“In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.”, Francis Bacon once said. I bet he would love the new Keeno double album LIGHT / DARK then!
Four years into running his own independent label following a decade-long residency at Hospital Records, Bristolian maestro William “Keeno” Keen presents us with not just one, but two statements of intent. One as invigorating, uplifting, and soul-soothing as a summer’s breeze; the other as dramatic, destructive, and awe-inspiring as the thunderstorm that follows.
This 21-track experience takes the listener from the zenith of delight all the way down to the nadir of darkness, with orchestral arrangements chiseled so far towards perfection they have become indistinguishable from a real symphony ensemble.
We sat down with the virtuoso to talk about the format he chose for this fourth album of his, the continued development of his live show, plans outside of Drum & Bass, and what part David Attenborough played in the album development.
How did you decide on the double album format?
I almost released 40 tracks!
Wow!
Yeah, I know! In the end, 21 felt right. The double album format is the most natural way to present all of the different styles of orchestral drum & bass that I make – the harder stuff, the stuff that’s in the middle, and then the lighter, really melodic stuff. After sorting the tracks into contrasting piles, the dichotomy emerged on its own. The seeds were sown at my Bristol DAY / NIGHT event back in July 2025, where I had the opportunity to play a liquid set and then a much darker set on the same day. That really showed me the potential of these contrasting themes. The more I thought about lightness and darkness, my yellow and black light bulb branding – it was a no-brainer to be honest.
There’s obviously a clear divide in the middle there, but would you say that some of the light or some of the dark is spilling over to the other side?
For sure! There is a definite transition point from light to dark, but within each album there’s also shades of each. Some of the dark tracks have a liquid-y feeling. If you take ‘Polarised’ for example, it’s a very liquid-y track, but the Cello solo in the middle is proper emotive. It’s aching – a really biting melody. You can hear the cello digging into the notes. It feels like a Viennan Waltz as well, with its alternating left-hand and right-hand piano ostinato. But broadly: each track that’s on the Dark album is there for a reason.
You can tell! One of my favourites on that side is ‘Flock Of Ravers’ – how did you come up with that title?
I was at Hospitality In The Park in Beckenham Place Park and, as I was leaving the site, I could see nothing but masses of people going around the lake ahead of me. Me and my mates, slightly worse for wear, started doing live commentary of the crowd exiting in our best David Attenborough impressions, “Behold! The flock of ravers…”
I would watch that documentary! On the opposite end of the spectrum we’ve got the delightful opener ‘Read My Mind’ – I was surprised to hear a guitar there.
It’s hanging right there! (points behind him)
So that’s you playing the guitar then!
It’s a combination of a sample and me. I’m not very good at the guitar and don’t profess to be a guitar player. I use it for melodies, chords, colours, and flourishes. This guitar sample was in the wrong key and it was missing some of the notes in the arpeggio that I really wanted to enhance. I essentially transposed the original and beefed it up with a couple of my own strummings. It’s a nice way to start an album, because if you listen to a Keeno album, you expect a piano or string chord first. But to hear a guitar and then have that lead into a close-miked string quartet is a lovely opener.
What is your most exciting production development, compared to your many previous albums?
‘Stronghold’ is the perfect example of that. It’s light and dark all in one track. Plus the production is tight. There’s chords in the bass, which is pretty gnarly, and the drums are very clean and loud. I’m most proud of the sound of the string parts in that track, particularly in the breakdown. That could literally be an orchestra playing, it feels completely convincing to me. When I’m in that track, I forget that it’s programmed. It starts with a bang as well! My tracks tend to ease you in, but this one goes for it right away.
Would you say that the full independence of releasing it via your own imprint Keeno Music made it easier for you to go into this heavier side of it all?
It made it easier in so much as I didn’t have to ask anyone’s permission or sell the concept to anyone. I don’t want to be an artist that people remember for one thing, and one thing only. I don’t want to rely on doing the same thing again and again and again, in order to make a living. I’ve been lucky enough to be a full-time artist for nearly 15 years! Building on that foundation by adding versatility and diversity felt like the most natural way to make the best of this independence: to show people why I make music and what the music I make sounds like without any filters.
