Keane

Something truly new and original

I met Keane in 1998 and new worked in development till they signed with Island Records. I helped radically change them into the Keane you know and love…around that time I’d recently finished helping Dido make her debut album No Angel and was looking for a band who could embody the same kind of vibe, the same kind of programming and production style I was getting.

Many of the songs Keane and I co-wrote were recorded with me using new techniques that I had recently developed… Including my ‘aeolian lovelies’ sound on ‘Sunshine’… my Mono / Poly arppegiation sound on ‘Walnut Tree’ (written under the Walnut tree in my garden) and the Big / Small programming and production technique of recording some stuff ‘low quality’ with a dictaphone and some stuff ‘high quality’ on ‘Bedshaped’. Also I used my EMS Putney VCS3 to great effect in ‘She Has No Time’ ..

We had a lot of fun, they were good friends, and at the time we knew we were doing something truly compelling, new and original…» – James Sanger