In the past, Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke has made a name for himself as being a little difficult to interview. Tone Deaf’s Serrin Prior had the opportunity to discover whether this was true, ahead of his upcoming tour of Australia to promote his new solo album, The Boxer. One – slightly tense – chat with him later, and here’s what she found out.
Despite taking a break after the release of Bloc Party’s third album, Intimacy, Kele described himself as “still feeling very inspired”:
“I started recording ideas by myself, really just to keep myself entertained. By the end of the year it became clear that I had the beginning of a record. From that point, it kind of dictated what was going to happen, putting a new record out. There’s never really been any desire to make a solo record, it just kind of happened.”
And recording as a solo artist compared to working with Bloc Party?
“It was somewhat easier … it got done a lot quicker. Because it was mainly studio-based music, there wasn’t really much of a jamming component to the work, which was how we tended to rely on writing songs, certainly in the first two Bloc Party records. It was a different experience, but it was an experience that I enjoyed, that’s for sure.”
Much has been made of Kele’s intense desire for privacy, and how it would seem to set him apart from other, more fame-adoring, frontmen. With this perfectly reasonable constraint in mind, an effort was made to steer clear of personal topics, and stick to the music. However, as is often the case, more seems to be revealed by that which is not said explicitly. A picture of Kele thus began to emerge.
When asked about the title of his new record, The Boxer, Kele explained:
“I always thought the image of a boxer standing on their own was, you know, somewhat of an inspiring image because they have to rely on nobody but themselves. You have to summon the strength from within and I find that’s an inspiring image. I think it parallels some of what I was going through making this record; I like the idea of pitching oneself against adversity and seeing what it brings out of one’s character.”
In many ways, Kele would seem to mirror the image of the boxer that lies behind his new album; one senses he’s always alert for the punches that may be coming his way. A certain defensiveness was shown when the fact that he has written and sung about some contentious subject matter was brought up. This lead into a question of whether he thinks that artists should be constrained at all, or be allowed complete freedom of expression.
Kele: What do you think I’m thinking?
Tone Deaf: Pardon?
K: What do you think I think?
TD: I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking.
K: From how you phrased the question about the things I used to write about, what do you think I think about that question? Do you think that I…I don’t know, isn’t it pretty obvious? Isn’t it pretty obvious what I feel about that?
TD: Not necessarily. Let’s move on then –
K: I don’t really feel that anything is off limits, so long as it carries an emotional significance for the songwriter. … I don’t think it should be; it’s really about the emotion that’s conveyed in the song, that’s what connects with people, not – and I’m realising this more and more – that it’s not about the words and it’s not about the image, so much as the emotion, that I think transcends that.
Continuing on the more philosophical note, Kele shared his views on the state of music nowadays.
“…it all seems to be quite generic music … I don’t have a problem with that, but I remember the way that music was more than that, you know, when it meant something … It makes me a little bit sad that young kids aren’t going to experience that way of lots of minds speaking the same thing or expressing or having words in a song to express a mood that a group of minds are thinking. It feels like those times have gone, and that’s always a little bit sad. But then, maybe we’re just on the cusp of something … as much as there are shit things in the charts, there are probably just as many people who are pissed off about it, and that’s going to make something interesting.”
Perhaps the most unexpected thing to come out of the interview arose when Kele talked about what he wants people to get out of his music.
“…I want them to get a sense of my soul; I want them to get a sense of how I see the world and the things that I think are important, the things I think we should all think are important. That’s what I want people to get out of my music, that’s why I make it.”
…which leads this interviewer to conclude that perhaps he’s not so privacy mad after all. Maybe it’s just that he doesn’t want to talk about it in interviews.
