“I’m extra obsessive about guitar now than I’ve ever been in my life,” professes Finn Keogh. Though Keo’s frontman and rhythm guitarist has been toying round along with his dad’s Yamaha acoustics, banjos and mandolins since main faculty, his first real love was songwriting, not his six-string. “I do know it sounds mad, however I’m going by a Hendrix part proper now. It took me all this time…”

The ying to Keogh’s yang is lead guitarist Jimmy Lanwern, dubbed the “remaining match” for the London alt-rock quartet after many had tried the position. Gripped by Hendrix, Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis and all types of 90s alt-rock, Lanwern’s “typical guitar heroes” route explains why you’ll usually catch him with a Jazzmaster or Jaguar. “I don’t know if it’s fairly apparent,” he jokes by his darkish mop of hair, “however Jonny Greenwood was an enormous affect on me.”

Though Keo had been slaving away on the London gig circuit for a few years, Lanwern’s introduction sparked a big shift of their fortunes. By his third gig, they’d secured an agent, supervisor and performed at Scala, as mutterings of the capital’s subsequent nice guitar act intensified whereas they consciously held again music. Nearer in age than their bandmates, Keogh and Lanwern’s friendship is vital to their synchronicity with the guitar.

“I truly noticed his pedalboard earlier than something, as a result of I used to be fed up with taking part in with guitarists [who] would flip up and not using a pedalboard,” Keogh explains. “In case you invite somebody to rehearsal they usually plug their Les Paul into the fucking black Boss Katana, they could be capable to shred….” He politely declines to complete that sentence, however in Lanwern, he discovered a participant who had substance to his type. “I used to be extra critical about tones than I used to be about my taking part in, and I believe that’s the rationale it really works,” Lanwern tells Guitar.com.

The Sound Of Sirens

After breaking the impasse final March with debut single I Lied, Amber, Keo’s debut EP Siren adopted in June. Each strum of the guitar feels intentional and uncooked, discovering a moody center floor on songs like Fingers and Thorn. Not often pushed by catchy riffs and hooks, there’s a sense that Keo are steadily curating their very own wall of sound, albeit with far more of an indie twang than the haze of The Smashing Pumpkins and My Bloody Valentine.

“We positively suppose extra about soundscaping,” explains Keogh. “Not simply throwing on an overdrive and going, ‘That is the dimensions and this can be a lick.’ [Creating] an environment greater than something, that’s what I really like about Jimmy’s taking part in.” In dialog with Keogh immediately, his charismatic however pensive nature resembles a bandleader who cares deeply about every transferring half inside that environment.

Maybe destined to grow to be a frontman, Keogh admittedly resonates with lead singers greater than guitarists, choosing up taking part in habits from pals and friends. “My previous buddy used to actually aggressively swing his neck after each chord, and it’d have this good vibrato,” he explains – a trait that he’s transferred onto Lanwern. “Not solely did it look cool, however you’re altering the pitch – ever so barely – of that chord. It’s virtually like shaking the slide on a fret.”

Admitting he fell in love with Ben Howard’s “percussive” pick-and-go method and early Keo songs tried to recreate Pearl Jam’s Daughter, the framework for Keo clicked into place when he stopped trying to different artists for inspiration. Whereas he additionally writes solo materials – and has not too long ago penned a world publishing cope with Common – he’s realised any guidelines for what defines a Keo music are made-up.

“Each band begins by in search of [their sound], and it takes them a very long time to not,” he elaborates. “You’ll get two years down the road and all the time drop these songs. The perfect songs, for me, you’ve acquired everybody within the room after going, ‘The place does that come from?’ Nearly like attempting to determine your ancestors or giving it a DNA take a look at. ‘Why did that sound like that?’ The perfect affect naturally comes out, fairly than fascinated about it.”

The Youngsters Are Alright

TikTok has aided Keo’s early buzz, regardless of their alt-rock serving because the antithesis to the business sounds you’d anticipate to go viral. At their reveals, you’ll discover rooms dominated by youngsters, a attribute shared by bands like Fontaines D.C. and Wunderhorse lately. Keo’s sound has drawn unavoidable comparisons to the latter, and there’s a way they’re subsequent in line to comply with them by to academies and arenas. On this month’s upcoming UK tour, they’ve shifted 3,000 tickets in London alone.

“I believe we get an unfair quantity of criticism for leaping on some bandwagon with Wunderhorse and Fontaines,” muses Keogh. “However I can wholeheartedly say that for the reason that daybreak of time, I wished to make a band that was Pearl Jam-esque, Nirvana-esque, Radiohead-esque. I’ll give kudos to Wunderhorse and Fontaines, as a result of after I noticed them very early on, it was fairly reassuring to see how folks had been doing guitar music in a brand new trend. We positively took numerous affect from these bands, however we had been already on our approach to determining how one can make one thing new.”

“I keep in mind a time frame the place I used to be actually pissed off, that I used to be into all this previous music, and nobody else I used to be mates with appeared to actually be into it,” remembers Lanwern. “Assembly Finn and the boys and seeing bands like Wunderhorse and Fontaines, it does reassure you.” At their gigs, each Keogh and Lanwern see snippets of their youthful selves within the viewers: the fan present process that eureka second, discovering others who love good old style rock music.

“You’ll be able to see them coming to your reveals, it’s like they’ve had this secret on their chest for his or her complete lives,” says Keogh. “They uncover our band, they usually’re like, ‘Fuck, I get this, and perhaps solely I get this,’ and I believe that makes it extra precious to them. Everybody else that involves the reveals feels the identical, after which instantly you’ve acquired all of these folks in a room, a little bit of a scene going, and a group.”

On the time of writing, simply 4 guitar bands are on the Studying & Leeds 2026 line-up, a competition that has all the time existed as a pillar of youth. They’re Fontaines D.C., Florence and the Machine, Geese and Keo. Having already carried out on its BBC Introducing Stage, do Keo really feel the strain of the competition’s guitar-rich heritage, as in the event that they’re flying the flag for the subsequent technology of guitar bands?

“To say we’re carrying the torch is sort of an enormous factor to assert, however it’s fairly a surreal factor for it to be rising so rapidly, and I really feel like we’re virtually attempting to meet up with it,” responds Lanwern. “It’s arduous to just accept, mentally, the place we’re,” provides Keogh. “Once you’re developing, there’s this imposter syndrome right here and there, however inside Keo now, we’ve honed our craft a lot and actually put within the hours. There’s additionally now this confidence of, ‘We’re the actual deal,’ as a result of we’ve fucking gone by every thing we wanted to undergo.

“After we go to Studying, the mindset is that we’re competing for that ‘spearheading band.’ We do really feel like we’re on the tail of these larger bands, and we’re placing every thing we fucking have into this band. In case you put sufficient effort into one thing, you’re feeling such as you’ve gained sufficient information and earned your stripes, primarily. The reveals provide you with adrenaline. You need these reveals the place all eyes are on you – the place it freaks you out.”

With only one EP to their title, every thing about Keo’s angle, sound and decision-making factors in the direction of a band destined for greatness. Such is the boldness of their stay present that solely final month, they launched their Dwell At Village Underground movie in unbiased cinemas across the UK. Now, chatting with Guitar.com in between studio classes, they’re readying their subsequent transfer.

“A band will get to a sure level the place you virtually begin referencing your self, and also you’re not fascinated about different bands,” concludes Keogh. “It takes years to get to, however within the final six months, there’s no want for [explanation]. Keo has acquired its personal blueprint now, it’s happening its personal lane, and that actually fucking excites me.”

Keo will tour the UK from 5-15 March 2026.