ACL Fest Artist Interview: A Weekend In Our City - Austinist Interviews Bloc Party
In 2005, Bloc Party released their debut album Silent Alarm, a glorious highlight of the postpunk revival that the New York Times described as "angsty and urgent, with jagged guitars and sexy dance-punk drums." Unlike many of their British rock contemporaries, the band have aggressively toured America in the interim, stopping in Austin for both SXSW and ACL Fest in 2005 and 2007 and at Stubb's in 2006. This approach may help explain why Bloc Party's follow-up album, A Weekend In The City, debuted at #12 on the Billboard charts in February. The group also tackled some thematic musical changes between the two records, as their latest album trades the abstract imagery of Silent Alarm for a more personal and nuanced take on the lives of young Londoners in the wake of 2005's subway and bus bombings. Austinist talked to Bloc Party drummer Matt Tong about festivals, shooting ranges, and stereotypes as the band prepares to tour again in North America this fall.
A Weekend In The City is quite different from the first album in that the songs are told more from an individual's point of view. What inspired the change?
Kele became more confident with his storytelling abilities, moreover I think he was getting tired of writing thematically opaque material. I think his use of imagery on Silent Alarm was excellent, but I think to an extent he was keen on being more direct with the listener the second time around.
Some of the album's songs ("Waiting For The 7:18", especially) really evoke London in a way we haven't felt since moving away from there. How is the band able to write music with such a strong sense of place?
I guess you write about what you know. Regardless of whether we love or hate the place, London is a city which brought this band together and a number of us grew up there. So I think it wasn't too taxing for Kele to come up with stuff that would be resonant. That said, he's always maintained that the themes covered in AWITC are meant to be applicable to any number of Western cities.
Is it tough to reconcile the need for a song to be fun and noisy live, but also be creative and inspiring for you as a band?
Not so much these days. We're fortunate that we came together in a climate where it's plausible to draw from numerous disparate influences and where we don't feel like we have to patronise the listener. That wasn't necessarily the case back when sports metal ruled the roost or further back when two-bit grunge bands were the de rigueur currency.
The Internet has been buzzing with an unofficial compilation called Another Weekend In The City, which simply collects and sequences all the album's B-sides. Was the final running order tough to select given all of the quality material, and have you ever had second thoughts about it since?
Ha. The funny thing was, we pretty much had the album we wanted to record when we got to the studio. We hadn't written enough material for B-sides, and had to go back and prepare additional material some time later. Pretty much all of the B-sides were done in a two-week period last September, which amuses me, since I'm aware some of those songs already have a pretty cultish following. It's all good. If anything, it's shown us that maybe we can be a little more instinctive about our decisions in the studio and work quicker than we have done in the past. I think this is an attitude we want to embrace when we start work on our next album.
You've visited Austin several times on tour and for SXSW. How have your experiences been here, and do you have any memorable evenings out you'd care to share with us?
Gosh. Some friends of mine have taken me to a shooting range a couple of times. So Austin is the first place I ever fired a 9mm. Luckily the guy I hit didn't sue or anything. The first time we played ACL was a great time, and I also remember harassing some unfortunate locals in the Beauty Bar. We also have a friend there called Jim, who did guitars on tour with us once and who plays in a great band called The Hackberries and so it's always a pleasure to catch up with him.
Is playing SXSW as a young band as difficult as it looks?
Yes. It sucks. You have to do it, but it's exhausting (we did three shows in 24 hours and that isn't half as bad as what some of the other bands have to do) and you have to negotiate your way amidst the wellspring of music industry shitheads who descend on the town. But hey, at least some of the parties are pretty fun.
Summer festivals such as Austin City Limits can be difficult for bands: it's hot, you're playing with a time limit, and sound mixes are often dodgy. So, what parts do you like about playing these shows?
Ah, being European, we've become specialists at summer festivals. The best part of playing festivals is having to play your heart out and win over a crowd that isn't necessarily there to see you. If it comes off, it's very satisfying.
Were there any preconceptions or stereotypes of Americans you had that were disproved during your initial travels and tours here? Or is the US (on the whole) mostly as you expected?
Hmm. Not really. Sometimes we approach destinations with jokey stereotypes in place, but we've never really set ourselves up for a fall. I was being a bit of a jerk about having to do our first European tour, but it turns out I had the best time of my life, so I definitely don't travel with many preconceptions these days. It's easy to, being an islander and all, but I think stereotyping countries and their people is only one rung down the ladder from casual racism and that, as you may gather, isn't really our bag.
Finally, do you ever have the time to see live music these days apart from your support acts? If so, anyone you'd care to recommend?
I would very much like to recommend Biffy Clyro. We did do a tour with them, but I recently had the pleasure of seeing them perform to their own crowd and they were on fire. Brilliant live band, and very powerful.
Bloc Party will perform at the Austin City Limits Festival on Sunday, September 16th at 4:30pm. They will also tape an episode of Austin City Limits on September 17th at KLRU.
[Bloc Party Official Site]
[Bloc Party MySpace]
Image via Bloc Party's official site. Photographer uncredited.
