Trish Keenan

Born on September 28, 1968, in Winson Green, Birmingham, England, Patricia “Trish” Keenan was the lead vocalist for the British indie-electronic band Broadcast. She formed the band in 1995, along with bassist James Cargill, keyboardist Roj Stevens, guitarist Tim Felton, and drummer Steve Perkins. The group released a number of EPs within the next two years, and they released their debut studio album, The Noise Made By People in 2000. Two more albums followed – 2003’s Haha Sound, and 2005’s Tender Buttons – before Stevens, Felton, and Perkins left the group in 2005, leaving Cargill and Keenan to perform as a duo. Keenan and Cargill recorded one more album, 2009’s Mother Is the Milky Way, before Keenan passed away on January 14, 2011, at 42 years old, due to complications of pneumonia and the H1N1 flu virus (infamously known worldwide as the “swine flu”).

Described by Rolling Stone as having a “gentle, haunting voice”, Keenan helped Broadcast blur the line between modern-day music and the sounds of the past by blending minimalist electronic melodies, psychedelic folk-style musical harmonies, and a voice that hearkened back to 1960s-era folk singers like Joan Baez and Emmylou Harris. Though relatively obscure throughout her music career, Keenan’s best-known work with Broadcast is the soothing, almost hypnotic song, “Echo’s Answer”. Well-received by critics, the song currently sits at 2.3 million plays on Spotify as of July 2019.