Almost Famous: Bloc Party
“Michael Stipe saw us play a show in Denmark,” says Kele Okereke, singer for London dance-rock sensations Bloc Party. “He was with Helena Christensen. We met with him afterward—he seemed to quite like us.”Okereke—reclining in a sunlit apartment on New York City’s Lower East Side—stutters at the mere mention of the famous names. A first-generation Brit whose parents emigrated from Nigeria before he was born, he’s shy and soft-spoken, pausing often to examine his beat-up Converse sneakers. Drummer Matt Tong, slouched on the sofa next to him, is equally unassuming, peeking out from behind wire-rims and thick bangs. “Basically we’re a complete bunch of losers,” Tong deadpans.
If so, they’re probably the hippest losers in the world right now. The quartet got its big break last year, when Okereke e-mailed Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos and asked to open for the Scottish hitmakers. “Before then, we’d been playing crap shows in London pubs,” Tong says. But Kapranos agreed, and after wowing a party full of Britain’s music-industry bigwigs, Bloc Party were soon touring with Interpol and the Killers. Earlier this year their debut entered the U.K. charts at No. 3.
And about their name: “It’s bound to make some people think about politics, but it was more of a play on words. Like a hip-hop block party,” Okereke says in his un-hip-hop British accent, “but spelled wrong—like rappers do.”
Their geeky demeanor aside, though, the band aren’t afraid to ruffle some feathers. Take the jittery single “Helicopter.” While spiky guitars swirl in the background, Okereke spits out harsh lyrics about a blue-jeans-wearing American who’s “Just like his dad/The same mistakes.”
“Yeah, everyone thinks that’s about Bush,” says Okereke. But…? He grins and shrugs his shoulders. “Nope—no buts.”
Out Now: Silent Alarm (Vice)
