Foto-Credit © Wunmi Onibudo

Bloc Party sind eine der wenigen Bands, die den Indie-Rock Hype der 00er Jahre aufrichtig überstanden haben und auch im Jahr 2022 relevante Musik veröffentlichen. So auch am heutigen Release-Freitag mit ihrem neuen Album Alpha Games, einer unerwarteten Rückbesinnung auf alte Tugenden – immerhin sechs Jahre erschien keine neue Platte der englischen Indie-Rocker mehr. Kele Okereke betont, dass eine neue Chemie innerhalb der Band herrscht, die Enttäuschung nach Four ist vergessen und alle Zeichen stehen auf Aufbruch. Es ist also der perfekte Moment, um mit dem ikonischen Frontmann hinter die Kulissen zu blicken und mit einem Track by Track die einzelnen Songs genauer unter die Lupe zu nehmen!

Da Bloc Party eine Band eine großartige Live-Band sind, verlosen wir in diesem Zuge 2×2 Gästelistenplätze für die aktuell anstehenden Shows! Ihr wollt hin? Dann schreibt uns flux bis zum 07. Mai eine Mail mit dem Betreff „Bloc Party + Stadt, wo ihr zum Konzert gehen wollt“ an gewinnen@bedroomdisco.de und mit etwas Glück habt ihr schon bald frohe Gewinnkunde von uns in eurem digitalen Postfach!

Bloc Party Live
15.05.2022 Berlin – Tempodrom
16.05.2022 Köln – E-Werk

Jetzt aber viel Spaß mit Kele und dem Track by Track:

1. Day Drinker

“Ultimately, ‘Day Drinker’ is about sibling rivalry. How the relationships that you have with your siblings can cast a shadow over the rest of your lives. The people that are closest to you, your family, can have the opportunity to hurt you the most, because they know you so well. So I guess that’s what this song is about: the way that brothers love each other. 

There’s also this idea of the brothers dueling: The second half of the song becomes this instrumental-type piece. The way the guitar melodies work and overlap each other, to me, always made me think of the way brothers argue and have different points of view and how they have to eventually come together. It was good to see how that thread was apparent in the arrangement of the music as well.”

2. Traps

“’Traps’ was one of the first songs that we wrote when we were touring and we just knew that it had this energy about it. We’d play it in sound checks and people would be like ‘What was that?’ So we knew that it had something about it that was electric. I’m just glad that we managed to keep that energy in the actual recording of it. 

Ultimately, it’s about a seduction – a doomed seduction. It was nice to be able to sing about desire and about arousal. It feels sexy, but it also feels quite dark to me, like someone is being led somewhere that you know they should not be led, but you’re going to take them there anyway. To me, it’s sexy but it’s sinister at the same time.”

3. You Should Know the Truth

“’You Should Know the Truth’ is really about recognizing that you’ve gone on a long journey with someone, but maybe you weren’t really honest with them from the start and maybe the cracks that have started to appear are your doing, because you’ve not been transparent. It’s a pang of conscience – a moral song, I guess – about realising that you ought to come clean. 

I think we’re all human beings and we all have things to hide. But what I’ve learnt over the years is that if you want a relationship to mean something, you have to give something of yourself to it as well. It can’t just be take, take, take.”

4. Callum is a Snake

“All of the lyrics feel quite cold to me. In the past, I may have felt the need to sugarcoat or resolve things or smooth over any ugliness. But with this record, I wanted to show all the ugliness. I wanted to show the depths that people can sink to when trying to get their own way. 

The thing about ‘Callum is a Snake’ is that we all know someone like that, who maybe says things behind our back that they’re not saying to our face. But really, I think the song’s less about this character for me and more about this sense of putting someone on blast. Over the years I have learned that I am someone who’s very generous with love until I am crossed. Once I’m crossed then a door closes and it doesn’t really open ever again. I’m not a very forgiving person. It’s hard at times, but I think as a mechanism it’s served me well in this industry.”

