Keane have revealed that the sound of their new album was inspired by newcomers, The Vaccines.
Keane will be releasing their fourth album, Strangeland on May the 7th and are set to embark on a mini-tour to follow. They have recently claimed that the sound was inspired by What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?, the band's 2011 debut album. Pianist, Tim Rice-Oxley said:
"We loved what (producer) Dan Grech did on The Vaccines album. It had just come out. He'd also done stuff with Radiohead and produced the second Howling Bells album, which I loved. As luck would have it, Dan was a massive Keane fan, so we ended working with him."
Singer, Tom Chaplin, compared the process of making Strangeland to Hopes And Fears; their 2004 debut. He said:
"The process began in 2010. We began demoing tracks then. It's the longest we've spent making a record since Hopes and Fears. The album has the vibe of earlier Keane. 2008's Perfect Symmetry was a big self-indulgent and this record felt a bit more like we knew ourselves a bit better and what our strengths were."
"We wanted it be less production led and focus on making sure that the songs were great. You write a lot of shit songs to get to the good ones. It's a very emotional album. The title track is about setting off in a certain path in life and thinking it's going to go one way, but finding out life's taken a detour. Pretty much every song on the album is about that. (But) it's a more hopeful record than it might sound!"
The band will play a nine date mini-tour in May, beginning at Newcastle's O2 Academy on May 23rd, running until June 8th, when Keane will headline London's O2 Academy Brixton.