Having only reunited in late 2011 after a long hiatus, Bloc Party apparently still aren’t too fond of each other and have announced plans to split again, this time indefinitely.
According to the National Post, Bloc Party guitarist Russell Lissack revealed that the British group are set to go on an indefinite break following the end of the summer festival season in the northern hemisphere.
“Definitely after we finish the festivals in the summer we’ll be taking some time off. At least six months, maybe a year maybe two years, it’s hard to say,” said Lissack. “Once we start taking time off people start doing their own thing. So once people start doing things then you’ll start naturally extending how long we spend apart.”
The news comes off the back an Australian tour and their latest album Four which was one of the most anticipated albums of 2012. The album got stellar reviews with the band’s singer Kele Okerke dubbing it “the best thing we’ve ever done”.
Of course, this isn’t the first time Bloc Party has taken an extended break. Following their third album, Intimacy, the group took a few years off that included break-up rumours, and frontman Kele Okereke’s pursuing a solo career, including an album (The Boxer) an EP (The Hunter) and extensive touring.
Meanwhile the downtime allowed Gordon Moakes, bassist, to become a father, guitarist Russell Lissack to join the touring lineup for Irish rockers Ash, while drummer Matt Tong built a home studio in his basement.
“Once we start taking time off people start doing their own thing. So once people start doing things then you’ll start naturally extending how long we spend apart.”The extended break also led to a prank, which the band themselves started, in which they claimed Okereke had been booted from the band; which Okereke labelled “a lie that got out of hand,” but that it also “brought us closer together.”
The singer admitted at the time ”there was a big question mark over whether Bloc Party were ever going to make another record again. We were exhausted and bored and distant from one another.”
Following a minor epiphany involving Led Zeppelin’s IV, writing a novel and “the most dramatic year I have experienced in my life”, Okereke and his bandmates decamped to New York with producer Alex Newport (whose CV includes Death Cab For Cutie, City and Colour and The Mars Volta) to complete Four.
But despite releasing some of their best music just last year, the band say that their relationships are still a bit of a”roller coaster”.
“My wife came on tour for two days and said, ‘Your life, I can’t handle it. It’s such a roller coaster of extreme highs and extreme lows,’ ” Lissack said. “That’s quite representative of all the relationships in the band. Maybe we’ll play an amazing show and we’ll be on a real high and then the next day some minor thing will happen and everyone hates each other.”
“I think when we first started it was probably more highs,” Lissack recalled. “The last record, Intimacy, when we toured that it was probably more lows than highs due to the relationships in the band not being very good and lack of communication and people not enjoying what we were doing.
“This time, before we set off on this record, it was something we discussed and I think we’ve been dealing with it a little better. Not a lot better but a little better.”
But as they say, every cloud has a silver lining, and Bloc Party plan to leave fans a departing gift before they go their separate ways. Lissack has confirmed that Bloc Party will release an EP of new material this summer, which was recorded right before this final touring stretch.
