In which Kele confesses his love for Paolo Nutini and describes a spooky experience...
Labels: Interviews, Videos
¶ 11:59 PM 0 comments links to this post
Edit: Watch Bloc Party's Reading Festival set here, courtesy of the lovely people at the BBC.
Labels: Interviews, Videos
¶ 12:07 AM 3 comments links to this post
Labels: Interviews, Intimacy, Radio_sessions
¶ 10:07 PM 3 comments links to this post
Labels: Interviews
¶ 4:58 PM 1 comments links to this post
Labels: Interviews, Videos
¶ 8:12 PM 7 comments links to this post
As a not-so-cleverly-disguised marketing ploy for the live webchat tomorrow, Kele has taken part in a preliminary Any Question Answered session with Drowned in Sound. Read the full article here. This is what he has to say on the new Bloc Party album:
"We're looking at putting a record out at the end of this year, or the start of next year. Right now it feels almost like we're standing in the middle of a forest fire or an earthquake…it’s hard to know where the music is going. We aim to make something organic and inorganic, made of very real components but that sounds not real and frightening. Almost hyper real in a certain aspect. I'm really excited."
Labels: Interviews
¶ 7:52 PM 0 comments links to this post
Edit: read a transcript of the webchat here!
Labels: Interviews
¶ 6:43 AM 2 comments links to this post
BBC 6 Music caught up with Kele and Matt backstage at London's Alexandra Palace last night as they wrapped up 2007 with their final gig of the year, tongues planted firmly in cheeks...
Labels: Interviews, Videos
¶ 11:35 PM 1 comments links to this post
Speaking exclusively to AOL's Spinner blog, Kele has hinted that Bloc Party's third album will see the band dropping the city-based "going out, getting trashed" themes of 'A Weekend In The City' for a more introspective approach:
Labels: Interviews
¶ 11:06 PM 6 comments links to this post
Paste: What did you do during your short break before your Chicago date tomorrow?
MT: A bit of recording. We're having a go at a new track, which we're sort of writing as I speak. I can't offer anything other than that - it's a secret. Also, we're still writing it.
Paste: Got any tricks up your sleeve for your new material?
MT: Tricks? I hope so. I think our new stuff is going to be a lot less textured than the last record. I think the third studio incarnation of Bloc is going to be a bit like the rawer earlier Bloc, but with experience.
Labels: Interviews
¶ 6:31 PM 1 comments links to this post
Just a few news snippets to tide you over...
- Bloc Party will play at London Barfly on Sunday 14th October as part of Gonzo on Tour 2007, recorded for MTV2. Support comes from Does It Offend You, Yeah? and Operator Please and tickets go on sale at 9am on Friday 14th September from here!
- The boys will also be DJing in various US record stores during their forthcoming tour...more info here.
- Listen to an interview with Kele and Matt on Xfm (scroll down to the 16:15 entry). Matt: "We're gonna put out a single in between albums for no reason other than that we can." Woop!
And finally, don't forget that BlocParty.net is up for 'Best Unofficial Music Site' in the same awards. You know what to do!
Labels: Awards, Gig_reviews, Interviews
¶ 10:14 PM 4 comments links to this post
Read an interview with Matt for Austinist here, ahead of Bloc Party's September appearance at the Austin City Limits festival.
"The funny thing was, we pretty much had the album ['A Weekend In The City'] we wanted to record when we got to the studio. We hadn't written enough material for B-sides, and had to go back and prepare additional material some time later. Pretty much all of the B-sides were done in a two-week period last September, which amuses me, since I'm aware some of those songs already have a pretty cultish following. It's all good. If anything, it's shown us that maybe we can be a little more instinctive about our decisions in the studio and work quicker than we have done in the past. I think this is an attitude we want to embrace when we start work on our next album."
Labels: Interviews
¶ 9:52 PM 3 comments links to this post
Speaking to NME.com yesterday at the Reading Festival, Gordy has confirmed that Bloc Party are already working on new material for the third album! They spent the past week rehearsing a dozen new tracks in London and will head into the studio tomorrow to do some preliminary recording with Jacknife Lee, producer of 'A Weekend In The City'. There's talk of a brand new single this year, but this will depend on how much progress they make next week. Either way, the band are definitely eager to keep their creative output ticking over.
Watch the interview below:
And finally, click here to read Matt's Reading Festival blog for Guardian Unlimited.
