Tim Keegan

My new album Vide Grenier (meaning Emptying the Attic or Yard Sale in French) was produced by Simon Edwards (Fairground Attraction, Billy Bragg, Kathryn Williams) and features an outstanding backing band of close mates, collectively known as The Personals. They are Bernd Rest, Jimmy Count, Ginny Clee and Simon Edwards. Vide Grenier follows on from my solo albums The Long Game (2015) and Foreign Domestic (2007) and features the singles Pomme de Terre, Intensive Care Unit and Jamie’s Going Snowboarding. It comprises 11 songs which I wrote over quite a long period (from 1988 to 2024)and each song is a snapshot from a different period in my life; I like to think of it as a Greatest Hits where none of the tracks has been heard before. I’m thrilled to be touring it in 2025 with this great band.

I’ve been working as a performing songwriter in a variety of groups and as a solo artist since I left university in 1989. I’ve collaborated with many other artists and musicians over the years and played and recorded with Robyn Hitchcock and Kid Loco for extended periods. My main songwriting influences are probably the holy trinity of Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and Leonard Cohen and the artists I'm most often compared to would be Lloyd Cole, Grant McLennan and Richard Hawley. Alongside music and parenting, I’ve done lots of different jobs, most recently training (and writing songs) to teach foreign languages (I speak fluent French and German) and I've lived and worked in London, Berlin, Nashville, Paris and Brighton.

My band Departure Lounge’s first album, Out Of Here (1999) was enthusiastically received by the critics and our second album, Too Late To Die Young (Bella Union 2002, produced by Kid Loco) was made the first ever Album of the Week on the fledgling BBC6 Music. At that time we were invited to tour with Morcheeba, Paul Heaton and The Go-Betweens, which gives you some idea of the broadness of our appeal, or difficulty to categorise, whichever you prefer.

Departure Lounge ceased operations at the end of 2002 only to reunite in 2019 for UK shows to celebrate the 20th anniversary of our debut and ended up recording an album of brand new material in four days in Devon. Transmeridian, came out on Liverpool/Paris-based Violette Records in March 2021 to more generous acclaim. The single, Australia, featured special guest Peter Buck from R.E.M. on Rickenbacker 12-string guitar.

Upon hearing Transmeridian, the legendary Janice Long asked us to record a session for her BBC radio show and invited me to meet up for a drink with her in Liverpool. Six months later she was gone, along with my friend and mentor, Pat Fish (aka The Jazz Butcher), with whom I played in Paris not long before he died, and to whose memory this album is dedicated.

In 2015 and again in 2024 I travelled to Arctic Norway to perform at the Snow Station Vadsø festival alongside John Paul Jones, Penguin Café, The Only Ones, Lenny Kaye, Steve Wynn, Vicki Peterson of the Bangles and Peter Buck & Mike Mills from R.E.M. (plus a host of lesser-known superstars). The festival is curated by Michèle Noach, an artist friend of mine and is one of the most rewarding projects I’ve ever been part of.

I live in Worthing on the south coast of England, where I have a long-running monthly live residency at local seafront hostelry, The Beach House.

(Tim Keegan, November 2024)

“Combines an understanding of the songwriter’s art and a love of cracking tunes.” (Music Week)

“Some of the most wonderful, eclectic, optimistic pop music being created at the moment”
(The Sunday Times)

“Sophisticated angst-pop, grounded by classic songwriting skills.” (Mojo)

“Casebook studies in flawless songwriting. This is great pop music, unadorned by spin, resolutely free of pretence” (NME)

“A voice somewhere between Lou Reed and Edwyn Collins - made to sing of love and truth" (les Inrockuptibles)