Bloc rocking beats

MANILA, Philippines - I had a bad phone connection with Matt Tong, drummer from the band Bloc Party, who are coming to Manila on March 22 (playing the World Trade Center). Nothing I was saying made much sense. My questions sounded calculated to offend — did he think they sounded more like The Buzzcocks, or more like early Television? — and managed to reveal my ignorance. “I don’t know too much about the band,” I admitted over the phone. “Oh, great!” Tong said with a sarcastic laugh.

But Tong is a good guy, and our main question had to do with their virtual disappearance over the past few years; from early albums like “Silent Alarm” that mined a compressed rhythm-section sound not unlike Joy Division, ‘80s ska and Gang of Four (though they hate the comparison), the band took three years off before returning with “Four,” an album as different as three years off was likely to produce. “We needed a break,” Tong admitted. From each other was the subtext.

I eventually ascertained that he was in Dublin with the band at the time, doing some shows. The sole Bloc Party member with Asian roots (his mum’s English, his dad’s Malaysian), Tong has done some DJ-ing in Indonesia, but otherwise this is their first tour in Southeast Asia. I promised him Manila would give them a lot of love. 

YOUNG STAR: Your last video, Kettling, depicted kids playing in a schoolyard, but the title refers to a controversial British police tactic. Did you guys have a hand in that video?

MATT TONG: Well, Kelee (Okereke, singer and rhythm guitarist) writes all the lyrics. We had the concept for the video, it depicts a playground game called “British Bulldog,” with kids linking arms, trying to stop other kids from crossing the playground to the other side. We thought it was interesting in itself, but also it’s a depiction of people restricting each other in a seemingly innocent environment.

Does Bloc Party have any particular politics?

In the past, we’ve had this political tag. I think we try to have a more subtle, lyrical approach than other people who adopt a sort of sloganeering approach. As people, we’re left leaning, but I wouldn’t say it’s that clear cut.

Were you influenced by early British punk?

I don’t think we specifically drew our influences from one area, but I agree that certain post-punk bands have influenced our sound from the beginning. Gordon (Moakes, bassist) is a big Joy Division fan, for instance, so the way Peter Hook plays bass has influenced the way he plays, in our earlier songs. Some of those aesthetics have influenced us.

There’s a bit of a ska sound to your drumming. Were you influenced by English Beat, The Selector, etc.?

Not personally. My drums end up sounding like that due to certain production decisions, but the way I play live is more free and, I guess, sloppy.

What do you guys listen to?

Thing is, as a group of four people, we rarely agree on anything, let alone music. We don’t often sit around listening to the same kinds of things. Kelee’s a big fan of R&B and pop music. Gordon’s into hardcore and math rock, he has noisy kind of tastes. Russell (Lissack, guitar) likes a bit of everything, but he listens to a lot of alternative music and electro. I listen to a bit of everything, but I mainly draw my influences from ‘60s and ‘70s music, when things were more musical.

(For the record, Tong’s press kit lists Supertramp, Polvo, early Dinosaur Jr. and Big Star as influences.)

Your latest, “Four,” was produced by Alex Newport of The Mars Volta. Did you guys seek him out?

He was recommended by our manager. He seemed like someone we could trust and get along with. Also his back catalogue spoke to us when it came to thinking of who to produce our new record. We wanted to make a rawer-sounding rock album with us playing the instruments as opposed to programming our sounds and so forth.

 What was the songwriting and recording process like for “Four”?

We probably spent about a month writing songs, and when we felt we were ready, we spent another two weeks in rehearsal room with Alex. He’d stop us at various points and give his thoughts. He really made us think about what the group was doing together, and whether certain parts were necessary or not. That was something we had never done before. So it meant we were very ready when we went in to record. Our parts were more well-defined.

So what have you been up to since “Intimacy” in 2009?

We decided to take a step away from the band and concentrate on other things. We all indulged in our own musical projects — Kelee’s was the most prominent, he did his own record and toured out for a while. I think we just wanted to not be in the band for a while and live our lives. We’d been going for about seven years up to that point so we needed a break. So we thought the healthy thing to do would be to stop being in Bloc Party for a while. 

It enabled us to get over our various grievances with each other. The break was instrumental in ensuring that we could get back in the studio and be decent human beings to each other. I think we all grew up in that time and a couple years away from each other made us realize we valued being in the band and playing music with each other. 

What can we expect from your set in Manila?

I think we’re a bit more uninhibited when we play live, we’re less concerned about making mistakes than we are about being entertaining and human, I suppose.

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Bloc Party play Manila on March 22 at the World Trade Center (call Ticketnet at 911-5555 for inquiries). Bloc Party’s latest album “Four” is distributed by Warner Music Philippines and is now out on CD and on iTunes.