Kele Okereke, also known simply as Kele, has carved out a notable career marked by both his success with Bloc Party and his more adventurous solo endeavours. Rising to prominence in the mid-2000s with Bloc Party, his fluttering voice and incisive lyrics rocketed the band to early success. Their debut album Silent Alarm was voted Album of the Year for 2005 by NME, and reached number 3 on the UK Albums Chart, before being certified platinum.

While Bloc Party continued to release several more albums, Kele launched a solo career, which saw him begin to branch out into new landscapes. In 2010, he released his debut solo album, “The Boxer,” showcasing a shift from rock to electronic dance music. Tracks like “Tenderoni” demonstrated his versatility and willingness to experimentation with synth pop. His second solo effort, 2014’s Trick, delved deeper into electronic and R&B influences.

In addition to his Bloc Party and solo work, Kele has also written music  for theatre, composing the soundtrack for Leave to Remain, a musical about immigration and relationships. His solo work continued to expand with albums like Fatherland (2017), where he embraced a more acoustic, introspective style.

The electro-inspired track features Kele’s delicate vocals over a  shimmering rhythmic theme of echoey guitar. The lyrics narrate a chaotic late night journey from Bethnal Green to London’s West End, with the singer declaring his love for his home city. The opening verse paints a childhood scene in East London, while the accompanying music video illustrates these themes in in a nostalgic picture-book style.

“My story starts in Bethanl Green / I steal a cigarette from the homeless man / Like the City boys in Liverpool Street / With my 1990s energy,” the opening lines run. But while Kele said he wanted the song to be a “love letter” to London, “Hometown Edge” also acknowledges issues of race that Kele faced growing up, and the complex fabric of emotions this throws up about a city otherwise loved.

“The taxi driver has a bad case of the ‘can’t takes’ / To hold his tongue / Cause I’m young, black, and I’m handsome,” Kele sings.

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And taking to his Instagram account, the singer took the opportunity to connect his messaging to the wave of far-right rioting seen in the UK in the days leading up to the release.

“I wanted hometown edge to be a love letter to my home, London. it feels prescient releasing it today, the morning after my country has shown overwhelmingly that hate has no place on our streets. Seeing what has been happening up and down Britain these last seven days has been hard. it has shaken my core and at times made me question what my place is in this country, but the response from ordinary people up and down the country last night has reminded me how great my country can be when it is united not divided,” Kele wrote.

The British rock band, Bloc Party, was formed in the 90’s and has a hold on many hearts that grew up in the 00’s. The American rock band Paramore is also one of those bands, formed in 2004 and securing the sound everyone loves from that era.

Kele Okereke came on stage during Paramore’s live show to play a stripped back version of the Bloc Party song. Hayley Williams, the lead singer of the American band, expressed her love for the group and are, to this day, still a great influence on her music; “Bloc Party has been a huge influence on Paramore since we were little kids, you know? Picking up guitars and writing songs for the first time. And we’ve grown up with this band, the same way that a lot of you have grown up with us and probably have grown up with Bloc Party as well. So it only feels right to sing a song together that I used to cry to in my car. And maybe we can all cry together.

The performance turned out to be a very emotional one. Combining Williams angelic voice and Okereke’s unmistakable tone, the outcome created an enthralling harmony and a beautiful version of the song. Their fans feedback was a very welcomed one.

Paramore are currently on tour. Having just finished visiting UK cities, they will be returning to the states. Their next gig is on the 19th of May at the Hangout Music Festival in Alabama. They will be touring their way through until August. Their final destination being in St Paul, Minnesota playing at the Xcel Energy Center.

During Paramore’s tour this year, Bloc Party have been opening as their support act. They will be doing so for the rest of the American post-punk band’s journey around the US, set to kick off next month (May). Alongside Bloc Party, they will be joined by other artists like Genesis Owusu and The Linda Lindas.

Finally seeing the light of day, “Melanin” opens with the Bloc Party frontman unapologetically taunting the police in lines that now sound morbidly prescient. “I’m glad that we get to share the track now, at a time that it seems more pertinent than ever”, he said in a statement posted onto Twitter. “As a British-born black man I have found living in this country these last few years wounding”, the same statement reads, “making 2042 was my way of trying to understand some of the racial divisions that have come back sharply into focus this past week with the death of George Floyd”.

‘Melanin’ is out today, click here to listen: https://t.co/jI1uRlBxS3 pic.twitter.com/RJ3mkgwVE4

— Kele Okereke (@keleokereke) July 3, 2020

Incorporating styles as diverse as garage, deep house, and indie folk, Kele’s solo material has always provided an avenue of both sonic and thematic exploration. Growing up in the 1980s as a gay black man in Liverpool, it is no surprise that examining social issues should be a recurring feature in his most personal work. Named after the pigment that darkens the skin when exposed to ultraviolet radiation, “Melanin” is Kele’s way of questioning Britain’s conceptions of race, arguing for radical change in the way the UK teaches its imperial history.  “I believe that if we truly want to dismantle the racial division in this country then it starts with the education system”, he says. “We all need to study a syllabus that tells the truth about the reality of Britain’s colonial past, that isn’t just a celebration of the ‘glory days’ but that looks unflinchingly at the horrors this country has perpetrated in the name of empire. For if we are to learn anything from Britain’s past, we need to have an honest and open dialogue with it.”   

