TOM: FANS' INTERVIEW PT1
Exclusive interview between Tom and two Keane fans
Following the interviews with Richard and Tim, here is the first part of our exclusive interview with Tom, which was conducted by two Keane fans (and message board regulars) Chris and Andrew. The other two parts will be posted tomorrow and Friday.
ANDREW: Was it a relief to you that your troubles came out last year?
TOM: No. It wasn't at all. Personally, I think the best thing is that it feels it's something that's now in the past. Although it's not a chapter of my life that will ever be closed, I think it feels like a part of my life that is over, or at least a troubled time that almost definitely will not ever be seen again. I feel good about that - I feel good that as a band we've survived those troubles and personally, more importantly, that I have. There was certainly more strain there before it all came to blows than there is now, from my perspective. I think we've got a much healthier relationship as a band. It wasn't just entirely down to me and my bad behaviour. In a group of people, things start to fall apart and are driven underground and become secret – I was holding back my feelings, as were the others. I think it was about all three of us, but certainly my problem was the worst part of it. We have a much healthier existence as a band now and we're more accepting of each other, which is good - less judgmental, more realistic. I think we accept that we could have easily lost the band. Ever since September and October last year, since we were back out on the road, things have got better and better in pretty much every aspect of the band. It's good to be in that position.
ANDREW: One of the things that Richard said to us was that when you came back through Gatwick after the Spain and Portugal gigs was that you collected your luggage and all these people got their cameras out and started taking photos of you. How hard is it for you to live with it?
TOM: I absolutely hate it! It's really, really irritating. The invention of the cameraphone has been just a complete disaster for people in bands and I don't think there'd be anyone who'd deny that. The large majority of people will ask you, 'Oh, can we take a photo', but even then you feel obliged to say yes.
ANDREW: Have you ever thought about whipping your Blackberry out and taking photos of them?
TOM: It doesn't have a camera on it. I would never have a phone with a fucking camera on it, I'd feel like a hypocrite! When I was a kid, I used to find being in a famous band and being recognised pretty exciting - I think most kids probably would. But, actually, the novelty of that wears off pretty fast! And you realise that really the thing that you're in it for is the singing, the visceral experience of being out on stage, making a record – those are the really exciting things where you realise the achievement, or feel like you're making a difference. After five minutes of having any of kind of celebrity I find it faintly embarrassing and difficult, and I kind of wish it wasn't there. But I also understand that it's the flipside to all those lovely things that you get to do, and we are very privileged really.
CHRIS: Do you miss the obscurity of the early days, then?
TOM: Well, I think that in the early days you'd think 'Well, being famous will effectively mean we're successful and we won't be in the cycle of failure anymore!', so I suppose it didn't seem like a bad thing then. I really have a lot of empathy for people like Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse - they're the talk of the town at the moment - because obviously they have their own demons, and possibly that's partly what makes them great artists. They have this very dark side and they can draw from that, find inspiration from it, but it also means that when they do go down that bad self-destructive road, they can end up being hounded and basically chased out of town. I do feel for them – I can't imagine what it's like. For a start, those two live in London and they seem to have a pack of paps and journalists following them wherever they go and it must be quite difficult for them to deal with those issues in such a public way. I certainly found it difficult, even though the press were generally pretty kind to me. All I hope is that they find some kind of solution to whatever their issues are and get back to making good music.
ANDREW: OK, lets talk about your solo album that never was.
TOM: Right…!
ANDREW: Apparently your solo album was coming out in 2007 produced by Tim Rice-Oxley, and with Richard Hughes probably drumming. Tell us all about it!
TOM: Well, I could tell you that that is probably 99% unlikely to happen. I hadn't actually been writing songs for quite a long time and it was something I loved doing, ever since I was about 12 or something - ever since Tim taught me how to play chords on the piano and all that kind of jazz. It probably occupied a large proportion of my day as a teenager, and when we moved to London, I used to love writing – I just did it as much as I could. But when we moved to France for that six months we were there working on stuff, suddenly we went from doing 50% of the songs each to Tim having 'This Is The Last Time', 'Everybody's Changing', 'She Has No Time', 'Bend And Break'… loads and loads of great songs just suddenly flowed out of him! It probably fuelled two things inside me – it made me fearful that I couldn't really do it, and it also made me lazy because I just thought, 'Well, I don't need to because we've got all these great songs'. I think our roles became quite defined at that point.
