Keane to get things rolling on a Wednesday – recorded this past March 16th at Vive Latino 2025 in Mexico City.
Keane formed in 1995. The band comprises Tom Chaplin (lead vocals, guitar, piano), Tim Rice-Oxley (piano, synthesisers, bass guitar, backing vocals), Richard Hughes (drums, percussion, backing vocals) and Jesse Quin (bass guitar, guitar, backing vocals). Their original line-up included founder and guitarist Dominic Scott, who left in 2001.
Keane achieved mainstream international success with the release of their debut album Hopes and Fears in 2004. Topping the UK chart, the album won the 2005 Brit Award for Best British Album and was the UK’s second-best-selling album of 2004. It is one of the best-selling albums in UK chart history. Their second album, Under the Iron Sea, released in 2006, topped the UK Albums Chart and debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200. Their third album Perfect Symmetry was released in October 2008 and their EP Night Train was released in May 2010. Their fourth studio album Strangeland was released in May 2012 and peaked at number one on the UK Albums Chart.
Tim Rice-Oxley and Dominic Scott were the main writers of the band’s songs during their early years. When Scott left in 2001, Rice-Oxley became the main composer. However, Rice-Oxley credits the rest of the band on all compositions, so that royalties for song credits are shared.
Keane usually harbors an ample, reverberated, melodic, slow- to mid-tempo fully orchestrated sound, somehow reminiscent of Elton John’s early and middle career, and their more introspective songs have brought comparisons to Suede and Jeff Buckley.
While guitars have been (minimally) present even in their early work, their appearance in the final mix has always been slight, and while Chaplin has stepped up as an almost full-time guitarist in the band, that instrument is never featured as prominently as to be more than barely noticed. For this matter, they have been dubbed as “the band with no guitars”, thanks to their heavily piano-based sound. By using delay and distortion effects on their pianos and similar keyboards, they often create sounds that aren’t immediately recognisable as piano. Rice-Oxley said during an interview in Los Angeles that they tend to think piano-related music is boring and what they really wanted to do was try something different. He referred to the piano as an odd instrument to form part of a rock band instrumentation, comparing it to the Beatles’ set of instruments. Rice-Oxley’s distortion piano has been key to most of Keane’s multifaceted style and most definitely their most recognizable asset.
Keane have covered songs by artists such as U2, Rufus Wainwright, Depeche Mode, Genesis, the Beatles, the Cult and Queen. Rice-Oxley said “I guess it’s classic song writing that is the main influence rather than one band in particular – we love people like Nick Drake who can convey so much emotion and write songs and albums that will be loved and cherished for many years – the things that will be in people’s record collections for their whole lives.”
Now you know (thanks Wikipedia) – dive in.