5. Rough Justice

“’Rough Justice’ is one of the songs I’m more proud of on the record. The idea was loosely this kind of comic book-style fantasy scene of these super exclusive socialites, people that you’d see out and about; but you would hear stories or rumours about them being involved in the criminal underworld, [the idea] that they’re involved in things that aren’t so glamorous as well. 

“I’ve always thought that having a secret double life – a public face and a private face – was something really sexy. So I guess that was loosely that’s what ‘Rough Justice’ was about – this clique of well connected party people that have a secret criminal connection. A bit like Bret Easton Ellis’ Glamorama crossed with Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles, glamorous people doing dangerous things. ‘Rough Justice’ seemed to write itself.” 

6. The Girls Are Fighting

“There was no specific incident that inspired this song – it was more a composite of lots of things I’ve seen over the years when being in clubs and seeing violence erupt with feuding love rivals. I’ve always had a slight obsession with those sorts of moments; like a fuse being lit, when actions turn from words into violence. You can learn a lot about who people really are in those moments. 

I think ‘The Girls Are Fighting’ is kind of self explanatory – someone’s been selling dreams to someone they shouldn’t have and it’s caught up with them. I just wanted to capture that moment of going from naught to ten in an evening, in a sweaty nightclub. I’m really pleased with the arrangement for this track because it has this 1970s glam rock feel meets Adam Ant feel. I love what Louise is doing on the tom toms.”

7. Of Things Yet To Come

“There aren’t really many tender songs on the record but this is one of them. I guess it’s really about loss. Or, not so much loss but regret. It’s about looking back on your life and realising that the way that you acted has pushed people – or at least a certain person – away and reconciling yourself with that sense of regret and the sense that you maybe should have behaved better.”

8. Sex Magik

“’Sex Magik’ is probably my favourite song on the record. It’s about a memory that I’d completely forgotten that resurfaced a few years ago about a summer fling that I had. I was a teenager at the time and during that summer I felt like the veil had been lifted from my eyes. I saw the world in a completely different way. It was a short-lived affair but the effects of that summer have stayed with me for a lifetime.”

9. By Any Means Necessary

“This is really about that sense of determination – being so focused on a goal that you can’t see where it’s taking you, you can’t see that it’s dehumanizing you, ultimately. You’re so fixated on a goal that you lose perspective and you lose yourself. I’ve spoken a lot about the political landscape, but I do feel like what’s going on – and what has been going on these last few years, this sense of “success at all costs” – is something that has been amplified. It seems like it’s the backdrop of our daily discourse and it’s frightening. It feels like we’ve lost a sense of respect for each other. This song is about this search for power at all costs.”

10. In Situ

“’In Situ’ is really about stasis and feeling that you’re in a place and you’re not moving, but you’re kind of happy with that and you don’t realise that the moss has grown over you and you’re stuck. I guess the chorus – “You need to get your hustle on” – is about remembering that you used to have a purpose and something that you were about. I think it’s about trying not to lose sight of that and not to become an island. It’s about remembering that you used to have things that you wanted to say and do.”

11. If We Get Caught

“There are only two songs that I feel like have any tenderness on the record and ‘If We Get Caught’ is one of them. It’s really about recognising that the game is coming to an end and it’s about trying to steal a moment of tenderness with your partner before the curtain comes crashing down. I think it’s about trying to find moments where you can really connect with someone amidst all of the chaos that’s going on in the world.”

12. The Peace Offering

“This track starts gentle, but then ends up in a place that isn’t so gentle at all. I think that lyrically it’s my favourite from the record. As I said earlier I feel that if I’ve been wronged, then I completely withdraw and I feel like I’ve done that a bit in my life over these past few years. I’ve cut ties, I’ve burnt bridges, but all as an act of self-preservation. And this song is about closing a door on a relationship that was so important to me at the time, but with hindsight I can now see that the relationship wasn’t healthy; the way we were interacting wasn’t right. So this song is about saying goodbye to someone that you used to care about. 

Over the years – considering what I do – I feel like I’ve met a fair amount of people who might not have the best intentions for me. When you are in the public eye, people will be drawn to you. I feel like I’ve got quite a sophisticated bullshit detector these days, but yeah, I think this song is about being wary about that and recognising that some people might not have the best intentions for you.”