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Sunday herald interview

AFTER a decade as frontman of one of Britain’s most popular bands, Tom Chaplin had honed his technique to perfection. The more he did it, the better he got at it. The better he got at it, the more he did it. By the time he was halfway through his 20s, the Keane singer knew exactly what to do. Cocaine. Benzos. Valium. Sleeping pills. Whatever, whenever, wherever he went. “Well, yes, that’s what you do,” says the 38-year-old recovering addict, now clean as a whistle. "You find all sorts of people who can help you out when you need it. And I had someone pretty much everywhere. Not just one person. “Even when I was away on holiday. You develop a real skill and ability to find the people who will deal you drugs.” In the imagined yearbook of his final term at the exclusive Tonbridge School, baby-faced Chaplin might have been entered as Boy Least Likely To: Become a Pop Star, Develop a Recurring Drug Addiction, End Up In Rehab and Splashed Across The Tabloids. With the benefit of hindsight, though, Chaplin can now look back on those formative days and see exactly how they pointed him in the direction of addiction, meltdown, rehab and recovery. By the time he was 25, Chaplin had scored an awful lot more than just a few pop hits. Then he went into rehab. And when news broke that the ruddy-cheeked awkward-looking public school boy from the ever-so-earnest band who sang about how Everybody’s Changing and going Somewhere Only We Know was following the path taken by the likes of Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty, it was met with a a sneer. In the most cynical of circles, some might even have joked that these gap year pop prefects would do anything for a bit of cred ... As hard as he tried – and sometimes it looked like he was trying much too toe-curlingly hard – Chaplin had never entirely convinced as the leader of the band in the live setting, despite 10 years of touring, four No1 LPs and over six-million sales. While his singing voice was – is – remarkably pure, his frontman stagecraft felt studied, practised, put-on. Perversely, when his addiction and mental health battles were made public in 2006, there was a whiff of something similar: it was as though privileged boys from private schools aren’t allowed in that club where tortured creative geniuses go to destroy themselves. “Even 10 years ago when I first had these problems, it got into the red-tops, and I remember being pilloried for it," says Chaplin, down the line from his home in Kent. “There was a certain sense of mockery. I’ve seen a lot of people die, and I’ve seen how addiction can completely ruin or kill people. Actually what you’re dealing with is a serious mental health problem, and what I’ve noticed since coming out and talking about this stuff openly in the last couple of years, is that there’s not that same sense of cynicism now. There’s much more openness. “That’s an antidote to some mental health problems, to remove the shame from it, encourage people that actually being vulnerable and open about your problems is healthy and not the opposite.” Our interview happens in advance of last week’s Mental Health Awareness Week. And though Chaplin hasn’t been wheeled out as a campaigner, he speaks with the zeal of a survivor. He’s singing about it too, having released an album laced with defiantly personal accounts of the pitch and toss. The record, entitled The Wave, doesn’t stray too far from Keane territory: Chaplin’s multi-octave range, the heart-on-sleeve sentiment, the yearning for understanding. “Buried in the rubble there’s a boy in trouble reaching for a piece of the sky,” he sings on Still Waiting. “Clawing at the wreckage sending out a message dying to get back to the light.” As a collection of songs about battling through addiction to recovery, it’s maybe more Richard Curtis than Irvine Welsh. The album's online promotional material includes a YouTube video of a recording session featuring a military brass band in full army fatigues playing on the song Hold On To Our Love, inspired by the funeral of a friend who’d died in Iraq. Such emotional candour plays right through the record. Chaplin complains of a "lack of authenticity" in the world, where even his pals' Facebook profiles are shot down for presenting a skewed reality. Days after we speak, Piers Morgan will be roundly criticised for his latest headline-grabbing provocation – suggesting men need to “man up” rather than talk about their problems. It’s probably safe to assume that Morgan hasn’t bought his copy of The Wave yet. Chaplin is not only a veteran of “several” rehab programmes reaching back over the last decade, he’s now also an advocate for the power of talking therapy. “Rehab can be very helpful,” he says. “It gave me structure and support. But coming from my education and the way my character developed in my formative years, I was very good at getting on with it, and feeling as though I didn’t really have a problem. “I could go into those places, put my head down, do all the things that were asked of me, and appear happy and healthy again. And I think in some ways that was helpful, but it wasn’t really the solution for me at least. It can be for some people. “The thing that helped me out was going in for very intense psychoanalysis. I got a therapist who I really trusted and who I wasn’t afraid to tell everything. All my fears, all my secrets, all my deepest-seated insecurities – I got it all out to him and that above all else has been the thing that helped me out the most. As it stands, it has made me happier, more fulfilled and a more enterprising human being.” He is, he suggests, typical of a type. Publicly schooled in Kent with his eventual Keane bandmates Tim Rice-Oxley and Richard Hughes, then off home to middle England’s stiff upper lip. All of which contributed to what he calls “underlying emotional problems”. “It’s multi-layered," he says. “Partly it’s the style of my upbringing. I grew up in a lovely place. My parents ran a school [Vinehall School in East Sussex, where he and his band-mates were initially educated together] and it was a giant playground in the middle of the Sussex countryside. In many ways it was idyllic, but it was also completely removed from reality. When I grew up, and was thrust into an extreme world with the early success of Keane, I just wasn’t prepared to deal with a lot of the challenges that life threw at me. AFTER a decade as frontman of one of Britain’s most popular bands, Tom Chaplin had honed his technique to perfection. The more he did it, the better he got at it. The better he got at it, the more he did it. By the time he was halfway through his 20s, the Keane singer knew exactly what to do. Cocaine. Benzos. Valium. Sleeping pills. Whatever, whenever, wherever he went. “Well, yes, that’s what you do,” says the 38-year-old recovering addict, now clean as a whistle. "You find all sorts of people who can help you out when you need it. And I had someone pretty much everywhere. Not just one person. “Even when I was away on holiday. You develop a real skill and ability to find the people who will deal you drugs.” In the imagined yearbook of his final term at the exclusive Tonbridge School, baby-faced Chaplin might have been entered as Boy Least Likely To: Become a Pop Star, Develop a Recurring Drug Addiction, End Up In Rehab and Splashed Across The Tabloids. With the benefit of hindsight, though, Chaplin can now look back on those formative days and see exactly how they pointed him in the direction of addiction, meltdown, rehab and recovery. By the time he was 25, Chaplin had scored an awful lot more than just a few pop hits. Then he went into rehab. And when news broke that the ruddy-cheeked awkward-looking public school boy from the ever-so-earnest band who sang about how Everybody’s Changing and going Somewhere Only We Know was following the path taken by the likes of Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty, it was met with a a sneer. In the most cynical of circles, some might even have joked that these gap year pop prefects would do anything for a bit of cred ... As hard as he tried – and sometimes it looked like he was trying much too toe-curlingly hard – Chaplin had never entirely convinced as the leader of the band in the live setting, despite 10 years of touring, four No1 LPs and over six-million sales. While his singing voice was – is – remarkably pure, his frontman stagecraft felt studied, practised, put-on. Perversely, when his addiction and mental health battles were made public in 2006, there was a whiff of something similar: it was as though privileged boys from private schools aren’t allowed in that club where tortured creative geniuses go to destroy themselves. “Even 10 years ago when I first had these problems, it got into the red-tops, and I remember being pilloried for it," says Chaplin, down the line from his home in Kent. “There was a certain sense of mockery. I’ve seen a lot of people die, and I’ve seen how addiction can completely ruin or kill people. Actually what you’re dealing with is a serious mental health problem, and what I’ve noticed since coming out and talking about this stuff openly in the last couple of years, is that there’s not that same sense of cynicism now. There’s much more openness. “That’s an antidote to some mental health problems, to remove the shame from it, encourage people that actually being vulnerable and open about your problems is healthy and not the opposite.” Our interview happens in advance of last week’s Mental Health Awareness Week. And though Chaplin hasn’t been wheeled out as a campaigner, he speaks with the zeal of a survivor. He’s singing about it too, having released an album laced with defiantly personal accounts of the pitch and toss. The record, entitled The Wave, doesn’t stray too far from Keane territory: Chaplin’s multi-octave range, the heart-on-sleeve sentiment, the yearning for understanding. “Buried in the rubble there’s a boy in trouble reaching for a piece of the sky,” he sings on Still Waiting. “Clawing at the wreckage sending out a message dying to get back to the light.” As a collection of songs about battling through addiction to recovery, it’s maybe more Richard Curtis than Irvine Welsh. The album's online promotional material includes a YouTube video of a recording session featuring a military brass band in full army fatigues playing on the song Hold On To Our Love, inspired by the funeral of a friend who’d died in Iraq. Such emotional candour plays right through the record. Chaplin complains of a "lack of authenticity" in the world, where even his pals' Facebook profiles are shot down for presenting a skewed reality. Days after we speak, Piers Morgan will be roundly criticised for his latest headline-grabbing provocation – suggesting men need to “man up” rather than talk about their problems. It’s probably safe to assume that Morgan hasn’t bought his copy of The Wave yet. Chaplin is not only a veteran of “several” rehab programmes reaching back over the last decade, he’s now also an advocate for the power of talking therapy. “Rehab can be very helpful,” he says. “It gave me structure and support. But coming from my education and the way my character developed in my formative years, I was very good at getting on with it, and feeling as though I didn’t really have a problem. “I could go into those places, put my head down, do all the things that were asked of me, and appear happy and healthy again. And I think in some ways that was helpful, but it wasn’t really the solution for me at least. It can be for some people. “The thing that helped me out was going in for very intense psychoanalysis. I got a therapist who I really trusted and who I wasn’t afraid to tell everything. All my fears, all my secrets, all my deepest-seated insecurities – I got it all out to him and that above all else has been the thing that helped me out the most. As it stands, it has made me happier, more fulfilled and a more enterprising human being.” He is, he suggests, typical of a type. Publicly schooled in Kent with his eventual Keane bandmates Tim Rice-Oxley and Richard Hughes, then off home to middle England’s stiff upper lip. All of which contributed to what he calls “underlying emotional problems”. “It’s multi-layered," he says. “Partly it’s the style of my upbringing. I grew up in a lovely place. My parents ran a school [Vinehall School in East Sussex, where he and his band-mates were initially educated together] and it was a giant playground in the middle of the Sussex countryside. In many ways it was idyllic, but it was also completely removed from reality. When I grew up, and was thrust into an extreme world with the early success of Keane, I just wasn’t prepared to deal with a lot of the challenges that life threw at me. “My parents are wonderful people but they definitely have that very middle-class approach to life, to try to sweep the more negative or sad or ugly truths that everyone encounters under the carpet, and sort of pretend it’s not there, that it’ll go away if you don’t confront it.” Chaplin had his “first proper meltdown” in 2005, the period when those around him first intervened, also the period where Keane were arriving at their peak, with Brit Awards and album sales by the million in the wake of their debut, Hopes & Fears. “I saw the symptom as the problem, like if I stopped taking drugs everything would be OK, and actually, for a short period that did work, and I was on an even keel,” he says. “But there were real underlying emotional problems, and while they continue to sort of fester away, the desire for self-medication would return.” So what was underneath it all? “With someone like me, who was quite a sensitive soul ...” he begins. "You see it with a lot of public schoolboys, and I’m one of those. "You see it with a lot of people who have had that upbringing and education. For some it can work, but it’s quite a narrow existence, and you can go through life becoming quite unemotional. It can work if you’re that sort of person, but for me, there was too much rumbling on underneath and I wasn’t able to cope with it, with that stiff upper lip defence for life. “One of the things that really troubled me and definitely made me a more isolated person, were my teenage years. I felt very self-conscious physically and emotionally and the way I dealt with that was to sort of hide, firstly trying to slip under the radar and try to become quite a secretive character. “But the other, perverse, way of dealing with that was to hide in plain sight, in many respects my desire to be the front man and the guy prancing around looking like the most confident man in the world; actually, that was just a front.” Which might go some way to explaining why his front-man schtick – rock-god stage prowling and pumped fists – felt so contrived. “Once Keane had had a lot of early success, it made me feel even more scrutinised and even more under pressure," he says, "so it's easy to see how I had that major meltdown early on and how it continued over the years.” Chaplin was still using drugs by the time his daughter Freya was born, compelling him to address the problem “more permanently”. “My problems were at their very worst during the first year of her life,” he says, casting back just over two years. “I realised that you just can’t balance those two things together. It’s hard enough if you’re on your own. Having a wife and kid [he married his wife Natalie in 2011 and their daughter was born in 2014], it was impossible to be that selfish person, unless I was willing to completely jettison my family, which was a terrifying prospect." He has spoken in the past about how he heard his daughter's voice compelling him to "hang on one more moment, see if you can do it" during a final binge two years ago. “It made me realise that I am not the centre of the universe, and I find that quite a relief. I’m less afraid of death, less afraid of falling down or looking stupid. The most important thing is her health and happiness and it's a relief to not to have to carry around all that expectation any more. “It just fills my heart with joy and happiness when I spend time with her or am around her and seeing her grow, change, become this amazing little individual. It has made me a very happy man because I am so proud of this little person.” That little person is the reason why he’s up at 6am and in bed by 9pm these days, meaning the prospect of his upcoming solo tour and support slots with ELO in Edinburgh and Glasgow poses new problems. If 9pm is bedtime at home, on the road, it’s on-stage time. “That can get a little bit tricky,” he laughs. “I end up feeling jet-lagged so touring is a bit of a grind for the first few days until I get back into touring mode.” In the old days, Tom Chaplin would have found someone, something, to help him deal with that grind. Not any more. “People ask me if I crave that old life, the drugs and the drinking,” he says. “ I really don’t because I’m not walking round with a load of unresolved emotional baggage. I got it all out. I don’t need to take myself off and escape any more.”