So anyway, one of the things that I thought last year as I emerged from the haze was 'Why are the roles so defined in this band?'. I realised I had no outlet for all the things that I felt, aside from really being out on stage. I just felt like I needed that again. So I started writing again, and I suddenly found I was really enjoying it. I was coming out with stuff that just made feel good, because I was then able to vent some anger or love or anything. All these things were spontaneously coming out, and it felt like a really good process. I started to think, 'Well, if the band splits up, or if things get difficult, or we take a break for a while, I could work on these songs'. I guess somehow that leaked out as me doing a solo album.
I certainly have a desire for those songs to be heard and a desire to work on them but, at the moment, we've been working on stuff and rehearsing it down in our barn. That's been equally exciting for me just because it's given me the same kind of outlet. Maybe in a slightly different way – there may even be some of my songs on the next album, I don't really know. Whatever happens, I know that I will have had an input that I may have had for 'Hopes and Fears', but certainly didn't have for the second album. And that's kind of good enough for me at the moment. So I don't think you're going to see a solo album yet!
CHRIS: It's more a case of you wanting to write than you wanting to do something separate to Keane?
TOM: Exactly. It's one of those things where if you've got the ability to do it, then you should do it. If you don't, you're missing out on a great way of expressing yourself, and I think that's a realisation I had last year.
-------------------------------------
TOM: FANS' INTERVIEW PT2
Second part of our exclusive interview with Mr Chaplin
ANDREW: What was the last song of yours that you put together as a band?
TOM: We’re going back to before 'Hopes and Fears' – 'Closer Now' and stuff like that. There was a song called 'Rubbernecking', which was actually the first song of ours that ever got played on the radio. Years and years ago it got played on XFM. That was a weird song, but yeah – it was quite good and quite strange in its own way. There were a few others dotted around but, like I say, I got lazy when it got to 'Hopes and Fears', and it was a downward spiral from that point onwards. It’s something I’ve started to resurrect, but who knows where it will lead! I haven’t got a clue yet, to be honest.
ANDREW: Are you trying to get in more instrument playing on stage with the band?
TOM: Possibly. I enjoy it. But it makes me feel quite nervous, even if I’m just hammering away at chords!
ANDREW: Or just two notes with your tips of your index fingers.
TOM: I had to do that actually at the end of 'The Frog Prince' when we played it full electric! That was actually the hardest thing to play of everything! I think chords are easier and that kind of thing is actually harder, so I’ve learnt piano in reverse! I enjoy it - it’s a good thrill to play some of those parts. I play the lead bit at the end of 'Try Again', and I always almost forget. That song feels quite an important song to me. I think it’s probably the best song Tim’s written that we’ve released, and I always get completely wrapped up in the song. I know I have to come in half way through and start playing the piano… and then I always forget that I’ve got this solo! Then suddenly, it dawns on me that I’ve got to play it, and it’s all in E flat or something. I enjoy it though, because it adds to the excitement and the nerves and it keeps me fresh. So yeah – bring it on! More instruments.
ANDREW: At one of the gigs last year – 'Try Again' got towards the really climatic solo and it just wasn’t distorted it was just clean piano.
TOM: *laughs* Yeah, my pedal didn’t work. The technical wizardry of Keane sometimes falls a bit short. I enjoy that solo though. I’ll have more of those! The thing is, the last album was very much a studio record, so we went from building it up in the studio to learning how to play it live. This time we’re doing it the other way around, the same as we did 'Hopes and Fears', and I hope it’ll feel... not more cohesive, but I’ll certainly feel like I contributed a lot more.
ANDREW: Is there going to be an effort to play some new material publicly before the next record comes out, or it just going to be you guys in the Barn?
TOM: I don’t really know. Possibly. I think we’ll see how it goes. We’ve worked on a few things that sound really good. We know there are a lot of good songs there. There comes a point when everything falls into place and you know what it is that the record’s going to sound like and what the vibe of it is and what the direction of it is, but I don’t think we’ve quite reached that point yet. Once we’ve reached that point we might start to try things out. We could do what REM did, with their gigs in Dublin playing new material, like live rehearsals, which sound quite fun. Who knows?! I’m sure we’ll wheel out a few things before the album comes out, but we haven’t really got anywhere near making that decision yet.
ANDREW: What’s it like being the youngest member of the band?
