Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke alluded to simmering tensions that had been boiling up behind the scenes that were never verbalised, as well as disagreements over cocaine usage by someone close to the band.

[9] Tong played the drums on No Devotion's 2015 debut album Permanence, stepping in to finish the final four songs after Luke Johnson left the band in the middle of recording.

Sawayama asked producer/songwriter Paul Epworth, who had produced the Bloc Party albums Silent Alarm and Intimacy, to recruit Tong for the song.

He wrote the drum parts on Silent Alarm as alternating between high and low intensity to give himself a physical break, for he became tired easily after smoking a pack of cigarettes per day.

[13] NME's Nick Reilly said that Silent Alarm was revered because "Okereke’s vocals are perfectly anchored by Tong’s ferocious drumming" and said that Bloc Party's 2018 shows playing the album in full would be "worthless" without the original lineup.