Keane

Keane
Keane - an English piano rock band, first established in Battle, East Sussex in 1995, taking their current name in 1997, encompasses a composer, bassist, and pianist Tim Rice-Oxley, lead vocalist Tom Chaplin and drummer Richard Hughes. Former members include guitarist Dominic Scott, who left in 2001. Due to its piano-based sound, the band has been known as the band with no guitars.

In late 1999, Keane recorded their first promotional single, Call Me What You Like, which was released on CD through Keane's own label, Zoomorphic. Only five hundred copies were printed.

With their first major single released, Keane began attaining fame and acceptance in the UK and the U.S, where This Is the Last Time was released and remained as the only single sold there until Crystal Ball in late 2006. In January 2004, Keane was named the band most likely to achieve success in the coming year in the BBC's annual Sound of Music poll.

During the year, the band achieved minor acknowledgment in the U.S. due to their extensive touring, which concluded with a series of gigs as the opening act for U2. The group was also nominated for a Grammy in the Best New Artist category.

In April 2005, in the middle of the Hopes and Fears Tour, the band began recording their second album, Under the Iron Sea with producer Andy Green, who also worked with them previously on Hopes and Fears and they later recruited Mark Spike Stent for mixing duties. The band exposed the title of the album on March 14, 2006 by posting a handwritten note on their official website.

The band has not yet confirmed the production of their next studio album. According to Chaplin, they have written around fifteen new songs for their third album.

Since October 2006's UK tour, Chaplin has also played acoustic guitar during gigs, predominantly during Your Eyes Open which was performed in an acoustic set-up. For the band's Christmas in-store gig at the Apple Store in London's Regent Street on December 12, 2006, this was expanded to include the songs A Bad Dream and Is It Any Wonder? During this performance, Rice-Oxley also played a bass guitar live to accompany This Is the Last Time, while Chaplin took the lead performing a new piano arrangement of the song on the CP-70.

Tim Rice-Oxley and Dominic Scott were the main writers of the band's songs during their early years. After Scott's departure in 2001, Rice-Oxley became the main composer.

Keane is inspired by The Beatles, U2, Oasis, R.E.M., The Smiths, Radiohead, Queen, Marty Wilde, Pet Shop Boys and Paul Simon as influences. Due to its piano-based sound, the band has been known as the band with no guitars.

During their early years most songs were about love or broken relationships. However, other themes ? including the relationship between Rice-Oxley and Chaplin ? have emerged in more recent compositions. Other themes have also been added up.

After Scott left, Rice-Oxley started using a Yamaha CP-70 piano, a quality instrument especially designed for touring. A Nord Lead 3 synthesizer is currently used to play solos and located during the gigs. Rice-Oxley's PowerBook G4 is used to play back pre-recorded bass tracks during live performances. The computer software includes an electronic click-track transmitted wirelessly to the three members' Sennheiser earphones to aid accurate playback. It also controls the extra synthesizer sections.

In October 2004, when Hamburg Song and Nothing in My Way debuted, Chaplin played a Hammond MK2 organ, having played no instrument in the live band since 2001. In 2006 he started using a distorted CP60 for some songs like The Frog Prince and Crystal Ball. Recently they have been using a Yamaha S90ES for their on-stage piano and Rhodes sounds.

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 rock band instrumentation, comparing it to the Beatles. Piano has set most of Keane's multifaceted style, varying from hip-hop on Dirtylicious to house on Tyderian.