Tim Rice-Oxley, Tom Chaplin and Richard Hughes of Keane
Like The Hills, R.A. Salvatore books, and "Womanizer" covers, Keane is kind of a guilty pleasure. Tell us you don't well up a little when you hear "Somewhere Only We Know." Come on, we dare you. Five years after that song first came out, and several million albums sold later, Keane is about to embark upon a US tour in support of last year's release Perfect Symmetry. We spoke with composer, bassist and pianist Tim Rice-Oxley about releasing music in the modern era, Keane remixes, and Kanye West.
Do you remember where you played the first time Keane came to New York City?
Tim Rice-Oxley: Yeah, the first ever would have been the Mercury Lounge.
And now you're playing Radio City Music Hall during this tour. Big jump.
Tim: It is. It is. You know what it's like for British bands, and all bands really. It's very tough to get beyond a kind of club level, and we feel very honored and very lucky to play somewhere like Radio City.
Keane is kind of at the forefront of finding new ways to get music across to fans. For instance, in 2006 you became the first band to put out a single on a USB stick...
Tim: Yeah, we've tried to do some new things. You know how it is. Everyone is kinda casting around trying to find a new way of doing things in the industry at the moment. We've enjoyed that. We've embraced the challenge and it's been exciting.
Are you the man behind these innovations or is that someone else in the band, or the label?
Tim: Um, between the three of us and our manager Adam, who used to be my flatmate, we've all got a great amount of curiosity and hunger. We don't come from an old school background where there are strict rules on how to make a record. Adam's not the kind of manager where he's seen everything a million times and thinks he knows what works and what doesn't. We're all quite naive, and I see that as a good thing. Sometimes we try stuff that turns out to be rubbish or is just totally impractical and I think you've just gotta have an open mind and a hunger. It's exciting to do something that's risky. I mean, there's so much safety in the world of music and film, and probably video games, too.
How do you feel about your music getting remixed?
Tim: I love it. As far as amateur remixes, I consider that a huge honor really. Especially with our new record, it's probably starting to get a bit more intersting sonically. It's a bit more synthy, a bit more uptempo and a bit more danceable. I think maybe that lends itself better to being remixed.
Is that CSS remix of "The Lovers Are Losing" official or did it pop up out of nowhere?
Tim: That's absolutely official, and it's possibly my favorite Keane remix ever. I think they did a brilliant job on that. We've had DJ Shadow mix up a track, and Diplo, who's a big hero of mine. And guys like Frankmusik. I don't know if he's come to the states yet, but he's an incredibly talented, genius, electro musician. Those are the ones I can name off the top of my head. It's great, really one of the best things about being in a band.
Not everyone is of that opinion in the music industry. I've spoken to a few musicians who have been critical of what others have done to their music.
Tim: Weird. I don't really understand that. For me, one of the biggest thrills about being in a band is learning. If you're not learning over time I don't know what you're doing. Stuart Price is another guy who's remixed for us, and we've worked with him a bit as well, and just being in a room with someone like that or just kicking ideas back and forth through email, you learn something every time. And it makes your music change, which you've gotta do if you ever want to do anything interesting.
Have you composed any remixes yourself?
Tim: We haven't. As far as I can recall we haven't really been asked to do any remixing. Hopefully one day.
You guys big on Twitter?
Tim: I got into Twitter when it first got going, but I've gotten a bit lazy about it. Though it's pretty cool.
Do you have any favorite blogs?
Tim: Um, lemme think. One that you probably know that I find inspiring is Kanye West's blog. He's another person we've been lucky enough to meet and do a little bit of work with. We spent a few hours together in a studio in Paris. It was actually kind of bizarre. He's always been very nice to us in interviews, and as a matter of fact, he was the first person to put up the "Spiralling" video.
Keane - "Spiralling"
He posted the album artwork, too. So we had just happened to be in the same town, and we called him up and said, "Do you want to get together for a few hours," and we did a bit of stuff together. He was actually working on another track for someone else, and he'd kinda go into the room, do a couple of takes for the vocal, come back in and say, "Aww that sound is great, I'm gonna put them on my blog." And then he'd go and do that for thirty seconds, and then go out and do another vocal. It was just a neverending buzz of activity. Bearing in mind it was probably four in the morning. His willingness to sweep up ideas and influences from every conceivable branch of culture with a very open mind is very new and very inspiring and it's probably a lesson to musicians of any type.
Does that mean the next Keane album is going to be an Auto-Tune album?
Tim: [laughs] We shall see. Probably not. But I listened to that record again yesterday. I guess that Auto-Tune thing is kind of a big deal in the press.
I don't think Tom necessarily needs it. He can probably hit some of those notes without it.
Tim: Yeah, he's a great singer. That needs to be said. We're very lucky.
So your album came out last October. Do you have another single or recording coming out that we can expect any time soon?
Tim: Well, we're working on some interesting stuff at the moment. I can't commit to saying when it's going to come out, but we've been working with a rapper named K'naan. He's absolutely brilliant. His record hasn't come out in the UK yet, I believe it's out in the states. He's a phenomenal talent and also a Keane fan, and we spent a couple weeks in a studio in London recently and we came up with two, possibly three, tracks and they're really, really exciting. I think we're going to focus on one and try to get it out soon.
Is that going to be a digital only release or EP or something else.
Tim: We don't even know. We haven't finished it yet. We're trying to work out how to release it, trying to keep the momentum up.
That's great that you're willing to go into the studio with an artist you appreciate without really knowing how you're going to release your product. It seems a lot of bands go into the studio with very clear intentions on how to monetize and how to get it out there...
Tim: Yeah, probably like any band, we feel like we're constantly making bad decisions and getting bogged down in, well, decision making. And we're always learning, I suppose. And the one downside of that is that you can do a song like this, you can get in a room with K'naan, and it all happens really quickly and it's exciting, and then you can spend six months debating about the best way to get it the most exposure, and all these other things that become marketing, basically. I can't think of an example, but I'm sure we've made that mistake before, and at the moment we're just learning that what really matters is the music and the enthusiasm that goes with that, so if we're excited about something we should just ride that wave and get it out there, and it just becomes part of the story and hopefully soemthing that people embrace.
-
