Keane are back - and reunited with Kevin Godley for their first music video in years. And it's a straight performance video with a big difference.

What looks like a conventional widescreen performance set-up in a white room is anything but. The first clue is the appearance of Tom Chaplin and the rest of the band attached to the walls by bungee ropes. And then it becomes celar - Keane are performing on what appears to be the best bouncy castle ever!

As Godley describes below, it's the latest in a series of videos where he has put Keane, or Chaplin on his own, through a test of sheer physical endurance.

KEVIN GODLEY:

"13 years ago my producer Lucy Nolan and I met Keane – a three piece Keane at that time – at a London studio to discuss making a film for Is It Any Wonder, and I remember suggesting an idea that under normal video pitch circumstances would’ve had us laughed out of the room: surround the band with a scaled down rollercoaster ride with a camera racing round its tracks capturing their performance on film.

"Strangely there were few ifs and buts and lots of oohs and aahs, so we actually got to shoot it and it was a blast. Then, about two years ago we again got a call to pitch for Tom’s song ‘Still Waiting’ and, having prior experience of Team Keane’s attraction to the unusual, I stuck Tom in a black box while we rotated it around him with four cameras looking in, then came at him with a big stick studded with even more cameras.

"The motivation for all this physical torture, past and present, wasn’t simply my sadistic film leanings but the increasingly personal nature of the lyrics, so having one or all of Keane shimmy down a street with some cool dancers in attendance was never going to happen. Keane have been through some shit and their musical process of shining a light on it needs to be honoured in pictures as well as sound.

"And so to ‘The Way I Feel’. I had several creative discussions with Richard Hughes who had a strong sense that the band should be crushed in some way. A physical manifestation of inner demons perhaps, with Keane in
jeopardy and compromised throughout the film. In other words the ‘no cool dancers or walking down the street’ rule remained solidly intact but with a need for the band, now a four piece, goaded into reacting to whatever agreed disturbances were to be administered.

"What I eventually arrived at, with Richard’s support, was a need for performance authenticity. No rehearsal, no carefully choreographed shots, just three simple ideas and the notion to capture them as if we were filming in a war zone.

1) Band in normal performance mode in a white set.
1) Band restrained by ropes pulled by unseen forces.
2) Band on a bouncy floor creating substantial imbalance.

"It was a tense and short day. We shot on two cameras, rarely stopping to watch results and following an unspoken need to keep shooting, regardless. So the final cut, I hope, reflects the band’s genuine reactions to what was, literally, thrown at them. Thank you to band, management and label for your unwavering confidence and to D.O.P. Tony Miller and crew.

"Oh yes, one final major thank you to Lucy for conjuring a custom inflatable floor for half the price and in a fraction of the normal build time. God is in the details and so is she."