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Tom palladium review

Tom Chaplin's heartfelt tribute to family at London gig By Bang Showbiz in Music / Festivals on 18 May 2017 Tom Chaplin Keane Tom Chaplin spent his London Palladium show paying tribute to his family on Wednesday night (17.05.17). Tom Chaplin paid a heartfelt tribute to his family ADVERTISEMENT while performing at The London Palladium on Wednesday night (17.05.17). The former Keane frontman - who embarked on a solo career after the rock band went on a hiatus in 2014 - thrilled his fans as he presented his debut solo album 'The Wave' on stage as part of his 'Carried by the Wave' tour. Sponsored Content Natural beauty at 1,800 metres – Engadin St. Moritz By Switzerland Tourism Sponsored Content Precious stones and rousing mountains in Valais By Switzerland Tourism The 38-year-old singer, who released the record in 2016, confessed that he couldn't be more excited about the opportunity to be back on stage and play in such an illustrious venue. He shared: ''This is the first time I've ever set foot inside these hallowed walls. I'm so excited. I'm so excited I'm doing the show here tonight. I do want your help, you know, I want you to swing and clap and sing along all night.'' The star opened his show with the powerful track 'Still Waiting' and admitted that he had ''a lot of nervous energy tonight''. However, the stage fright didn't get the better of him as he impressed his thrilled fans with an almost two-hour long performance. For Tom - who has battled with drug addiction in the past - the night was a very special moment in his life as the show was attended by the people most important to him. He said: ''I've already seen some familiar faces here tonight. I've even seen my Mum and Dad.'' The singer then shared a heart-wrenching message to his beloved wife Natalie Dive - whom he married in June 2011 and has a three-year-old daughter with. He declared. ''One very important and special person is here tonight, my very long suffering wife. And see, this is a night of celebration, I'm not gonna remind her of all the terrible things that happened and I put her through. I wrote this next song as a kind of apology to her, it's a love letter to her.'' Tom then performed a duet with alternative pop singer JONES - whose real name is Cherie Jones and who released her debut single 'Indulge' in 2015 - to sing his album track 'Solid Gold'. Later on, the 'Nothing In My Way' hitmaker declared how much he missed being on stage and opened up about the ''darkest places'' that he had found himself in. He said: ''I'm just enjoying this, I'm just taking it in, cause you know, these things don't come around that often. You might think about the darkest times and the darkest places I found myself in. This feels so far away - but I know it's dark in here. Metaphorically speaking, this feels so far away from that, it's a room full of joy and happy faces.'' Tom then disclosed that the love for his family helped him to finally overcome his drug addiction. The track 'Worthless Words' describes how Tom's little daughter helped him to eventually ''step back from the edge''. He said: ''It's a song about finding myself in the worst place - which I did with my problems. But having that small soft voice of my little daughter saying 'Daddy, step back from the edge' - I just wanted to articulate that in a song.'' The Hastings-born star also indulged his fans with some of Keane's greatest hits such as 'Silenced by the Night', 'Souvereign Light Café', 'Somewhere Only We Know' and 'Everybody's Changing'.

