Damon Albarn
Damon Albarn
Damon Albarn, OBE,is an English musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. He is the lead singer of the alternative rock band Blur as well as co-founder, vocalist, principal songwriter, and instrumentalist of the virtual band Gorillaz...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionRock Singer
Date of Birth23 March 1968
CityWhitechapel, England
hip-hop elements hips
There's always been a hip-hop element to my trousers.
attempt benefit elements engage express future futuristic inform outside power spirits strange struck vibes
It always struck me that Africa was, in a strange way, a futuristic place and had elements and vibes and spirits that were going to inform the future. Africa Express is an attempt to engage that power outside Africa, and for everyone to benefit from it.
home heroin used
I used to go to work and take heroin in the studio and then stop when I came home,
writing years long
Trying to write music that's sensitive to 400 years ago takes a bit of madness, as it's such a long stretch of time.
thinking chinese trying
I'm an English songwriter/composer, working in Mandarin and trying to find something about Chinese culture that I really relate to and respect and feel some genuine emotions for - and it's quite hard, the pentatonic scale, and that, in a way, is why I think it works. Because I'm forced to limit myself to quite strict rules about what I did. Maybe that's how I avoided pastiche.
night one-day around-the-world
I have to wear a new T-shirt every night. I throw them into the audience. One day I'm going to go around the world and reclaim all my T-shirts
memories taken journey
I like to put my iPad on the window and leave it there for however long the journey is, so that I'm staring out, and it's staring out. We're kind of staring out together. It's very poetic to me, watching that absent-minded passing of time. You realize how much you've taken in. What is left of that memory of you staring out of the window for an hour? It's all on the iPad.
mean working-with-others musician
What you learn from working with other performers and musicians is invaluable, really, and can only help you grow. I mean, if you spend your whole life focusing on yourself, you're not really learning much.
albums needs break
I was going through a break up. I was depressed... I really did need to do something. Recording an album was a great escape. I don't know what would have happened if I wouldn't have started to work.
hippie punk grunge
If punk was about getting rid of hippies, then I'm getting rid of grunge.
believe people musician
I'm not really one of those people who believes that if you're a musician you can just leave that behind and start getting into politics
missing ambassadors oxfam
I was approached by Oxfam to go to Mali as their ambassador and get involved in their various initiatives out there. But I felt that was missing the point of using me, a musician
moving ideas cartoon
The cartoon is a metaphor really for the fact that it's almost impossible in our celebrity obsessed culture to move around genres and sort of change you ideas, change your face, you know?
real lying people
The Gorillaz cartoons seem more real to me than the actual people on TV. Because at least you know that there's some intelligence behind the cartoons, and there's a lot of work that's gone into it, so it can't all be just a lie