The brothers from Praia da Luz who are rocking the London music scene
Keo is a four-piece alternative rock band formed by the Keogh brothers, who spent their formative years in Praia da Luz. Now living in London, Finn and Conor look set to rock the music charts after playing in Hyde Park last summer and performing sell-out sets at the famous Windmill in Brixton. Sophie Sadler spoke to Finn to find out what is driving their success.
Listening to some of Keo’s music with its melancholic vocals and uplifting guitar riffs is taking me back to my 90s hay days of dancing the night away in sweaty basement clubs, wearing baggy charity store clothes and Converse trainers while downing an alco-pop. This does not take away from Keo’s innovative sound, which a Ticketmaster review described as “angsty post-grunge”.
The same review went on to reflect that “lead singer Finn’s sentimentality shone through the bulldozing instrumentation, evoking bands such as Bush and even Silverchair.”
I ask Finn where his influences come from. “Mum and Dad have always played early 90s bands like Pearl Jam and Nirvana. My brother Conor, who plays bass, is a massive Nirvana fan. He has a tattoo of the In Utero album art on his arm. I’m more of a Radiohead fan and listen to folk music from the 90s.”
There is a definite move back to guitar music in the UK, and 2025 looks set to take a trip back to the 90s sound with the Oasis tour. But there are a few new bands, like Wunderhorse, Fontaine DC and Sam Fender, featuring guitar rock who are taking over the UK live music scene. “You can feel the influence of this sound in my age group,” reflects Finn. “There’s a massive grunge movement, or more like a take on it because it’s evolved due to new technology, so the sound is different. I think it was always in my imagination that one day guitar rock would come back in and it has – but in a more interesting way. If you take Fontaine DC’s music, it’s almost like Nirvana and the Smiths had a baby! Wunderhorse’s sound is like Neil Young songwriting, but it’s played with electric guitars and distortion pedals, so it sounds like Nirvana.”
The Keogh brothers grew up all around England, living in Birmingham, North Devon, Bristol, and then Waterford, Ireland. “I don’t think I was in any primary school for more than six months at a time.” This peripatetic existence was down to the fact that his Dad Davey is also a musician.”Dad’s an Irish folk singer, but his act is also very comedic. He’s one of the funniest people you’ll meet.
He’s probably done more gigs than any band on the planet! I used to join him on the road in the UK and once, we even toured the States in an old van as his support act. My brother and I would do a little 30-minute set in between two hours of his music, so performing has always been my life. My earliest memories are on my dad’s lap singing ‘Dirty Old Town’ in front of a packed pub.”
When Finn was 15, the family moved to the Algarve, where he stayed until he was 18, but his parents still live in Luz and he returns often to take a break and pursue his other passion, surfing. “I think most of my actual growing up, like becoming an adult, was done in Portugal.” He missed a chunk of education down to COVID so he never sat GCSEs. “I spent the pandemic in the Algarve with my family. I decided to buy myself a new surfboard. Then, the following day, they made surfing illegal and closed all the local beaches due to the pandemic.”
After lockdown the brothers were well-known in the local music scene. When Finn was 16, he played in local bars like Indigo over the summer as well as busking on Luz seafront. Soon, the bright lights of London called him to find fame and fortune. Even with no academic qualifications, Finn got a scholarship at the London University of Music. “I just went in and played them some songs that I’d written and they took me.”
Finn was in a production class in a small London studio when he first heard the drumming of Oli Spackman. “Oli volunteered to play whilst we recorded and I recognised he was just astonishingly good at the drums and then we hit it off,” recalls Finn, who always planned to form a band in the back of his mind. “There’s an old saying, ‘You’re only as good as your drummer’, and it’s so true. So knowing Oli from the early days was a big influence in forming the band, although we were good friends for six months before I asked him to join.”
Then, two years ago, Conor met guitarist Jimmy Lanwern, and after years of dreaming, Finn’s band suddenly became a reality. “I’ve got Conor on bass and he’s the glue. I know I’ve always got a good bass player and my brother with me. But after meeting Oli and Jimmy, it finally feels like that kind of brotherhood that’s important for a band.”
The new four-piece have also honed some of their skills in the Algarve. “We did a gig at Mellow Loco in Lagos, and afterwards, the owner threw us an awesome after-show party. The booze was flowing freely and everyone got pretty wasted. Oli was so drunk he let the owner give him a smiley face tattoo on his thigh. Oli didn’t remember a thing until two days later when he rediscoveredthe tattoo on the flight back to London.”
With the band established, they set about trying to conquer the London music scene. Finn describes himself as the ‘squeaky wheel’ managing the band and trying to get noticed. “Music has always been everything to me. I’ve always believed that I can make it and I’ve drilled that mentality into the rest of the band.”
