Keane on album

The band speak on the new record and Tom’s 2006 rehab spell

05 August 2008 - Following the surprise release of their single, Spiralling on 4 August, Keane have told 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq about their 3rd album, taking a break and going off the rails.

Having a break

Frontman Tom Chaplin explained why they needed time out after album number 2.

He said: “By the time we’d finished touring with Under The Iron Sea, I think we thought we need to take a break this time, allow ourselves to chill out and make space and not let music completely and utterly rule our lives.”

He went on to say that the break helped them prepare properly for their forthcoming record, Perfect Symmetry.

During their time apart songwriter and pianist Tim Rice-Oxley got writing, as Tom explained: “He came up with a batch of songs which we liked, and then he came up with another batch of songs which we thought were just unbelievable - and I suppose that was the point which we felt inspired to get back in the studio and start recording again.”

"I think it was an accumulative thing - the mania of what happened with Hopes and Fears."
Tom Chaplin

Back in the studio

Explaining to Lamacq how the band knuckled down to writing and recording again, Tom said: “We took the train to Berlin and we got underway.

“It was an incredibly experience, just the three of us in this place all together for the first time for a long period of time, and just using whatever sounds and instruments, and anything we could find.”

Frontman’s rehab spell

Tom notoriously went off the rails in 2006, when they rescheduled a North American tour.

It culminated in him spending a brief time in rehab for drug and alcohol addiction.

He said it was down to a number of factors and the knock-on effect of a quick rise to success: “I don’t know what it was, I think it was an accumulative thing - the mania of what happened with Hopes and Fears and not really being prepared for everything.”

Tom also said that Under The Iron Sea mirrored the band’s traumas of that period.

“It was a very dark record and I suppose it was a record really about the rumblings that were going on between the three of us – and our best way of articulating ourselves has probably always been through our music,” he said.

The new album

According to Tom, Keane’s new contribution, Perfect Symmetry , which is out on 13 October signals a change of direction in their sound.

 “A lot of people will be surprised to hear some of the influences and where these songs have come from,” he told 6 Music. “But I think we wanted to get out of our comfort zone.

“I think there’s a lot of bands who end up writing six or seven records through their careers and they basically don’t move anywhere and I think for us, our goal at the start was to always be experimental.”

And they took their cue from one of the biggest bands of all time.

Tom spoke about their inspiration: “The first band who we were all into together was The Beatles. You look at a band there, who over the years went from writing love songs for the masses, to changing the face of music and popular culture.”

“Those are lofty ambitions but we wanted to try and emulate that in some kinda way. With this record, at this stage, we really feel we’ve pushed ourselves and gone out of our comfort zone as much as we can.”

Check out their first taster here.

Georgie Rogers