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Tom Chaplin - telegraph travel article

How often do you travel? Depends whether I’m recording an album or touring. But I’m lucky that both my solo music and Keane [the band that features Tom as lead singer] have helped me go to far-flung places, like New Zealand and South America. I recently went carp fishing in Champagne, France. I live in Kent and can be there in three hours. What do you need for a perfect holiday? Activity and stimulation. When it was just my wife, Natalie, and I, we went on adventurous trips or ones where we could completely decompress – so lots of sunshine and travels around India. With our daughter, Freya, it’s more family-friendly hotels in Dorset. The Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal Your earliest memory of travelling abroad? We’d go on Eurocamp holidays in the south-west of France at Mimizan Plage. My dad loved the big breakers you’d get there to go bodyboarding. I had incredibly fair skin, so inevitably I turned beetroot. You’ve enjoyed golfing in recent years. Where’s your favourite place to play? Scotland. I’ve played in the Dunhill Links Championship, where well-known amateurs play at Kingsbarns, Carnoustie and St Andrews. It’s an utterly terrifying experience because I’m afraid of duffing up my tee shot in front of the crowds. Tom Chaplin at the 2015 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at Kingsbarns Tom Chaplin at the 2015 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at Kingsbarns CREDIT: GETTY Most adventurous travel experience? Three weeks in India with Natalie. We hired a driver who took us all over northern India, including the city of Agra where the Taj Mahal is. We stayed in the Oberoi Hotel and swam at night under the moonlight in their pool area. I’d planned on proposing, but was paranoid that the ring would get lost or my surprise would be uncovered. In the end, I chickened out. Where did you propose instead? Two years later, in 2010, Natalie and I went to Iceland. We saw the Northern Lights and stayed in a log cabin. We’d been together for eight years by then, so I wasn’t as nervous. Thankfully, she said yes. Favourite hotel? I love the Prestonfield Hotel in Edinburgh, when we’re there for the festival. But the longest Natalie likes staying away from Freya is two nights, so spa breaks have become very important. The Lime Wood Hotel in Hampshire is great for that. The Limewood Hotel, Hampshire The Limewood Hotel, Hampshire CREDIT: DAVID GARCIA Most relaxing destination? Little Thatch Island in the British Virgin Islands. We stayed in a cottage on the beach. It was just the two of us and a couple of caretakers who live on the other side of the island. Best meal ever? The first time I had a Michelin-starred gourmet meal was not long after Keane made it big, in 2004. We all went to Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxford. I’m yet to eat a better meal. Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons Favourite city? Lisbon. What I love most about Portugal is its deep history and shabby, colonial feel. The nightlife is great, especially the warm evenings with people spilling out onto the squares. Lisbon Lisbon CREDIT: WWW.ALAMY.COM/SEAN PAVONE / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO Favourite airline? I’m a big cricket fan and I flew Emirates first class to Australia in 2013 for the Ashes. I was almost as excited about the flight as I was about the cricket. Best travel advice? Having travelled so much, I’ve seen so many people’s suitcases live and die. I invested in a top-of-the-line Tumi suitcase that cost around €900. Everyone laughed and said what a waste of money, but it still looks as good as new and I never have to worry about cramming things in because I bought one larger than I thought I’d need. Travel essentials? A mini keyboard and a USB microphone. I used to bring lots of DVDs and other media, but now I’d rather get off my backside and explore my surroundings. What do you hate about travelling? When hotels overlook the little details which can make a difference between a good stay and a great stay. And travelling through American airports: it took me three hours to clear through Atlanta last time. Infuriating. Three ways to make your airport experience less stressful 01:52 Where next? Latin America, especially northern Brazil. I’d love to live in California, but I have a very elderly dog, so it wouldn’t be fair on him while he’s still around.

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Press party article photo

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Tom Chaplin press party - new single impacts

The past 12 months has seen Tom Chaplin step out from the multi-platinum selling band Keane to both critical and commercial acclaim, with his extraordinary debut solo album ‘The Wave’ entering the UK Album Chart at Number 3 and being hailed by critics everywhere. ‘The Wave’ charts Tom’s painful journey to sobriety in an honest and uplifting way. From the opening bars Tom takes us on a cinematic journey through life’s ups and downs that although has some dark moments, ultimately is a life affirming and joyous listen. As Tom says himself, “The Wave is not a concept album but there is a narrative arc, from the depths of despair to a kind of resolution.” New single, the soaring, anthemic ‘See It So Clear’ articulates that resolution perfectly bringing to a close a campaign that has seen Tom firmly establish himself as one of the UK’s biggest stars. Powered by his extraordinary voice, Tom has played unforgettable sessions for Jo Whiley, Dermot O’Leary, The Sun, and on Later with Jools Holland where his band effortlessly swapped instruments recreating the lush, emotional sound of the album. Recently announced as the main support to Jeff Lynne’s ELO (including a show at Wembley Stadium on the 24th June), Tom headlines 15 dates of his own in May accompanied by his amazing band- Sebastian Sternberg, Rosie Langley, Tobie Tripp and Beau Holland. Following an incredible journey, these shows mark the end of The Wave for Tom as he moves into a new phase and new music. Tom Chaplin plays: May: Sat 6th CARDIFF, St David’s Hall (SOLD OUT) Mon 8th DUBLIN, Olympia Tue 9th BELFAST, Ulster Hall Thu 11th GATESHEAD, Sage (SOLD OUT) Fri 12th YORK, Barbican (SOLD OUT) Sat 13th MANCHESTER, Albert Hall (SOLD OUT) Mon 15th EDINBURGH, Queens Hall (SOLD OUT) Tue 16th LIVERPOOL, Philharmonic Hall Wed 17th LONDON, Palladium (SOLD OUT) Fri 19th LEICESTER, De Montfort Hall (SOLD OUT) Sat 20th SOUTHAMPTON, Guildhall (SOLD OUT) Sun 21st CAMBRIDGE, Corn Exchange Tue 23rd BIRMINGHAM, Symphony Hall Wed 24th BEXHILL, De La Warr Pavilion (SOLD OUT) Thu 25th BEXHILL, De La Warr Pavilion (SOLD OUT) Jeff Lynne’s ELO plays: June: Sat 10th ISLE OF WIGHT FESTIVAL Wednesday 21st SHEFFIELD, Arena Saturday 24th LONDON, Wembley Stadium Wednesday 28th GLASGOW, The SSE Hydro July: Saturday 1st HULL, KCOM Stadium Saturday 8th CORNBURY FESTIVAL

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Tom Chaplin so magazine article. April 2017

Next month Tom Chaplin brings his solo tour to Bexhill. Daniella Gavin caught up with him to talk live performances, life lessons and living in the Garden of England… You’ve been all over the world since you were last here performing at The Forum, Tunbridge Wells. How is everything going with the current tour? It’s been amazing. I’m a little bit weary from it all to be honest – I seem to have this strange life where I’m trying to balance late night performances in places like Germany and France with the early mornings that come with being a dad. I’m having a great time though! It’s all going really well with the tour, and it was so nice to finish the short run before Christmas at the Forum in Tunbridge Wells. How did it feel to return to a local venue compared to the worldwide venues you’ve been visiting? I’m actually hoping to make that an annual event as it was so fantastic to return to my home town to perform! It was lovely to talk to the crowd in a personal way; I feel like my show has become much more about me telling a story rather than just a rock show. That kind of engagement is always better than just playing AT people. Crowd interaction is key. Europe has been much the same as well, other than a few language barriers, I feel people are just as engaged. And what is the story behind your latest album, The Wave? There’s a real theme of dark to light which is evident in the narrative arch of the album. It’s a reflection of how my life has gone in the last few years. I stepped away from Keane and was initially so excited about that, as well as then having my daughter, but actually 2014 ended up being a difficult year. I’d had problems with addiction in the past, but 2014 was the year it came back in its very worst form and the timing couldn’t have been worse. The album doesn’t linger there though, and it’s about the journey out of the dark place. There’s a real focus on repairing relationships. There’s a song, Quicksand, for my daughter and the song Solid Gold is written for my wife. Ultimately, it’s about repairing my relationship with myself. Trying to fix me, really. When you’re away from home, what do you miss the most about local life? I love Kent. It’s completely decompressing. Life in a tour bus, dressing room, or hotel is great but it has a certain intensity to it at all times. Whilst I love it, I couldn’t spend 365 days a year that way so I love that my life in Kent is the polar opposite. We have an old Kentish cottage with a beautiful garden in the middle of nowhere. I’ve got my wife and my daughter there so it’s my sanctuary. I love knowing my local area too – which pubs to go to for Sunday lunch and which to go to with friends for a drink. I love living in the Garden of England. And what does the future hold for you? I’m always very wary of plotting out too many future plans. I like to be open to whatever comes my way. I do have a great idea lined up for the end of the year, however, and I need to get my skates on and organise that once I’m back in Kent in April and June. It’s a secret at the minute – I want it to be a surprise for everyone! Long term, I’ve still got more distance to run on my solo adventure. One of the advantages of being a solo artist is I can try anything, so with an open mind I can happily say I don’t know where I’m going exactly but I know it’s going to be fun and I’m going to be okay. I’m excited for the future.

