Just after they picked up the 'Outstanding Song Collection' award at the Ivors 2025, Bloc Party's Kele Okereke and Russell Lissack spoke to NME about surviving '00s indie, revisiting the 'magic' of 'Silent Alarm', and progress on their new "heartbreak and disco" album with the legendary Trevor Horn
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00:00Evening Block Party. How are we doing?
00:02We're doing good. We're doing good, yeah.
00:05How are you doing?
00:06I'm good, I'm good. What a good day.
00:08What an amazing night.
00:09Little Thoughts, Tulips, Ratchet, The Prayer.
00:15Just a few songs of a now officially outstanding catalogue.
00:18How does it feel?
00:19I mean, it feels somewhat surreal, as we were saying.
00:22When we started this, we were kind of very much...
00:25The music that we liked just wasn't kind of...
00:28The music that was recognised in a platform like this.
00:32But it feels, you know, it would be churlish to say
00:36that it didn't feel nice to be honoured in front of all your peers
00:42and stuff for the music that you've made.
00:43So yeah, it's nice. It feels good.
00:47And it makes me optimistic about the future.
00:50And I think that's the most important thing, really.
00:54All of this wouldn't mean anything
00:55if we weren't focused on going somewhere else.
00:59What can you tell us about that alchemy, that magic,
01:02and what it takes to actually make a block party song?
01:05What does it make?
01:06Or make it into a block party song?
01:08I feel like...
01:11I mean, that alchemy is something that is quite...
01:15Yeah, we're thinking something that's just shitty.
01:17It's something that works really hard.
01:18It's something that's quite intangible.
01:22I feel that, I don't know, I feel that we...
01:26You know, we all make music, we all do things kind of separately,
01:29but I think there's something that happens in a room together
01:33when, you know, when we're playing together,
01:35when we're all just vibing and there's just spontaneous energy.
01:40And I think that's, you know, that's the magic, really,
01:45when we're all in the room together putting something out of the...
01:48that's, you know, and it's kind of greater than the sum of our bits of art.
01:54So, you know, I realise that now and I didn't.
01:58Well, it can't be underestimated that bands from your era,
02:01a lot of them would be on their second reunion tour by now.
02:04A lot of bands from your original era would still be on their,
02:07might be on their second reunion tour by now,
02:09but you guys have stuck it out.
02:10What's the secret to survival and how does it feel to still be here?
02:14Don't do it.
02:16Don't do it.
02:17Secret survival.
02:18I don't know, I mean, you know, we're lucky, I guess,
02:22that we, you know, we're in a lucky space in our career
02:25that we can take, you know, we can...
02:28In the beginning, it was a very intense, kind of pressurised thing,
02:32like we would make a record tour, make a record tour.
02:35Now we all have families, we all have other things that we're doing,
02:38so when we get together, it's really, you know,
02:41it's really because we want to get together
02:43and because there's something exciting to do.
02:45Whereas I think in the beginning, we just worked so much
02:49that it didn't really stop.
02:52And whilst I'm thankful that we did that,
02:54because it laid the groundwork,
02:56now it's, you know, being able to have time with our families
03:01and do other things, other projects,
03:03and then bring it back to Block Party,
03:05I think that's something that is really invaluable.
03:09And how's it been revisiting Silent Alarm in such depth
03:12for these shows and this tour?
03:13Is anything rubbed off or is it just about going back to a place?
03:16No, I mean, it's funny, I'm doing all the talking, Russell.
03:19How are you doing, Russell? Are you all right?
03:21You're in the zone.
03:22I'm in the zone, I mean, generally.
03:23Well, we'll do interrupt if you need a few.
03:26Go on.
03:27If it needs coming off.
03:30Sorry, what was the question?
03:31Revisiting Silent Alarm in such depth,
03:33has any of it rubbed off on you
03:34or is it just about revisiting a time and a place?
03:36Yeah, I feel like, I feel like,
03:39I feel like whenever I would listen to
03:42any of our records from the past,
03:44I would always hear things I didn't like about them
03:46and things I'd like to change.
03:48And I think, because we're doing these Silent Alarm shows now,
03:52we did a show in London last year.
03:55It was like a big kind of homecoming show
03:57and it was like a 25-year,
03:59it was a 25-year commemorative show
04:03and I don't know,
04:05I think something kind of switched
04:06whereas before I was always seeing things
04:08in the records that I didn't like.
04:10Now I'm slightly at peace with the whole thing, really.
04:13It's, you know, we've done something great
04:15and it's been recognised throughout the world
04:18and I'm at peace with that now.
04:21It's, you know, we did something.
04:24We did something, Russell.
04:25We did it.
04:25You did something.
04:26We really did.
04:27And what's next?
04:28What are you working on?
04:28I'm doing, I mean, we're all doing a few things.
04:32I'm working on a musical at the moment
04:34and, yes, and we are working on the next popular record.
04:41A little guy with a super producer called Trevor Horn
04:44and he's made some of my favourite records of all time.
04:49So it's, yeah, it's quite interesting
04:52seeing what he has to say here.
04:53He's been, he's been making records for like a very,
04:57for like most of his life, for like over 50 years.
05:00Wow.
05:00So he knows all the tricks.
05:02Yeah, and he knows, and he seems to know everyone as well.
05:04He seems to have a story about everyone.
05:05So, but, yeah, we're, it's a record about, I don't know,
05:11I guess it's a record about heartbreak really.
05:13That's the only thing I can say about it at this stage.
05:16So, yeah, hopefully it will be out next year.
05:20But I don't know, we'll see.
05:21Sonically, what's it dabbling in?
05:24What's it dabbling in?
05:25I think, I don't know.
05:29I mean, I think, I think it's quite, I don't know.
05:31I mean, we're only halfway through.
05:33We're six songs through.
05:34I think it feels quite synthetic in places.
05:38I mean, the term that we were branding around at the start
05:41was kind of disco heartbreak.
05:43That was, that was what we were, that was the umbrella.
05:46It's kind of morphed into something else.
05:47But, yeah, we'll see.
05:49I mean, we're only six songs in,
05:51so it could go, it could go completely left.
05:55And finally, what's going to happen when you leave this room?
05:57You've been mingling, you met Bono, you met Robbie.
05:59I actually go to, I actually go,
06:01my kids go to school with one of mine,
06:06of Etienne's daughter's children.
06:08So, yeah, so it's a real meeting her here
06:10because I see her at the school gates every day.
06:14But, yeah, I know, we're going to meet some friends.
06:15I saw him, I fanboyed.
06:17I met Crispin Hunt from the Longfields,
06:21who I really liked when I was a teenager,
06:24and I just told him that.
06:26And that was, I thought,
06:26I'm going to be upset with myself if I don't say this to him.
06:29So I did that, and that was quite nice.
06:31Nice.
06:32BlogPi, congratulations.
06:33Have a good night.
06:34Thank you very much.
06:34Thanks, guys.
06:35Thank you so much.
06:35Thank you very much.
06:35Cheers, guys.
06:36Cheers, guys.
06:36Cheers, guys.
06:52Cheers.