Labels: Interviews, Videos
¶ 3:51 PM 8 comments links to this post
Milena Mepris is a singer and guitarist from New York City. Her past bands include London all-girl trio The Revenge (lead singer/guitarist), with whom she toured the UK, received acclaim from the NME and had singles played on Steve Lamacq's Radio 1 show. She then went on to play lead guitar in the Brooklyn based electro-punk band Black Moustache who, after releasing their debut album, toured the US and Canada and played shows with Bloc Party, Avenue D, A.R.E. Weapons, and Fannypack. She also played guitar in NYC dance pop band Eskimobot and went on to form her solo band Milena Mepris (still alive and kicking). Her 2005 song 'Hot Model' was an indie cult hit, played everywhere from the Winter Music Conference in Miami to Istanbul to NYC rock clubs.
In addition, Milena Mepris writes for and collaborates with other artists. Two of her songs were recently recorded by young soul-singer Alice Smith for her critically acclaimed debut album, 'For Lovers, Dreamers & Me'.
So, yeah, Milena's a pretty busy girl. Quite how she manages to fit so much into her schedule is one of the modern world's greatest mysteries, but she still found some time to chat to BlocParty.net about Pin Me Down. Read on after the jump...
BlocParty.net: Milena, could you introduce yourself to the BLOG PARTY readers with a few Milena-related facts?
Milena Mepris:
1. While Russell plays mainly Fender guitars, I have always been a Gibson girl. My favourite guitars are the SG, my TV yellow Les Paul special and my pink Hello Kitty Fender strat (but that’s more based on its er…rather splendid appearance over its sound…hee hee). And there’s a new gold SG that I have my eye on – this becomes addictive!
2. I was in a Lou Reed video when I was 15 for the song 'NYC Man' (not the best song, but cool video).
3. I am partially Scottish, so I was overjoyed to play in Glasgow, but when I was onstage, no one could understand what I was saying because of my American accent (and vice versa). Now I am trying to brush up my Scottish slang - "Achei".
4. I've been writing songs since I can remember. I have a back catalog of over 300 songs.
5. I used to be a choir girl, singing professionally from the age of 6-13 and I still am a bit of one. You can take the girl out of the choir but you cannot take the choir out of the girl ;) I also played clarinet and saxophone.
BP.net: Describe each other in five words (or bullet points!)
Milena on Russell:
1. One of my favourite people on earth
2. Comedian
3. Musical genius
4. Partner in crime
5. Meerkat
Russell on Milena:
Guitar playing rock goddess woman!
BP.net: Milena...you live on the other side of the pond in New York. How did you come to meet Russell?
MM: I used to live in South London, in Borough, near Old Kent Road (I was a classy lass!) and Russell lived a few blocks away at the same time near Elephant and Castle. Even though we both attended many of the same gigs and parties and had mutual friends, we didn't meet until 2004 when Bloc Party first came to New York and played at the Knitting Factory. At the time, I was the guitarist in Black Moustache and we opened for BP along with A.R.E. Weapons. It was just an insane show all around, full of sweaty, irrational kids, who were jumping on the stage. Russell borrowed my amp and we just really got along from the first moment we met. He was amused by my collection of pink guitars and we both loved a lot of the same cheesy 90s records and 80s TV shows.
Russell and I kept in touch and he was on the East Coast a lot touring at that time, so we started writing music together, plus I was in L.A. and London at other points, so the project just naturally evolved; it was something fun for both of us, a diversion while we worked with our other bands.
BP.net: How did the project, 'Pin Me Down', come about and does the name have any significance?
MM: Neither of us took the project very seriously until we realized that we had something like 30+ songs just sitting around on our iTunes and thought that maybe we should record them properly. We did several sets of demos at various studios and decided we wanted to move away from a more rock-oriented style toward a darker, pop guitar/synth sound, since we both worship Kate Bush, Cyndi Lauper, 'Burning Up' era Madonna, and New Order.
We struggled with band names forever. One day Russell was on tour in Europe and, because of the time difference, we had to schedule when we could talk on the phone. I rang at a certain time, but he was in soundcheck and he sent me a text message saying "Pin me down at 7" or something to that extent, and a flashing light bulb went off in my head. The name was perfect and it stuck. We both liked the phonetic sound of "Pin Me Down" as well as all of its multiple meanings.