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Tom Chaplin Vanderbilt hustler intv jan 2017

For Tom Chaplin independence has been long awaited. The lead singer of English band, Keane, is now championing his own project. He welcomed 2017 by releasing his debut solo album The Wave this January. City Winery is hosting his second intimate show of the tour this Sunday evening. The Hustler got a chance to hang out with Chaplin before the show discussing his own struggle with addiction, personal joys, and of course his new album. How did you initially start the writing process of the The Wave? Well at the end of 2013 I said to the guys in Keane I’m going to do this solo thing. In the group Tim [Rice-Oxley] wrote all the songs. And as time went on I decided I wanted to have an outlet for my own creativity. So I said I’m going to do this. I locked myself in my little studio on the countryside. I started writing songs that were very outward looking. They weren’t about me, they were sort of about friends’ crumbling relationships, or about my parents generation. Great stuff but very observational and not cohesive. Now at the same time my daughter was born which was lovely and exciting. But it also coincided with my personal life going into an awful freefall. My problems with drugs came back and I started using very heavily. By the end of 2014 I was lost and imprisoned in my own mad world. I knew I was losing everything and didn’t have a relationship to anyone especially my wife and daughter. I was more interested in chasing a high and I was losing a relationship with myself. At the beginning of 2015 I went on a huge binge. I thought I was going to die. And I thought in that moment, if I wake up tomorrow morning, everything is going to change. But actually when I got up there was a change. And the whole of 2015/2016 it was as if there was a ball of energy trapped inside me that was released. I wrote so many songs with all this energy I had I guess been splurging on a ridiculous drug habit. And I had all this stuff I wanted to write about. What was the goal of this album/were you trying to achieve anything? I wanted to sort of document the story of where I had been but also the story that came out of it. Finding redemption. Repairing the things I had broken. Eventually it became about wanting to document the story of going from what was the worst place in my life to probably the best place I could ever imagine being. What was your greatest challenge making music independently? (Laughs) Figuring out how to write enough songs. What in the world!? No! I mean Tim had always done that for the band. Now I knew how to write songs but I don’t think I was aware of how much work it was going to require. [Writing] is like a muscle you have to exercise. But it wasn’t arduous, I did enjoy it. It was a good challenge. The other thing I’ve noticed is that whilst it’s lovely to wake up and be the master of my own destiny, in a band you’re more of a committee. So that can be liberating, however, the thing about being in a band is that if you’re under attack you’ve got each other. When you’re on your own, it is just you. Although there hasn’t been much criticism, it feels very much like an attack on me. Whereas in Keane I could hide behind for example, that I didn’t write the song. But now I’m alone. It’s all me. I have to take responsibility for everything. The most incredible thing someone’s told me about this process was that you need an incredibly thin skin to write the songs, but very quickly you need to grow an incredibly thick skin to take them out into the world. You put a song out there and everyone has it so quickly. That’s scary. Then it’s in most people’s nature to go seek the negative thing. There can be so many positive statements and the one negative thing sticks out so much, and we gravitate towards that. So learning to cope with those things. I mean I think I’m much better at it now than before, but it’s still tough. Why did you choose now as the time to share your story with The Wave? Well it was released in the UK in October. But I wanted to save the album a little bit for American so I could come over to here and have a proper go at it. The album is called The Wave which sort of reflects this attitude I have now. It is the sense of being carried along by the ball of energy that’s inside me. I feel for the last two years I’ve been pushed along by this unstoppable force. And also being here in America, the fact that people are coming to the shows. There’s something about being here and immersing yourself in this culture. There’s a generosity of spirit here. British people are quite cynical and that’s one way of being. But in America there’s a positive spirit that I can feed off of. I find it extremely admirable how you’ve laid your personal issues and triumphs out there for the public. That’s not a typical thing for many people. Did you find sharing your story via the album at all therapeutic? Yeah I do because it’s a very powerful form of expression. But that said I think a lot of the songs I wrote on this album were kind of like an extension of what I’ve been talking about in my therapy sessions. So I had kind of already done the therapy and then documented that. But inevitably it does have a therapeutic element to it. There are times where if I feel restless or that kind of “Nameless Dread”- that feeling where it’s like Ugh, I can’t quite put my finger on it but I’ve got to get out of this frame of mind. I do find that sitting down to write could get me out of What do you like to do outside of music that contribute to your musicality? Or do you even have time now because you have a little girl? The things I do outside of music are actually the total opposite of making music! I go fishing. And I play golf. There’s a part of me that’s quite obsessive, so I need things I can obsess over in a generally positive way. What I love about those things is they put you out in the natural world. You’re at the mercy of the elements. There’s also a sense of personal struggle. I mean in fishing there’s times where I’ll sit on the bank and just not catch anything, and I’m like why? But actually that’s the struggle and I like that you’re not really in control of it. Also it’s the time for mediation. I find it in those places I can just forget myself and just be. Very true, but golf can sometimes get antagonizing! Going to the driving range is great for me. When I get on the golf course it’s a bit of a fight with myself. But I’ve learned to be more calm about things because I used to get super upset. It doesn’t get you anywhere. Tiger Woods has a great rule called the “30 Yards Rule”. When he hits a bad shot he’s got 30 yards as he’s walking to the next shot to be angry with himself, but that’s it. Clear the mind. Maybe the “30 Yards Rule” could be applied to everything. Do you ever think of what your life would look like if you weren’t a musician? I can’t imagine… What would I have done?! All I know is that there was one job other than making music that I really enjoyed. I worked in residential homes of people with learning disabilities in my gap year and a few years after that. And I just loved the people. They were so fun and warm and it was a joy the whole time. These people had a simple but joyful approach to life. Sometimes I feel like my life (and many others) get super complicated. We lose sight of prioritizing the simple good things. I found in that job we’d spend hours making really crap art. But it would give the people I was working with and me huge amounts of pleasure. Even now I sit with my daughter and we’re coloring and I’m thinking, I really enjoy this! So doing something creative even if it’s something simple and with people, I can see myself doing that.

[t-cnews-blog]

