Keane's Tom Chaplin: 'There's a natural sense of perspective that comes with getting older'

When we Zoom with a still ridiculously boyish-looking Tom Chaplin, he’s in Lima, finishing up a three-and-a-half week tour. “We’re nearly at the end of the Latin American bit, which has been great. But, I mean… we’re all just absolutely frazzled,” he says with a huge grin that gives the impression Keane’s lead singer is still actually thoroughly enjoying himself. 

To diminish their Keane20 World Tour – celebrating the 20th anniversary of their debut album Hopes and Fears – to a mere three-and-a-half weeks would be to do the multiple award-winning British band a huge disservice, given that it actually kicked off in January. The quartet finally make their way home in December, but not before they stop by a special pop-up store in London to launch their new book, Hopes and Fears: Lyrics and History, which looks back at the making of one of the biggest selling UK albums of all time. 

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A year of looking back, Chaplin tells the Big Issue, has opened the doors to a whole new creative era for Keane, despite them still feeling like “regular Joes”.

BIGISSUE: How’s life on the road?

TOM CHAPLIN: We seem to be… well, I’m not going to say inexplicably popular, but we’re amazed at how popular we are out here and how much demand there is. So we’re eager to try and get everywhere we can while we’ve got the opportunity. Three-and-a-half weeks, it’s about standard, I think, for an international tour for us these days. It’s about as much as we can cope with, and our respective families back home [Laughs].

You say that like it’s a small thing, but you’ve actually been touring the anniversary since January!

Probably a year of touring like we haven’t done since 2004 or 2005. We were quite surprised, I think, by the excitement or the buzz that appeared around the idea of doing the Hopes and Fears thing. We’ve all just felt like we should really capitalise on that. Then, I guess because we’re all in quite a good place, we’re all getting on with each other really well. We feel like we’re playing really well, all of those things. I think it’s just like, why not make the most of it? Then obviously there’s always the knock on compromise and sacrifice of having to leave our families at home, in my wife’s case, that’s quite a weight to put on her shoulders.

But having said that, I think we just about feel like we’ve got the balance right in terms of really trying to make the most of this year. We started in January, in India and South Africa, two places we’ve never been to before as a band and it’s been a proper rollicking old tour since then, it’s been really good. 

Why are you still surprised at the interest?

Well, I think it’s the level of it. It’s incredible that 20 years later, the album still means so much to the people that were there at the beginning. But also that it’s gathered a lot over the 20 years. It gathered all these new people, particularly in the last few years, with Somewhere Only We Know getting all that TikTok exposure and stuff. There’s a whole raft of Gen Z fans. It’s amazing, isn’t it? So that buzz has still taken us by surprise. As much as we love and understand how much the album means to people, it still feels surprising. 

Was the 20th anniversary celebration something that you had planned to be as big as it has become?

Two or three years ago, our managers kept mentioning it. Tim [Rice-Oxley, fellow Keane musician] and I particularly were very resistant to the idea of it, because we felt, ‘Is it just all a bit nostalgic?’ As artists you’re always feeling like you want to move forwards, and so does it feel a bit too much like resurrecting something from the past? But as often is the case, they could understand the bigger picture better than we could so they kept impressing on us how fun and how great it could be to spend a year celebrating it. And they were right. They were right. We agreed to it, and then just really, we’ve been swept along by it. The festivals we’ve done, Glastonbury and Isle of Wight and some great festivals in Europe, the arena tour in the UK… It was great to be back doing those shows and then obviously out here and then America was amazing in September. The Americans, we’ve always loved going out there, it feels like a big extended family out there. They’re very personable, and we always go and chat to the fans and it’s at a level out there where that’s just about still manageable.

But I was quite surprised by just how generous. There were these massive three or four minute standing ovations when we were playing in America, at almost every show that would just suddenly spontaneously happen in the middle of the show, and we just stood there feeling, well, quite surprised and in some ways quite embarrassed, just at the level of love. 

I suppose what it is is that there’s been time, hasn’t there? There’s been time for people to absorb, not only Hopes and Fears, but I feel like the rest of the Keane records, and maybe that the appreciation for the music has just grown in that time. Also particularly because we had that hiatus where I was off doing various things, good and bad, which I guess maybe has also heightened the anticipation. Then also there was COVID, it had such a vice-like grip on all of our lives. So I think again, there’s just a feeling that everyone wants to come out and really enjoy and appreciate the fact that live music is alive again. So all of those things I think, have fed into it being just a really wild and brilliant ride this year. 

