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Kele Okereke (born Kelechukwu Rowland Okereke on 13th October 1981 in Liverpool), is the vocalist and guitarist for English indie rock band Bloc Party.

EARLY DAYS

Kele (nicknamed “Rowly” as a child) was born in Liverpool to Catholic Nigerian parents, though he grew up in London. His mother Bridget was a midwife, and his father Eugene a molecular biologist. He has one sister.

He went to school at Ilford County High School, but switched to Trinity High School for sixth form at age 16. Growing up, he would regularly visit Nigeria. However, he lived in Bethnal Green, and it was there in 1998 that he became friends with his new schoolmate at Trinity: Russell Lissack. A year later, while studying at King’s College London, Okereke met Lissack at Reading Festival, the pair formed a band called Union. In 2000, they recruited bass player Gordon Moakes, and the band proceeded to tour with various drummers. In 2001 (aged 20), Okereke moved out of his parents’ home. Two years later, he met Matt Tong who became the band’s permanent drummer. In 2003, the band changed its name to Bloc Party.

BLOC PARTY

In 2005 Bloc Party released their first studio album, titled Silent Alarm. The album reached number three in the UK charts, and propelled the band to fame. Despite this, Okereke continued to study English literature at university. Until the release of Silent Alarm, he had kept his musical activities secret from his parents.

The band released their second album, called A Weekend in the City on February 5, 2007 in the UK and February 6 in the US. The band also scheduled their first gig with the second album at Reading Hexagon to coincide with the UK release date. The album debuted at #12 in the Billboard 200 with 48,000 copies sold.[3] It became available via the UK’s iTunes Store a day ahead of schedule, on February 4, and reached the #2 spot in the Official UK Chart. The album was produced by Jacknife Lee. The first single, “The Prayer”, was released on January 29. This single has been located on their MySpace since November 22, 2006. The next single, “I Still Remember”, is their first American single. In the build up to the release of the album, Zane Lowe aired a live set from the BBC studios at Maida Vale featuring a mix of old songs and new ones on his evening radio show on BBC Radio 1 on January 30, 2007. On February 1, 2007, A Weekend in the City was made available to listen to for free through the band’s official MySpace page.

PERSONAL LIFE

Kele is a shy and private person, and is considered to be more concerned with his music than his media image. He has expressed disdain for interviews, asking one interviewer from Skyscraper magazine, “Why is it important to know what I had for breakfast? Or who I went to bed with? Or what sneakers I am wearing? If it’s relevant to understanding my music, then so be it. But if it’s purely to satisfy the media’s obsession with celebrity, then no thanks. I don’t want to play that game.” The focus of one interview with NME in July 2005 was largely to do with his dislike of being interviewed. In it he implied that the media placed deliberate emphasis on conflicts between bands and did not want to be drawn into such publicity, saying that “public feuding between bands is completely pointless.” A huge influence in Kele’s life was his cousin friend David Rowland who is the lead singer of The Bobcats. Kele spent many summers in Dublin and also lived in Dundrum (upper middle class residential area). He concluded that he has “no faith” in interviews since every interview of him that he has read has “distorted and manipulated” what he says. The image of inaccessibility cultivated by such an attitude later caused Okereke to say, “people think that I hate being approached but that’s not true” in the NME on September 15, 2005. He has given an interview to gay lifestyle magazine Attitude, and in January 2007 he compared himself to famous bisexuals Brian Molko and David Bowie, as well as Morrissey, who has also remained tight-lipped about his sexual orientation throughout his career. In an interview with the The Observer newspaper he attacked homophobia and quoted the famous lesbian novel The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall.

Kele has expressed a desire to leave Britain in the future. On RTÉ science television show Scope, he nominated the iPod as his favourite invention.

KELE’S STYLE

As a songwriter, Okereke’s approach is somewhat unconventional. His lyrics on Bloc Party’s debut album Silent Alarm are more in line with another very private, mysterious frontman, Michael Stipe of R.E.M.. Both songwriters avoid direct expression of their feelings and opinions, preferring to speak through a veil of allusion and cryptic imagery. “Helicopter”, for instance is a song some believe is addressed to George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. It has the lyrics: “North to south, empty, running on bravado… He’s gonna save the world, Just like his Dad… (the same mistakes), Some things will never be different… Are you hoping for a miracle? (It’s not enough)” In response to this issue, Okereke said in an interview, “‘Helicopter’ isn’t about Bush; it’s a song about waking up and realising certain things. I hope what people got from that song wasn’t a critique of American life. I got really worried when I started reading our message boards; there was an American who had read the lyrics of ‘Helicopter’ and had come to the conclusion that we were advocating that the European way is the ideal. But that wasn’t it at all. Europeans have their own set of problems. I’ve personally been quite retarded by growing up in Europe; I have issues with things being messy and saying what I really feel.”

Nonetheless, for the second album A Weekend in the City, he chose more personal and political subjects for songs. A family friend, Christopher Alaneme, had been murdered in a racist attack, while David Morley, a London bartender, was beaten to death in a possibly homophobic “happy slapping”. Okereke has claimed that these events, combined with the 7 July London bombings “galvanised [his] mindset”, prompting him to make the lyrics “dark, bigger and quite abrasive”.

On a rare occasion that he has been critical of another artist, Okereke criticised Green Day in the NME for “riding on this public sentiment of anti-Americanism among teens across the world.” He further said that, “it just seems to be the emptiest of soundbites, and that’s something we’re always conscious of trying to avoid.” In reference to these Green Day fans he said that “being confronted by how stupid and blinkered western teenagers are,” made him angry. To change this, he said “he was trying to provide an alternative, by trying to provide an oasis for kids who are disenfranchised, by doing something different as a band.”

He also hit back at comments made by Liam Gallagher, and Noel Gallagher of Oasis in early 2007. Liam called Bloc Party “A band off of University Challenge”, intending it as an insult, while Noel called them “indie shit”. and Okereke responded with “I think Oasis are the most over-rated and pernicious band of all time. They had a totally negative and dangerous impact upon the state of British music. They have made stupidity hip. They claim to be inspired by The Beatles but, and this saddens me, they have failed to grasp that The Beatles were about constant change and evolution. Oasis are repetitive Luddites.”

In 2004 he collaborated with The Chemical Brothers, singing on the track “Believe” from their album Push the Button.