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By Carrie Alison, Chief Editor
2005.08
As evidenced by the popularity of Keane's soaring "Hopes and Fears" album and its immensely popular singles "Somewhere Only We Know" and "Everybody's Changing," the place where the band belongs is no question—opening for U2 on several dates of its blockbuster Vertigo Tour this summer in Europe and, newly announced, in Boston and New York City this autumn.
Known for its graceful and moving live shows, and equally passionate fan base, I recently caught up with drummer Richard Hughes of the wistful English threesome to discuss Keane's Vertigo Tour jaunt and what's up next, including an Elton John cover and a new album. A fun trivia fact: Hughes counts U2’s “Achtung Baby” as the album that has influence him the most over the years.
Keane unfortunately had to pull out of the August 14th show in Lisbon due to illness. How's everyone feeling now?
We're really sorry we missed it. Tom [lead singer Chaplin]'s on the mend, thanks, but still too ill to answer these questions so you'll have to make do with me.
Looking back on your Vertigo Tour stint, any cool stories or anecdotes you can share?
I saw U2 play for three nights—that was probably the highlight. Playing three enormous stadiums was mind-blowing—it really felt good and we were amazed at the positive reaction we got at all three gigs. Bono wrote us a note, signed with a really cool drawing of himself—we'd been onstage in Munich, came back to our room and it was just sat there, waiting for us.
Keane and U2 are not that far apart sonically: you both favor melodies, anthemic tunes and soaring vocals. Where else do you find a similarity with U2?
Good-looking drummers? We both use the CP70 piano—I think it was hearing it in "New Year's Day" that inspired Tim [pianist Rice-Oxley] to track one down. I'd like to think we try to put on a good show, much like them, but on a smaller scale. We're recording our second album at the moment, and we definitely want to let the music develop—like U2 have always done. They have been quite an inspiration in that way—they had so much to lose but put it all on the line and made the records they felt they wanted to make, rather than taking the safe option.
You are no stranger to doing big shows, whether on the festival circuit or now with U2, and smaller venues on your headlining tours. Which performance atmosphere do you prefer?
We find it varies from night to night, so we never know what to expect—I think that's one of the reasons why it's fun to go out night after night.
The British Phonographic Industry recently announced that Keane outsold U2 on the UK charts in 2004, an amazing achievement for a young band. How does that feel?
I think that's a statistic rather than anything particularly meaningful—we released our record a few months before them so we had longer. For us the biggest thing was finally getting to release an album and everything that's happened since then, including going on tour with U2, has been amazing. Tim and I went to see U2 at Wembley on the ZooTV tour and to think we've supported them is almost too much to take in.
You are soon to record a version of Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" for a new Warchild LP. Were there any special reasons for choosing this song?
Elton's cool and it's an amazing song. We are all massive fans and War Child is a great cause [helping children affected by war] ... so please click on http://www.warchildmusic.com/.
What's up next for Keane in 2005?
Finishing a new record—I'm typing away in the studio while Tim is recording a few new keyboards. It's fun but we don't want to release anything until we are very happy with it. Then we'll hit the road again. That and a bit of football.
A million thanks to Dan and Richard Hughes for their help with this story. To get more information on Keane, please be sure to visit the official website and check out Interference.com's profile of the group here.
By Carrie Alison, Chief Editor
2005.08
As evidenced by the popularity of Keane's soaring "Hopes and Fears" album and its immensely popular singles "Somewhere Only We Know" and "Everybody's Changing," the place where the band belongs is no question—opening for U2 on several dates of its blockbuster Vertigo Tour this summer in Europe and, newly announced, in Boston and New York City this autumn.
Known for its graceful and moving live shows, and equally passionate fan base, I recently caught up with drummer Richard Hughes of the wistful English threesome to discuss Keane's Vertigo Tour jaunt and what's up next, including an Elton John cover and a new album. A fun trivia fact: Hughes counts U2’s “Achtung Baby” as the album that has influence him the most over the years.
Keane unfortunately had to pull out of the August 14th show in Lisbon due to illness. How's everyone feeling now?
We're really sorry we missed it. Tom [lead singer Chaplin]'s on the mend, thanks, but still too ill to answer these questions so you'll have to make do with me.
Looking back on your Vertigo Tour stint, any cool stories or anecdotes you can share?
I saw U2 play for three nights—that was probably the highlight. Playing three enormous stadiums was mind-blowing—it really felt good and we were amazed at the positive reaction we got at all three gigs. Bono wrote us a note, signed with a really cool drawing of himself—we'd been onstage in Munich, came back to our room and it was just sat there, waiting for us.
Keane and U2 are not that far apart sonically: you both favor melodies, anthemic tunes and soaring vocals. Where else do you find a similarity with U2?
Good-looking drummers? We both use the CP70 piano—I think it was hearing it in "New Year's Day" that inspired Tim [pianist Rice-Oxley] to track one down. I'd like to think we try to put on a good show, much like them, but on a smaller scale. We're recording our second album at the moment, and we definitely want to let the music develop—like U2 have always done. They have been quite an inspiration in that way—they had so much to lose but put it all on the line and made the records they felt they wanted to make, rather than taking the safe option.
You are no stranger to doing big shows, whether on the festival circuit or now with U2, and smaller venues on your headlining tours. Which performance atmosphere do you prefer?
We find it varies from night to night, so we never know what to expect—I think that's one of the reasons why it's fun to go out night after night.
The British Phonographic Industry recently announced that Keane outsold U2 on the UK charts in 2004, an amazing achievement for a young band. How does that feel?
I think that's a statistic rather than anything particularly meaningful—we released our record a few months before them so we had longer. For us the biggest thing was finally getting to release an album and everything that's happened since then, including going on tour with U2, has been amazing. Tim and I went to see U2 at Wembley on the ZooTV tour and to think we've supported them is almost too much to take in.
You are soon to record a version of Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" for a new Warchild LP. Were there any special reasons for choosing this song?
Elton's cool and it's an amazing song. We are all massive fans and War Child is a great cause [helping children affected by war] ... so please click on http://www.warchildmusic.com/.
What's up next for Keane in 2005?
Finishing a new record—I'm typing away in the studio while Tim is recording a few new keyboards. It's fun but we don't want to release anything until we are very happy with it. Then we'll hit the road again. That and a bit of football.
A million thanks to Dan and Richard Hughes for their help with this story. To get more information on Keane, please be sure to visit the official website and check out Interference.com's profile of the group here.
