IE: Brutal?
TRO: Yeah! They are!
11•2019
IE: But sonically, they’re ebullient.
TRO: Yeah, they are. And there’s that nic-
contrast — a playfulness in the music, a lot
Keane, 2004
been that element there.
IE: Well, it’s interesting to hear the doubt
creep in. Like in “The Way I Feel,” where
you’re not really sure HOW you feel.’
TRO: It’s all kind of interesting stuff to write
about, really And “The Way I Feel” is one
that I’m really proud of. It was very hard to
articulate what I wanted to say, and I was
worried that t wouldn’t make any sense to
people. I didn’t want it to sound like I was
just singing some cheesy song about the
way I feel. I hoped that people would pick
up on what I was trying to say about the
pressure to be normal and the mental impli-
cations of that. But as soon as it came out,
we got such a strong response to it; it was
just another reminder that so many people
are going through it every day, just trying to
grasp what’s going on in their own head.
And you don’t see that when you’re walk-
ing down the street. All you see is loads of
people going on about their business, look-
ing very contented with life. But mean-
while, they’re just churning away inside.
Appearing 3/20/20 at Cadillac Palace
Theatre, Chicago.
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and by ourselves in that way is very hard,
very unhealthy. And obviously, it’s debat-
able whether that’s a natural way to live any-
way. So to put ourselves in a position where
we haven’t lived the Cinderella fairy tale sets
us up for a lot of trauma later in life.
IE: But you ended up with a wealth of
material. Like the bonus-track cut
“Difficult Year.” An understatement if
ever there was one.
TRO: Ha! Yeah, yeah. They’re very frank
songs, and very…very..what’s the word?
12 illinoisentertainer.com november 2019
of energy I the music, which came from us
playing together as a band, and just feeling
super-enthused about playing together
again. And that obviously contrasts with
the pretty intense lyrics, But I love that
about our music. And I think there’s always
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Tom Lanham