Tom Chaplin interview. The bay bridged San Fran jan 2017

The last time Tom Chaplin performed in San Francisco, he was singing lead vocals for British alt-rock band Keane. It was at The Warfield in January 2013, and Keane’s Strangeland album was at its height. The show garnered rave reviews for the band’s extensive catalog of songs with “brilliant lyrics and gorgeous melodies.” Chaplin amassed praise as “a masterful performer.” “His voice is simply stunning,” a reviewer wrote. “He hits the most incredible notes with ease every single time.” But song and stage can be a veil. As Chaplin puts it, he would stay in good health when touring. It is when he returned home to England that he would slip back into addiction. “There have been lots of fantastic tours and records with Keane over the years and for the most part, when it came to recording and taking the songs out on the road, I would actually get myself in a pretty healthy place,” Chaplin said. “I wouldn't drink and I wouldn't use drugs whilst on the road. The problem times for me were when I got off the road and when I was at home. That was when I really was at my most self-destructive.” His battle with addiction reached its darkest depth in 2015 when “one endless set of drug binges” nearly killed him. That critical moment changed his path. Faced with losing family, marriage, and career, he held strong to intense therapy and worked through despair to resolution. “The hardest part is when you realize that you can no longer cope on your own and you need to seek help. That, for me, was the turning point,” Chaplin said. “I revealed to another human being stuff I thought I would never talk about and I put those dark thoughts and feelings into a safer space, not to contend with them on my own but by sharing them. I am a much more open person and much more willing to break down and be vulnerable.” Now 37, Chaplin is a healthier and happier family man living in England with wife Natalie and daughter Freya, born in 2014. He speaks candidly of his fight with addiction. He sings openly of it as well in his debut solo album, The Wave. In fact, one song directly addresses the day he thought he was going to die. “'Worthless Words' tells the story of the last crazy binge that I went on before I got clean and sober,” Chaplin said. “I wanted the song to reflect how I would so often believe that I would be OK but, before I knew it, be sucked back into this self-destructive behavior. On this particular occasion I was staying alone at a friend’s house and had been up for three days solid. I got to the point where I thought I was going to keel over with a heart attack. In that moment I felt this sense of clarity; a voice telling me to step back from the edge. So while the song is mostly very bleak, it also marks the beginning of my road to recovery.” The voice at that moment inspired the lyric, “A soft, sweet whisper says, ‘Careful where you tread.’” It is among Chaplin’s many touching, poignant lyrics in "Worthless Words," and in song after song on The Wave. The record marks Chaplin’s songwriting debut and is striking in its extreme emotion and complete honesty. While he did not set out to write a concept album, he wrote songs as a reflection. The album’s song placement intentionally follows his journey from dark to light. “'Still Waiting,' 'Worthless Words,' 'Hardened Heart,' that is where the record begins,” he said. “It begins in a place of imprisonment and fear.” “'Hardened Heart' is a song about trying to escape a sense of crippling depression. After I got sober, there were a few months where I lived with this chemically-induced low mood as the drugs left my system and I tried to get my life back on track. I looked around and found it very hard to connect with the things that I knew were important to me. However, as the song progresses, it becomes about hope and looking to a brighter future.” Chaplin notes that among the damage caused by addiction is drifting from loved ones which he worked to mend during his recovery process. “I kind of repaired the relationship to myself and the various, and many, broken relationships in my life,” Chaplin said. “Again, I documented that in songs like 'Hold On To Our Love' and 'Solid Gold' and 'Quicksand.' Those are obviously songs about my wife and my daughter. “My daughter was very little at the time of my worst problems and I couldn’t be trusted to look after her. 'Quicksand' is a statement of intent to be there for her from the perspective of having gotten well. Also, in writing a song for her, I didn’t want to write something too saccharine, so the song describes the many highs and lows that life will inevitably bring.” The title track, “The Wave,” features a military brass band with an uplifting chorus of horns as a grand finale for the record. “‘The Wave’ is very much a song about finally realizing that the way to navigate life is to kind of go with the flow and not always being in opposition to it, and not always fighting but accepting who I am and accepting the things that come along.” Chaplin said. In 1997, Chaplin joined three schoolmates in their cover band The Lotus Eaters. Soon after, the band’s name was changed to Keane. The group played its first live show with original material at a pub in 1998. Keane rose to stardom, ultimately producing five No. 1 albums in the UK over about 10 years. It began in 2004 with the debut album Hopes and Fears, which contained the hit “Somewhere Only We Know.” Under the Iron Sea, released in 2006, had the Grammy-nominated song “Is It Any Wonder?” In late August that year, Chaplin entered The Priory Clinic in London seeking treatment for alcohol and drugs and Keane’s North American tour was cancelled. He left the clinic in early October, continued to receive treatment, and went on with the South American part of the tour. The 2008 release of third album Perfect Symmetry marked the band’s third world tour. It was followed by the EP Night Train in 2010, then Strangeland in 2012 which featured the lead single “Silenced By The Night.” “There were definitely times in 2011, before the Strangeland tour, where things were a real mess and I was in a rehab center during that year and there were (times) when I threw myself back into it, as it were, in 2014,” Chaplin said. “Then it was really truly, very self-destructive. It was just one endless set of drug binges where I would go away for days and days at a time.” In late 2013, Keane announced the band was taking a break. Chaplin went to work on a solo album to explore his creative voice. Up until that point bandmate Tim Rice-Oxley, who played piano and keyboards, had been Keane’s main notable songwriter. “No matter how much I loved the songs, I was still always articulating someone else’s world, and so I really just wanted to give a voice to my own experience,” Chaplin said. “Initially I was really worried whether it was going to work, but having found my voice and having made a record that is out there and to me seems a success, that is a great validation for my creative parts. That for me is the most exciting and positive thing that has come out of this stepping away from Keane.” In 2015 Chaplin reportedly suffered panic attacks and anxiety from the pressure of making a solo record. He turned to drugs in “a continuous series of these binges” to the point he nearly died on that pivotal night that changed his life. His music changed, too. “I wrote quite a few songs at the end of 2013, but they were a different kind of song. They were more outward-looking, more of a kind of world view, more observational about other people’s lives as opposed to my own,” Chaplin said. “I wasn’t really writing about the kind of stuff that then made it on to The Wave, which is all stuff that I wrote from springtime of 2015 and after. “Once I got myself well and started to be creative it just built an incredible momentum and I went from being a man who couldn’t even sit at a piano to just being completely immersed in it and writing 30 or 40 songs in the space of four or five months. It was very a rich time creatively for me then.” As for Keane, regrouping the band is “on the back burner,” Chaplin said. “I guess Keane is not going to happen, but, that said, it is part of the fabric of who I am and who the other guys are and it seems unlikely to me that it won’t be something that we go back to doing at some point. I don’t really know when that is.” But, first thing’s first. “I am really enjoying this little journey that I am taking at the moment and I want to see it through,” he said. “I want to give it my best shot before thinking about going back to doing Keane stuff.” The last show of his North American tour will be Feb. 3 in San Francisco at the Great American Music Hall.

[t-cnews-blog]

Great central interview jan 17

Following the release of his debut solo album The Wave in October, Keane frontman Tom Chaplin is embarking on a tour that will take him everywhere from New York City to Bexhill-on-Sea. In May, he’ll be stopping in Leicester to play at show at De Montfort Hall. Chaplin took the time to speak to me before heading to Atlanta for the first show, affirming that he was in ‘rude health’, despite his concerns over potential weather-related travel disruptions. After almost two decades of working together, Keane announced a hiatus in 2013, allowing the members a chance to take on fresh creative challenges. Over time, Chaplin’s bandmate Tim Rice-Oxley had become the group’s primary songwriter, so the process of writing a solo record hugely differed from anything he had done before. “It was pretty much a new experience for me,” Chaplin says. “I’ve had the great privilege of singing Tim’s songs over the years, as he was the songwriter and did an enormous amount of the leg work. However, I’ve always written songs, so this has always been something that I wanted to do. In the early days of Keane, writing music is something that I would contribute to the band, but Tim got really, really good at it and had a strong drive to do it. “In the band, everyone was hearing this external voice when I would sing, but actually they weren’t getting this other part of me, which is my own thoughts, feelings and experiences. I wanted to give a voice to what was inside.” What was inside wasn’t always pretty for Chaplin. However, his struggles and the process of getting through them eventually served as a creative aid when writing his own music. “I had my problems with drug addiction that resurfaced in a major way and that completely destroyed me creatively for a period of time, but perversely, after recovery it became a huge source of inspiration for me. Once I became well, the songs came out, thick and fast.” So thick and fast, in fact, that a mountain of new material was created that he needed to sift through in order to shape the album. Thirty to forty songs were written during the sessions and Chaplin believes that he took the most suitable approach possible. “ALL I DID WAS TRY AND WRITE THE TRUTH” “I always feel that with writing, or with any artistic process, you’re trying to uncover something,” he explains. “When you start out, you’re not entirely sure what it is and the hope is that you can eventually release the final idea from within a complicated mess. “Some of the songs that I wrote just didn’t feel right tonally or thematically. Although there were a lot of songs, it eventually became clear which tracks were the right ones to tell my story.” Most records based on a singular narrative are labelled as ‘concept albums’, but that wasn’t necessarily Chaplin’s aim. “Well, it’s strange because it certainly appears like that, but it was never my intention,” he stated. “The opening song Still Waiting is about finding yourself in a pit of despair, influenced by how I felt trapped by the mental health problems that I had at the time. Then the final two songs See It So Clear and The Wave are songs about learning to go through life with good grace. So, it’s a story about going from dark to light.” The aforementioned story is a familiar and relatable one for people across the globe. The reaction that his work has received from fans has pleasantly surprised Chaplin, who seems proud that the music can provide a sense of solace for people that enjoy it. “All I did was try and write the truth,” he explains. “I was trying to express where I was, where I had been and what I was going through. One of the by-products of that is that once you put it out there, people will use it to find their own truth in it. While it may not necessarily be due to addiction, everyone goes through times in which they feel trapped, but most of us also go through the process of getting through that, which means that my story has a universal resonance.” “I’ve been really overwhelmed by the stories people have told in response to my record. Some people have told me that they are going through a hard time and my record has given them a sense that they can find a way out. That’s one of the things that I feel most proud of. Being open and vulnerable is actually very liberating, which found it’s way into the songs. So, people definitely honed in on that and I hope that it’s a positive thing for people out there.” “WHILST MY ADDICTION WAS AWFUL, IT DID FORCE ME TO OPEN UP” The now 37-year-old songwriter hasn’t always been willing to readily verbalise his issues. “For most of my life, I’ve been a very closed-off bottler of my emotions. I always thought that the best way to deal with my feelings was to deal with them on my own.” “Whilst my addiction was awful, it did force me to open up,” he expresses candidly. “I couldn’t carry on the way I was. I had to start sharing my feelings, fears and all the dark parts of my experiences with another human being, which I mainly did through therapy.” Due to the personal nature of the writing, Chaplin and his producer Matt Hales (Aqualung) decided to record in the most appropriate environment. They completed the album in Hales’ home in Los Angeles. “It was not the L.A. scene of big, fancy parties and living some kind of bling dream; it was very much the opposite.” “Matt lives in Pasadena, where he has a little home studio in which we recorded. It had a very domestic vibe to it, with his kids running around in the garden playing basketball, we’d be able to pop in for a cup of tea when we wanted, so it didn’t feel like an alien place and it was much more down to earth. I think the record needed that because it’s a very real, normal bunch of songs.” Keane enjoyed an incredible run of success, especially in the mid-00s. Their debut album ‘Hopes and Fears’ topped the UK album chart upon release and they have since made four further records that have taken them all over the world, to play in front of incomprehensibly large audiences. Very few people experience the kind of success in the industry that Chaplin has but the opportunity to create something by himself was one that he felt he needed to take, so he can’t confirm when Keane will make music again. “I’ve reached a stage in my life where I need to break off and be a bit more autonomous, which was one part of it.” “I loved singing Keane songs, but I did feel frustration at not having my own creative outlet. I still feel as though I’ve got a lot of energy left as a songwriter and currently this is something that I want to keep pursuing. So, it doesn’t feel like now is the time to go back to doing more Keane stuff. “I think I’ve got a fair bit more of the journey to go, before I think about doing more with Keane. It may be a frustration for them, but we spent a lot of time together as a band, we put a lot of energy into it and for that reason, I don’t feel particularly guilty or self-indulgent for pursuing all of this.” The lack of new Keane music will be upsetting to many, but will be a relief to some. The band’s initial success propelled them into the limelight during a time in which British guitar music was experiencing something of a renaissance. The polarising act weren’t for everyone’s tastes and would sometimes even be met with vitriol because of their background, which Chaplin had become accustomed to.

