The weekend of the world as we know it

Bloc Party knocked the indie nation sideways with their 2005 debut Silent Alarm. Recorded in Ireland’s very own Grouse Lodge studio, the follow-up album, A Weekend In The City, finally sees daylight next month. In an exclusive interview, frontman Kele Okereke gives Hot Press readers a preview of one of the year’s most anticipated records.

‘Song For Clay (Disappear Here)’
“It wasn’t intended to be the opener, but our management noted that it sets the tone for the record. It starts with a lone guitar and then everything else comes crashing in; it’s a real fall-off-your-seat moment. I started writing it about a decadent character who finds it harder and harder to emote, and coincidentally it paralleled the character of Clay from Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis, which I was reading at the time.”

‘Hunting For Witches’
“This is a real rock song and it’s got an interesting intro in which we sample radio static and almost make a rhythm out of it. It’s about the media’s reaction to the July bombings in London. I was fascinated by how easy it was for the press to adopt a xenophobic sentiment.”

‘Waiting For The 7:18’
“Whereas a lot of Silent Alarm dealt with the journey from adolescence to adulthood, this deals with going from early to later adulthood, when your dreams have faded and you fall into a routine. As a songwriter you’re never quite sure whether you’ve reached the height of your abilities, but this one was the first we wrote and I knew immediately it was going to be better than Silent Alarm.”

‘The Prayer’
“For ages we just had a drum loop and nobody knew where it was going or whether we’d use it, but suddenly it fell into place. We originally planned to have ‘Hunting For Witches’ as the first single, but everyone in the band was so excited by this we just thought, fuck it. ‘The Prayer’ is going to sound amazing on the radio between Keane and The Fratellis – it’s going to blow them completely out of the water.”

‘The Uniform’
“It’s probably the most ambitious thing we’ve done musically; the closest we’ve come to writing a rock opera song.”

‘On’
“This is about the appeal of cocaine. In a society where everyone is feeling dispossessed, a drug like cocaine is a balm to that: there’s an immediate sense of euphoria and optimism. This song isn’t sensationalist or pontificating, though: I try to explain the lure of it. Do I speak from personal experience? Living in London, you can’t help but be exposed to it, and that’s as much as I’m willing to say!”

‘Where Is Home?’
“At the end of my road is a pub owned by the British National Party. So every day I have to walk past it and think about the idea that English people don’t want a multicultural society. I was always optimistic that racism was declining but then a few things happened to make me rethink, for example my cousin was killed in a racist attack and I suffered from racial abuse. Even musically, it’s probably the creepiest thing we’ve ever written.”

‘Kreuzberg’
“This is one of the most tender songs on the record; it’s got a heartbeat bass drum running all the way through it. Lyrically, it’s about how promiscuity affects the idea of love. How when everything’s offered to you on a plate, it’s hard to want to work for something which has meaning.”

‘I Still Remember’
“This was the first song we recorded with producer Garret ‘Jacknife’ Lee to test him out, and we loved it. It’s a lament about lost opportunities, particularly how a failed romance can cast a shadow over one’s life. It’s not necessarily autobiographical; this record is almost like a series of short stories with their own protagonist, taking place in one metropolis.”

‘Sunday’
“It was important to have one moment of positivity on the record, so this is about how the most important thing in life is heartfelt communication with another person. It came together really quickly and features Matt [Tong, drummer] and Gordon [Moakes, bassist] both playing drums at one point. It’s one of my favourites.”

‘SRXT’
“We might have got in copyright trouble if we'd called it ‘Seroxat’ after the anti-depressant drug, so we took all the vowels out. It’s one of the songs that I’m most proud of; it’s really beautiful and was a fitting closer.”