411 Music Interview: Tim Rice-Oxley of Keane

Posted by Marshall Slayton on 05.26.2009

Tim Rice-Oxley of Keane sits down with 411's Marshall Slayton and reveals everything about Perfect Symmetry, coming to the States, their collaborations with Kanye West, and more! Check out the complete interview for all the details!

During Keane's recent stop to America, the brainchild and pianist of the band, Tim Rice-Oxley, decided to sit down and share tea with 411Mania writer Marshall Slayton. During their talks, they discussed the Keane live show, the new album, their fanbase, their hip-hop collaborations, and the future of the band.



Your new album, Perfect Symmetry, is totally awesome. How was it developed, and what was the writing process for it like?

I do all the writing, and the songs – I remember writing them last time we were in the states, which would've been the middle of 2007. It was a long process, but I think the songs got better as we went along. I kept writing, and we wound up at the end of 2007 with a bunch of songs we were really excited about. We got together organically as a band at the beginning of last year, and spent the next six months working on them. We went off to Berlin and Paris and mixed the record in L.A., and it was really, really enjoyable record to make.

Even the artwork is fascinating. What's the story behind it?

It's a blend of ideas, really. The color palette was influenced by being in Berlin, and just learning about the Bauhaus movement. The Bauhaus Museum there is a great place to be inspired. The statues there were quite an experience. They're made by a Korean artist named Osang Gwon. He came to London to meet us. But he makes these incredible life-sized sculptures– he takes about 1,000 photos of a person or a thing and ‘pastes' them onto a slightly larger-than-life sized sculpture. You end up with something that looks like a statue, but with a photographic gloss to it. It's never perfect, so you end with this sort of spooky representation of yourself. I think that's what the album's about: what you aspire to be and what you actually are. The artwork seems like a perfect way of summing that up.



The new album sounds different from its predecessors. You were uniquely established as the "piano rock" group. Why use guitars now?

I think it's a desire to learn new things, and a desire to keep things exciting for ourselves. Like I said, it was a fantastically fun record to make. I think a lot of it was just down to picking up new instruments, learning new ways of playing, and discovering new types of music. I think it's a much more danceful and energized and electronic record. One of the biggest thrills of being in a band is the process of learning new things. I think learning anything new in life is always exciting. Bands often seem to get stuck in a rut when they're too scared to change, so it was a big thrill for us to do something new.

So the electronic and energized sound will continue throughout your future records?

I hope so, yeah! I literally have no idea what we're going to do next!

(Laughs.)

I think the thing I'm proudest about with the progression of our record is that it's hard to predict what the next Keane record will be like. I'm really proud of that fact. I feel like we've achieved something quite exciting there.

How can three guys in a band pack so much sound?

I think a lot of it is down to Tom's voice, actually. We have a pretty layered sound, but some of the songs on the new album are definitely sparser than anything we've ever tried before. "Spiralling" is a really sparse song. But Tom's voice is so BIG, and it has such a huge range. He takes up a lot of the sonic space in the best possible way. It's the same case when we play live. I think we're very, very lucky. I think he's one of the best singers around, and I think however sparse our sound gets, it will still sound big. Another thing on this record is that we had our friend, Jesse, play the bass with us right from the start. That's been a whole new thing for us. It enabled us to have a much fuller sound, I think, and it definitely works on stage.

What's the Keane live experience like?

I think we've developed into a really great live band. It's hard to say that without sounding a little arrogant, but we're really proud of our live show. As I've said, I think Tom is one of the best frontmen in the world right now, and I don't know where that came from. He's always been a great singer, but he's got so much confidence and charisma now. I don't think people would have associated that with Keane three or four years ago, and I think that confidence comes from having three albums we're really proud of. We have a varied pool of songs to choose from each night. We can have piano ballads, which people engage in emotionally. Then, we can have a really stomping electro track that gets everyone dancing! I think that variety makes for a great show.



You guys play such huge arenas overseas, and when you come to America, you play smaller nightclub venues. Isn't that kind of a drag?

Not at all! I love it! Our popularity varies from country to country. We were just in South America and Argentina, where we were playing to 20,000 people. Some of the towns in Brazil, we played just 2,000 or 3,000 people. But I really enjoy that variety; I like playing smaller venues. I think Tom's attached to arenas in many ways, so he's like a caged animal in that regard. But we perform with as much energy and dedication as we would in a stadium, and that's why people leave a Keane show feeling excited, uplifted, and thrilled – regardless of how big the crowd is.

You recently shot a concert in 3D. Whose idea was that?

It was our idea, but I can't claim to have invented the technology or anything like that. It came about when we were making the video for "Spiralling." The guys who made the visuals for that video, they showed us this new 3D technology, which has taken a great leap in the last twenty years. We wanted to use it and get involved before anyone else did. We felt like we should do it somewhere special, so we decided to do it at Abbey Road. It had the same ring to it like The Beatles did when they made "All You Need Is Love." It turned out to be a really fun thing -- it felt historic. Even though there were a lot of experienced people working on the shoot, no one had ever done it before. So there was this great feeling, up until the point of the webcast, where we weren't sure if it was going to really work!

(Laughs.)

In your opinion, what's the best thing about touring?

I love the sense of being a gang on an adventure. It's not something you get to experience as much when you get older. It's like a perennial state of being a teenager, which is great as far as I'm concerned! I can honestly say the highlight of every day is the show, especially at the moment. There were times where we lost our hunger for playing live, but that's completely changed now. We've become really focused on playing, and not to sound cliché, but we really get out what we put in. The feeling of going onstage every night, playing our hearts out, and leaving a few thousand people feeling really excited – it's an amazing feeling to have every night of your life.

Describe your fanbase. How does Keane interact with its loyal followers?

We have an AMAZING fanbase. I can't imagine every band is as lucky as we are, in terms of the loyalty of our fans. We try to give them something back, so when we play live – especially on the website, we made a point since we started recording this record to give something new every day to the fans. Interacting with them directly – that's the best thing about the internet. So we do a lot of that. There's a lot of videos and photos and blogs going up on our website all the time. And we make a point of spending as long as it takes to say hello to everyone waiting after every show, which can sometimes take a really long time.

(Laughs.)

But to hear what people say after a show – the emotion and the excitement, what the night means to them – is a reminder to us what it means to be in a band, and play to people who feel really passionate about our work. We like to connect with those people; it's really an honor for us.

Do you think Keane could collaborate with a hip-hop artist? I find your beats could be used for rock as easily as hip-hop. Any thoughts on that?

Yeah! That's something we're really excited about, actually. We spent time in a studio with Kanye West a few months ago, and started a track which still needs a little bit of work. He's a huge hero of ours. His ambition is something that's really inspiring to us. The same could be said for Pharrell Williams, actually. But one thing we have done is work on a few tracks with a rapper called K'naan. He lives in Canada now, but he's from Somalia. His second album just came out over here in the States, and he's really brilliant. We hooked up with him in London, and we've got three and a half tracks recorded with him. They sound really great. They're a true blend of Keane and K'naan: a blend of rock and hip-hop. They sound amazing, and I think they're really exciting. We'll get those finished up, and see if people want to hear them.

Any other future plans for Keane?

We've got a lot of touring coming up. We'll be touring pretty relentlessly until October, and we'll go around the world again. Then we'll try to write more songs. We're excited about the next record, but I think we'll have to take our time and work out what we actually want to do. I'm hoping that will reveal itself as we continue our travels.

You get the last word. Anything else you want to say to the readers of 411mania.com?

Thank you for enjoying our new record! Come see us play live, if you can. I promise it will be a great experience.