Monkey Business
DAMON ALBARN just can’t sit still. When he’s not fronting the most ambitious rock group in recent memory or touring with one of the best-loved bands of the ‘90s, there’s always another charity project, musical score or supergroup to be getting on with. And then there’s a planet that needs saving... the busiest man in rock makes time for a chat with Dave Fanning to talk collaborations, protests and his new sixteenth century oper
dave fanning, 13 Dec 2010
Damon Albarn is shaking things up – again. Coming off last year’s Blur reunion, the one-time Britpop icon is now leading a 20-piece Gorillaz on a tour of Europe, with legends such as Bobby Womack, The Clash’s Paul Simonon and Mick Jones in the line-up.
It’s quite a change for a group originally conceived of, by Albarn and comic book writer Jamie Hewlett, as a ‘virtual’ band in which the ‘musicians’ were goggle-eyed cartoons with weird overbites. The singer has also gone where few musicians of his generation would dare venture, by using Gorillaz’ latest album, Plastic Beach, as a platform for his environmental views.
Quite what is going on in Albarn’s head hasn’t always been clear, largely because he’s been rather media shy in latter years. Recently, though, Dave Fanning persuaded him to sit down for one of his longest recent interviews. In a long, sometimes rambling, discourse, he talks about his future plans for Gorillaz, the possibility of Blur recording together again and his future ambitions. These include an intimate collection of piano ballads and, starting next year, writing a follow to his acclaimed Monkey opera, this time set in the Elizabethan era and chroncling the life of royal alchemist John Dee, for which he will collaborate with comic book legend Alan Moore.
Dave Fanning: When you think of Gorillaz from a bunch of years ago, animation was to the fore. To me animation was what it was all about. How important is that now?
Damon Albarn: It is very important and when you see it from beginning to end there is this sort of storyline. The whole thing starts with the characters talking to the audience. You’re sucked into this strange world where you’ve got these 50-foot cartoons and these little human beings and it’s the perspective where you don’t know where to look all the time. I know for a fact that sometimes we’re giving it all on the stage and everyone’s just looking up. But that works for us, you know. I don’t know exactly what it is because I’ve never seen it. I’m told it works.
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