[t-cnews-blog]

Northern echo interview jan 2017

Tom Chaplin tells Linda Jobling how he has managed to turn his career path from dark to light 'FEAR, understanding and resolution – in that order” is former Keane frontman Tom Chaplin’s own summary of his first solo album, The Wave. Even with his new leaner figure and mature looks complete with facial hair and quiff, there’s just something about former Keane frontman Tom Chaplin that makes us want to give him a hug, like a mug of Ovaltine on a cold night. A former closed-book, Tom is now wearing his heart on his sleeve, as I discovered as I caught up with him to find out more. “It’s like being reborn in terms of making music,” he says." I had this growing sense of wanting to express this creative part of me and it just felt two or three years ago that this would be the time to do it.” It’s no secret that Chaplin battled drug addiction some years ago – a startling revelation that was met by a lynch mob, given that his appearance and reputation meant he just did not meet the criteria for such things – and a recent relapse has been the trigger for this debut offering. “The process in the last two years has been about getting well it’s really the first time that I’ve tackled it head on in my life and now I feel very differently about it. So really the songs are about going from that kind of dark place and finding a sense of personal resolution and also along the way, about the many and various relationships in my life that I’ve had to repair, so the record is telling that story in that order, from dark to light,” he confesses with brutal honesty. Given that this “ill wind” has ultimately spawned this powerful album, it seemed important to discover whether this made for difficult writing, and how it he feels now, having finally got things publicly off his chest. “I’ve always been a bottler,” he says with a nervous laugh. “You either learn to be a person who is good at expressing their feelings and talking to each other or you develop this kind of crazy defence system, which I certainly have, where you try and deal with all your problems on your own. For me, it’s become clear that that just doesn’t work. I think that’s one of the things that’s been really liberating and a relief, I suppose, in the last two years has been this ability I now have of having the confidence to express what’s going on for me. So I find it easy to express myself emotionally in my songs, and to other people, dare I say it, it feels like a miracle,” he says. Tom Chaplin tells Linda Jobling how he has managed to turn his career path from dark to light 'FEAR, understanding and resolution – in that order” is former Keane frontman Tom Chaplin’s own summary of his first solo album, The Wave. Even with his new leaner figure and mature looks complete with facial hair and quiff, there’s just something about former Keane frontman Tom Chaplin that makes us want to give him a hug, like a mug of Ovaltine on a cold night. A former closed-book, Tom is now wearing his heart on his sleeve, as I discovered as I caught up with him to find out more. “It’s like being reborn in terms of making music,” he says." I had this growing sense of wanting to express this creative part of me and it just felt two or three years ago that this would be the time to do it.” It’s no secret that Chaplin battled drug addiction some years ago – a startling revelation that was met by a lynch mob, given that his appearance and reputation meant he just did not meet the criteria for such things – and a recent relapse has been the trigger for this debut offering. “The process in the last two years has been about getting well it’s really the first time that I’ve tackled it head on in my life and now I feel very differently about it. So really the songs are about going from that kind of dark place and finding a sense of personal resolution and also along the way, about the many and various relationships in my life that I’ve had to repair, so the record is telling that story in that order, from dark to light,” he confesses with brutal honesty. Given that this “ill wind” has ultimately spawned this powerful album, it seemed important to discover whether this made for difficult writing, and how it he feels now, having finally got things publicly off his chest. “I’ve always been a bottler,” he says with a nervous laugh. “You either learn to be a person who is good at expressing their feelings and talking to each other or you develop this kind of crazy defence system, which I certainly have, where you try and deal with all your problems on your own. For me, it’s become clear that that just doesn’t work. I think that’s one of the things that’s been really liberating and a relief, I suppose, in the last two years has been this ability I now have of having the confidence to express what’s going on for me. So I find it easy to express myself emotionally in my songs, and to other people, dare I say it, it feels like a miracle,” he says. Article continues after... Emily Bowker and Alastair Whatley in rehearsal for the UK tour of invincible. Picture: James Findlay More Invincible at Scarborough From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads Sunderland Stages offbeat season Manic Street Preachers Manics sign up for Newcastle A scene from the hit comedy The Play That Goes Wrong, which raises the curtain on Newcastle Theatre Royal's new season The Play That Goes Wrong,: Theatre Royal, Newcastle A Weasel in Love by Sokobauno Theatre/The Little Fawn Caravan New North-East puppet festival Until now, Chaplin has been known as the singer behind Keane, having been brought up with what were to become his future bandmates in the idyllic Sussex countryside, and has always remained in keyboard player Tim Rice-Oxley’ song-writing shadow. “There’s something about being in a band that’s kind of, 'You know the deal',” he says. “I’m kind of excited about what I don’t know, if that makes sense.” Chaplin has been well-prepared for this first solo venture, arming himself with the essentials including his travelling music studio, his iphone and.., wait for it, his ten new pairs of pants. “When we’re in America there’ll be lots of long journeys and I’m not sure how easy it’s going to be to get the washing done!” he laughs, giving a flash of his boyish charm and enthusiasm. Away from music, Chaplin has found fishing to be a therapeutic form of escapism for him. “I’m one of those sad men who sits on a riverbank for hours on end, not really doing much, but actually underneath I’m chewing the fat, taking stock of my life," he says. Chaplin remains upbeat and optimistic about the future, despite having had more than his fair share of set-backs, beginning with Keane’s long and laborious road to success. “I think perseverance was the thing that stuck with me and was the thing most important for Keane. I suppose what I’ve learnt is you will run into trouble and you will make mistakes. Someone said to me recently that you’ve got to have a very thin skin to create music and a very thick skin to deal with everything that comes with releasing it”. Well said Tom, we do hope this stunning story-of-your-life album will finally silence the cynics and you get the happy ending you deserve. Tom Chaplin – The Sage, Gateshead – May 11. Box Office: ticketmaster.co.uk/

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[t-cnews-blog]

