Kele Okereke
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| Kele Okereke | |
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| Born | October 13, 1981 (age 25) Liverpool, United Kingdom |
| Genre(s) | Indie rock, Art rock |
| Affiliation(s) | Bloc Party |
| Label(s) | Wichita, V2 |
| Notable guitars | Fender Telecaster, Gretsch |
| Years active | 2002-present |
| Official site | http://www.blocparty.com |
Kele Okereke (born October 13, 1981) is the vocalist and guitarist for English art rock band Bloc Party. He and Russell Lissack formed Bloc Party (with former names such as Superheroes of BMX, The Angel Range, Diet, and Union) and later recruited Gordon Moakes and Matt Tong, respectively on bass and drums. He met Lissack in 1998 in Essex, where Lissack had grown up and Okereke attended school. After meeting again at the Reading Festival of 1999 they soon formed the band Union. In 2003 they changed the band's name from Union to Bloc Party.
Okereke is a shy and private person, considered to be more concerned with his music than his media image. He is notoriously difficult to interview as successive journalists have discovered. "Why is it important to know what I had for breakfast?" he demanded of Skyscraper magazine in early 2005. "Or who I went to bed with? Or what sneakers I am wearing? If it's relevant to understanding my music, then so be it. But if it's purely to satisfy the media's obsession with celebrity, then no thanks. I don't want to play that game." The focus of one interview with NME in July 2005 was largely to do with his dislike of being interviewed. In it he implied that the media placed deliberate emphasis on conflicts between bands and did not want to be drawn into such publicity, saying that "public feuding between bands is completely pointless." He concluded that he has "no faith" in interviews since every interview of him that he has read has "distorted and manipulated" what he says. The image of inaccessibility cultivated by such an attitude later caused Okereke to say, "people think that I hate being approached but that's not true" in the NME on September 15th 2005.
As a songwriter, Okereke's approach is somewhat unconventional. His lyrics are more in line with another very private, mysterious frontman, Michael Stipe of REM. Both songwriters avoid direct expression of their feelings and opinions, preferring to speak through a veil of allusion and cryptic imagery. Helicopter, for instance is a song some believe is addressed to George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. It has the lyrics: "North to south, empty, running on bravado... He's gonna save the world, Just like his Dad... (the same mistakes), Some things will never be different... Are you hoping for a miracle?" In response to this issue, Okereke said in an interview, "Helicopter isn't about Bush; it's a song about waking up and realising certain things. I hope what people got from that song wasn't a critique of American life. I got really worried when I started reading our message boards; there was an American who had read the lyrics of Helicopter and had come to the conclusion that we were advocating that the European way is the ideal. But that wasn't it at all. Europeans have their own set of problems. I've personally been quite retarded by growing up in Europe; I have issues with things being messy and saying what I really feel."
Furthermore, Okereke criticised Green Day in the NME for "riding on this public sentiment of anti-Americanism among teens across the world." He further said that, "it just seems to be the emptiest of soundbites, and that's something we're always conscious of trying to avoid." In reference to these Green Day fans he said that "being confronted by how stupid and blinkered western teenagers are," made him angry. To change this, he said "he was trying to provide an alternative, by trying to provide an oasis for kids who are disenfranchised, by doing something different as a band."
In 2004 he collaborated with The Chemical Brothers, singing on the track "Believe" from their album Push the Button.
[edit] Equipment
Okereke plays a sunburst Fender Telecaster, a Natural Fender Telecaster and a Cherry Red Gretsch Tennessee Rose. He plays through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amplifier.
