Kele Okereke

1. Who are you?

I’m Kele, singer and guitarist in Bloc Party.

2. No, really, who are you?

I do not tell the lie!

3. What are you up to at the moment?

Recovering from a particularly painful tonsillectomy, writing some new songs, making some new sounds.

4. What three rules would make up your manifesto?

Excellency, valiance and courage.

5. If you were the dictator of a modern industrial country, what would you abolish? What laws would you implement?

I’d make bus drivers’ conduct a lot more rigid. There would be strict fines for bus drivers that break the rules. They are a public service but I’ve witnessed to much egomaniacal behaviour from bus drivers in East London. I just can stand it .

6. What are your lyrics about?

Lots of different things: people, desire, the world, me, my laziness, beards, skirts, hunger, desire.

7. What is your opinion on the contemporary music scene? What do you like/dislike?

I’m not overly keen on a lot of ‘our contemporaries” to be honest. There are some really good bands. and there are some totally average band. Just because a band lives in London does not mean that the band is going to be good. I find all that “British scene building” that the NME is doing is xenophobic, shameless and it’s just not true. In the year that we were unsigned I never once saw another unsigned band that I thought was a contemporary. All these bands I keep reading about are going to get caught out. The public knows when they are being sold a herring.

8. What distinguishes you from your peers?

I don’t know really, I think we have a little more depth and darkness. people will be very surprised by the album as its in Technicolor. No one makes records in Technicolor any more. The thing about Bloc Party is that we have always wanted to make big sounds, you see it in our songs and the way we play. We just wanted to make music that envelops people, like it did when I was 14. My only aim is to make music people will still be listening to our records in 10 years time because we really are bleeding everything we are into them. I really hope we touch people.

9. Where do you see yourself in five years time?

Still being creative, we have no idea how the band is going to change. I know we are going to change as people, and I know our art is going to change. Wherever we are in 5 years time I will still be a creative person, because art is my life.

10. Any regrets?

You should never waste time regretting, you just got to do what is best in any given situation and that will be the only thing that you can do. No time for negative thoughts at all. This is going to be a long journey.