pre-2008 - How does it work live then? Is there a bass?

As the observant of you may have noticed, there's an Apple Powerbook G4 computer (Titanium model) sitting to Tim's right (running the software package Logic Pro) which plays samples, which have been recorded in advance. These are usually strings, keyboard bass or bass guitar (all played by Tim), and the synth 'noises' such as those found in Everybody's Changing.
In order for the band to stay in time with the computer, there has to be a click track metronome (high and low congos) - imagine someone clapping along to every Keane song all the way through. Tim, Richard and now Tom are equipped with earpieces to be able to hear this (the Sennheiser ew300 G2 system if you're interested!). The giant plectrum shaped object near Tim is a transmitter for his in-ear monitor.
They use the equipment in the above question, and have in the past sometimes used a Fender 'The Twin' guitar amp as a piano monitor. The amp is miked up and this sound is mixed with the sound straight from the piano, to produce the 'live piano' sound. (As seen in the Everybody's Changing video and photo shoots)

For Keane, two PowerBook G4 systems and Logic Pro do double duty as live instruments, playing anywhere from 8 to 24 audio tracks per song. But running Logic Pro in a live setting poses unique challenges for programmer and technician Geoff Kakoschke. For maximum flexibility, Kakoschke builds each song separately using Rice-Oxley's original, pre-album Logic Pro tracks.

"Because I'm using Tim's original audio files," explains Kakoschke, "I decided I didn't want to get to the end and go, 'Right - that's the mix. It's set in stone.' I do all of my processing in real time. I use the Overdrive plug-in a lot to create valve warmth. There's also at least one PlatinumVerb in every song. And then there's a ton of automation to keep the parts - especially the bass parts - coming in and out nice and clean. Because of the power of the program and the power of the hardware we're running it on, doing everything in real time is great. And it means I can change something if I want to - at a second's notice."

Using a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to control Rice-Oxley's onstage setup from his offstage PowerBook G4, Kakoschke loads the show. "We have a few acoustic moments where I load the songs in sets. For each set, the songs come up and we just switch between them. The songs are saved in such a way that they automatically go in the order they're meant to be, on the screen where they're meant to be."

As for the dual-PowerBook configuration he has devised, Kakoschke explains that "unlike a master-slave relationship, they're running completely independently - two systems running in sync, but unaware that the other exists. So we have this facility that if a system does have a problem, I can just hit the other system and on it goes."

As a notable exception, Tim played electric bass for the 12th December 2006 Apple Store gig (Regent Street, London, UK) - available on iTunes UK.

Where do the projections come from?

"In addition to its live audio acrobatics, Keane tours with an accompanying video show played back via a Power Mac G5 running High End System's Catalyst Pro 3.3. "This system allows me to control video playback directly from the lighting console," says video and lighting technician Rob Sinclair. "That way, I keep the video in sync with all my lighting cues."

Both Sinclair and filmmaker Corin Hardy, who created all the original video content, used Final Cut Pro and Compressor to edit and compress for projection. And for upcoming tour dates, Sinclair is using Motion to prepare new graphics."

The projections for the Hopes and Fears tour were created and directed by Corin Hardy. The 'egghead man' and shadow puppets were created by David Lupton.

So are there really no guitars?

Between 2003 and 2007, Keane have used no guitars in their music - there are none on Hopes and Fears or Under The Iron Sea. The band have categorically stated this in many interviews, and the effects were created by using standard effects pedals and amplifiers.

Using guitars wasn't ruled out, because Tom's (Chaplin, singer) quite good at the guitar," keyboard player Tim Rice-Oxley told NME.COM. "We were definitely envisaging the possibility of using a bit of guitar early on but we never got round to it."

Instead Rice-Oxley said the band became intent on experimenting with their piano-led set-up.

"I was touring around the world and, when I was on my travels, I picked up all these vintage cassette units and all these weird gadgets," he recalled. "When we got home and got in the studio, I realised that there was this whole world of sounds that no-one had ever really explored before.

"People are so obsessed with guitars, but putting an electric piano into a whole chain of effects and seeing what comes out is something that, as far as I know, no-one has ever done before."

He added that once the band had gone down this route six-stringed instruments didn't get a look in.

"We probably didn't ever consider becoming a guitar band again," Rice-Oxley explained. "We used to be a guitar band when we started and we've been there. The sounds on this record are really exciting and expressive of the lyrics and the music. I'm really excited about how far we can go with it."

Source

Tom picked up an acoustic guitar again for the October 2006 UK tour for an acoustic version of Your Eyes Open, and at an Apple Store gig (12th December 2006) it featured on A Bad Dream and Is It Any Wonder. Throughout 2007, Tom has play acoustic guitar on many tracks - during Broken Toy it was a regular, and Tom has also played solo festival slots on acoustic guitar. He is yet to play electric guitar.

In January 2007, She Sells Sanctuary was the first recording to feature an acoustic guitar. Guitars have also been seen pictures of the forthcoming third album's recording sessions.

Tom and Tim played guitar on the album Perfect Symmetry, as did Jesse on Black Burning Heart.