BP.net: Your first track, 'Cryptic', was posted on your MySpace a couple weeks ago to a great reception. What's the story behind this song and is it representative of your other material?
MM: Ummm…yeah, we're pretty pleased with the way people have been responding to it! We can't wait for some people to do remixes because it's quite dance-oriented.
Sometimes Russell titles our songs – he'll just name an instrumental track or idea and send it to me, so he initially gave 'Cryptic' another title that was very funny, but it didn't match the lyrics I was writing. So we changed the song in the studio. We must have three different versions. At one point we were sticking the names of people we knew into the lyrics – as a laugh. I'm praying those takes never surface! The real song deals with issues of celebrity and how, in this day and age, people can gain fame (the highest caste in our culture) for doing nothing at all, maybe just for being photographed. I find this disappointing and wish more people would be known for DOING and creating things.
We try to make our music coherent and eclectic at the same time – so it all feels of one piece, but there are many different kinds of songs and moods. There are several upbeat anthems, a few songs that are really dancey, some that are more rock, and a few slower songs too.
BP.net: What's the 'Pin Me Down' songwriting process? Do you record together in a studio, or send your parts to each other via email?
MM: It works a number of ways. Sometimes Russell will send me a fully formed instrumental song or idea and I will write the melody and lyrics to it; other times it's just a drum beat and keyboards and he doesn't flesh it out until I've created a vocal melody. Other times, I'll suggest a musical theme or idea for a song to Russell and he'll send me back his take on it. Sometimes I add keyboard or guitars to the tracks. Many may not know but Russell is an amazing keyboard player and bassist. He writes all of the bass lines and programs all the drums on our songs and our drummer Alex (the other guy in the first picture) plays those parts live.
When we met, we recorded all of our songs on my old digital 8-track which ran on zip disks - quite fragile and limiting! We'd have to be in the same place for that, but shortly after we both got laptops and I showed Russell how to use Protools (which isn't as hard as it looks), so we began to send stuff back and forth over the internet, which is useful since we're usually not in the same city. It's also great for editing and refining songs. For serious recording, we go to a proper studio together. It's funny because when I was a teenager, I wrote a song about how I dreamt of having a songwriting pen pal, and in a way, that has become the reality for Pin Me Down. Maybe I am psychic! Technology is amazing in that regard.
BP.net: Do you have any long term plans for the future...any official releases or tour dates?
MM: I guess the big news is that YES there is a record. We are mixing it at the moment and are figuring out how we want to release it. This is a scary but exciting time in music right now because albums are increasingly being distributed digitally and with that comes a whole new set of pros and cons. It changes the role of the record label and gives artists like us way more control. But we're also working in an untouched frontier, where album leaks and file sharing are the norm…so we have to be smart and do things in a strategic way.
We want to tour. I am most looking forward to playing in the UK as I haven't played a gig there in several years and England, Ireland, and Scotland have very enthusiastic audiences. I'd also love to go Japan because I've never been and I hear they love blond girls there! SCORE! It seems like such a surreal and magical place.
BP.net: And, finally, the last word goes to Russell…will you be taking time out from Bloc Party if Pin Me Down takes off?
Russell: Bloc Party is always my priority so I'd never take time out, that wouldn't be fair on anyone, but if there's a gap in the Bloc Party schedule (ever!), then I'd love to play some shows as Pin Me Down.
So, there you have it…Pin Me Down have been hard at work in their secret underground bunker creating future electro-pop anthems. Expect to hear much more from them in the not-too-distant future! In the meantime, stream their first track, 'Cryptic', over on MySpace now.
Labels: Collaborations, Interviews, Pin_Me_Down
¶ 3:01 PM 4 comments links to this post
Kele and Russell recently recorded an exclusive acoustic set and interview for AOL Music's Spinner.com! Linkage after the pics...
[Watch]
'I Still Remember' (acoustic)
'So Here We Are' (acoustic)
'This Modern Love' (acoustic)
Interview
[Download] Entire session as video podcast
[Download] Entire session as mp3 podcast
Labels: Interviews, Videos, Webcasts
¶ 4:51 PM 15 comments links to this post
[Denver Westword]
"For us there were two songs that could finish the record. One was 'Sunday' and the other 'SRXT'. And it would be great if you had a technology whereby one or the other was the last track. But you can’t do that."
