FREDERICTON (CUP) – Sitting at the bar of the Crowne Plaza hotel in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Matt Tong sips on a glass of orange juice, thoughtfully glancing through the menu while he enjoys a quiet break from the public.
“Oh wow, they’ve got fish and chips, would you look at that.”
He promptly decides that he’ll save lunchtime for later and instead returns the conversation to his band, European indie sensation Bloc Party, for which he plays percussion.
Slated for a performance that night as Fredericton Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival headliner, you would hardly be able to tell by the calm expression adorning his features.
He smiles.
“You know, I’m a very frustrated racecar driver. I enjoy go-karting.”
Hungover, unshaven, and seemingly stress-free, Tong smiles at the not-so-distant memory of how his musical career came to be.
“I’ve always wanted to be a piano player, with idols like Little Richard or Jerry Lewis. As such, I got into piano lessons, but I eventually shifted into guitar, and then, finally, drums.”
In 2001, he was chosen to play in the band after being approached by one his colleagues, Kele Okereke, who proposed an audition. Bandmate Gordon Moakes joined around the same time after an advertisement in New Musical Express.
“I suppose that can be a disadvantage of sorts. Sometimes it’s apparent that we have something less of an emotional connection to each other, at least in comparison to the types of bands that come out of high school. That being said, we all really want to be here and that motivation has been enough.”
Undoubtedly so. To date, Bloc Party’s first two albums have been certified as Platinum and Gold, respectively. Even then, Tong remains modest.
“I was really lucky to join up with [Okereke and Moakes] when I did. They were headed in the right direction and had established a very well-defined sense of identity. From there, it just took us some time to become consistently good in our live performance.”
“To be completely honest, I was slightly pessimistic that we would be accepted as a live band in North America because the musicianship over here seems to be so much better.”
How can one country be more musically talented than another?
“Personally, I think it’s generally attributed to the fact that over here people have more space to rehearse, a garage or a basement for example,” he said. “In England, we just have to hope that we have very understanding neighbours. So we were really surprised to how responsive people in North America were to our music.”
Their third album, Intimacy, is not being officially released until October. But instead of making fans wait it out, the band released a digital copy online without any forewarning.
“We knew we wanted to come out with the album this year. We mostly just wanted a surprise. We weren’t so much trying to avoid it leaking like the last two albums leaked, because I think that has a negligible impact on record sales, but it’s almost more because we find it rather disconcerting when we have to listen to what people think what it will sound like before it actually comes out.”
Tong claims that while the new album is much more experimental and different from their previous work, the band doesn’t have any trouble with it during live shows.
“We’ve never been that interested in playing our recordings to their entirety because we don’t believe in patronizing our audience in that way. So many technical failures can occur with the way our music is played now that it isn’t worth it.”
He gazes out the window, sipping his depleted glass quietly through a straw, before explaining further.
“I was watching the Foo Fighters the other day and quite honestly, it bored the fuck out of me. There just wasn’t anything there. They play really well, but . . . that was it, you know? There was no tension, no sense of passion, and it feels less human.”
For a group of musicians so intensely monitored and anticipated, the drummer and his bandmates seem relatively carefree about how their music is received.
From the dance rock guitar rhythms that run through their first album, Silent Alarm, to the eclectic, stuttering electronic feel of Intimacy, they’ve certainly demonstrated their love for experimentation as well as their fearlessness of the general public.
Smiling as he casts his empty glass aside, Matt Tong stands up and extends his hand forward.
“Coming from London, it’s always nice to be somewhere with trees and fresh air. I’m genuinely enthused to be here and I’m very excited for the show tonight.”
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