‘Melanin’ is out on Friday, click here to pre-save on your favourite streaming service now: https://t.co/jI1uRlBxS3 pic.twitter.com/UxRIUrhh89 — Kele Okereke (@keleokereke) July 1, 2020

Considering nearly a third of Britons still consider the empire something to be proud of, and as recently as this week the historian David Starkey claimed the “honest teaching” of Britain’s colonisation would be as “the most important moment in human history” with consequences that were “in most ways actually fruitful”, “Melanin” couldn’t be arriving at a better time. Kele deftly balances the irony of profiling black men as culturally violent (“He’s down to fight/‘Boy’s not raised right’”) when our education system fails to acknowledge the white violence that brought black people to the UK in the name of ‘culture’ (“How you gonna know if you’re not told/The truth about where you’re from?”). Watch the track’s lyric video below:

Okereke and his Bloc Party bandmates released their fifth record Hymns in January of this year, and have just announced three dates for February next year, the dates of which are below, and tickets can be bought here. The album also marked the first albums to be released under the band’s latest lineup, featuring bassist  Justin Harris and drummer Louise Bartle. In early October, Bloc Party released the video for the track ‘Stunt Queen’, which marked the first song to be written collaboratively by the four current members.

08/02- Albert Hall- Manchester 

10-11/02-Roundhouse-London

In his interview with the Guardian, Okereke described the new solo album that he was near to completing as “a solo work that’s quite different to what I’ve done in the past. Over the years, with Bloc Party, I’ve been moving away from playing the guitar to exploring more electronic textures, but this record is the opposite of that.”

When quizzed further about his imminent fatherhood, Okereke responded by saying “I’m excited. I’m petrified. I want to do a good job. I want to be present and that is the most important thing for me, but it still feels quite far away.” Kele added, “I’ve always wanted to be a father and I’m very lucky that my partner has always felt the same way. I get why lots of gay men don’t feel like this, but for me it has always felt like something would be missing,”

After confirming that the baby was due in “the second week of December”,  Kele also divulged that both he and his partner knew the sex of the baby, but that they are “not telling anyone”.

The first two songs ‘Exes’ and ‘The Good News’ were given their premiers earlier today when they played a live set at Maida Vale as guests on Lauren Laverne’s BBC Radio 6 morning show. ‘Exes’ may be familiar to anyone who has caught Bloc Party at recent gigs or their recent live session for Australian radio station Triple J where they’ve played the song before.  They also played some classics during the seven song set, including ‘This Modern Love’ and ‘Banquet’. You can watch the whole set while is till available on iPlayer here or watch them perform ‘Exes’ below:

As if that wasn’t enough, Bloc Party also unveiled their fist single off the record, ‘The Love Within’ on Annie Macs BBC Radio 1 show earlier this evening. The song has a dance feel reminiscent to one of their previous songs ‘Ratchet’, and features some pretty space/time bending guitar effects that sound more synth than string. You can hear the song via Youtube below:

This is the first time the band has played in the UK with their new lineup. Drummer Louise Bartle and bassist Justin Harris (formerly of Menomena) replace Matt Tong and Gordon Moakes respectively.

The band described the sound of the new album as “eclectic” during their interview with Annie Mac. On the release date of the new album they weren’t able to give concrete details but instead suggested it would be out in early 2016.

Bloc Party are performing the following UK Shows:
09/11 Glasgow O2 Abc

03/12 Manchester Albert Hall

04/12 London St John at Hackney

The single in question will be Down Boy, which he recorded with Bobbie Gordon, an electronic soul singer from London. The track will be restricted to limited copies, going on sale at the Bacardi pop up shop in London in December. Proceeds will go towards the Nordoff Robbins charity, which deals with people suffering from autism, dementia, mental health problems and other similar diseases and illnesses via music therapy. Their aim is to create a world where the power of music is available to all those in need of it.

It will be the first single of it’s kind, being the first song available to purchase having been made by a 3D printer. 3D printers hit headlines last year, when a firearms company announced it’s intentions to design a working plastic gun that could be downloaded and reproduced by anybody with a 3D printer. The announcement of a 3D single will combat the negativity and concern that was bought about by the firearm replica, although it is not expected that it will become a widespread thing, and singles and albums will continue to be mainly made physically, digitally and via vinyl. Vinyl has seen a revival lately, with approximately 700,000 sales made this year, it’s highest since 2001.