Gone are the piano riffs and mellow ballads for this English band that was probably once known as ‘the one that doesn’t use guitars.’ Keane’s third album Perfect Symmetry not only has lead singer Tom strumming away, but also features heavy synths, clapping rhythms, saxophone and even a musical saw. A distinct departure from their previous two records, but still refreshingly current with lyrics such as ‘I dream in emails’. Victoria Wang spoke with drummer Richard Hughes ahead of their up coming Star Hall concert.

Congratulations on the success of Perfect Symmetry. Being the band’s first self-produced album, how was the creative process different from your previous albums?
It was definitely the most collaborative record where we had a lot more input. Basically we just tried to have as many ideas as possible and then tried them out and if we liked them they stayed, if they were crap we deleted them immediately [laughs]. It was a really fun time. We did a couple of songs with Stuart Price, we did one song with Jon Brion and the rest we did ourselves. In a way, the concept of having a producer is quite weird and I think that’s why sometimes when bands bring in a producer the record sounds more like the producer than the band. And I guess that’s something we wanted to avoid. We just wanted to take control. It’s a fun thing to do, making a record, and the more that you get to engage in it I think the more fun it becomes.

You’ve toured the UK, Latin America and Europe, what have been some of the most memorable concerts or cities so far?
Playing in South America is always just completely amazing because the crowd there is incredibly loud and passionate. They just seem to have so much fun. We played an outdoor gig in Buenos Aires to 15,000 people and that was just completely amazing. I had so much fun, I think we’ll remember that one for a long time. It’s completely amazing that we get to travel the world and that we have fans there, and I guess the same applies to coming to Hong Kong.

Which songs have been getting the fans biggest reaction?
People pretty much sing along to all of them. From the new record, “Spiralling” gets a huge reaction –that’s pretty cool for us. We do a sort of dance-y, pump-y version of You Haven’t Told Me Anything which seems to go down well. And also “Perfect Symmetry” itself seems to go down really well. Tom’s really good at getting everyone to feel like it’s their gig too, which it is. People have paid money to come and see us and the more that they engage in the show the more they enjoy it. There’s nothing better than everyone forgetting themselves and just engaging in a gig. It’s quite primal in a way when people sing along like that.

I guess a lot of people do the ‘ooh!’ with you on Spiralling. How did that come about?
Tom was doing vocals – I can remember it exactly because it was such a weird idea. He was doing vocals for Spiralling and he just came up to the microphone and was like ‘We should all go Whoo! at the start of the song’ [laughs]. And Tim and I kind of looked at each other like, ‘Okay… I don’t know…’

Did you guys crack up when doing it?
Well yeah…you’re sitting there and you’re saying to each other with a straight face ‘Right, now are we going to pick a note that we’re going to go from’ or ‘Are we gonna say ‘whoo’ or ‘ooh’’ and it’s like, does it matter? You just do it and so we did it, and it was Tom’s idea. A lot of the time you’re recording a song and you hear things in your head that might work, so the thing with this album was that we made sure that we didn’t edit ourselves. We tried every idea, however stupid it might have appeared to be. We would try it out and let our ears decide, and in the end it’s one of the coolest things.

A lot of tracks on Perfect Symmetry are very up-beat and catchy, but lyrically it’s quite sad and poignant. There’s a lot about unfulfilled and broken dreams, or unrequited love. Where do you think this content comes from?
I think there’s a tradition in music with people hiding serious songs under fun sounding music. But at the same time it’s an album that looks out at the world probably more than any previous Keane album has. It’s definitely the most worldly album we’ve made -but at the same time it’s the most dance-able record we’ve made as well. I think where the lyrics come from…I mean we’re people who live here on the planet just like everyone else and we look around and we have our concerns. We might just be people in a band but we know that our country is at war in two different war zones and the economy’s going the wrong way right now…The world’s definitely a pretty messed place and a song like The Lovers Are Losing is putting that in a historical context, going back to the movements of the 60s -lovers and haters, the kind of ideals of peace and love, and kind of wondering why it hasn’t happened and where we go next. So yeah, it is a serious record. We’ve always thought that art has an important role to play in social change. I guess we were inspired, if anything, to start making these by the Beatles, a band who probably changed the world. It’s amazing to think what music and art are capable of. It’s a serious record but hopefully it’s also fun to listen to.

Could you talk a bit about the album artwork? I read that the pictures inside are actually sculptures of you guys.
Yeah, that’s right. A South Korean artist called (Osang Gwong) came and did it - he had an exhibition in the UK …I saw some of that in the paper and it looked really amazing. He takes about a thousand photos of you between about 2 and 6 inches away, and they’re about a couple of square inches of you. And then he makes a sculpture of your body out of foam and then he sticks the photos on. He kind of reassembles you from the photos that he’s taken from the toes to the top of your head. They’re completely amazing; they’re these life sized sculptures of you. It’s a collage of photos of you so it’s kind of realistic but also slightly messed up, and that’s what we loved about it.

You’re a bit like the unofficial photographer of the band, and you keep a photoblog of your travels and tours. Is it something you might like to pursue further in the future?
I’ve been threatening to put out a book of a compilation of photos from the few years of Keane. At some point I’m going to pull my finger out and actually do it. But in the meantime, doing my photoblog is really enjoyable. It gives me a focus to go out wherever we are and see the place. Sometimes you get to a place and you’re a bit tired and you think “Well, I might just sit here” and then you think “Well hang on, the other day I was in Beirut for the first time ever and had a morning where I could go out.” It’s a great way to almost force yourself to go and see these amazing places that you get to visit. I’ll be continuing my blogging no doubt from Hong Kong.

If a film was to be made about Keane, who would your dream actor be to play you, and who would actually play you because they looked like you?
I’ve no idea - I’m amazed that I’ve never been asked that question before. It’s basically a subtle way of asking how I see myself, so obviously it would have to be someone incredibly handsome and suave. God, I don’t know. That’s the thing, I’m the guy at the back -no one would notice. That’s a really impossible question -I’m floored.

Keane in concert - August 11, 8pm, HITEC Star Hall, 3128 828