TOM: I think that it has been the cause of some problems, because I’ve always felt younger than the other two. Well, not just always felt younger, I HAVE always been younger! I think for them it’s less of an issue, because they probably think we’re all grown-ups in a band together. My understanding of it is quite different. I think I’ve always been the ‘younger one’ who’s always come in and been a bit less mature – I’ve certainly had that ‘hang up’, whether consciously or not, of being younger than the rest.
ANDREW: What have you been listening to recently?
TOM: I’ve actually become a massive fan of Russell Brand – I know he divides opinion massively, but I love downloading his podcasts because he’s a man who has entirely based his whole spiel on being positive and being interested. It’s like ‘A Celebration of the Madness of Life with Russell Brand’. I really respect that and I really like that. It’s much more interesting than that cynical approach of ‘X is shit’ and ‘that’s funny because that person looks stupid’. I much prefer people to celebrate the quirks and madness of the world we live in.
I think the best and most enduring music is music that really says something insightful about the world that we’re living in and actually speaks to a lot of people, whether it’s on a very personal level or whether it’s on a global level. I like that kind of thing. I keep recommending Rufus Wainwright to people. I get very stuck on certain albums and certain bits of music, and I listen to them until I know every beat and note and inflection. I don’t get into things lightly - I like to get into music in a heavier way. I think going through the back catalogues of various bands is more appealing to me than a lot of really contemporary stuff. But I love the Guillemots. I love their imagination. It’s quirky and it’s interesting, and I love the songs and the melodies. I suppose I’m more of a sucker for melody than anything. If you asked me about the Beatles I’d definitely be a Paul McCartney fan more than a John Lennon fan. I’m a complete sucker for something that sounds melodically very beautiful, but says something powerful as well.
CHRIS: Do you think Keane suffer sometimes, because you are pigeonholed?
TOM: Yeah, I remember hearing Stuart Maconie a few months ago, I’d turned on the radio and it’d just got the end of 'A Bad Dream' and he said something about we had become ‘whipping boys’ - unfairly, in his opinion - and thought that 'Under The Iron Sea' had been one of the best records of the past few years. That whole thing about being pigeonholed – it’s so boring, the posh boys thing. It’s such a nonsense anyway.
ANDREW: None of it comes across on record.
TOM: No, I know – exactly! None of it comes across on record because the only vestiges that remain of our private school education are the way we speak and … well that’s probably about it really! I’ve never really been one of those people who are stuck in my public school days. It was ten years ago, and I’m not interested in it any more. I hated it at the time. As soon as I left I wanted to be in a band. I have no connection with it at all. To feel like we’re still pigeonholed for something that was ten years ago, that we didn’t really have any choice over, and that doesn’t remain in any single respect in our music is quite weird. But I do feel like gradually, over time, the pigeonholing is beginning to disappear. The more that people have got to know us - and I think that's taken a long time - the more that we’re shaking those things off.
-------------------------------------
TOM: FANS' INTERVIEW PT3
The final part of our exclusive chat with Tom
PART 3
CHRIS: How do you feel about 'Under The Iron Sea' now?
TOM: I think it’s a great record. Anyone who listened to 'Under The Iron Sea' just before it came out would have probably said that it’s not going to have the same kind of impact that 'Hopes and Fears' had, because it’s not the same kind of record. I don’t think it’s anything like as accessible. But I think that, once you get into it, it’s a much better record. 'Hopes and Fears' was a very personal album of love songs and about things that people experience, whatever age they are, living in Britain. From any kind of demographic, I think you can relate to that record. Whereas 'Under The Iron Sea' is much darker and more difficult. So it was received in a different way. But I’m glad we made it. I feel proud to have been a part of that record, even if the memories are mixed!
ANDREW: Are you happier talking to crowds now than you used to be?
TOM: It depends really. I have my good days and my bad days. I find it terrifying and exciting in equal measure!
ANDREW: Do you find you fall back on certain stock phrases?
TOM: Yeah, I think you can do. But the notion that every night I should say something completely different is basically unrealistic if you’re doing 200 shows in an album cycle. Also, to be fair, most people only come to one show so, in that sense, I don’t really have any qualms about saying the same thing. What’s true, though, is that the best nights for me are when I feel a connection with the crowd. Some nights you don’t feel that same connection, or something inside you isn’t quite right, or you don’t feel that communicative, or you don’t feel that spontaneous – whatever it is. There are some nights where I feel like I’ve… not gone on automatic pilot, but I’ve had to draw on my reserves. But then are lots of nights - and they are the best nights - where I just feel like there’s a spark there, and the crowd’s really with us and I’m really with them, and it becomes much more conversational.
