Is it a supergroup? Not really. An authentic country band? To an extent. Is it Keane? Well… half. Mt. Desolation is essentially a carefree, old-fashioned hoedown of well-known musicians all gathered around a core of two – Tim Rice-Oxley, songwriter and pianist for Keane, and Jesse Quin, Keane’s unofficial fourth member. I meet the pair upstairs in Whelan's as they prepare for the start of their tour with a Dublin date. They tell me it’s like coming full circle – the idea for the group came last year over a few drinks in Toner's.  

“We drank too much Guinness,” explains Rice-Oxley. “We were sitting around the fire, chewing the fat about music. As we do. I don’t know how we got onto the subject. We both love that music in quite a few different guises – Kenny Rogers, Wilco, the alt. country stuff. It seemed like a nice, vaguely amusing idea to try and make a country album.” 
Quin backs up the frivolous origins theory. “It started off quite pastiche-y, then the demos started gathering up. There was absolutely no pressure for there to be a single. We just dug in without a massive amount of thought.”  
“It’s surreal,” adds Rice-Oxley. “An idea we had in a bar here late at night suddenly became making a record, getting all these musicians together.”
Around twenty musicians, if you’re keeping count – a Killer here, a Mumford and Son there.
“Tom Hobden from Noah & The Whale was coming in for three hours and ended up staying for three weeks. We worked quickly in that live organic way – bouncing ideas around rather than building it up note-by-note.” 
But the freeing exercise in country music-making was not without its own problems.
“You’re thinking, ‘If I fuck up then I’m letting everyone else down,’” confesses Quin. “It really makes you up your game to be on par with everyone else.”
The self-titled album also sees Rice-Oxley take centre-stage for the first time – a task that brought no small amount of trepidation.
“It’s nerve-wracking but like anything in life where you challenge yourself, it often turns out to be incredibly fun. I’ll be pretty much shitting myself in an hour’s time but as soon as we finish the gig I’m going to wish we had another hour’s set left.” 
The idea of new horizons clearly dovetails with the music itself (the name referring as it does to the work of a certain Mr. Kerouac). Rice-Oxley agrees.
“There’s a sense of searching on the album. I was looking for something to challenge myself. That West Coast American journey is one that we’ve done together and I’ve done alone several times. It’s pretty highly romanticised. That sense of losing all your baggage really appeals to us on a fundamental level.”
The country inflection allowed them to write in a different manner.
“It transports you into a new headspace. We started off pretending we were Nashville songwriters. Writing songs like that is a real art form and not to be taken lightly.” 
Their sheer love of the music and culture sees them through, but in the beginning, were they worried that a couple of English rock stars messing around with American roots might seem somewhat inauthentic? “The only thing that did sometimes feel difficult was an Englishman singing lyrics from the perspective of an American,” admits Quin. “Talking about West Virginia… things that we’ve experienced but that aren’t part of our being. It was more like storytelling.”
The pair’s knack for songwriting and easy way around a tune makes it a trick they generally pull off with aplomb. So, now that they’ve flexed their frontman muscles, should Tom Chaplin watch out next time they’re on a Keane stage?
Quin laughs.
“I don’t know how he has enough breath, running around on huge stages and singing in tune at the top of his range. I’m an unfit bastard, just standing their singing every other song, which is exhausting!” Rice-Oxley is reflective.
“I’ve learnt so much making this record – about what I love to write and sing about. It’s been quite a clarifying experience.” 
As for a second Mt. Desolation excursion, Quin reckons it all depends on whether they ”sit in Dublin and get drunk again.” Tonight may yet prove a productive one.

Mt. Desolation's self-titled debut album is out now on Island.