Keane

Welcome back to The Keys To Rock!

Thanks for stopping in to check out the next featured artist! Keane comes to you all the way from East Sussex, England.  If you aren't already familiar with their sound, I encourage you to listen while you read!  Keane's Spotify Top 10 is available for listening in a playlist below.  And remember, if you love piano-rock music or love exploring new bands, you can subscribe by putting your email in the box to the right!

Keane

Keane is a keys-driven pop/rock band formed in 1997 by pianist/vocalist Tim Rice-Oxley, guitarist Dominic Scott, and drummer/backup-vocalist Richard Hughes.  Around the same time, Rice-Oxley was invited by Chris Martin of then newly-formed Coldplay, to play keys, Rice-Oxley would decline since Keane (then operating as Cherry Keane, named after a friend's mother who was inspirational to them..."Cherry" was later dropped from the name) was already actively working.  Singer/guitarist Tom Chaplin would join the band very shortly after its formation and later guitarist Jesse Quin would also eventually join the mix.

In 1998-99 Keane got its start with small tours of the London pub circuit and the release of two singles, Call Me What You Like and Wolf at the Door, on their own label Zoomorphic.  After a few more years, one of Keane's shows was attended by Simon Williams of Fierce Panda Records who would offer to release the band's first commercial single, Everybody's Changing.  However just before this, Scott would leave Keane to focus on his studies.  

After the release of Everybody's Changing, Keane would be offered a deal from Island Records in 2003 based on their "brilliant songwriting...and fantastic live show," as Island A&R put it.  Hopes and Fears, Keane's debut album, was released in May 2004 and this launched their first world tour.  The album debuted at the top of the UK Albums Chart, selling 5.5 million copies worldwide.

In April 2005, during the Hopes and Fears tour, Keane would team up with producer Andy Green from the Hopes and Fears album to start recording their sophomore album, Under the Iron Sea.  The album would release in June 2006, again putting Keane at the top of the UK Albums Chart while sales reached 2.2 million copies.  The band would have a second world tour in support of their sophomore album efforts, however the tour would be suspended briefly as Chaplin announced he had admitted himself to a clinic in efforts to help drug and alcohol problems.  In October 2007, Concert Live released a 9-CD set of every Keane live performance in the UK in October of '06, titled Live 06.

In 2008-09 the band would embark upon the recording of their third studio album, Perfect Symmetry, which would again take Keane to #1 on the UK Albums Chart.  They would follow this with an immediate world tour and the release of an 8-song EP entitled Night Train a few years later.  Night Train would again take Keane, for the fourth time, up to the top of the charts.

Keane finished work on its fourth full-length studio album, Strangeland, in early 2012 and performances were booked out of high-demand shortly thereafter.  Many shows in the Strangeland Tour sold out in minutes.

In catching up to modern day status for Keane, November 2013 saw the band release the album The Best of Keane, which was followed by a hiatus for the band.  Chaplin clarified things amongst the circling rumors, saying that the band wasn't splitting up, but was just "taking a bit of time out from being Keane" to have the opportunity to pursue other projects in their lives.

To read more about Keane, check out a few of the links below.  Don't forget to subscribe to The Keys To Rock in the box to the right to regularly hear about more great piano-rock bands!  You can also follow me on twitter @alecryanmusic to get information/notifications about future posts, and to hear what I have going on as a piano-rock artist!

Until next time,

Alec Ryan

http://www.keanemusic.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keane_(band)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keane_discography