00:00Evening Block Party. How are we doing?
00:02We're doing good. We're doing good, yeah.
00:05How are you doing?
00:06I'm good, I'm good. What a good day.
00:08What an amazing night.
00:09Little Thoughts, Tulips, Ratchet, The Prayer.
00:15Just a few songs of a now officially outstanding catalogue.
00:18How does it feel?
00:19I mean, it feels somewhat surreal, as we were saying.
00:22When we started this, we were kind of very much...
00:25The music that we liked just wasn't kind of...
00:28The music that was recognised in a platform like this.
00:32But it feels, you know, it would be churlish to say
00:36that it didn't feel nice to be honoured in front of all your peers
00:42and stuff for the music that you've made.
00:43So yeah, it's nice. It feels good.
00:47And it makes me optimistic about the future.
00:50And I think that's the most important thing, really.
00:54All of this wouldn't mean anything
00:55if we weren't focused on going somewhere else.
00:59What can you tell us about that alchemy, that magic,
01:02and what it takes to actually make a block party song?
01:05What does it make?
01:06Or make it into a block party song?
01:08I feel like...
01:11I mean, that alchemy is something that is quite...
01:15Yeah, we're thinking something that's just shitty.
01:17It's something that works really hard.
01:18It's something that's quite intangible.
01:22I feel that, I don't know, I feel that we...
01:26You know, we all make music, we all do things kind of separately,
01:29but I think there's something that happens in a room together
01:33when, you know, when we're playing together,
01:35when we're all just vibing and there's just spontaneous energy.
01:40And I think that's, you know, that's the magic, really,
01:45when we're all in the room together putting something out of the...
01:48that's, you know, and it's kind of greater than the sum of our bits of art.
01:54So, you know, I realise that now and I didn't.
01:58Well, it can't be underestimated that bands from your era,
02:01a lot of them would be on their second reunion tour by now.
02:04A lot of bands from your original era would still be on their,
02:07might be on their second reunion tour by now,
02:09but you guys have stuck it out.
02:10What's the secret to survival and how does it feel to still be here?
02:14Don't do it.
02:16Don't do it.
02:17Secret survival.
02:18I don't know, I mean, you know, we're lucky, I guess,
02:22that we, you know, we're in a lucky space in our career
02:25that we can take, you know, we can...
02:28In the beginning, it was a very intense, kind of pressurised thing,
02:32like we would make a record tour, make a record tour.
02:35Now we all have families, we all have other things that we're doing,
02:38so when we get together, it's really, you know,
02:41it's really because we want to get together
02:43and because there's something exciting to do.
02:45Whereas I think in the beginning, we just worked so much
02:49that it didn't really stop.
02:52And whilst I'm thankful that we did that,
02:54because it laid the groundwork,
02:56now it's, you know, being able to have time with our families
03:01and do other things, other projects,
03:03and then bring it back to Block Party,
03:05I think that's something that is really invaluable.
03:09And how's it been revisiting Silent Alarm in such depth
03:12for these shows and this tour?
03:13Is anything rubbed off or is it just about going back to a place?
03:16No, I mean, it's funny, I'm doing all the talking, Russell.
03:19How are you doing, Russell? Are you all right?
03:21You're in the zone.
03:22I'm in the zone, I mean, generally.
03:23Well, we'll do interrupt if you need a few.
03:26Go on.
03:27If it needs coming off.
03:30Sorry, what was the question?
03:31Revisiting Silent Alarm in such depth,
03:33has any of it rubbed off on you
03:34or is it just about revisiting a time and a place?
03:36Yeah, I feel like, I feel like,
03:39I feel like whenever I would listen to
03:42any of our records from the past,
03:44I would always hear things I didn't like about them
03:46and things I'd like to change.
03:48And I think, because we're doing these Silent Alarm shows now,
03:52we did a show in London last year.
03:55It was like a big kind of homecoming show
03:57and it was like a 25-year,
03:59it was a 25-year commemorative show
04:03and I don't know,
04:05I think something kind of switched
04:06whereas before I was always seeing things
04:08in the records that I didn't like.
04:10Now I'm slightly at peace with the whole thing, really.
04:13It's, you know, we've done something great
04:15and it's been recognised throughout the world
04:18and I'm at peace with that now.
04:21It's, you know, we did something.
04:24We did something, Russell.
04:25We did it.
04:25You did something.
04:26We really did.
04:27And what's next?
04:28What are you working on?
04:28I'm doing, I mean, we're all doing a few things.
04:32I'm working on a musical at the moment
04:34and, yes, and we are working on the next popular record.
04:41A little guy with a super producer called Trevor Horn
04:44and he's made some of my favourite records of all time.
04:49So it's, yeah, it's quite interesting
04:52seeing what he has to say here.
04:53He's been, he's been making records for like a very,
04:57for like most of his life, for like over 50 years.
05:00Wow.
05:00So he knows all the tricks.
05:02Yeah, and he knows, and he seems to know everyone as well.
05:04He seems to have a story about everyone.
05:05So, but, yeah, we're, it's a record about, I don't know,
05:11I guess it's a record about heartbreak really.
05:13That's the only thing I can say about it at this stage.
05:16So, yeah, hopefully it will be out next year.
05:20But I don't know, we'll see.
05:21Sonically, what's it dabbling in?
05:24What's it dabbling in?
05:25I think, I don't know.
05:29I mean, I think, I think it's quite, I don't know.
05:31I mean, we're only halfway through.
05:33We're six songs through.
05:34I think it feels quite synthetic in places.
05:38I mean, the term that we were branding around at the start
05:41was kind of disco heartbreak.
05:43That was, that was what we were, that was the umbrella.
05:46It's kind of morphed into something else.
05:47But, yeah, we'll see.
05:49I mean, we're only six songs in,
05:51so it could go, it could go completely left.
05:55And finally, what's going to happen when you leave this room?
05:57You've been mingling, you met Bono, you met Robbie.
05:59I actually go to, I actually go,
06:01my kids go to school with one of mine,
06:06of Etienne's daughter's children.
06:08So, yeah, so it's a real meeting her here
06:10because I see her at the school gates every day.
06:14But, yeah, I know, we're going to meet some friends.
06:15I saw him, I fanboyed.
06:17I met Crispin Hunt from the Longfields,
06:21who I really liked when I was a teenager,
06:24and I just told him that.
06:26And that was, I thought,
06:26I'm going to be upset with myself if I don't say this to him.
06:29So I did that, and that was quite nice.
06:31Nice.
06:32BlogPi, congratulations.
06:33Have a good night.
06:34Thank you very much.
06:34Thanks, guys.
06:35Thank you so much.
06:35Thank you very much.
06:35Cheers, guys.
06:36Cheers, guys.
06:36Cheers, guys.
06:52Cheers.
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