Time away makes the Bloc Party’s heart grow fonder.
It’s been four years since Bloc Party’s last album (2008′s “Intimacy”), there are four members and this is the Brit postpunk band’s fourth album. Enough reason then to call it “Four.” But right now, two is the issue: Two socks. Bloc Party is in sunny Ibiza, Spain, for a gig and singer Kele Okereke is in his hotel room searching for his socks.
“I’m actually quite frustrated, I’m actually quite annoyed,” he says, sounding like he’s about to lose his temper. “But that’s OK, I’m a professional. I can do two things at once. … Ah, brilliant,” he soon exclaims. He’s located the errant footwear.
“I’m in a good mood now. It’s great when you feel like you’ve lost something and then you find it, because then you feel that sadness, but it’s not warranted. You feel like you’ve lost something and then it comes back to you, and you don’t take it for granted anymore. It works on lots of different levels, like this band. We took some time away from each other and that in itself made us appreciate each other more now. Did you like that effortless segue there?”
Socks to bands, perfect. Okereke admits that until they reconvened after their year out, the band’s future was unsure.
“I didn’t know what was going to happen until we got into that room together. I didn’t make any plans for a new Bloc Party album. I didn’t write any music. It would have been definitely very possible for us not to make another record. I didn’t know what anyone else was thinking.”
The artist as a young man
During his Bloc Party hiatus, Okereke cut a solo record and temporarily relocated from London to NYC to finish a book, “Midnight on a Bicycle,” that he started writing during tours to kill time.
“It stops you from becoming a naughty boy,” he says of being occupied. “I’m young; I had the opportunity and the resources to do something like that, so why not? Why not shake things up?”
Bloc Party
with Ceremony
Friday, 8 p.m.
House of Blues
15 Lansdowne St., Boston.
$27.50-$35, all ages,
888-693-2583
www.hob.com/boston
