 By Melissa Hetu Bloc Party: "The Eternal Touring Problem"Taking time off from touring to do some exploring of your own is not something all bands like to do. But since it was the first time the guys of Bloc Party had set foot on the continent, they jumped on the opportunity to travel through parts of the country on their own. Although they did come across several problems while out on the road, Bloc Party's bassist Gordon Moakes explains that the overall experience was great. Truth.Explosion: So how has the tour been going?
Bloc Party: It's going well. It's been physically challenging. Recently, we played five times in three days. The reception's been really good.
TE: Any interesting experiences you would like to share?
BP: We did this interesting thing me and Matt and the crew. We went from Vancouver to Minneapolis in a van. Basically they wanted to fly the band because it's such a long drive, like eighteen hundred miles or something, but they needed someone to bring down the van and the equipment. So rather than flying, Matt and I volunteered to go in the van because we wanted to go up and see what the scenery would be like. We crossed part of Washington and North Dakota; it was like a little road trip. It was quite interesting.
TE: When did you do this road trip?
BP: Um that was...I loose track of time. We'd come from Detroit, it was between Vancouver and Minneapolis and lasted four days.
TE: So where did you sleep during the trip?
BP: There were only four of us travelling on the van - me, Matt, our sound man Zane and our merch guy/driver Mike. We took shifts in sleeping in the back of the van while Zane and Mike took the lion's share of the driving.
TE: No overnight stops?
BP: Overnight we stopped twice... once halfway up a mountain range in Montana, and the next night in Jamestown, North Dakota. Both nights we stayed in motels and were so tired we barely registered the rooms we slept in. I think we got the real on-the-road motel experience though.
TE: What did you do for food?
BP: The eternal touring problem: what to eat. America throws up an even bigger problem in that big, cosmopolitan cities are so far apart that you have to make do with what you can at truck stops. Beef jerky and vegan cookies were both called into play along the way.
TE: Did you stop at any interesting restaurants?
BP: The memorable meals were a Jack-In-The-Box in Billings, Montana
(memorable more for getting our trailer stuck in the drive-thru driveway than for the quality of the food) and a Mongolian Wok in Bismarck, North Dakota which provided some much needed vegetation to our diet.
TE: Did you guys have a radio or a CD player in the van?
BP: Yeah, we nearly always had music going in the van and as a result listened to a massive variety of stuff.
TE: What kind of music were you listening to?
BP: Check out this list: Pulp, Mastodon , Sebadoh, Adorable, Isis, Neil Young, Stars, Misfits, Hank Williams, Biffy Clyro, Beck.
TE: Great mix.
BP: And so much more...
TE: Did anything bad happen during the trip?
BP: Well we got pulled over by the cops twice for speeding; they gave us a ticket on one occasion. We were let off on the first occasion but the next guy wasn't so nice. We also got tickets for not wearing our seatbelts in the van. We got the trailer wedged into an alley going through a drive-thru.
TE: Oh the Jack-In-The-Box...
BP: Yeah, the axel went over the curve so we had to yank the thing.
TE: Besides the food, what did you find differently in the United States?
BP: Well the fact that you can have a tour that lasts that long. Back home you can go from like London to Glasgow in a couple of hours. There, there are huge drives and you have to get into that mindset of what it's like to be on the road for 12-14 hours a day. Nothing is that separated in the U.K., you can be in the next town in an hour.
TE: The band has been featured in a bunch of magazines recently. Most of your shows have been sold out. What do you think of all this attention and how does it make you feel?
BP: It's kind of strange, you know we were on the cover of Fader. It's kind of funny to see myself on the cover of Fader. It almost feels like you can separate doing it and observing it. I still don't always remember that I am doing this. A lot of the times I wake up in the morning I am not thinking of it particularly.
TE: Is it hard for it all to sink in?
BP: Yah, there has been pressure partly from the touring schedules and the idea that to function properly as a band you have to tour and write as well, and fit all of these things together, touring, playing, recording, things that allow you to be a band. We are trying to keep things fluid and moving forward.
TE: What expectations did you have recording? What did you think was going to happen with this record?
BP: I think that when we got signed as a band, which was not much longer than a year ago, there was a sense of relief that we kind of proved that we were worthy of making a record because it's difficult to make a record and work full-time as well. A lot of bands do it but it's not easy at all. So it's kind of a sense of relief that we were able to get to that point and start showing what we are capable of. And when we came to record it, it was just a case of recording all the songs we already had, but I think that we already thought beyond that. We went to Denmark to record, we spent four weeks there. Every hour of every day that we were there, we were doing something and not thinking of what it would sound like. We were but weren't thinking of what it would sound like in six months. I held up listening to it until November when it was all done. I think it caught how we were at that point.
TE: Are you happy with the result?
BP: Now I am, now that it's set and cooled. We are definitely in the mindset of "let's do the next thing now" because we made the record in July so that's a while back now. Creatively to not do anything for six or seven months for us in a band is long.
TE: What do you think of the whole "British phenomenon"? Do you see yourself as part of it?
BP: It's again something that has a lot of delay to it. I think that a year ago, we would have completely rubbished the idea of any kind British music scene, even now I am a bit worried that there is anything that is very cohesive other than what has always been which is bands taking inspiration from each other. I felt that when we played with The Futureheads, we kind of felt we had met a band that was like-minded. In terms of a scene we've never felt there was one growing up as a band. We never really had friends who played in a band.
TE: Do you think there is some sort of explosion right now? Everyone makes such a big deal out of it...
BP: I've been asked that before, I think it's just that cultural perception. I think it's a romantic idea to think that somehow the bands are connected. People think there's almost like a gene pool or some golden touch and if you can get into that world than you are in that scene. You can point to various signs, for instance there was a lot of bands forming in Seattle in the late 80s and I don't know what the people were saying back then. I think there is nothing like the London music scene or the British underground guitar rock explosion coming up from nowhere, it's just a romantic idea.
TE: Back to the road trip...did traveling with a band mate bring you closer?
BP: It really brought us closer, especially with all the tribulations.
TE: Any conflicts?
BP: By the end of it the four of us had formed an emo band called 'Anthem For October'. Such was the level of bonding.
TE: What is coming up next for you guys?
BP: The next tour is a British tour, which is a short one. After, we are doing a few dates in Europe and we'll be back in North America in May. Then we are doing the festival circuits.
TE: Well you'll be very busy...
BP: Yah we will be everywhere!
TE: To finish off, could you tell me what the "truth" is about Bloc Party?
BP: Truth is relative. Our truth is everyone else's lie.
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