Conrad Keely (born 15 May 1972) is a musician, artist, and writer known primarily as the lead singer for the American rock band ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead.

Background

Born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England of Irish and Thai descent, Keely grew up in the neighbouring town of Bedworth before he and his mother moved to the U.S. state of Hawaii when he was five years old. In 1988, while in high school in Oahu, Keely met Jason Reece, with whom he would later form ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead.

Keely relocated from Austin to Brooklyn, New York in 2008, after being "fed up with American life." Keely expressed being tired with America and moving overseas as early as 2003. and is not an American citizen.

Work

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead

Keely founded ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead with childhood friend and fellow musician Jason Reece in 1994 when the two moved to Austin, Texas. Originally planning to form two bands, with Keely on vocals and guitar with Reece drumming in one band and switching roles in the other band, the two soon settled on one band where they swap duties depending on the song. the two soon expanded the name and the lineup. ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead quickly became known for their "anarchic" live shows and their sound, described by AllMusic<nowiki/>'s Jason Ankeny as "an unlikely but powerful combination of punk fury and prog rock ambition." By 1998 the group signed with Trance Records and released their eponymous debut album. After a second independent album, this time on Merge Records, the band signed to major-label Interscope Records in 2001. The critically acclaimed Source Tags & Codes was released in 2002, and since then the band had released six more studio albums.

Solo work and other bands

Keely released his debut solo album, Original Machines, on January 22, 2016 on Superball Music. Songs for the album were primarily written while traveling in Cambodia, but a few were written while on tour with ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, recording them in the back of the tour bus. On the sound of his first work without the band, while speaking with Steve Bell of Australia's The Music, Keely said that he was "given more freedom to explore other textures and stuff that I might not usually" while having "the liberty to create something that's outside of [Trail of Dead's] rock paradigm." He also plays wurlitzer and fiddle for Austin, Texas country-folk band Brothers and Sisters.

Musical style and influence

Musical influence

Keely states in interviews that his biggest influences growing up were classic, progressive, and alternative rock; listening to bands like Pink Floyd, Rush, and The Replacements. The style and sound of the Trail of Dead album Tao of the Dead came from such influences, like Pink Floyd's The Wall, Yes albums like Close to the Edge and Relayer, and Rush's Hemispheres, with Keely telling William Goodman of Spin that "I always liked listening to records that were just a continuous piece, like an orchestra or a symphony." for example, the song "Up to Infinity" from Lost Songs about the Syrian Civil War and the first track "Open Doors" is about human trafficking in Cambodia. Many tracks on the album Worlds Apart are about social unrest in the United States after the attacks of September 11th and consumer culture, and Caryn Ganz of Spin described the writing on So Divided as "lyrically bleak."

2014's IX showed a change in Keely's style to a much more introspective one in writing and sound. While never intentionally seeking to change musical direction, Keely says that he was going through "a lot of personal stuff" while writing the songs for the album and the result was a lyrically personal album. The title of the album, IX, also reflects these feelings, being a reference to the planet Ix from Dune, a harsh and cold world that served as a prison. Keely is a fan of the X-Men and even noted that, as a reference to Secret Wars, he wanted to include a New Mutants character in the collage cover art of Worlds Apart. Despite his enjoyment of comics and the lowbrow art movement, he's said he finds little emotion or enjoyment in modern art and that he prefers "old art." in which he lambasts the modern art movement. Keely noted that he received a considerable amount of criticism for the article.

Keely has been working on a science fiction graphic novel titled Strange News From Another Planet for many years.

References

  • Untitled by Conrad Keely
  • ...Trail of Dead's Conrad Keely featured in SPIN's "In My Room"
  • Conrad Keely's art on Facebook