English indie rock band Bloc Party, represented in this interview by lead singer Kele Okereke, talk about musical inspirations and their latest album.
Music Connection: How does it feel to be back in Austin for SXSW?
Kele Okereke: How does it feel? Yeah, it feels okay. (laughs) It feels okay. I’d kind of forgotten how busy it is, how busy all this stuff is. But it’s kinda all coming back to me now. But it’s cool, I’m looking forward to doing the shows.
MC: How did you guys prepare for SXSW?
Okereke: They just try to avoid as much of it as possible by staying in the hotel out of town. You know, because, I understand for the people who are coming here as fans it’s probably exciting, but for us, it’s all slightly stressful, so we prefer to just come in, do our thing and go.
MC: How has your past experiences prepared you for this year’s SXSW?
Okereke: I think this tactic of making sure to stay away from the things happening in the city is something I learned from the previous few times of coming to SXSW. I’m realizing how stressful it was at the time, so now we’re here and I just wanna make sure we come in, do our show and we go. It’s not about hanging around. I might try and see some acts, but I don’t know anyone who’s playing though—I don’t know who’s playing actually, so I don’t know if we’ll see anyone.
MC: Do you feel attending SXSW has affected your career?
Okereke: Yeah! It’s a big festival. I’m not sure cause I’m not American, but it’s a big industry festival here in the States. And it can have lots of ramifications in the music industry, but again, I’m not American, so I don’t really know how it’s affected us. But they keep asking us back, so I guess it must be a good thing to do, yes.
MC: You had a bit of a lineup shake up in 2013. Do you feel it has affected the band either negatively or positively?
Okereke: I don’t think it’s helped or hindered anything. I don’t think the band would have continued if we didn’t have the shakeup. I feel that the lineup change was an inevitable part, evolution of the band. We wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t switched things up a bit.
MC: How do you feel the change up helped?
Okereke: It’s definitely left us all feeling a little more invigorated, a lot more excited about being in a band, being creative, so yeah I think it’s been a good thing.
MC: You recently released your fifth studio album. How does it differ from your previous releases?
Okereke: Every album feels different. Every album we put out feels like it’s been a document of that time of making the record or experience or what we were going through at the time. So this album doesn’t feel different in that respect. It feels it’s an encapsulation of where we’re at as musicians and as artists. I also think it’s 2014, mentally we were in a different place as we were when we made our previous album before, so I think that’s reflected in the music, really.
MC: Some critics noted this release was a return to Bloc Party’s roots. How would you respond to that?
Okereke: I wouldn’t respond to that. It’s not really my job to respond to what other people say or think. I can really only talk about my experiences and my intentions. I can’t comment about what other people read into the music.
MC: Where do you gather your musical inspiration?
Okereke: With every song it tends to be different. With this record, I guess, calling the album “Hymns,” we [had the] intention [of] each one to mine a spiritual feeling. I’m not a religious person but I am very fascinated by religious and devotional music, so I think this album was an attempt to explore that to understand a form of sacredness. Sacred music given I’m not a religious person. That was the starting point: How do I explore something that feels sacred?
MC: What can someone expect from your live performance?
Okereke: It tends to be quite emotional and quite cathartic, quite sweaty. I definitely think it will be quite sweaty given the temperatures right now. We really try to give our all in the performance, so I think the fans will really appreciate that.
MC: What advice would you have for an up-and-coming act who hasn’t performed at SXSW before?
Okereke: I would say pace yourself. Don’t get seduced by the free clothes and the free stuff and the parties. Pace yourself and drink plenty of water. And try to put on the best show that you possibly can.
MC: What does 2016 hold for Bloc Party?
Okereke: We’re all excited by the fact that we’re going to be recording new music soon. We wanna see how that pans out.
Portrait photo by Jody Domingue
