Meet Keo, the rising rockers with a refreshingly raw sound

Give Keo’s ‘I Lied, Amber’ a single listen and you’ll immediately get the idea of what these London-based rising rockers are all about. It’s all distortion and fuzz on the surface, but dig beneath the surface and you’ll find there’s real depth in the lyrics of frontman Finn Keogh – whether it’s raw break ups or confronting his perfectionism head on.

It’s easy to say that parallels can be drawn with the similarly raw sound of band of the moment Wunderhorse. But both embrace imperfections, which comes across in Keo’s latest EP Siren after the decision was taken to record it live, resulting in a situation where a scratchier and old fashioned way of doing things can, ironically, result in a sound that has given UK guitar its biggest kick up the fretboard in years.

Now, it’s only a matter of time before Keo’s sound secures them a legion of fans.

Read our Play Next interview with Keo and listen to them via our Play Next playlist on Spotify below.

There’s some heavy themes on your latest EP, Siren. Relationships ending and mental health issues are just a few of these – why did you want to tackle these and what does it add to the EP?

It’s not the easiest lesson in the things we talk about, but the production of the songs and structure also lends itself to that ethos of being vulnerable, whether that’s the meaning, the lyrical themes or the production. I don’t think any record should be perfect, especially the ones I like, they’re definitely not perfect. And that makes them more human, you know, I think all my favourite records are just full of imperfections which is what I like. Most of the EP was recorded live and we actually did it in a garage. It’s pretty rough around the edges, but I think that’s what gives it character.

That rawness seems to be a real thing at the moment. Wunderhorse did it so well on their last album…

Yeah, although we weren’t really thinking about how other bands had done it. It was more what had worked for us in the past and how Pete Robertson, the producer, want us to do it. For him, actually, and what we realised is that the best mentality to have when you go into recording songs live is to not think about recording it and just to feel like you’re rehearsing it for a gig. You need to remain excited about it.

There’s this certain kind of excitement you can get, prior to a gig, when you’re rehearsing a new song. And if you can get into that frame of mind rather than knowing that you’re recording the track, I think that’s where the magic is.

There’s this mythic already about the years you spent living in everywhere from Plymouth to Portugal while following music. How does that shape the band and you as an artist?

Different life experience and different characters and different places all play a part. In this EP, there’s a particular look at Portugal because I had some heavier memories in Portugal and long-term relationships and things like that that came to an end. These songs represent a favourite memory of different eras. ‘Thorn’ is the oldest song on the EP and that came after a breakup of a three-year long relationship. It’s kind of almost saying goodbye to that period of life as well as the relationship.

‘Stolen Cars’ and ‘I Lied, Amber’ are more of a London thing and written about my perfectionism. It was quite intense recording this EP and me and Ollie, the drummer, had a moment where we realised how our perfectionism was becoming a hurdle and not a positive thing.

Who did you listen to growing up?

The first artist that I think changed my life was Ben Howard. I find it funny because people think he’s some pop guy from the 2010s. But if you dive into his discography you’ll find he has got some incredible art and I was living down in Devon, which is near where he’s from. He was kind of seen as a bit of a hero around there.

And I would busk in Totnes, which is pretty much where he wrote the whole of his first record Every Kingdom. Ben Howard was also the gateway into like Nick Drake and John Martin for me. So a lot of folk music and then my brother is a huge grunge fan and he always had Nirvana on in the background of my life. Probably his fucking bedroom. We had a united love of Pearl Jam. And Radiohead too!

It feels like an exciting time to be in a guitar band too…

It feels like we’re in the right place at the right time, which is funny, because when I moved to London and I started Keo, which is probably about three and a half years ago now, it was so frowned upon to be doing what we were doing. Singing melodically with electric guitars and bringing songs to the table, rather than arts-y stunts or political stunts. People thought it was very uncool to be doing anything melodic, but that’s the kind of thing I’ve always done.

It’s just funny because Wunderhorse and Fontaines D.C. went more melodic and suddenly it felt like the thing to be doing. We were exposed to all these new fans around the UK that thought we were jumping on some sort of bandwagon. So it’s a funny one. We got shit for doing it for years, but now we get shit from people who think we’ve jumped on a bandwagon!

How do you respond to those critics?

I think the truth will always rise to the top, and I believe what we’re doing is real. I know what we’re doing is real, and I think people are gonna see that in no time. The longer we’re around, the longer and the clearer is that we’re here to stay, So, yeah, I mean, it doesn’t bother any of us at all. I want people to know it’s coming from an honest place and it isn’t sanitised.