Kele is a knockout

Matt Thomas gets in the ring with Kele Okereke who lands a knockout punch with his solo album, The Boxer.

“I’m someone who gets off on new experiences,” says Kele Okereke, the outspoken gay lead singer and guitarist of the hit British postpunk rock band Bloc Party. After releasing and touring three albums with his bandmates, Okereke took advantage of a year-long hiatus to switch out his guitars for drum machines and record his first solo album, The Boxer.

Okereke says that after DJing electro sets in clubs across Europe he found himself inspired to make music in the same vein as artists like Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, Gary Numan and acts in the two-step garage genre, “a form of dance music popular in the late ’90s, that went on to spawn grime, dubstep and breakstep, that’s just kind of fidgety house music.”

“It was just a challenge and that was why I did it,” says Okereke of his fi rst foray into the dance world before he went solo, “It’s Not the Things You Say,” a collaboration with iconic DJ/producer Tiësto. “I didn’t really know any of his music before, he just sent me a track that I thought was interesting, it was melodic and nice. Had it been all ‘boom boom boom’ I don’t think I would have done it. If I like a piece of music and I feel I can contribute something to it, I’ll do it.”

The Boxer’s sound, a combination of dancefloor electro and Okereke’s signature passionate vocals, is clearly laid out on “Tenderoni,” the record’s first single.

“A tenderoni is someone younger than you that you’re into,” explains Okereke. Do the lyrics hint at a narrative involving having a crush on a younger rough trade guy? “Possibly, partially,” he responds laughing nervously. “It’s more about the idea of seeing someone going down the path in life that you don’t want for them, someone you care about that might be making the wrong choices.”

“I thought, ‘Well, it’s got to be hot doesn’t it,’” says Okereke of the “Tenderoni” video, a dark, neon infused offering that combines Daft Punk’s flair for futuristic visuals with Kylie Minogue’s propensity for tight, simple choreography and hunky flesh. The eye candy in the video is a beefed up, shirtless Okereke as a boxer presenting a sexy image vastly different from the indie rocker he was in Bloc Party. “I’m not really very good at watching my videos, it’s a little bit weird seeing yourself objectified or looking at yourself in magazines” notes Okereke who nonetheless has appeared shirtless in short shorts on the cover of UK’s gay magazine Attitude and flashed his rear in the pages of BUTT Magazine. “It wasn’t about looking hot it was about looking different.”

“I’ve got a tendency to make stuff up during interviews,” admits Okereke about the Britney-like meltdown he described to other media outlets as having while recording The Boxer. “It wasn’t hard at all, it was the easiest record I’ve ever made but that Britney thing was something that went around the world.”

Okereke doesn’t hesitate to say he enjoys playing games with the press. “When we played Live Earth, that big climate change gig at Wembley Stadium in 2007, Madonna was playing. I remember doing an interview afterwards and saying Madonna came into our dressing room to say she was a big fan of the band but my tour manager didn’t know who she was so he escorted her out,” recalls Okereke. “I said she got really aggressive with him and started having a fight. It was obviously something I’d made up on the spot but that story travelled the world and it was reported everywhere. It even appeared in the National Enquirer. I love messing with the machine, I just hope one day I don’t say something libelous. “

Okereke has taken mainstream media to task on several occasions for obsessing about his race and sexuality and treating it as a novelty. “I never had a problem talking to gay magazine about gay stuff, I understand that it’s necessary when you have young fans that might be going through similar issues. My problem has always been with music press or lifestyle magazines where there’s always this kind of sexual bias,” says Okereke. “Whenever you discuss any issues about homosexuality there is always this tawdry, ‘Oh wow he’s coming out’ revelation that feels really exploitative. "I did an interview for The Guardian, this kind of left-wing newspaper in the UK, and we spoke for an hour about everything I was interested in and everything I was excited about and the only thing the piece focused on was that I was gay and was in this other band. It’s kind of a bit depressing that I made a record I’m really proud of, and it wasn’t really mentioned.”

In a world of openly gay artists, Okereke is interested in being a tough and edgy presence. “You see lots of gay artists and pop stars that are kind of feminized it seems, kind of camp characters. That’s fine but that isn’t me and it doesn’t say anything to me about my life,” says Okereke. “Ultimately it’s great that there are lots of these kinds of gay artists in mainstream music but I just wanted to show some diversity.”

Okereke believes that having gay artists presenting different attitudes and personas will inspire younger gay artists to be open about their sexuality while staying true to their own style. He adds with a smile, “You gotta hope so.”


Kele Okereke’s The Boxer is in stores now and on Thursday, July 29 at 7pm he plays the Mod Club, 722 College St. Info: iamkele.com


Matt Thomas is a fab associate editor who who would gladly be Kele’s tenderoni any day of the week.