6 - ON THE ROAD This is the last song I wrote for the album. It started off feeling a bit more country, but gradually got more and more energetic. It's one of my favourites - I love the optimism of it. The feeling of being on an adventure, sleeping under the stars and so on is all stuff that I love - I had just been reading Woody Guthrie's Bound For Glory. And I think it has some of the grace and acceptance that recur in Watch How You Go and In Your Own Time. It's already a real highlight of the set when we play it live. 7 - THE STARTING LINE I wrote the tune for this in the back of the bus on a boiling hot day in Boston in the summer of 2010. It was right after the show, and I was first on the bus so I cracked open a cold beer and picked up the guitar, and this spilled out straight away. That's my idea of heaven. We were in Lincoln, Nebraska a couple of days later and everyone had gone off to get some rest in the hotel. The tour bus was parked up outside for the day so I thought I would go on there and be able record the piano and vocal for the demo without disturbing anyone. Anyway I was singing away merrily when I felt the bus pull away and before I knew it I was heading out of town - I ended up doing most of the demo outside a Walgreens in the back-end of nowhere. I'm not sure the bus driver ever realised I was on board. I like the idea of having to almost make a physical effort to get back on track sometimes, if you get really low or things just aren't going right. It's a very sympathetic song, and I think it a good articulation of the human sympathy that is a big part of what ties the album together. 8 - BLACK RAIN This is a very impressionistic song, written very quickly and drawing on imagery from Ari Folman's amazing animated movie Waltz With Bashir. Every album of ours has a song on it that talks about war, and on Strangeland this is the song. I feel the tone of the song, a bit like the movie, is more about trying to understand, and seeing things from a very human point of view - which is in keeping with the atmosphere of the album as a whole. It's one of the pieces of music of which we're most proud. 9 - NEON RIVER When I was moving house back down to Sussex a couple of years ago, there was a huge metal container in the garden with all my music gear in. I was unpacking boxes one day when I had the idea for a song, so I had to go and stand in this cold dark container, fight my way to the piano which was buried under boxes and rugs and so on, and try to sketch out this idea. I like the line about the bowling alley walls. When we were struggling to get anywhere as a band back in 2002-2003 we would meet up every day to rehearse songs, and when we got bored we would go down to the bowling alley outside Bexhill. We got quite good. We had bowling names for each other too. I think mine was Terry. When I was a teenager I went out with a girl who seemed to have so much confidence and had all these plans and dreams about seeing the world and doing lots of great stuff. Deep down I always felt too scared to go anywhere or do anything, a source of much shame to me. So I felt somewhat left behind. I think I'm still haunted by that feeling even now. But I've always loved being by the Thames, and seeing the lights of the City of London and the South Bank reflected in the water. 10 - DAY WILL COME This is a pretty simple pop song, but it took me years to finish it. My recollection is that I started it in about 2005. The theme is similar to Silenced By The Night, and it's very uplifting and optimistic. I love the line "sometimes our fingers graze the sky but we can't hold on". The theme of chasing a dream through life, trying to navigate the strange land your dreams lead you into, is the underlying theme of the record, and I think that line sums it up pretty nicely. -- Keane Taiwan: 基音樂團台灣粉絲團 http://www.facebook.com/groups/KeaneTaiwan/ --

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