Bloc Party's Kele Okereke Comes Out

In an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian, rocker and Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke comes out of the closet and talks about some of the tracks on the band's upcoming release which explicitly explore homosexuality, Towleroad.com reports.

The song 'I Still Remember' on the new album 'A Weekend in the City' is about a crush between two schoolboys ('We left our trousers by the canal') while the song 'Kreuzberg' is exploring the issue of gay promiscuity.

"For England", is an exploration of bullying which also touches on the death of gay barman David Morley and the sick phenomenon of "Happy Slapping" in which violent acts are captured on camera for sport. Morley's killers fatally beat him and captured it all on their cell phones.

Okereke says: "The whole idea of happy slapping ... Filming you causing pain to someone, for your own amusement - that really repulsed me. That song is about the fear I have about what could happen on a night out. I have the feeling that it's only a matter of time."

The Guardian writes that during the many interviews Bloc Party conducted in 2005, the subject of whether Okereke is or isn't gay was the pink elephant in the room. Okereke was a refreshingly different kind of indie icon but just as he hated being reduced to 'black guy in indie band', he refused to be drawn either way on his sexuality.

Okereke says: "I didn't talk about it when I did interviews for the last record because it wasn't an area really reflected in the music; I didn't talk about race for the same reason."

"... It isn't black and white. It isn't clear-cut. Britain has always had a love/hate relationship with gay public figures. They're treated as funny and inoffensive and camp. But then when a seemingly heterosexual person seems to display an inclination for the other team it becomes this real hounding situation. You're allowed to exist if they're [sic] seen as a kind of sub-class. Something ineffectual, a comedy Kenneth Williams character."

Okereke tells The Guardian his main reason for coming out and for exploring the issue in his songs is the difference he could make in a young kid's life:

"I guess that's the only reason [to speak out], isn't it? To speak to young people in their impressionable formative years - and say something that could help them make sense of their lives. Lessen the sense of alienation and isolation that they might have. I think that's something that definitely ... I'd be proud of. That we could say that there are alternative ways of behaving, of living one's life."