You have to go, what’s going on? As long as it’s that, than I think it’s Gorillaz.ĪLBARN: I’m surprised we didn’t get lynched for that behind-the-screen business. For me, Gorillaz has to be fun, playful, and a bit loopy. Originally we played from behind a screen where you can’t actually see anybody, which seemed to upset a lot of people. There were lots of ideas that we hit on along the way, especially playing live. I think that we set out to do to at the start wasn’t always going to be possible. RACHEL: Thinking back to when this project first started, has the concept of Gorillaz changed radically?ĪLBARN: It’s gotten more defined, I think. If one fish gets it then it all starts to spread, it’s like that. There’s so much stuff out there that has no soul whatsoever. It’s definitely harder to be an interesting pop artist these days–it’s possible, but it’s not a given. There were only a few radio stations and there won’t so many people making music back then, either. There is this idea now that pop music, by its very definition, is always gonna be dumb.ĪLBARN: No, pop music used to be amazing, because the audience for it was different. RACHEL: Pop music doesn’t have to be stupid. I thought, not bad, that delivers something really popular but something that is dealing with something, addressing something. What about that MGMT song? It’s pure pop. You could still do that though.ĪLBARN: Yeah, but it shouldn’t. HEWLETT: What about that other song, “Globe?”ĪLBARN: I could’ve made “Globe” into a club banger. HEWLETT: Out of all the songs that you did, I think, is you picked all the most poppy ones.ĪLBARN: They aren’t even the most poppy ones that I picked! RACHEL: It’s interesting, so much of what people have responded to this time is that it’s so much more of a pop record.ĪLBARN: I thought that it would be my last pop record ever-so there was a chance it would be listened to in that way, you know what I mean? But it’s obviously not. One that you’re actually proud of and not hating yourself because it’s so cynical. Trying to make a good pop record is really difficult. I left off a lot of stuff that I really liked so the album wasn’t too long. Because I produced it on my own, I had to be brutal with myself.
Still, each Gorillaz record seems to be bigger than the previous one.ĪLBARN: It is tricky, but I mean, that’s why it started off this time around with such a big sweep of ideas. RACHEL: It’s hard enough to make a successful record-no matter what kind of music you’re doing–but even harder when it’s so conceptual. Did you ever think that ten years on you’d still be doing this project? RACHEL: Yeah, New York feels like a different place now. JAMIE HEWLETT: Well it was pre-9/11, that’s what was even weirder about it. RACHEL: That particular decade passed pretty quickly. Hard to believe that was a decade ago.ĭAMON ALBARN: Ten years. T COLE RACHEL: It’s interesting, I was thinking about where I was in my life when the first Gorillaz record came out. Both Albarn and Hewlett seemas happily surprised about this fact as anyone else. The cartoon band’s new album, Plastic Beach, is proving to be one of the year’s biggest success stories. Now, 10 years in and two more albums later, Gorillaz has evolved into a multi-media, shape-shifting, arena-filling powerhouse. Loads of fun, but not necessarily the kind of classic project one might anticipate would have staying power-or more importantly, record-selling power. It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly a decade since the release of the first Gorillaz album, and the unimaginable saturation of the single, “Clint Eastwood.” Back in 2001, the project-a musical and visual collaboration between Blur frontman Damon Albarn and British cartoonist Jamie Hewlett-seemed like a larky one-off between two old friends bent on eviscerating the one’s celebrity.