{"id":600905,"date":"2026-08-30T20:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T20:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/600905\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T20:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T20:02:10","slug":"keo-open-up-about-debut-album-put-a-smile-on-for-me-at-reading-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/600905\/","title":{"rendered":"Keo open up about debut album \u2018Put A Smile On For Me\u2019 at Reading 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keo<\/a> have spoken to NME about their upcoming debut album, \u2018Put A Smile On For Me\u2019.<\/p>\n

Interviewed backstage at Reading Festival<\/a>, shortly after their performance, brothers Finn and Conor Keogh reflected on the London alt-rock four-piece\u2019s 2025 EP \u2018Siren\u2019, which was mostly recorded live.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, we didn\u2019t do \u2018Thorn\u2019 live,\u201d explained Finn. \u201cI wish we had, but that\u2019s kind of why we\u2019ve redone it now for the [album]. But for the most part, it was all done live. It was before we had any label backing or anything. So we just had to do what we could do in five days. I really like it, actually.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finn was then asked if, as a self-proclaimed perfectionist, he was tempted to tinker with the recording after the fact. \u201cThere is the temptation,\u201d he said, \u201cbut my idea of perfection, when it comes to music, is the sweet spot between sounding like a record and sounding spontaneous. So, I don\u2019t obsess over a glossy, perfect-sounding record.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of obsess over the perfect middle ground between that and a live performance \u2013 which is a really hard way to work, to be honest with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conor added: \u201cSometimes the most well-played take isn\u2019t the best take you\u2019ll go for, either. It\u2019s a lot about the energy of the take and the emotion in that take.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had examples where clearly something is out of time,\u201d Finn said, \u201cbut for whatever reason, that take just gives you goosebumps or something. You all look at each other and go, \u2018Isn\u2019t that the reason we\u2019re doing this? To make people feel something?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s kind of what we did with this [new] record: we just spent a good amount of time in the studio, essentially just playing these songs over and over and over again until we felt like all of the dots aligned in those takes. And those were the tracks that made the record.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked to pick a favourite record that encompasses those qualities, Finn immediately chose John Martyn<\/a>\u2019s \u2018Solid Air\u2019: \u201cI think he was super-high and he didn\u2019t care\u2026 [But] he\u2019s that talented and the musicians he was performing with were that talented, so it just kind of worked out really nicely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conor opted for Nirvana<\/a>\u2019s \u2018MTV Unplugged in New York\u2019, explaining: \u201cFrom start to finish, [it\u2019s] full of mistakes \u2013 but it\u2019s those mistakes that [make it]. In \u2018The Man Who Sold the World\u2019, [Kurt Cobain<\/a>] makes a pretty bad howler, but you look forward to that bit in the song. It\u2019s those bits that aren\u2019t perfect that almost make it perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what the band could tell NME about \u2018Put A Smile On For Me\u2019, Finn said: \u201cI can tell you loads of things about it. I love talking about it. It\u2019s not perfect \u2013 at all \u2013 but I like the edge it has. We definitely obsessed over not giving it much production. That was kind of the idea of the production around the record. We would really debate whether one harmony should be on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur friend Harry Jordan just basically captured us in a big room, and we had the amps bleeding into the drum mics. It was mostly a live vocal, as well. We have cut our teeth through live music and have built a fanbase through live music, so why not make a live record? I think people need that right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Keo at Reading 2026. Credit: Andy Ford for NME<\/p>\n

Keo\u2019s \u2018Put A Smile On For Me\u2019 is due for release on September 25 via Island Records.<\/p>\n

Reading 2026 continues today with performances from Holly Humberstone<\/a>, Westside Cowboy<\/a>, Loyle Carner<\/a>, Violet Grohl<\/a>, Florence + the Machine<\/a> and Kneecap<\/a> \u2013 plus a secret set from Lola Young<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Check back at NME here<\/a> for the latest news, reviews, interviews, photos and more from Reading & Leeds 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keo have spoken to NME about their upcoming debut album, \u2018Put A Smile On For Me\u2019. Interviewed backstage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[8900,146,13160,85,46,409,1548],"class_list":["post-600905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-alternative","tag-entertainment","tag-grunge","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music","tag-rock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}