Tim Rice-Oxley

Timothy James Rice-Oxley (Oxford, June 2, 1976) is a British pianist and composer, co-founder of the British group Keane.

Tim is the son of Margaret and Charles Rice-Oxley. Tom Chaplin and Tim’s younger brother (also named Tom), were born within a month of each other in the same hospital and so their mothers became friends. Tim and Tom attend Vinehall School, and later Tonbridge School where they meet future band members Richard Hughes and Dominic Scott. And it is precisely in this period that Tim takes piano lessons, despite the fact that he has repeatedly admitted that he finds them extremely boring. After the lessons, he begins to devote himself to the study of many Beatles songs. Later after school Tim starts giving Chaplin piano lessons.

In the early nineties, he begins to attend the faculty of classics in London, but the university experience ends almost immediately. In 1995, together with his university colleague Dominic Scott, he founded the group Lotus Eaters, inviting Richard to join the band as drummer. It is in this period that Tim meets Chris Martin, who invites him to leave the Lotus Eaters and join Coldplay, just rookies. But Tim refuses the offer.

In the spring of 1997, Tim convinced Richard and Dominic to let Tom join the band, which was soon renamed Keane. Between 1998 and 1999 Keane moved to London where they started playing in various venues in the city. During this period Tim and Tom share a small apartment in Stoke Newington, and begin to do small jobs in order to pay for the venue where they rehearse with the band. Dominic Scott in 2001, tired of waiting for confirmations that were slow to arrive, left the band. Later Rice-Oxley also begins to play the piano during concerts, something never done before.

In 2004 he won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Composer of the Year.

In 2006 he collaborated in the composition of the songs “Early Winter” and “The Girl Inside” (unreleased), contained in Gwen Stefani’s second album entitled The Sweet Escape.

In 2009, she helped write the song Everything Is Beautiful for singer Kylie Minogue’s eleventh album, titled Aphrodite.

It was revealed in early 2010 that he was working on an alternative project called Mt. Desolation, along with friend and bandmate Jesse Quin.

He has a wife, Janye Rice-Oxley whom he married in February 2005, the couple have a daughter named Lilac born on September 22, 2007. Chaplin served as best man at their wedding.
In 2012, the couple separated.