Labels: Interviews
¶ 9:51 PM 8 comments links to this post
[Download] 'Offsite with Bloc Party', XM Radio (40.8 MB, 44:33)
A 45-minute Bloc Party feature, broadcast in the US on Ethel, 06.05.07. Includes exclusive recordings of the band soundchecking for their recent Boston show!
Labels: Audio, Interviews, Radio_sessions
¶ 11:41 AM 5 comments links to this post
FaceCulture spoke to Gordy and Matt just before Bloc Party's gig in Utrecht, Holland at the end of April. Click here to see them talk about the songwriting process, the natural tempo of Bloc Party, 'A Weekend in the City', Kele's vision and lyrics, success in the US and Holland, the Arctic Monkeys, their fans and, erm, 'Lick My Love Pump'!
You can also view Gordy's 2005 FaceCulture interview here.
Labels: Interviews, Videos
¶ 5:35 PM 0 comments links to this post
Read an interview with Kele for Karmaloop here, then dance over to here and answer a simple question for the chance to win a Bloc Party prize pack, including an autographed copy of 'A Weekend In The City'.
Labels: Competitions, Interviews
¶ 1:23 PM 0 comments links to this post
Tune in to XM Radio's 'Ethel' show (XM 47) at 9:00pm Eastern Time on Sunday May 6th to hear an exclusive Bloc Party feature...
Ethel airs an exclusive Bloc Party performance you can only hear on XM! We go behind the scenes at their Boston show, plug in to their soundboard and record their soundcheck. Cane sits down with the band to discuss their tour, their current projects & their latest album: 'A Weekend In The City'.
Sign up here for a free trial to XM Radio. This goes out pretty late for us over in the UK, so if anyone records it, please send it this way and I'll get some uploadage going :)
Labels: Interviews, Radio_sessions
¶ 12:11 PM 7 comments links to this post
When Bloc Party's tour rolled into Toronto a couple of weeks ago, Matt and Gordy were interviewed for Iceberg Radio, Canada's leading internet radio service. Listen here!
Labels: Audio, Interviews
¶ 3:38 PM 0 comments links to this post
Matt and Kele recently took time out from their hectic schedule to appear on MTV2's Gonzo with Zane Lowe. The full interview is now online, so click here to be enlightened on Kele's secret love for The Feeling and the mysterious ex-bassist known only as 'Spunkfood'.
And for those who just can't get enough Kele & Matt video interviews, here's another one, recorded at SXSW a few days ago.
Labels: Interviews, Videos
¶ 1:46 PM 5 comments links to this post
Labels: A_Weekend_In_The_City, Interviews, Press, Videos
¶ 4:47 PM 4 comments links to this post
So says Mr. Okereke about 'A Weekend In The City', and I'm pretty sure he doesn't mean in the Norwegian black metal sense of the phrase. The new upgraded Bloc are faster, harder and more streamlined, merging influences from all over the musical map to create a collection of songs which, according to the press release, is 'stunning, intense and brilliant'.
Here's a few choice cuts from this week's NME interview with Kele about 'AWITC'.
- "We wanted to make something that references some of the great contemporary electronic music that's being made without also losing the industrial energy of rock music."
- "With 'The Prayer' the idea was to do something interesting with the rhythm. It's got a real, almost crunk feel to it. I know that's probably gonna frighten people, but it's still us."
- About 'Song For Clay': "I wanted to try and make something that was a really melodramatic-sounding rock song, almost like a Bond theme. Something that sounded really kind of lush. When it kicks in I think it's going to knock some heads off!"
- About 'On': "It's about the lure of drugs, getting drunk and dancing all night. Whenever I hear it, I completely lose myself."
And finally, here's the rather poetic press blurb:
"'A Weekend in The City' is inspired by lead singer Kele Okereke's interest in what he calls 'the living noise of a metropolis'. On 'Weekend...', the band captures every detail, from the ebullient to the mundane, of daily life in a modern city, and the quiet desolation that suffuses everything from commuting to casual sex, from going out on a Friday night to the long ride home in the early hours of the morning. These are songs desperate to understand the meaning that pulses under the moments of our everyday: they are bursting with tension, paranoia, sadness, love and an intense need for reason as to how city life has become so displacing."
So what's the general consensus? Très exciting stuff, non? Or do you not like the sound of this new direction...?
