The latest Keane news, direct from Mr Rice-Oxley

On Sunday night, just before Keane played Rock am Ring festival in Germany, we called up the band’s piano pro Tim Rice-Oxley for the latest of our keanemusic.com chats (to read the earlier ones, go to the Journal section in the Ezine).

Q. Congratulations on your second Number 3 hit!
A. Thank you very much.

Q. Things seem to be shaping up well for the album.
A. Yeah. It all seems to be kicking off. It feels like people are quite excited about the record coming out.

Q. Have you had a good week?
A. Yes, it’s been a fairly insane run around. We had an Xfm session on Tuesday and lots of radio interviews. And then on Wednesday we did a big Channel 4 special where we played a load of live songs and did a long interview. Then Thursday we did Jonathan Ross. And then Friday we had a day off because it was my birthday.

Q. Happy belated birthday!
A. Thank you. It was very relaxed, I went to the zoo.

Q. London zoo?
A. No, the British wildlife centre in Sussex.

Q. What was the best wildlife that you saw?
A. Hmm. They had a good collection of rats, which I was quite excited about. Unfortunately the otters were hiding out of sight, that was very disappointing! But it was a lovely chilled out day. And then on Saturday we flew out to Germany to do this festival, which is at two sites over two days.

Q. How did the first day go?
A. Great. It was cold and rainy but the crowd were really good. It was quite weird to go from the club shows to this huge stage, but it went really well.

Q. Did you see any other bands?
A. I saw a bit of the Editors who are always good and a bit of Pharrell Williams who was great. We’ve met him in America a couple of times and he’s a big Keane fan. He’s a very nice man, but I’d never seen him play live before. And tonight we’ll be watching Depeche Mode who are one of my favourite bands.

Q. What have you got on this week?
A. We’re off to Holland tomorrow (Monday) for Pinkpop. And then we’re off to Portugal for Super Bock Super Rock and then the Astoria gig on Friday.

Q. Ah yes, how did the Astoria show come about?
A. We thought it’d be nice to do a London show to celebrate the album coming out. We’ve played there a few times and it’s one of the few great venues right in the middle of London. There’s a good vibe there and it’s nice and small. It should be cool. It’s just an excuse to have a big party really.

Q. And then the album comes out.
A. Yeah. We’ve got that peculiar feeling of not being able to do anything about it now, we’ve done our bit. It was a difficult road making it, so it’ll be a relief to actually see it out there in the shops. I’m just really looking forward to seeing if people get into it. I certainly hope so.