For Keane, an English alternative rock band, the explosive energy from the Korean audience was something that forced them to come back.

“The audience was amazing! I don’t know how they survived the heat, but they were singing along and giving us lots of energy, so I hope it will be the same,” said Richard Hughes, drummer of Keane, in an email interview with The Korea Herald. The four-member band holds its first solo concert on Sept. 24 at Handball Stadium at Olympic Park in Seoul. 

The band visited Korea three years ago to participate in the ETP Festival hosted by K-pop legend Seo Tai-ji.

“I can’t wait to be there! Last time was great fun, but we will play a much longer set than last time ― it was a festival, but this is our own show. We’ll be playing plenty of songs from ‘Strangeland,’ but also lots of others that people still want to hear,” he said.

Aside from the concert, Keane wants to visit interesting places in Korea to get to know more of the country.

“I want to get out and take lots of photos, and hopefully get to visit some interesting places ― last time I managed to get to a huge temple complex, which was very special.”

Asked whether they were aware of the popularity of K-pop, the rock band said they enjoyed watching Psy’s music video “Gangnam Style.”

“It’s a crazy video, but it’s an incredibly catchy song, so I can see why it’s so popular! I really enjoyed the video, actually.”

The group ― with Tim Rice-Oxley on piano and bass, Tom Chaplin on vocals and guitar, Richard Hughes on drums and Jesse Quin on bass and percussion ― is currently on a world tour. Keane rose to fame with its debut album “Hopes and Fears” in 2004. The album was the second best-selling album of the year in the U.K. With its debut album the band also won multiple awards in the 2005 BRIT Awards including the Best British album and the British breakthrough act award.

“‘Hopes And Fears’ is a very special album for us ― our debut record ― and I look back on it with pride. It feels like a very long time ago, and we have done and seen so much, and been through so much together since then. It gave us the freedom to go forward in the way we wanted, so I think along with pressure came a lot of opportunity,” Hughes said.

The four-member band is also noted for using a piano as the lead instrument instead of guitar. Keane didn’t really intend to put the piano in the lead in the beginning, but it ended up with helping the band find its own identity, Hughes said.

“In about 2001 our guitarist left the band, and we had to decide what to do. Tim wrote songs on the piano, so we thought ― why not play them that way?

“Once we began with that the songs had a new freshness, an energy that felt right, so we started playing shows and people seemed to enjoy it. I guess we stood out at a time when everyone was sounding like a bad version of Radiohead ― lots of guitars.”

The band’s hit song “Somewhere Only We Know” was featured in U.S. drama series “Grey’s Anatomy,” helping the group to gain international fame. In May, the band returned with their fourth album “Strangeland,” the first full-length album in four years.

“Tim wrote a song with that name ‘Strangeland’ ― it comes from Tracy Emin’s book, about the area she grew up in, not far from where Tim, Tom and I grew up. It refers to the strange journey life has taken us on, and how things are never what you expect, but are still magical and exciting. It’s a very hopeful album.”

Tickets for Keane’s Seoul concert range from 99,000 won to 125,000 won. For more information, call (02)3141-3488 or visit www.superseries.kr.

By Cho Chung-un and Lee Hyun-jae
(christory@heraldcorp.com)(lhj137@heraldcorp.com)