Richard’s turn to face the ‘Ask Keane’ queries

Thanks to all of you who’ve posted questions for Keane via the ‘Ask Keane’ section of the Ezine (keep them coming!). Last night, we emailed a bunch to Richard and were very impressed to find his replies in our inbox this morning. Look out for more answers soon (they’ll all be archived in the Ask Keane section). Take it away Richard…

“What do u like to eat at the cinema?”
Charlotte
Richard replies: Minstrels, every time. A big bag. And I’m going to the dentist tomorrow…

“Dear Richard. For which geographic theorist(s) do you have a soft spot?”
Mark
Richard replies: Wow. Not a theorist, but I love maps of where we go on tour – every tour in America I buy a five dollar truckstore map and keep track of where we are – it’s such a huge country I feel totally lost if I’m not sure where a particular city is that we’re in. Apart from that I was taught by a guy called Dr John Salt at university, and he was amazing – a migration guru, I believe.
 
“If you could be granted one super power, like super strength or the power of flight, what would it be and why?”
Albert Asker
Richard replies: You have an appropriate surname! I’d like to be able to play the drums like Ronnie Vannucci. I think he’s superhuman. Otherwise I’d love to be able to drive a formula one car, or a rally car – those guys are utterly unbelievable. Right now I’d settle for curing my vertigo.

Vannucci: The Killers’ killer drummer

“What do you think about the people who buy concert tickets etc just to sell them for a profit on Ebay?”
Michelle in Andover UK
Richard replies: I wish there was an easy way to stop it. I understand that it’s one way to make a living – it’s like a mini version of what goes on in big business and government every day, but I digress… speaking as a music fan it really really sucks, and it would be great if there was a way to ensure that only people who want to go to a gig could buy a ticket. If it were in an industry that politicians cared about, or could tax more heavily, it would have been sorted long ago. It’s good that it’s becoming an issue – the NME are obviously trying to make a stand about it, and we’ve been approached by them and given them our full support, as have pretty much every band they have talked to, so I guess that sums it up.

“For Rich. What was your reaction when you found out what Put It Behind You was about? Did you ever find it awkward to play?”
Delora Baptista
Richard replies: I was pretty surprised but I love playing it – it seems to get people going and has a cool drum break / piano solo that really pumps people up.

“When you’re away, what do you guys miss most about home, other than the obvious friends and family?”
Lynda Paylan
Richard replies: Cadbury’s chocolate (but please don’t bring any to gigs or we’ll all get fat). I miss driving – I love listening to music while driving. There are definite upsides though – I have no idea who most of the people in the news are, like Big Brother housemates, or Pop Idol contestants.

“When you’re rehearsing, do you have any non-Keane songs that the whole bands knows, and plays through completely?”
Daniel Brady
Richard replies: We’ve got a few Beatles numbers up our sleeve – we were asked to play a bit of “Paperback Writer” live on a radio show without any warning and we managed most of the song without having time to think about it.

“How many Hobnobs did it take to make Richard sing? Or how else did you persuade him?”
Katha
Richard replies: Tim and Tom did all the vocals on the album, but when we rehearsed it we needed more. We could have put vocals on the computer (like more bands do than you’d think), or we could try getting me a mic. So we tried me first and it sounded ok. At gigs you’ll notice the ton of reverb on the voice – that’s all I’m saying!

“Richard – you mentioned veggie dogs in your journal on the website.  How long have you been a vegetarian and what’s your  favourite dish?”
Annabelle Tipper
Richard replies: I’ve been vegetarian since I was 13. My favourite things right now are smoothies. Tom makes us all great fruit smoothies in our dressing room – he is the king of smoothies and I think he should write a book of recipes.

A smoothie, yesterday

“Hi, this is not a question, but a statement. I think you guys should come and play in Barbados. Our little islands in the Caribbean are well known as great holiday destinations, but we are fed up with being ignored on bands’ grand tour itineraries. We may be small and we may not fit the ususal demographic of fans, but trust me there is a fan base. Maybe not a huge concert but a nice moderate size intimate jam session. Think about it? Good.”
Leandre
Richard replies: There are about a million places that you could replace the word “Barbados” with in this statement, and I’d love to play in pretty much all of them. Now we’ve got a second record out, and people have been liking it, we can start to think about going to some of the further-flung places we missed out before – like Asia, South America and back to Australasia. Whether we’ll get to Barbados, I don’t know, though I’d love to see a cricket match there sometime so maybe we could combine the two. It’s amazing to think that you know about us so far from home, and I’d love to come to play there. Maybe there’s a way – I’ll ask.

Thanks a lot,

Richard