Kele Vision

KELE
Words: Stephen Kelly

Much has been made of Kele Okereke’s dance-centric solo album – here, the man himself explains to Stephen Kelly the reasons behind his radical new direction…

Apparently the man we’re being led towards is Kele Okereke, but surely this isn’t him? Wearing a purple LA Lakers sweater, his hair in cornrows and sporting the kind of muscular build that looks as though he could easily Hulk-smash us through a wall, he sits opposite a chair, waiting for his next interview to start. It’s been a long day of promo. Journalist after journalist, question after question, over and over again – it’s the sort of tedium that would grate on even the most saintly of pop stars, not least a man heralded by most as one of the grumpiest men in rock. And yet, here he is, greeting us with a handshake and a chuckle. He seems relaxed, affable, almost enthusiastic. This isn’t right at all. Where is Kele Okereke the grump? Where is the difficult interviewee who has had entire features devoted to his reluctance of press? Where on earth is the frontman of Bloc Party? “Oh, I don’t know…” he laughs. “I’m nearly 30, y’know? I’m older, you change, people change. People change everyday. I think a lot of the things that were important to me aren’t important anymore. I’m a lot more laid-back in certain respects.” Including interviews? “Yeah. I didn’t like the position I was in with interviews before. The first round of press for ‘Silent Alarm’ was in the UK and I was getting questions like ‘how does it feel to be a black singer in a rock band?’ I was like ‘Why do I have to answer that question? I’m 21, why do I have to talk about this when I don’t want to?’ and I became really resistant. I’m a lot better now, though.” Giving the impression of someone who’s done a lot of growing up, it seems Kele has reached a point in life where everything – including the angst of youth – is put into perspective. He seems – dare we say it – happy. Yet, beyond meeting the man in question, the change is no more reflected than within his solo debut, ‘The Boxer’ – a record where Kele Okereke drops his surname and learns to dance. The idea for a solo album came less as a conscious one and more of a need to keep busy during Bloc Party’s well publicised decision to take a year off after, what Kele tells us, they reached breaking point. “It was during 2009’s tour of ‘Intimacy’ in America. We had a meeting and talked about what we’re going to do the following year and it was said that we needed some time off not doing this. We had been on the road for five years straight, you can only do that so much before you… not burn out but… things just get a little much.” Did you feel like you took Bloc Party as far as it could go? “No, not at all. To be honest, I didn’t want to take time off, I wanted to make another record at the start of 2010 because being creative for me is not something I can switch off. If I wasn’t making music I’d be in a loony bin…” He occupied his time by bulking up (“you mean getting fat”, he deadpans), soul-searching and booking studio time to explore new musical territories such as ‘messing about’ with synths and programming drumbeats, an experience he describes “as exciting as the first time I picked up a guitar”. This ‘messing about’ would go on to produce the skeletal pitter-patter start of ‘Rise’ and, six months later, provide a template for a record as abrasive as it is confident. Produced by XXXchange (aka Brooklyn remix maestro/ Spank Rock producer, Alex Epton) in New York, ‘The Boxer’ builds upon directions which Bloc Party were only starting to experiment with – taking the plunge into styles such as house, dubstep, leftfield electro and, above all, the balls-out pop of first single ‘Tenderoni’. It could, we say, make him a bona-fide pop star. Being someone who’s been known to take refuge from attention, how does he feel about that? “I’m not afraid of it, I’m not afraid of it,” he says, shaking his head. “I very much enjoyed my time in Bloc Party, I learnt a lot like how to sing, how to write songs but, also, I’m not so good with compromising what I want… There’s not entitlement there, there’s nothing to hide behind. I mean, I’m not playing guitar, I’m not in a band with other people, you gotta step up, you gotta mean it now, you gotta really mean it now…. I
love the record and I think it’s important for me to give it the best chance because I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever been involved in.” The best thing he’s EVER been involved in? He collects his thoughts for a few seconds, as though suddenly becoming aware of how his words will look in the cold light of print. “I don’t know, I don’t know… I just love pop music, that’s the reason I’m here, I’m more interested in someone like Beyonce, that’s the truth. I don’t want to make music for people who write on blogs… I don’t have a fear of pop music, I embrace it.” Lyrically tracks such ‘New Rules’ (“I’m learning to be laid-back”) and ‘Rise’ (“You are stronger than you think”) appear to dwell honestly on matters personal, something Kele’s keen to play down as an unconscious process rather than the opening of his heart. “I suppose whatever thoughts I had at the time provided the framework. Sonically, phonetically, something feels right and you go with it. I didn’t even think what the lyrics are about until last week, then I realised that most of the songs seem to be about stepping away from horrible situations, from situations that are not good for you. About important things I could never say, about people stopping taking drugs, about how yesterday is gone but it’s the start of a new day, a new chapter in your life. They all seem to be about calling time on things.” The elephant in the room has just charged through the walls. Does that also mean calling time on Bloc Party? “It has to be different, it has to be or I won’t go back. I don’t think the others would do either. But I think that’s something we need to talk about, it’s personal. I know a lot about what I want from them and what I need from them. We’ll see. We need to find out where we are in a year’s time.” We remind him that a year is a long time. He frowns, “I know”.

‘The Boxer’ is out now on Wichita.