Tom Chaplin telegraph August 2016

As former Keane singer Tom Chaplin launches his first solo album, he tells Neil McCormick how he beat the drugs that almost killed him "I thought I was going to die,” says Tom Chaplin, with grave earnestness. “I’ve had that feeling before but this time it was very intense. I had been on a massive bender for days and I couldn’t breathe, I was having a panic attack, I was standing next to a wall thinking, I’m going to keel over and that’s it.” Chaplin is talking about the exact moment his life changed, one night in early 2015. As the baby-faced, angelic-voiced singer in multi-million selling band Keane, he became, in his own description, “a raging drug addict”. Now he is back, with a powerful debut solo album, The Wave, in which he addresses his struggle with personal darkness and redemption. One song, Worthless Words, vividly deals with the day Chaplin thought he was dying. “I’d wake up and think, ‘I’m going to be OK today’, but somehow I’d find myself dragged into this unstoppable desire to go and get high. Often it would be when my wife left for work.” He quotes his own lyric: “Three days later, I’m fighting for breath / Death sees me look out over the edge / A soft sweet whisper says ‘careful where you tread.’ Because in that final binge, I could hear my daughter saying: ‘just hang on one more moment, see if you can do it.’” My voice is a beautiful instrument – it suggests I’m pure, angelic. But there’s a real darkness in my soul Tom Chaplin Leaner, greying at the temples, considerably wiser, at 37 Chaplin cuts a quietly impressive figure. He talks about his problems without self-pity. “I don’t want to say I suffered with addiction – I hate that. I did this to myself.” He knew he was reaching rock bottom on the night he almost died. “There had been a change in other people’s behaviour. The people I loved were giving up on me. My wife said: ‘I want to tell you that I love you because I don’t know whether I will get a chance to again.’” But all this time he had kept one lifeline. “I had been seeing this psychoanalyst for four or five years, it was the one thing I kept sacred, so there was a part of me that was thinking, ‘you’ve got to try and get back to sanity’. And it all came together in that moment. I thought, ‘I’ve had enough of this.’ I just couldn’t do it any more.” This is the story told in The Wave, transformed into some of the most gorgeous, anthemic, uplifting music of Chaplin’s career. What makes it even more extraordinary is that it marks Chaplin’s recorded debut as a songwriter. As the voice of Keane, he was always singing his bandmate Tim Rice-Oxley’s songs. “I don’t think I had access to the parts of myself I needed to in order to write good songs. I don’t care what anyone says, I think drugs and creativity are thoroughly incompatible.” Chaplin grew up in Hastings, East Sussex. His father, David Chaplin OBE, was headmaster of Vinehall School in Robertsbridge, which the members of Keane all attended. “It was a very middle-class existence, with a straight path and quite clichéd ideas about the way life is lived. I kind of grew up with no idea of how bad things could be.” They formed Keane as school friends in the mid-Nineties. “I used to do 50 per cent of the songwriting in the days before we were a success – make of that what you will.” They did not release their debut album until 2004, by which time Rice-Oxley had taken the mantle of the group’s musical leader. Hits like Everybody’s Changing and Somewhere Only We Know carried the trio to global stardom but it came at a strong personal cost to Chaplin. “The environment is intoxicating: the money, the adoration, the sense of people around you singing your praises all the time.” It provided cover for deepening insecurities. “Fame was a very elaborate defence, putting myself out there and looking for all the money in the world like an assured frontman. It is a kind of mask.” He became extremely conflicted about his singing voice. “On the one hand, it is a beautiful instrument and I am in sole charge of it. But it seems to suggest a kind of pure and angelic quality in me as a person. And there is real darkness in my soul. “Crushing that part of myself, it came out in peculiar ways: panic attacks, anxiety and depression. It ended in addiction.” Chaplin was admitted to the Priory in 2006 and gave interviews afterwards suggesting he had made a full recovery. He married girlfriend Natalie Dive in 2011. In 2013, he broke from Keane, driven by a desire to write songs again. But anxiety over his solo album presaged a new crisis: “I got back to shovelling coke up my nose.” Tom Chaplin with his wife Natalie Tom Chaplin with his wife Natalie CREDIT: REX In 2014, his daughter was born. “It coincided with the worst of my drug abuse. It was a succession of crazy binges that soon weren’t binges any more, they just started to be strung together.” He describes his year of full-blown addiction as “a living hell” but also tries to draw out positives. “I feel a lot of the tension and the resolution, the conflict, the darker emotional stuff that is required to be inspired, I lived that. And then I was able to write the album from a point of view of reflection.” Keane fans won’t be dismayed by the results. The Wave is imbued with an optimistic spirit of survival, full of pop songs that are lyrically acute and melodically rich. “It kind of reflects the therapeutic process I went through.” Chaplin has repaired his relationships, and says the past 12 months have been the happiest of his life. He lives with his wife and daughter on the Kent-Sussex border, close to where he grew up. “Through the periods of my worst addiction, I did keep my family at arm’s length, but now I can’t get enough of sharing times with my parents. It has been one of the lovely changes as a result of getting well.” Relationships with his former bandmates are good, too. “There was a bit of a cooling off period, which was perhaps inevitable if you spend 20 years together. But we have a deep love and respect for each other that is always there. ” He does not rule out a Keane reunion: “I don’t want to try and predict the future.” For the moment, he is focused on his solo album. The opening single, Quicksand, receives its first radio play today. Chaplin is acutely aware that he is stepping back into an environment that almost destroyed him. “It is fraught with danger and I have thought about that very deeply. I am savvy enough to realise you are never out of the woods. But this time I feel prepared.”

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Tom Chaplin Nashville 2017

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Tom Chaplin huffington post Atlanta 2017

CONTRIBUTOR Keane Singer Tom Chaplin Makes Triumphant Solo Debut in America 14 minutes ago | Updated 0 minutes ago Kristi York Wooten Founder of SustenanceGroup.org; Journalist covering music, human rights and global health KRISTI YORK WOOTEN Tom Chaplin performs at the Buckhead Theatre in Atlanta on January 14, 2017. Releasing an album no longer guarantees success in an industry where platinum-selling singers face the same pressures as fledgeling artists. Yet, Keane frontman Tom Chaplin proved that talent and heart still matter as much as the numbers do when he kicked off a 15-date North American tour in Atlanta this weekend to celebrate his solo debut, The Wave. In a triumphant return to U.S. after more than four years away, Chaplin shared stories about his recovery from drug addiction and raised the roof with a dozen new songs that showcased his stellar vocal abilities. Chaplin’s 90-minute set at the Buckhead Theatre included favorites “Everybody’s Changing” and “Bend and Break” from Keane’s 2004 debut, Hopes and Fears, as well as the current single, “Still Waiting.” The Wave’s “Hardened Heart” and “Bring the Rain” (co-written by Chaplin and Max McElligott ) recalled the joyous rave-ups for which Keane is best known, while “The River” (penned with Aqualung) suggested a clearer pop direction. Chaplin’s backing band did not pretend to be a replacement for Keane, but instead found its own earthier path as drummer Sebastian Sternberg and multi-instrumentalists Tobie Tripp, Beau Holland, and Rose Langley brought verve to the arrangements with strings and harmonies. The intimate audience of 400 fans never relented in its cheering, except to make room for the quiet confessions, “Solid Gold,” in which Chaplin dedicated to his ‘long suffering’ wife for sticking with him during years of substance abuse relapse, and “Worthless Words,” with its delicate falsetto bridge and apologetic refrain. Deep into the set, when he sang “Quicksand” in honor of his toddler daughter, Chaplin bounced with nervous excitement as he promised to pick her up when dreams ‘fall through, screw you, and batter you to black and blue.’ In that moment, it was impossible not to root for a permanently happy ending to the singer’s much-publicized struggles. In our pre-show interview at a nearby café, Chaplin says making The Wave was less about running away from his former bandmates (including formidable tunesmith Tim Rice-Oxley) and more about having the space to dig into something heavier: the reasons why he kept putting his body on the line for the false elation of a chemical high. “Being a drug addict is horrible and exhausting,” he says. “It can lead you to death, but it forced me into a corner. All my energy towards this album started at my lowest point. I wanted to get it all down [on record] and [by the middle of 2015], I was on a roll.” Chaplin says The Wave’s themes drew upon his psychoanalysis sessions and conversations with his wife over the past few years. The raw demo vocal on “Bound Together” feels like a 21st century take on The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood;” the satisfying mantra of “Cheating Death” promises ’just keep believing/you’ve got the strength to go on;’ and “Hardened Heart” moves from desperation into self-forgiveness as Chaplin sings of being ‘stuck on a road of sadness with nowhere to go’ but keeps insisting, ‘it’s a beautiful life.’ “Those words come from a very dark place, knowing you’ve hurt everyone that’s close to you,” he says. “A lot of people have commented online about the song and said that it could have been written about their depression. For me, the depression was self-induced.” Chaplin is not alone in his use of music as a mechanism for recovery; artists in many genres have made albums about their journey to sobriety – from Eric Clapton and Bonnie Raitt to Keith Urban and Eminem, some of whom went on to have the biggest hits of their careers after getting clean. Like others who have pursued projects outside of the bands that made them famous, Chaplin says the “door is open” for future possibilities with or without Keane. During our interview, he mentions how much fun he’s had playing around with covers of Sia and Bruno Mars songs and writing unexpectedly sturdy ballads with songwriters who’ve made hits for pop stars like Cher and Enrique Iglesius. Although The Wave is rooted in the same pop-rock style that helped “Somewhere Only We Know” break through on mainstream radio when Keane embarked on its first U.S. tour more than a decade ago, Chaplin is firmly on a path to a solo career, if he chooses to stay the course. “It was easy for me to slip into the life of the charming, jocular guy in Keane, but I wasn’t facing my truth,” he says. “The only way I could get well was to talk, and to be open and vulnerable for the for first time in my life. It wasn’t as scary as I thought it was going to be. I could actually breathe again.”