Finn acted as the manager, cold-emailing promoters and trying to get bookings. “To start with, getting any gig was really hard. But we just kept doing more and more shows and then we started to get noticed by A&Rs who were coming to watch us.” The Artist & Repertoire division of a record label is responsible for scouting, financing and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. “They are basically scouts and it became pretty clear maybe two years ago that we started to get A&Rs at every gig. In 2024, Keo wowed crowds at The Windmill in Brixton, a live music venue with a reputation for championing new music.
I ask Finn if he has a record deal, which in my head is the holy grail of the record industry, but I am, of course, out of date. In today’s competitive industry it is more important to find a manager to fight your corner. Keo’s pivotal moment came a year and a half ago when they met their manager, Callum Smith. He got us a really good booking agent who represents big acts like Beabadoobee, so he gets us a lot of the good shows. Callum also played a crucial role in facilitating the band being signed by East City Management. “Our management company is run by a guy called Tav, (Stephen Taverner) who’s amazing. He looks after Wolf Alice and he’s just kind of ‘the wise guy’ who watches over us. So, I’d say management was more important than anything. So those were the two first pieces of the puzzle.”
Finn explains that trying to find a record deal is an emotional roller coaster. “We were sat in massive offices overlooking London every other day with influential label executives. It was really like how you imagine it in movies. They would sell us a dream consistently but never offer – it was like everyone was waiting for someone to offer first.” Their first offer from Relentless Records gave them a huge confidence boost, but they decided it wasn’t the right one.
Then, this year, Keo found the missing piece of the puzzle when they met with Polydor, who gave them some money to help develop their sound. When I spoke to Finn, they had offers from two different companies and were anticipating signing a deal within the next week or two. “There’s been this lull of waiting because we had offers, but our management and lawyer kept insisting that we needed to bide our time in order to have different offers on the table so that we could get the best one.”
Finn is the band’s songwriter, and I ask him to explain his creative process. “I’m super influenced by Ben Howard, Nick Drake and John Martyn, who all play acoustic guitar. Although I play electric guitar in the band, I generally compose on my acoustic with open tunings, which is a way of tuning your guitar. I’ll play some chords and normally they’ll just match how I’m feeling and then the lyrics will come after that. There are also occasions when I’ve been in the room with the guys in the studio or in a rehearsal room and the band will join in on the progression of the song. I give them a vision so everyone gets the sound I want to hear from their instrument. I think that gives them a bit more freedom than me writing their instrumentals.”
In May, Keo released their debut track ‘ Fly’ on SoundCloud and YouTube, which caught the attention of Dork, Far Out and NME. Another track, ‘Crow’, tells the story of someone preparing to lose a family member to disease but still desperately hoping that they can pull through. The message of the song is based on Finn’s own experience after his Mum, Abi, defeated cancer.
Their stand-out gig so far was playing Hyde Park with Kings of Leon and Paolo Nutini. “It was just amazing because I’m always going past Hyde Park and playing in a massive open space in the summer with a sea of people – it felt unbelievable. I got to meet Paolo, and he offered to share some brandy with me, which I didn’t accept, but it was a taste of what the future might hold!”
I point out that this point in his life must feel very exciting. “It’s funny how it works. I feel like by the time something actually happens, it’s no longer as exciting as when you first heard about it possibly happening!” But there is plenty of excitement lined up for Keo in 2025. The band is playing to a sold-out crowd in Oslo in March. A European promotional tour and summer festivals include Dot to Dot in Bristol and Nottingham, Sound City Liverpool and The Great Escape in Brighton.
So I am desperate to get some more juicy details of the London music scene. Is it all sex, drugs, and rock and roll? Well, the short answer is no! Finn is in a relationship, drinks moderately and definitely doesn’t take drugs. “It’s so competitive now, and I think people just don’t stand for that shit anymore,” reflects Finn. “The music industry doesn’t want someone that’s unreliable and off their head, so it’s very rare that someone successful is living like that. I think the people that are making it are surprisingly dialled in. Even if their public face comes across otherwise, they are like working their arses off!”
Keo has gone down a characteristically retro route by not releasing any of their music on streaming platforms. Their first singles recorded with Pete Robertson will come out this month. As well as recording in the sought-after producer’s own studio, they have also been invited to record in the Warner Building in Kensington, which Finn describes as “probably one of the best experiences of my life”. This delay has been deliberate: “We wanted it to feel like all good music feels at first. It’s your own little secret, and you want to gatekeep it. So, it’s really worked for us being a bit more like ‘you can come to us’ rather than ‘please listen to us’.” But he admits that it will be a great feeling to see their records on Spotify.
Reflecting on my conversion with Finn, I am struck by his maturity. He’s an old rock-and-roll head on young shoulders. Maybe this is because he was performing music from a young age. You can imagine him dreaming this all up in his childhood bedroom as he moved from town to town.
But one thing is sure: Finn has tunnel vision, seeing only musical success. This focus is undoubtedly driving Keo forward on the London music scene. Just as long as London doesn’t forget, Luz found him first!