What do you mean by good and bad for your solo career? 

Oh no, no. I don’t mean bad as in the music. I mean I just feel like it was a time of two halves, if that makes sense. When I stepped away from Keane and said, ‘Right, I want to go off and do my own thing,’ I didn’t feel that connected to our music at the time. I felt like there was this distance and also a desire to do my own thing and explore that part of myself. But also, as you well know, particularly the first solo album, there was obviously then a period of time where I really went off the rails. So I mean it in that sense – there was that time of really losing myself and then finding myself and, obviously, the feeling of regeneration and redemption that happened from 2015 onwards, really. 

In fact, what’s interesting, I think, is also that has fed into me wanting to then return to Keane and repair some of the damage there. Because obviously, my relationship with Tim is probably fundamentally the biggest – apart from my marriage – relationship in my life, and it needed tending to, and it needed repair, and the two of us had to figure out a way of making it work that wasn’t just sort of transactional, that felt real, you know? Again, I think we’ve arrived at a point now where that feels like it’s the case.

Well it’s nice that you’re back on track yet still grounded enough to be surprised by standing ovations… 

I do think we still feel like normal guys [laughs]. Part of the reason I really wanted to get my life in balance was because it’s such a heightened experience when you get a standing ovation or you feel that love. Being out here, for example, yesterday we rock up at Lima airport, and there were literally hundreds of fans waiting for us when we got there. And it’s lovely. But it’s hard to square that up unless you’ve really got the rest of your life in balance. Thankfully, I think that’s what I feel like I have these days. But I suppose that’s it’s managing those two parts of me.

We do still see ourselves, and feel like just regular Joes, you know? In that sense, to feel that kind of love and appreciation is strange, but lovely. 

Do you think the balance comes in some part from getting older? Not old, but there’s a sort of calmness that comes with…

…age? We can say it! [Laughs] Yeah, I do. That’s definitely true. It’s hard to unpick it, because there are two strands to that for me. There’s obviously, as you say, a natural sense of perspective that comes with getting older and an appreciation for who you are, a knowledge of who you are, and an ability to reflect and see yourself as all the things – good and bad – that have happened to you in your life. So yes, that’s absolutely true, but also in line with that, obviously I’ve spent years in psychoanalysis, getting myself well, and those two things working in parallel and obviously together, have probably given me that sense of equanimity, or at least most of the time, except when I’m shouting at my kids. [Laughs] That’s just par for the course. It’s definitely the natural course of things, so long as you know and you like yourself. If you arrive at your 40s or whatever, and you don’t know yourself or you don’t like yourself, or you’re unhappy with where your life’s at, then you can be in trouble. But for most of us, I think we generally get our shit together.

Going back to Hopes and Fears, is there a particular song that’s taken on a new meaning, or you found a new appreciation for when revisiting the album?

What’s interesting, and Tim pointed this out right at the beginning when he was delving into all the old demos and a lot of the very early recordings of songs and stuff, is the album’s an album of two sides. On one side you’ve got all these great big epic, quite pop/indie bangers, and then the other part of it there’s a lot of introspection, a lot of quite atmospheric, quite dreamy songs, very textured. Obviously those are the ones that generally fell by the wayside and we stopped playing pretty much as soon as Hopes and Fears, the touring for that, was done, and we started to have more new music. So songs like Sunshine, On a Day Like Today, Untitled 1, Your Eyes Open, if it’s songs like that that feel that they’re in a slightly different space, atmospherically, it’s been really lovely to resurrect those and try and play them well live and be reminded of the fact that… because I think especially with time and the way that memory works, you can think of an album as very much one thing, can’t you? But I’ve been quite surprised at remembering the other side of Hopes and Fears. It wasn’t just these great, big, strident bangers, there was another aspect to it. The fans have enjoyed hearing all of those songs. 

The only thing that I found quite tricky – because I’m the one who’s always put in charge of figuring out the set list – the thing I’ve always found tricky is how do you create a set list when you’ve got so many of those dreamy songs? You know that you’ve got to take people on the journey, because we wanted to play all of the songs from Hopes and Fears. But it does actually make it a complete headache trying to figure out how to come up with a set list. 