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Evening news tom chaplin

Fear, understanding and resolution is former Keane frontman Tom Chaplin’s own summary of his first solo album The Wave. Even with his new leaner figure and mature looks, complete with facial hair and quiff, there’s just something about former Keane frontman Tom Chaplin that makes us want to give him a hug, like a mug of Ovaltine on a cold night. A former closed-book, Tom is now wearing his heart on his sleeve, as I discovered as I caught up with him to find out more. “It’s like being reborn in terms of making music”, he begins. "I had this growing sense of wanting to express this creative part of me and it just felt two or three years ago that this would be the time to do it”. It’s no secret that Tom battled drug addiction some years ago – a startling revelation that was met by a lynch mob, given that his appearance and reputation meant he just did not meet the criteria for such things – and a recent relapse has been the trigger for this debut offering. “The process in the last two years has been about getting well it’s really the first time that I’ve tackled it head on in my life and now I feel very differently about it. So really the songs are about going from that kind of dark place and finding a sense of personal resolution and also along the way, about the many and various relationships in my life that I’ve had to repair, so the record is telling that story in that order, from dark to light”, he confesses with brutal honesty. Given that this “ill wind” has the ultimately spawned this powerful album as a result, did it make for difficult writing, while publicly getting things off his chest. “I’ve always been a bottler”, he says with a nervous laugh. “You either learn to be a person who is good at expressing their feelings and talking to each other or you develop this kind of crazy defence system which I certainly have where you try and deal with all your problems on your own, and for me, it’s become clear that that just doesn’t work. I think that’s one of the things that’s been really liberating and a relief I suppose in the last two years has been this ability I now have of having the confidence to express what’s going on for me. So I find it easy to express myself emotionally in my songs, and to other people, and it’s kinda saved my life probably”, he added gratefully. Each track is accompanied by a beautifully captured, deeply personal image, featuring his home and family. “The artwork is a lovely kind of extra strand on the record”, he added cheerfully, “I’m a kind of purist for albums, I know that’s old-fashioned, but most of the great albums that I love are accompanied by great artwork. We wanted to reflect the songs in the individual photographs so they are another slice of my personal life really that’s being revealed through the artwork”. Until now, Tom has been known as the singer behind Keane, having been brought up with what were to become his future bandmates in the idyllic Sussex countryside, and has always remained in keyboard player Tim Rice-Oxley’ song-writing shadow. “There’s something about being in a band that’s kind of you know the deal”, he added. “I’m kind of excited about what I don’t know, if that makes sense”. Away from music, Tom has found fishing to be a therapeutic form of escapism for him. “I’m one of those sad men who sits on a riverbank for hours on end, not really doing much, but actually underneath I’m chewing the fat, taking stock of my life”, he resolves. Tom remains upbeat and optimistic about the future, despite having had more than his fair share of set-backs, beginning with Keane’s long and laborious road to success. “I think perseverance was the thing that stuck with me and was the thing most important for Keane. I suppose what I’ve learned is you will run into trouble and you will make mistakes. Someone said to me recently that you’ve got to have a very thin skin to create music and a very thick skin to deal with everything that comes with releasing it”. Tom Chaplin plays St Luke's on Friday October 28

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Tom Chaplin Shropshire star

The saying goes: ‘the quiet ones are always the ones you have to watch’. image: http://www.shropshirestar.com/wpmvc/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/25088209.jpg 25088209 Tom Chaplin is back as we have never seen him before – without the rest of Keane 7 SHARES And in the case of Keane frontman-turned-solo star Tom Chaplin, that’s certainly true. Voted by readers of Q Magazine as being one of Britain’s greatest bands, alongside The Beatles, Oasis and Radiohead, Chaplin helped the East Sussex pop-rock band sell more than 10 million records. Famed for using synths instead of guitars, his band won two BRITS, an Ivor Novello, two Q Awards, a GQ Award, and more besides. Read more at http://www.shropshirestar.com/entertainment/2016/10/28/tom-chaplin-keane-to-make-waves-as-solo-artist/#Oev6BpOwKv4dCIB8.99 Yet Chaplin was hiding a dark secret from his fans during his years at the top. He was, to use his words, ‘shovelling cocaine up his nostrils’ as the band became one of Britain’s most successful. And his fight against chronic addiction and the manner in which he almost lost his family and band are chronicled in an excoriating debut album, The Wave. Chaplin is on the road playing just eight shows to promote the record, including one at Birmingham’s Glee Club on Sunday. They will be his first dates in almost four years and will give fans a rare opportunity to get up close and personal with one of this country’s finest singers. Tom has assembled an incredible array of musicians, all multi-instrumentalists, able to switch what they play as the richly layered songs demand. His band features MD, drummer and programmer Sebastian Sternberg; Rosie Langley on violin, synths and guitar; classically trained pianist and violinist Tobie Tripp; and Beau Holland on guitar, synths and piano. They will be playing songs from The Wave, including the hugely evocative first single, Quicksand. “I think it’s a very candid record,” he says. “It amplifies all of the feelings of anxiety, excitement and nervousness that I’ve felt. I feel really great about it. I’ve had really great feedback, not just about the few songs that are out there but also in terms of my personal story and how it shaped the record. “The response has been very positive about that. I was anxious at the very beginning of being open about problems being met with cynicism. But people have been interested and understanding and it’s resonated.” Chaplin has spent 15 years at the coalface with Keane and yet, without his bandmates in tow, he now feels liberated. He has embraced his solo career and it’s given him a sense of artistic renewal. “I do feel like a brand new artist. The reason for that is because I have a very different attitude to life. What people are getting is a whole new perspective. That makes me feel like a brand new artist. “I feel that sense of appreciation for all the new things that are happening, like getting a slot on Jools Holland’s TV show. Three or four albums in with Keane and maybe that didn’t feel like a big deal, but as a solo artist it feels mind-blowing.” Read more at http://www.shropshirestar.com/entertainment/2016/10/28/tom-chaplin-keane-to-make-waves-as-solo-artist/#Oev6BpOwKv4dCIB8.99 Chaplin is candid not only about his drug problems but also about Keane’s abilities. He’s the anti-rock star, a man who calmly assesses his band’s true merits rather than offering braggadocio. “None of us were virtuosos but we spent a long time figuring out a way of sounding good and I think we really achieved that. We created our own sound and were defined by certain things. “But having stepped away from that, I’ve been given a blank canvas and I’ve been able to throw what I like musically at the songs. I have to stand and fall by songs. “As much as I’ve enjoyed my time with Keane it’s time to be out on my own.” To all intents and purposes, The Wave is a record of recovery. It’s one that nails itself to the mast as part of Chaplin’s battle against cocaine addiction. “I’m aware of how devious and powerful that part of me can be, particularly if I give it any oxygen. I’m very conscious of just keeping on top of it. I know some people think there’s a genetic link to addiction and maybe there’s some truth in that. But for me, the thing that is keeping me well is to get to the root cause. “I’ve been through a lot of psychotherapy and I’ve opened up to other people. “Cocaine was a huge part of my life. At times, it was my life. It was a living hell. I was exhausted by it. On one hand, a lot of addicts talk about drinking themselves sober. I understand that. The most important thing was suddenly having clarity about what I was losing. “I had a moment of clarity. I knew that I was going to die. I would have lost everything. My marriage would have been over and I wouldn’t have had a relationship with my daughter. I suddenly realised how awful and painful it would be. It felt like an epiphany.” And so he got straight. Not that that’s ever easy. “I had great stability in my life, through my wife and daughter and being part of a successful band. But the power of an addiction is such that despite having all of those things, they’re not necessarily powerful enough to beat an addiction.” Away from music, Chaplin loves football and cricket. He plays football twice a week, featuring in his local six-a-side team. “I just adore it. It’s about the closest thing I can get to taking drugs without taking them. It’s an otherworldly experience.” And he’s not bad. “I’m reasonably handy, I mill around up front. Occasionally if I’m feeling energetic, I take on a midfield role.” He’s also a huge cricket fan and counts ex-England stars like Michael Vaughan, Ian Botham and ex-Warwickshire-and-England pace duo Gladstone Small and Bob Willis among his mates. “If you’re a true cricket fan, the nuance and subtlety of Test cricket is impossible to match. The attritional nature makes me tick. I could watch it for five days. I just hope it survives around the world and people getting into cricket through 20-20 can come to appreciate the subtlety of the longer form. These are exciting times.” Exciting times for cricket and, more particularly, exciting times for Chaplin. Read more at http://www.shropshirestar.com/entertainment/2016/10/28/tom-chaplin-keane-to-make-waves-as-solo-artist/#3cVefpquDjKEC3Hs.99

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