An Interview With Tom Chaplin & Richard Hughes From KEANE

“Disconnected” is an amazing music video. – Tom Chaplin

Trax Trooper Abigail dapet kesempatan untuk ngobrol bareng dua orang personil dari KEANE, Tom Chaplin dan Richard Hughes. Trax Trooper Abigail punya segudang rasa penasaran yang akhirnya diutarakan ke Tom dan Richard and it was a great time talking with them. Abigail banyak tertawa karena kepribadian Tom dan Richard yang asik banget. So, enjoy the conversation, Anak Trax.  

Hi, nive having you here. I’m Abigail from TraxFM.
Tom: Nice to meet you.

First of all, congratulations on your fourth album “Strangeland” and it’s been a long journey I heard since the first demo track in 2010, isn’t it?
Richard: Yeah, if not before maybe some of the songs are even before 2009. Well sometimes they’re just take a long time to come. 

How was it? Are you happy with the result?
Richard: Yeah, we’re very happy with the result. We decided we would only release the album when we were, you know, ready. We worked very hard on that and we spent basically a whole year in Tim’s studio. So, yeah, I think we’re very proud of that record. 
Tom: It’s good. It’s the best album ever made by any band, ever. (Tom laughed)

I’m also very happy because one of your video clip, “Disconnected”, is nominated for Best Video in 2012 Q Awards. Congratulations for that.
Tom: It not really does deserve to be in that category actually. Because it’s an amazing video and I’m not joking now (laughed). No I’m serious, it’s really good. 

What do you think about the GLEE version of your “Somewhere Only We Know”?
Tom Chaplin: Not much. I don’t know. It’s alright. Well, 6 out of 10! I mean… Well you know, no one sings it as well as me so I got upset when I knew it and quite surprised.
Richard: Exactly.

You’ve started your career in music not just since 2004, but way before that. So, how do you see your position in music industry right now?
Tom: Yeah, when we started it was long time ago. Well, music industry… You know the whole kind of scene is completely changed. So, it’s good that we’ve managed to stick around and adapt and still be a part of it. But, I’d say the biggest change is definitely the internet. It changes everything. You know, I don’t like the downloading stuff. But it’s something you will have to put up with. Well, I don’t know…

Well, I see lots of changes in MTV. Earlier they used to show music video but lately we only see serial and reality show. Does it stop you from making music video?
Tom: Well, we don’t spend anything like as much money on our music video as now as we used to. I think that probably got better for this record. 

You mentioned on your website that local beer, water, and some fruit that rarely gets eaten are in your riders, what’s your favorite shape of fruits so far?
Tom: I’ve got some weird fruits in my room. It’s like small and round and lots of them, you have to peel the skin off and it’s kinda like a blue fruit and you eat it and it’s got like a stone in the middle. Well, it may not be blue. 

Kelengkeng? I think it’s kelengkeng.
Tom: Sounds right, whatever it is. Well, that was nice, because in Britain it was just like… the same stuff. So, you come here and, you know… it’s something you never tried.

You should try durian. Have you tried durian?
Tom: No, but we’ll try some.  

If you are stranded in any country in Asia, what will you do for living, besides being a musician?
Richard: I’ll be a taxi driver.

And you, Tom?
Tom: Well, lots of golf courses are here, aren’t there? I’ll just play golf permanently.
Richard: How would you earn money?
Tom: I’ll win sometimes. Obviously!

If you were written about in the newspaper, on the front page, what would the headline say?
Tom: “Chaplin solves out problem in Middle East.”
Richard: “Tom Chaplin wins…
Tom: Noble Prize!
(They laughed a lot)

Do you have any others?
Tom: Any others?! Well… “World starts worshipping KEANE like God.”

Well then, thank you guys.
Tom & Richard: Thank you so much. 

Trax Trooper Abigail had so much fun talking with them. Hope you had a great time too, watching their concert last night, Anak Trax! Let’s hope for another return from KEANE.