Conrad Keely (…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead)
Biography
Born in Nuneaton, England of Irish and Thai descent, Keely grew up in Bedworth, England before he and his mother moved to the U.S. state of Hawaii when he was five years old. Keely and family returned to Bedworth when he was eight for three years before returning to the United States. In 1988, while in high school in Oahu, Keely met Jason Reece, with whom he would later form …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. Keely then moved with his mother to Olympia, Washington in 1989 where he attended The Evergreen State College. Reece joined Keely in Washington a short time later, and the two tried forming bands in Olympia’s underground music scene. Finding little success, in 1994 Keely and Reece moved to Austin, Texas to form bands. Before signing a contract to Interscope Records with …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Keely primarily worked clerical office jobs in Austin for a regular job while playing with the band at night.
Keely relocated from Austin to Brooklyn, New York in 2008, and then moved to Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 2012 after being “fed up with American life.” Keely visited the country while travelling with his father after an …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead Australian tour and decided to stay. Keely expressed being tired with America and moving overseas as early as 2003. Since moving to Cambodia, he has travelled around the country, performing as part of a cultural exchange. Although Keely does not speak Cambodian, he says the country is “a noisy place full of weird sounds – temples, monks chanting, loud speakers blaring, egg sellers and vendors. I need that chaos, and I think it helps that it’s in a language I don’t understand.” While Keely predominantly grew up in the United States, he holds and uses an Irish passport and is not an American citizen.