ANDREW: Do you like this big venue feel that your shows have now?
TOM: Yeah, I love the ego ramp – it’s certainly got me fit! I think we just wanted to do something ambitious. There are so many bands that you go and see, and you think ‘Why couldn’t you have a bit more imagination?’ I think we, and other people, often forget that we’ve only got two records of material to draw on. It’s not like being U2 or someone like that, but we can still be ambitious. We’ve been inspired by those bands that we’ve seen who’ve really been ambitious, as opposed to the ones who’ve just gone up there and trundled through a few songs and after about 45 minutes you get a bit bored. We wanted to make the production bigger and better. Because there are only three of us, and because we’re limited by Richard and Tim being quite static, we wanted to find ways we could make that more interesting for the crowd, so out came the ego ramp. We thought of lots of different ideas to make the show look more exciting. When it goes well, I think it’s as an exciting a show as you could see, personally.
ANDREW: Do you enjoy getting down close to the front row?
TOM: Yeah, I do actually. When I go down into the crowd or when I see people’s faces, I get excited. I see the experience of them really loving what they’re seeing. I’ve said this many times before on stage, but I think there’s something special about our music and about our fans - about the emotional power of it. I do think that that is something that is quite unique about us. There’s not many bands with that kind of ability to make people really go through an emotional experience. That may sound immodest, but that’s really how I feel. When I go down there and see people’s faces and see it coming back at me – that’s a life affirming experience. It actually makes me feel alive. When you’re hanging around in an airport, or when you’re waiting to do your 58th interview in a row in a country far from home, you can sometimes think, “I don’t know what I’m doing here – this does not make me feel alive”. But I know that when I’m down in people’s faces, and I feel that energy - it is a genuine life affirming experience. So I absolutely love that ramp, and I love being able to get out there amongst people and really feel that energy. People bang on about spirituality and spiritual experiences, but that’s as close it gets for me to really experiencing something other-worldly or even giving me some kind of understanding of why we’re all here and what we’re doing. It probably sounds like bollocks to you but I really genuinely feel that.
ANDREW: Finally, should Matt Prior still be England’s wicket keeper after leaving sweets on the pitch during the India game this summer?
TOM: He should, yeah! What I love about the way English cricket has been going over the last few years is that there have been a few players who have come into the England cricket team who have this sense of competitiveness and steely aggression. I don’t think it should be discouraged. All the old farts and old fogies who are responsible for making cricket look like it’s stuck in the past, those who commentate on it and who run the game in England, look down their nose at that kind of competitiveness. Personally, I think ‘bring it on’. That’s why when I’m watching football I love seeing people get sent off, Cantona’s kung-fu kick in the crowd – I loved all that, because it’s all the drama and the theatre of the game. And it’s a game. If Matt Prior wants to sprinkle jelly babies all over the pitch before someone comes on, who gives a shit? I think it’s great! It’s part of the spirit of competitiveness - the Aussies wouldn’t think twice about doing it. There wouldn’t be an outcry if one of their players did it. Within bounds of course, you wouldn’t want people to start resorting to anything that was immoral…
CHRIS: So no kung-fu on the cricket pitch then?
TOM: Maybe kung-fu kicks are pushing it a bit, but you know what I mean. There have been elements of racism in cricket and you’d never encourage that. But anything that people can do to create competitiveness is for me in sport the best thing. I love the drama, I love the intrigue when things go a bit doolally and a bit wrong - those are some of my favourite parts of the game. So there we go – he should be keeping, he’s definitely the best man for the job.
ANDREW: Are you still playing?
TOM: I do try and play a bit. I didn't play much this summer, partly due to the weather and also because we thought we were gonna stop touring a while ago, and we decided in the end to just carry on. But yeah, I’m still good enough for village cricket!
---
Big thanks to Chris and Andrew for all their hard work on the interviews and for the band for agreeing to do them. Keep it locked to KEANE Site over the next few weeks for lots of other interesting, um, stuff.
That's a mistery everyone :D
No comments:
Post a Comment