TOM Chaplin has revealed he has been in therapy for more than ten years after his drug addiction nearly cost him his life in 2015.
During the crisis his wife Natalie told him she loved him in case she never saw him again.
At an album launch in London yesterday the singer-songwriter and Keane frontman, 43, opened up about how the pandemic had given him time to reflect on leaving his “young buck days” behind.
He said: “For a lot of people it was a very reflective time. It is funny because I have been in therapy for well over 10 years now and I thought at that point, ‘It is probably time I ended this. It feels like a natural cut-off.’
“Then during the lockdown I was doing it online but suddenly a lot of questions started to come up in my mind, I think partly to do with that period of reflection.
“That’s what comprises the themes of the album. It is trying to explore different angles that this part of life seems to suddenly throw at you almost unexpectedly.”
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Tom rose to fame with Keane, selling more than 13million albums with the rock band, whose hit singles include Somewhere Only We Know and Everybody’s Changing.
He is set to release his third solo album, Midpoint, on September 2.
Tom, who has two children, Freya and Gabriel, with psycho-therapist Natalie, said he was “nervous” about releasing a stripped-back album featuring “creaks and mistakes” but is not interested in dominating the charts any more.
Of his new track, Stars Align, he said: “When I was younger the desire to be a big, successful band with Keane and to reach “the toppermost of the poppermost”, as The Beatles used to say, it was like, ‘I want to be up there, I want to be right at the top, I want the money, the adulation’.
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“Then you realise when you get them that they don’t actually bring you a great deal of happiness, particularly if you are not happy on the inside.”
He added: “So that song is about parking all of that stuff, all of that naked ambition, and just trying to be reactive and spontaneous and see what comes in, see where the energy is in life.
“For example I don’t have another album in me at the moment and I wouldn’t try.
“I wouldn’t be one of these people that tries to just write a load of songs for the sake of it.
“There has to be a reason to do it and the same thing with KEANE. People keep asking me about Keane, ‘Are you going to do more?’ I don’t know. I will just see how I feel.”
Florence: I got in to music to drink
FLORENCE Welch says she was a “chaotic mess” while boozing, so going sober eight years ago is the best thing she ever did.
The Dog Days Are Over singer, who fronts Florence + The Machine, said she realised she had a problem when she could only enjoy drinking if she let herself go wild.
She explained: “It took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that I had a problem with drinking. I was one of those drinkers where it was all or nothing.
“If I enjoy my drinking, I can’t control it and if I control my drinking, I don’t enjoy it. So that was a real wake-up call for me.
“It was at first during the (debut album) Lungs era as it was fine to just be like a chaotic mess because that’s what that was.
“But then I started to get bigger with (second album) Ceremonials. I thought, ‘Ooh this has to be contained’.”
But the journey hasn’t been easy.
She told Munroe Bergdorf's Spotify podcast The Way We Are: “Sobriety was really lonely, I had got into music to drink. These two things that I loved the most.
“Singing, partying and alcohol are the things I was good at.
“The first two years was a really hard slog, but if anyone is out there and struggling, it does get easier.”
DUNC’S JOY FOR LOVED-UP DEN
DENISE Van Outen looked smitten in Marbella, Spain, during her first holiday with new man Jimmy Barba this week.
But the romance is alive and well at home too, as they have been enjoying double dates with her best friend of 20 years, Blue singer Duncan James and his boyfriend Rodrigo Reis.
The West End actress and telly favourite has been appearing on Celebrity Gogglebox alongside Duncan, who replaced her ex Eddie Boxshall after they split in January because he admitted to messaging other women.
At the Jean Paul Gaultier Fashion Freak Show premiere in London, Duncan said he is “so happy” for Denise and property developer Jimmy and has been “hanging out” with the new couple.
He said: “Denise and I were filming Gogglebox and Jimmy and Rodrigo went off down the pub together. Denise and I came out from filming and we were like, ‘Where have our men gone?’.
“It was like, ‘Ah, they are down the f***ing pub!’.”
Duncan added: “It’s a new relationship and I am just happy that she is happy right now because the last relationship didn’t go according to plan and I don’t think Eddie treated her very well, did he?
“I know she deserves better and I think Jimmy is really treating her well so I am really happy for her.”
PERRIE’S BIG MAC AND HITS
PERRIE Edwards has called in the big guns to help her return to the top of the charts as a solo star.
The Little Mix singer has teamed up with Steve Mac, one of the UK’s most successful songwriters and producers ever, to work on new material.
She spent time with him in the studio on Tuesday as she got to work on her own music after Little Mix went on hiatus in May.
Steve has contributed to more than 30 No1 singles, including Westlife's, Flying Without Wings, Clean Bandit's Rockabye and Ed Sheeran’s Shape Of You, the most streamed song in Spotify history.
And it isn’t the first time that he and Perrie have collaborated.
He was produced Woman Like Me, which Little Mix released in 2018.
The pair were joined in the studio by singer-songwriter KAMILLE, who has been referred to as the fifth member of Little Mix after co-writing their big tunes including Shout Out To My Ex, Black Magic, Power, Break Up Song and Holiday.
Sharing a muted video on Instagram, Kamille hinted they already have a potential hit on their hands.
She wrote: “Crying. This sounds. So. good.”
Perrie’s band-mates Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall are yet to debut any of their solo efforts – and it sounds like nothing will be coming any time soon.
Leigh-Anne set up a Twitter account this week and told a fan: “I’m 100 per cent not rushing anything!
“It has to be perfect, very excited though.”
I wish at least one of them would get on with it.
ANA AIN’T FOILED BY HEAT
TEMPERATURES reached a record high on Tuesday so it seems amazing that Ana De Armas didn’t end up cooked like a roast chicken by the time she peeled off this foil dress.
She wore the metallic outfit to a screening of her new film The Gray Man on London’s South Bank.
Ana was joined by her co-star Ryan Gosling, who is back to his old self again following his transformation into a bleach blond Ken in the upcoming Barbie film.
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It looks like his fake tan has worn off too, which is just as well.
He will have a natural one after spending ages posing on the red carpet in this week’s sunshine.
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