That’s why I took a while to get this project finished – because I needed to rehearse that process. The Courage EP, and One and Two Years Of Keeno Music projects were really good practice. Now, three years on, I’ve got the experience from the behind the scenes point of view – the techy stuff the audience will never see – which made the creative side much more enjoyable. Before, I was stressing that I needed tracks that “sound like Keeno”, whereas this time that’s not so important. It’s about defining what Keeno can be, will be, is right now, all of the above.
Speaking of that Keeno guy: most of the album is 100% you. How did you decide on the few collaborators that you do have on there?
To be honest, it was just me problem solving in my music. “I need this track to sound a certain way, who can help?” – as simple as that.
As I was already working on signing a track from Noppo for Keeno Music, I asked him “I have this song, the drums suck, can you fix it?”. Not only did he fix the drums, but he also added melodic elements in the intro, like the guitar figure. He redesigned the bassline as well, so it hits a bit deeper than my previous attempt, and that’s actually what inspired Sam Welch‘s melodic content for the vocal. I built the foundation, Noppo fixed the track, and then Sam made it a song.
Kate McGill actually sent me her vocal and I immediately knew that I had a track that this would work perfectly on.
For ‘Juliet’, I needed a rather rigid MIDI/sampled string quartet replaced with the real deal to achieve that full orchestral impact. A collab with Vibre Strings seemed like the obvious choice!
Speaking of: How did you actually meet Vio.let and Vibre Strings? Did they come to you, or you to them?
A bit of both actually. Vio.let and I have known one another for a little while, but we had never had the opportunity to work together. In 2024, we finally got that opportunity in our collab ‘Frenzy’. I then started booking her for warm-up slots for Keeno Music label nights in Bristol, London, Nottingham and Heidelberg. The response to her show from my audience was like “What the hell, who is this? More of this please!”
Hah! Best reaction you could ask for.
Yup! Vio.let smashes it. In April 2024, we played ‘Courage’ and ‘Guesswork’ together at the Jam Jar, in Bristol. The reaction from the crowd that evening was nuts. Then, a bit further down the line, she was like “I’m putting together a quartet” – and the rest is history. The first time we ended up playing together as an ensemble was at the same venue in May 2025.
I love that during our Keeno LIVE sets with Vibre Strings I feel more like a soloist, a pianist, and a conductor than a DJ – it’s so fun! This also means my DJ sets and my solo live piano shows, like at Liquicity 2024 and 2025, all feel very different to the full quartet stuff and to one another. I now have a set that suits every venue from DJing in clubs to 3500 cap festival stages at Boomtown – a promoter’s dream.
Together, Vibre and I are pushing the forefront of live drum & bass and so that’s why I’m so very, very grateful to them all for their incredible work. They really are the best musicians and the best people that I could possibly have picked. We’re so proud of the progress we’re making. We cannot wait to take the show on the road far and wide!
Where are you taking it next then?
Next up for us is Boomtown on the 13th of August and Village Underground on the 28th of November, with more shows to be announced. All info can be found on my website, for those curious. There’s even an email sign-up at the bottom so you don’t miss any future announcements!
Tell me a bit about that yellow grand piano I’ve seen all over your socials. It looks fantastic!
After we tested out the performance concept with the live strings, the obvious choice was building some kind of piano I could use to DJ and play piano at the same time. With the help of the talented Joe Warbrick, we designed and constructed a one of one yellow grand piano entirely from scratch. It houses everything I need to perform live and can be transported in a van. To be honest, it’s the sickest thing I own! Plus, on stage, it slaps. Couple that with Vibre Strings performing from memory on LED Electric string instruments, and the end result is something truly unique.
You’ve been in music for basically your entire life, you must have learned an incredible amount of things by now. Are you still pursuing new technical avenues – is there even anything left to explore?
Absolutely, it never ends mate. However, in terms of new technical ideas in general, it’s more about the live performance for me right now. I can now make tracks easier to perform live and also more live-sounding, whilst maintaining the drum & bass magic we all love. That for me is exciting, because if I can really blur those boundaries between a live and a recorded environment, then the audience opens up massively. Because I write with an orchestra in mind, it needs little arrangement and no imitation – it’s a true representation of itself. However, I still feel like there’s a long way that I could go from here.
Let’s hear it then! Where do you want to go?