Tickets for the 20-date UK tour go on sale from 'Marshals' at 9am tomorrow morning, and on general sale a day later. Brrrrap! (Sorry, just getting into the crunk mood!)
Labels: A_Weekend_In_The_City, Interviews, Press
¶ 2:45 PM 5 comments links to this post
A pretty funny audio interview from the San Diego Street Scene festival in August...enjoy!
Listen
Labels: Interviews, Press
¶ 11:37 PM 4 comments links to this post
SomethingGlorious.com, a blog inspired by a song well known around this neck of the woods, managed to secure an exclusive interview with Kele just before Bloc Party's headlining appearance at Chicago's Intonation Festival last month.
As is usually the case with independent blogs, the interview is both insightful and original, focusing on the music and giving Kele plenty of time to lay out his vision for album number two. Read it here. This interview also adds weight to the growing movement that suspects Kele of working for Amerie's record company, after Mr. Okereke delivers yet another speech on the merits of '1 Thing'. (Note: the movement currently consists of me, my Dad and the bloke from across the road who smells of wee. To sign up, contact i_believe_in_the_amerie_conspiracy@gullible.com).
Also, there's an interview with Kele and Matt in the current issue of 'Relevant' magazine, kindly transcribed for your reading pleasure.
Labels: Interviews, Press
¶ 10:40 PM 2 comments links to this post
A rare Russell interview on LiveDaily: linkage
Labels: Interviews, Press
¶ 11:50 PM 3 comments links to this post
A Toronto Star article/interview with some more hints about the sound of the new album...
The main aim in writing, he says, was "to distance ourselves from the sound that people assumed we had" and he enthuses about basing songs around samples and sound effects.
"That was always the intention, to be in a rock band that alluded to more than just the Velvet Underground or Led Zeppelin," he says. "For me, this band is about mixing ideas from contemporary dance music and contemporary R&B and electronica and somehow trying to find a happy medium because that really is a lot of the music that really inspires me. It's not your big rock bands. So with this record I'm trying to make that clearer because I'm not quite sure how clear that was on the first record."
Read the full article here.
Labels: A_Weekend_In_The_City, Interviews, Press
¶ 1:26 PM 0 comments links to this post
Speaking to Billboard, Kele has revealed that the new album will tackle some serious issues. One of the new songs, 'Hunting For Witches', was written as a reaction to the media coverage of last year's London bombings and 'Waiting For The 7.18' is Kele's observation of the effects of the working life on his post-college friends.
For the full interview, go here.
Labels: Interviews, Press
¶ 1:22 PM 1 comments links to this post
FaceCulture, a Dutch online multimedia magazine, met up with Gordy before Bloc Party's last proper gig of the year at Amsterdam Paradiso on 3rd December 2005. Click here to watch Gordy chat about his early musical exploits, meeting Kele and Russell for the first time at Chingford train station, Bloc Party's amazing 2005 and the likely sound of the second album.
Labels: Interviews, Press, Videos
¶ 10:21 PM 0 comments links to this post
Gordy spoke to Steve Lamacq on Radio 1 tonight about Bloc Party's progress with the second album.
The band went into the studio last week to write and rehearse songs and they're currently working on three or four new tracks each day. A lot of the new material was written whilst on tour last year, so most of the composition process just consists of bringing all of the ideas together. The aim is to get around twenty songs written and ready to demo in about three weeks time.
Proper studio recording will then begin within the next month or two. The producer has not yet been confirmed, but the most likely candidate seems to be Steve Dub. The album should be in the shops by September at the latest!
Asked to sum up the sound of 'Bloc Party Mark Two' in one word, Gordy said 'direct', adding that it is also 'streamlined' and 'layered'.
The interview and subsequent live recording from last October's John Peel Day can be streamed over the next week from the Radio 1 website.
Labels: A_Weekend_In_The_City, Interviews
¶ 10:34 PM 1 comments links to this post
I came across this four part video interview the other day. It was recorded in July 2005, during Bloc Party's short tour of Australia. Among other things, Gordy talks about the Mercury Music Prize nomination, the new songs and the high expectations for the second album.
You can watch it here.
Labels: Interviews, Press, Videos
¶ 2:23 PM 0 comments links to this post
There was an interesting, if somewhat unfocused, Bloc Party interview in the Film & Music section of The Guardian yesterday.
Read it here
Labels: Interviews, Press
¶ 7:52 PM 2 comments links to this post
