Welcome Strangers

The decade and a half that Chaplin spent in Keane were studded with awards and five number one albums in the UK. Regarding those years, he says: “I look back on them with great respect for what we achieved and lots of fond memories. But inevitably because I’d been battling myself for such a long time I have enormous regrets about the past.

 “Someone asked me what my favourite Keane record was and I think I would opt for Hopes and Fears but with the caveat that I wish I could go back and do it differently. We had such a great record there and I just was not in the right place to truly enjoy it and realise quite what an amazing thing we had at that point. 

“I think all of my experience with Keane is tinged with this self-sabotage that I foisted upon everything. So while there are lots of great memories there is always regret. That said, I am in a different place now. I’m not hung up on that regret. I get it if I look back but it doesn’t haunt me on a daily basis.” 

Chaplin doesn’t discount the idea that Keane may reform at some point, or that he may be able to juggle both the band and his solo career. “Who knows? Keane is such an integral part of my life that it’s strange and hard to imagine that that wouldn’t be something that happened again, but I’m also very conscious of that this new venture has brought for me which is something for me at least profoundly exciting and that I really am just enjoying every minute of. 

“I’m sure that could be the same with a Keane record but at the moment I just want to enjoy this process. When it comes to the end of it I am unsure how I will feel. Maybe I will want to keep going on this trajectory that I’m on right now or maybe it will indulge that part of me that needs indulging and I’ll want to just go back and do Keane stuff. I really don’t know.”