The goal is the same, it’s just that the format, location and scale is going to be different. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t want to become an act that gets booked for “that one thing they’re famous for”.
When I was younger I had a very strong vision that I wanted a symphonic orchestra to play my music in a concert hall. My current vision is the same, but the way that’s coming together is a lot more exciting than I thought it would be! Every single layer of that vision is being built from scratch. The arrangements, the fixing of the ensemble, the hiring of the space itself, signing the contracts, graphic design, socials content, booking support acts, selling the tickets – the whole thing is curated by me and the incredible team at Keeno Music and Vibre Strings. This is why it’s so special. It’s DIY, it’s totally unique and it’s done by people who love it.
Ten years ago I imagined it would happen by being booked by some touring company. I never imagined that I would be and own the company! It’s gone way, way further than I thought. And I’m still only 32, so by the time I’m 42… Who knows?
That’s amazing! By that point you could also take it easier and do more sensibly timed concerts instead of raves that go deep into the night.
The vision is both! I don’t want to lose one or the other. I’m still a drum & bass artist and I make dance music. But, I’m also a classical composer that makes orchestral music. Both things are true at the same time. This is the LIGHT / DARK concept emerging again – there’s no reason why both can’t exist. Sometimes they can coexist in the same space, but other times it makes more sense to have them separate.
What is the future perfect version of the live show for you then? Similar to what it is now, with you sitting at the piano and live instrumentation around you, or are you aiming for bigger ensembles?
What I want is a way to facilitate an enjoyable experience for my fans and to develop that experience over time. I don’t really see a situation where there’s anything off the table in terms of size and scale, but I just have to be realistic. Taking ever bigger risks demands exponentially more risk. I don’t want to spend my life stressed out!
What makes the current live show with Vibre Strings work so well is they’re total pros and they love drum & bass! All of us are playing from memory and we’re totally in the moment. Sometimes improvising, sometimes doing pre-arranged little bits, or just vibing. That’s exactly why the show is succeeding, because all of us are having a really good time! We’re not sitting there looking at scores, rigidly performing a thing. These little moments and imperfections that only happen once at a show are what truly makes a live performance.
Fully agreed! Listening to tracks like ‘Chiaro’ or ‘Not Soon Enough’, some of the cinematic interludes on the album, you can tell there’s even potential for something filmic down the line there. You’ve done the odd movie scoring gig in the past too. Is that something you are considering for the future?
I don’t want to tour forever and ever. I think realistically, I’ll probably be doing games before I do films. But yeah, I’ve done some and I would like to do more. Hit me up, people!
So, what are your plans for after the album?
I’ve got a few projects lined up on Keeno Music first. One of those is Piano Drum & Bass: Volume 2. Another is Vio.let‘s EP. After that, hopefully a Natus EP. After that, it will probably be the middle of 2027 already, or towards the end even. I have a couple of ideas and one of them is a charity project – but I won’t say anything more than that for now.
There’s a lot of people out there who are waiting to hear from Vio.let in particular and they really appreciated Piano Drum & Bass: Volume 1. It’s nice to have a vehicle for other projects that isn’t reliant on me as a solo artist outputting loads of stuff.
Obviously it’s called Keeno Music, but it’s also really nice to see these “Keeno-approved” releases on there as well.
Vio.let‘s music in particular really meshes well with what I’ve got going. Her new stuff that’s coming at the end of this year is not “Keeno-y”, but it is definitely orchestral drum & bass.
Any last things?
Buy my album, hah! You can buy it directly from me, with no middle men, on my own website. It will be pawed by Pancake (editor’s note: his very cute cat), because she’s literally walked over every single one. We’ve got two vinyls, two CDs, we’ve got a USB, it’s on digital, we’ve got three T-shirt designs. The USBs are pre-rekordboxed, so you can just crack on and mix without having to spend ages on your laptop. Also look out for the recordings and footage from the launch show and my 12 hour SWU FM radio takeover!
The album required some hard graft for a while, so I’m very glad that people are enjoying it. The response so far has been literally insane! I’ve done more pre-orders than ever before, the most pre-saves, the most people reach out for other promo. I was even on some billboards in Bristol! It is the biggest thing I’ve ever done and I couldn’t be more proud of how it turned out.
Thank you to everyone who’s supporting me, my art and my vision. Here’s to many more years!
