I DEFINITELY UNRAVELLED
| Published date | 12 April 2024 |
| Publication title | Evening Chronicle |
"I don't think we ever expected then that Hopes And Fears would be quite the record that it became," Tom tells me over a video call.
"It really was a mainstream success... and all over the world. For an indie band who just wanted to make records it was exhilarating, but, at times, a terrifying experience as well."
Keane's original line-up - composer and multi-instrumentalist Tim Rice-Oxley, drummer Richard Hughes and guitarist Dominic Scott - all attended the private boarding school Tonbridge in Kent.
Dominic left the band in 2001 and Jesse Quin later joined as bassist. Tom recalls years of graft in the mid-to-late-90s as the band sought to break through.
"We had this dream of making it and trying to get a record deal and trying to emulate our heroes, we had this quite long period of time where we had to work out a lot of things", he says.
When success did arrive, the group quickly learned that it would come with a new set of challenges. A major pressure on the band was navigating the scrutiny on their music and their private school background.
I feel like playing performing than we have "What I realised, looking back, is that you need to be so thick-skinned to cope with, not just the criticism, but also the adoration", Tom reflects.
"You have to be able to take that with a pinch of salt as well, because both ends of the spectrum aren't really that real."
The band's next albums - 2006's Under The Iron Sea, 2008's Perfect Symmetry and 2012's Strangeland all went to number one, but the group announced a hiatus in 2013.
Tom, who suffered with drug and alcohol addiction during the early years of the band, has previously opened up about how he spiralled again during this break.
Reflecting on how the swift rise to fame affected him, he says: "I definitely unravelled in a way, I guess I'm a much more robust human being these days.
"Sometimes I do look back and think 'Oh God, I wish I'd been equipped with the same healthy emotional world and knowledge of myself that I have now back then'."
After six years, the indie rockers made a comeback with their fifth studio album Cause And Effect...
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