Playing Untitled 1 for the first time actually, ever. We never played that when we toured Hopes and Fears at the beginning. So that’s pretty fun.

In terms of the big songs, though, what’s interesting is that people always ask me if you get bored of singing them [laughs], and it’s always an emphatic no. They’re so exhilarating. When you start, This Is the Last Time or Somewhere…, or Everybody’s Changing – or any of those songs – when you start playing them you just feel this energy coming off the audience, and it’s just undeniable. So how could I stand there and think, ‘Well, this is fucking boring,’ you know? I just couldn’t. It’s a kind of physical, emotional impossibility to feel that way.

The fact that those songs keep on, they’re still a gift that keeps on giving is the thing that I still love and appreciate about it more than necessarily finding something new in them.

How was the process of writing the new book about the album?

I actually really enjoyed making, or doing the book. Or doing my bits for the book, because I often complain that I can’t remember anything. [Laughs] That I’ve addled my brain, or have removed chunks of my brain, and [have] these great blank spaces. But what’s interesting about trying to write a little biog of the time is that it suddenly starts – one memory sparks another one, and suddenly you’re back there and you start to remember a lot of stories and details that maybe you otherwise wouldn’t have thought of. So it’s been interesting in that respect. 

Notes From a Front Man, that’s my bit, my very cheesily titled chapter. But maybe a lot of stuff that happened to me during those years, the development of my skills as a singer or as a frontman, maybe I wasn’t particularly acutely aware of it, consciously aware of the progress of that stuff. Like with a lot of stuff, it happens incrementally. But then I think with distance, you can look at it, and you can say, ‘Oh, right, I can see how that part of me developed,’ or how I came to do things that way.

When I look back at that time, from when we moved to London in 1998 through to 2003/2004 when the album first came out, that period of time was about us finding an identity, really, as a band. Tim finding an identity as a songwriter, and me finding an identity as a frontman, the sound of the band, what we were trying to say, how we were crafting songs, and all of that stuff. It’s not like we really sat down and talked about it and thrashed it out. I think we probably were just always learning from the mistakes. So remembering that stuff has been great. For most people that time of life is… so much happens, doesn’t it? In my case, and I hope probably in a lot of other people’s cases, you leave home, you feel this sense of liberation and a sense of opportunity, the world is at your feet at that point. So everything that happens feels significant, doesn’t it? Even now I look back and I think, ‘Wow’, all of those things that kept happening, all of those details, it feels like the universe when it went through its hyper expansion, it’s like suddenly everything is happening very fast, and in a kind of accelerated or heightened way. So remembering all that was great. 

One thing I like about the book is my doodles, which I never thought would see the light of day. It was nice to see my doodles, my mad, unconscious doodles making an appearance. Got no idea what they mean!

With the book, again, initially, we might have been a bit resistant to the idea of, like, ‘Who’s going to be interested in that’, or, ‘Is it really worth bothering?’ But again, with a bit of gentle encouragement, once we got into it, it was really fun and really interesting. Obviously in terms of tying this year up with a nice, neat ribbon, it does a really great job, and hopefully is another insight into a record that clearly lots of people adore. I’m really happy that we’ve got something to end this year with.

Does that mean there might be a book in you about your life?

Oh, God. The thought does cross my mind. One of the things this year is that I have done a hell of a lot of reading. So many flights and long journeys and hours spent waiting for shows and stuff, I spent a lot of time reading. When you’re doing that, the thought often crosses, or certainly has crossed my mind, ‘I wonder whether I could write an autobiography?’ Having said that, I don’t know. I feel like I might really struggle. This is contradicting what I’ve just said about remembering stuff by actively thinking about it but I do think I would struggle to remember stuff. 

I also think at this point in my life, a lot of that stuff, particularly the darker days, it still feels a bit raw and I think it might be too soon, probably, for that stuff. So at the moment no, but it does cross my mind. When I read great fiction, I think, ‘Well, surely people would much rather read that than read the kind of gory details of my life.’ But maybe there’s room for both.

So what’s next for Keane?

