KEO Announce Debut Album Arriving 25th September
By KEO
Announce Debut Album ‘Put A Smile On For Me’ Out 25th September
Via Island Records
Also Announce Second Headline Tour Of 2026 for This October
Share Explosive New Single ‘That’s Me’ Out Now
“The next big guitar band.” – The London Standard
“A sound that has given UK guitar its biggest kick up the fretboard in years.” – Rolling Stone UK
“Keo are already that band.” – DORK
“There’s something undeniably compelling about Keo’s willingness to lay everything bare.” – Kerrang!
“Indie-rock’s most promising new proposition” – DIY
Keo have announced ‘Put A Smile On For Me,’ their debut album arriving 25th September via Island Records, alongside its explosive opening statement ‘That’s Me,’ out now. Accompanying the single is a dark, surreal video directed by long-time collaborator Hermione Sylvester, tracing a lonely man’s search for connection through a world marked by isolation and longing. With its dreamlike unease and grainy intensity, the video expands the psychological tension at the centre of ‘That’s Me.’
Fronted by 22-year-old Finn Keogh, Keo have spent the past year evolving from word-of-mouth obsession into one of the UK’s most vital young guitar bands. Following the breakout success of their debut EP ‘Siren’ (July 2025), feverishly intense live shows, and sold-out headline tours across the UK and Ireland, the band now step into a bigger, darker and more emotionally expansive chapter. If ‘Siren’ documented the chaos of youth in motion, ‘Put A Smile On For Me’ turns inward: a confession written in real time, still bleeding as it’s being written.
Short, volatile, and adrenaline-fuelled, ‘That’s Me’ sets the tone for the album immediately. Built from serrated guitars, grunge-soaked intensity, and Finn’s ragged vocal, the single burns through guilt and self-recognition before collapsing into a blunt admission of toxic behaviour. It’s Keo at their most direct: emotionally ugly, deeply human, and impossible to look away from.
“The weight of a secret can sometimes be heavier than the result of people knowing it,” Finn explains. “I didn’t want to drag my guilt around any longer; I felt like I could finally let myself off the hook through writing ‘That’s Me.'”
Keo will be taking material from this album on their freshly announced second headline tour of the year this October. Pre-sale starts at 10am BST on 3rd June, and general sale starts 10am BST on 5th June.
Keo | Upcoming Headline Tour Dates
24 Oct – O2 Guildhall, Southampton
25 Oct – Tramshed, Cardiff
27 Oct – O2 Academy Glasgow
29 Oct – O2 Academy Liverpool
31 Oct – O2 Forum Kentish Town, London
Written and recorded during an intense ten-day period, ‘Put A Smile On For Me’ emerged from what Finn describes as a convergence of “personal chaos”: self-examination and the slow unravelling that comes from recognising parts of yourself you’d rather avoid. Self-produced by Finn alongside guitarist Jimmy Lanwern and shaped by the immediacy of its original demos, the album resists polish in favour of honesty, preserving every fracture, every ugly thought, and every bruise exactly as it first surfaced.
Sitting somewhere between shoegaze and alt-rock, the record draws on the charged candour of artists including Led Zeppelin, Sun Kil Moon and Smashing Pumpkins, while carrying the lyrical directness and storytelling instinct of artists like Radiohead. Across its 11 tracks, Keo moves between moments of towering vulnerability and total collapse, pairing brooding atmospheres with melodies that feel built to be screamed back in over-spilling rooms.
“Put A Smile On For Me, honesty is uncomfortable,” Finn says of the album. “I don’t want to see your true colours and you don’t want to see mine. You smile, I’ll smile, everything is fine.”
That emotional directness has become central to Keo’s rise. Formed by brothers Finn and Conor Keogh alongside drummer Oli Spackman and guitarist Jimmy Lanwern, the band emerged through London’s underground live circuit before rapidly outgrowing the rooms around them. Their debut headline tours sold out within hours, while recent shows at London’s Electric Ballroom saw thousands of fans chanting unreleased lyrics back word-for-word, cementing Keo as one of the few young guitar bands currently inspiring genuine hysteria among a new generation of fans.
With ‘Put A Smile On For Me’, Keo are no longer simply the band people are talking about, they’re becoming the band people believe in. A debut album rooted in confession, catharsis, and unfiltered vulnerability, it captures a band pushing guitar music somewhere rawer, riskier, and more human again.
‘That’s Me’ and the album announcement arrives alongside an impressive run of UK and international live dates throughout 2026, including headline appearances at, New York’s Zone One and Los Angeles’ El Cid, major festival slots at Rock Werchter, TRNSMT, Latitude, Reading & Leeds. In July, Keo will also join Wolf Alice for two huge outdoor shows at London’s Finsbury Park and Newcastle’s Exhibition Park – a fitting next step for a band whose rise feels unstoppable.
Stay tuned for more from Keo coming very soon.
‘Put A Smile On For Me’ – Track Listing
Side A
Be Happy
That’s Me
Fly
Best I Can Do
Bird On The Wire
Side B Pistol
Loser
Black Dress
Blue Song
Thorn
Spent On You
Keo | Upcoming Live Dates 2026
20 June – TRNSMT Festival, Scotland, UK
5 July – Finsbury Park, London, UK (with Wolf Alice)
12 July – Exhibition Park, Newcastle, UK (with Wolf Alice)
24 July – Tramlines Festival, Sheffield, UK
25 July – Latitude Festival, Southwold, UK
26 July – Truck Festival, Oxfordshire, UK
1 August – Kendal Calling, Lowther, UK
2 August – Y Not Festival, Derbyshire, UK
8 August – Boardmasters, Devon, UK
28 August – Reading Festival, Reading, UK
29 August – Leeds Festival, Leeds, UK Sat 17 Oct – Neighbourhood Festival, Manchester, UK
24 Oct – O2 Guildhall, Southampton*
25 Oct – Tramshed, Cardiff*
27 Oct – O2 Academy Glasgow*
29 Oct – O2 Academy Liverpool*
31 Oct – O2 Forum Kentish Town, London*
*Headline tour dates
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