In 1995, his friend Dominic Scott told him to make a band. The band was called "The Lotus Eaters". They asked Richard Hughes to play the drums. Tom Chaplin would play bass. Rice-Oxley and Chaplin had been friends since they were children. In 1997, Rice-Oxley asked Chaplin to sing. The band changed its name to "Keane". When Scott left the band in 2001, Rice-Oxley started playing piano again and recording bass separately. He still does that.