Another great side effect of this year is that it’s really recharged the creative batteries. We really feel an excitement about the thought of making new music. Obviously, we’re a bit tired, and so there’s probably going to be a little bit of a lag between coming off the road and then getting in the studio. One of the nice things about me and Tim these days is that we’ve had some heart to hearts, and I feel like I’m going to have more of a creative role in terms of Keane’s music and the writing during the coming years, which, just to have a hand in that, is great. 

I’m not kidding myself, I know that Tim is an exceptional songwriter and has always written the songs for Keane but just to feel more a part of that was a really important thing for me. I’ve been spending a lot of time with Tim, writing, exchanging ideas and learning from him, actually, really absorbing the 30 years of experience that he has as a songwriter. He’s always kept that part of himself quite… not closed off, because I don’t think that’s right, but I think he’s always felt like he does his best work in private, and he finds it difficult to open up in terms of the creative process. So just to have an insight into that, and for the two of us to be working on things together and trying stuff out, is really fulfilling for me and really exciting. So that’s one dimension of what we’re thinking about for next year, exploring that.

Then the knowledge and appreciation of just what the music seems to mean to the fans. Having been reminded of that plus plus during this year has given us a real desire to get back in the studio and make something undeniably brilliant, and that’s where we feel we’re at. 

The other thing that was really interesting was we all adored The Beatles’ Get Back documentary. We all loved watching it. The thing that more than anything else that we loved, was how much it reminded us of the early days of Keane. I’m not talking about the standard of music, but just that thing of them sat round in a group. In the case of Get Back there were obviously tensions between them and difficulties, but nevertheless, you still see it, this incredible connection, the creation of these songs that ultimately become timeless classics. Just to see an insight into them working together in that way reminded us of how we started out. That’s how we used to do it. 

The inevitability of a band, or any kind of artist these days, is that that’s how you start doing it, and what happens then is that once you’re signed and you’ve sold a few records, you get into a cycle of, ‘I’m just going to sit and make a load of demos, and then we’re just going to go straight to the studio and we’re going to layer them up, starting with the drums, and we’re going to make a record like that.’ It’s almost like if you’re not careful, you bypass that whole thing of actually what it is to be in a band, which is to look each other in the eye and to say, ‘I don’t like that idea,’ or, ‘I would like to do this, this way,’ and also just the joy of that as well, to share that space and see what happens, that magic that hopefully can happen in that space in between you.

So I think we have that as a kind of guiding principle for how we do things next year. It feels really exciting. It feels like there’s momentum. It feels like we’re all on the same page, and we can’t wait to get going with it. How we end up releasing it, or when it comes out, I don’t know. That’s just a question we won’t know the answer to until we get to it, but hopefully there’ll be new music soon enough. 

I’m glad there’s not going to be another hiatus!

No, definitely not, definitely not. 

Can fans expect a similar celebration for Under the Iron Sea in 2026?

Well, I don’t think it’s gonna be a similar celebration if we do one, because it’s a different kind of record, but it would be nice to mark it in some way, but that is still a bit of a kind of nebulous thing. It’s like, ‘Oh yeah, Under the Iron Sea, yeah, we should think about that.’ There’s a few ideas floating around, but we’re not quite sure what the details of that will be, because, like I say, we’ll be in the swing of new music. We’ll have to be careful, we don’t want to overload people with stuff. Ultimately, what I would hope now is that the new music will take precedence over anything else. But, yeah, it’d be nice to celebrate it as well, because obviously, again, that’s a record that had an impact on people.

What was your experience of busking for Big Issue like? [Tom Chaplin busked to raise money for Big Issue in London in 2017]

Obviously, it’s so bittersweet, isn’t it? You feel like you’re doing something small to help and raise awareness of something, but obviously it’s such a deeply ingrained and complicated problem. You know that it’s not just as simple as saying, ‘We’ve just got to get everybody off the streets.’ You know there’s no magic bullet for it. I think that’s what I was made most aware of by doing those shows. But just the joy, working with the homeless choir and at least just helping to generate some noise around the issue felt like a good thing. It’s nice of Prince William doing a lot of stuff around it now, and has made it his mission. I think that’s incredible. It shouldn’t be the situation that it is living in the sixth richest nation on Earth. It’s absurd, really. But nevertheless, it’s a reality. So I was very honoured to be asked and to be a part of supporting a great charity or a great initiative.

Hopes and Fears: Lyrics and History by Keane is available now. The pop-up store is at 25 Denmark Street, London until 1 December 2024.

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