Tom Chaplin isn’t looking further ahead than the next few months as he prepares to release his forthcoming solo LP ‘Midpoint’.
Due September 2, the Keane frontman’s latest offering is a largely stripped-back set with “creaks and mistakes,” as he shied away from over-polishing the raw recordings.
Speaking during an intimate launch event in London, the musician – who has released five hit albums with the group, along with his Top 3 solo debut ‘The Wave’ – admitted that no longer seeks the commercial success he once craved.
“When I was younger, the desire to be a big, successful band with Keane and to reach ‘the toppermost of the poppermost’, as The Beatles used to say, it was like, ‘I want to be up there, I want to be right at the top, I want the money, the adulation’,” he mused.
“Then you realise when you get them that they don’t actually bring you a great deal of happiness, particularly if you are not happy on the inside.”
It’s something he reflects on across the new set, on tracks such as Stars Align, and it’s left him questioning his future as a recording artist.
“I don’t have another album in me at the moment and I wouldn’t try,” he insists. “I wouldn’t be one of these people that tries to just write a load of songs for the sake of it.
“There has to be a reason to do it and the same thing with Keane. People keep asking me about Keane, ‘Are you going to do more?’ I don’t know. I will just see how I feel.”
‘Midpoint’ was born two years ago when Keane’s ‘Cause and Effect’ tour was interrupted by the pandemic.
In support of the album, Tom will hit the road with a UK tour this autumn, beginning October 6 at Leicester’s De Montfort Hall and finishing up at the London Palladium October 22nd. Tickets go on sale July 15.
‘Midpoint’ is out September 2 and available to pre-order now.