Bloc Party Frontman Announces Debut Solo Effort was a top story in April. Here is the recap: Bloc Party singer/guitarist Kele Okereke released his first solo album, entitled The Boxer, on June 22nd, 2010 on Glassnote Records. Produced by XXXchange (Spank Rock, The Kills), with additional mixing by Philippe Zdar (responsible for Phoenix's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix), The Boxer sees the talented frontman pushing the boundaries of his own melodic sensibilities, embracing pop, rock and electronic music to boldly step out as a solo artist in his own right. First single "Tenderoni" will be unveiled in the coming weeks.With the release of their debut, Silent Alarm, in 2005, Bloc Party were one of the 00's most important British bands, driven by Kele's amazing voice and incredible songwriting. When the band decided to take a hiatus after five straight years of touring, Kele had originally intended to walk away from music for a year. But when downtime presented itself, he found his creative impulses were too strong, and ended up booking himself some exploratory time in a recording studio on a whim.
Alone with an engineer, he gravitated towards new instruments, hardly ever picking up the guitar. "I plugged in synths with no idea what they would do. I began programming drum beats, which I had never done before. It was completely back to the drawing board. It was exciting and terrifying. In most cases, I sat down, pulled a drum beat out of nowhere, and arranged stuff around that. It was as exciting to me as the first time I picked up a guitar."
- more on this story
2010 is almost halfway gone. Join us this holiday weekend as we look back at the top stories from the first half of this year. This was a top story from April.
Share this article on Twitter
