Bloc Party have confirmed they are recording new material without Kele Okereke, and are instead auditioning new singers to take his place.
Okereke recently revealed he had spotted his Bloc Party colleagues entering a studio in his absence, and now, when speaking to this week’s edition of the NME, Russell Lissack has said the band are looking for a new singer due to Okereke’s solo commitments.
“It’s not really a secret because Kele’s been pretty busy doing solo stuff and it looks like he’s going to be doing that a bit longer,” Lissack explained. “The other three of us wanted to meet up and make music. We were talking about just doing an instrumental thing, but now we might get a singer as well, to properly put some music out and play some shows.”
However, Lissack was quick to insist that despite the hunt for a new frontman, and him not speaking with Okereke for ‘a couple of months’, there are no bad feelings between the two parties.
“I haven’t spoken to Kele for a couple of months, I guess since the festivals when I was doing stuff with Ash,” he continued. “But there’s no bad vibes.”
Bloc Party have been on hiatus since late 2009, during which time Okereke released a solo album entitled ‘The Boxer‘. He is also due to issue ‘The Hunter‘, a 7-track EP, next month.