Signed with BMG to publish their music

The band signed with BMG to publish their music in April 2002, and this enabled them to better commit to music, but at this time they did not yet have a recording contract. Sometime in early 2002, Rice-Oxley wrote ” Everybody’s Changing .” He played it for Chaplin, Hughes and people at BMG, and then the band developed the song into a demo completed in July. They also produced a demo of “Walnut Tree” completed in May. 2002 was a hard year for Keane. All recording or live performances were stopped, and Scott’s feeling of going nowhere was starting to tell on Rice-Oxley and Chaplin. In December, Keane returned to performing live. One gig at the Betsey Trotwood in London was attended by Simon Williams of Fierce Panda Records , the same man who had discovered Coldplay years previously. Williams offered to release the first commercial single by the band. This release was ” Everybody’s Changing “, which Steve Lamacq named single of the week on Lamacq Live on 14 April 2003, and came out as a CD single on 12 May. As a result of the attention created by this release and because of the strong live reputation they had built through constant UK touring, a bidding war for the band ensued among major record labels. The band decided to sign with Island Records in summer 2003. After first being attracted to the band by the considerable industry buzz then surrounding them and from hearing “Everybody’s Changing” on the radio, the Island A&R, Ferdy Unger-Hamilton, told HitQuarters that he wanted to sign them after hearing the five songs “Everybody’s Changing”, “This Is the Last Time”, “She Has No Time”, “Bend and Break” and “Somewhere Only We Know”, saying “every one of them was brilliant…they had a fantastic live show [but] even if I hadn’t been able to see them live, I would have tried to sign them anyway.” According to Unger-Hamilton, Keane chose to sign with Island because they got on well with the A&R and were convinced that he did not want to change them in any way.