The group has also announced its latest collaboration with vinyl toy brand Superplastic for two limited edition drops. Trafalgar Releasing will globally release the experience along with the cinema-exclusive behind-the-scenes featurette, “Live Inside From Kong” with unseen interview footage and commentary from Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. "Like an unruly child," Hewlett adds.Also announced, Gorillaz are coming to the big screen for one day only on Wednesday, December 8th with the band’s acclaimed star studded virtual experience, Song Machine Live, captured at the band’s Kong Studios HQ in London in December 2020. "We have no long-term plans for the Gorillaz.
A TV special is on the way, as is a feature film, live shows and possible collaborations with the likes of Cartoon Network's Powerpuff Girls. "That is our idea in essence."Īs Albarn and Hewlett savor the freedom to experiment behind the scenes, their animated creations are hogging the limelight. "For cartoon characters to be unpredictable and a bit risky is great," Albarn says. 11, the tune has hints of Arabic influence, something Albarn has been exploring in a solo project recorded in Mali with local musicians. Recorded when D12 was stranded in London following Sept. More recently Gorillaz has released the controversial track 911, dealing with the terrorist attacks in the U.S., in collaboration with rappers D12 and Terry Hall of British ska pioneers The Specials. Commented Murdoc: "It's like carrying a dead albatross round your neck for eternity." And the band garnered headlines by denouncing the bombing of Afghanistan during the acceptance speech for a pair of MTV Europe awards. The band created a furor in the British press this year by turning down its nomination for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize. "That's the great thing about Murdoc: he was basically designed to vent all our anger and frustration."įor guys who protest their dislike of publicity, Albarn and Hewlett have courted a fair amount of high-profile controversy. "The guy says what people are thinking because he doesn't have a self-image to protect," says Hewlett. Murdoc, whose profane effusions are unprintable, is a case in point. We don't have to stand up and perform any of the stuff, so people can be quite instinctive and allow themselves to do things that they might not otherwise do."Īnd Gorillaz can say what their creators often cannot. "Everyone that gets involved with it likes the sense of adventure and the fact there is no formality to it. "Musically it's the best thing in the world it's totally fluid," he says. The result is a neat mix of hip-hop, reggae, punk and electronic tinkering.Īfter more than a decade and six albums with Blur, Albarn relishes the chance to write and record material under a cartoon persona. To compose Gorillaz's tunes, Albarn hooked up with some pretty impressive collaborators: Japanese hip-hop guru Dan ("The Automator") Nakamura is the producer, while contributors include rapper Del Tha Funky Homosapien, Tom Tom Club's Tina Weymouth, Buena Vista Social Club's Ibrahim Ferrer and Miho Hatori of the Japanese band Cibo Matto. And though the talent may be anonymous in the sense that it's not seen, it's hardly unknown. Since the animé-inspired band's genesis, 3.4 million people have logged on to.
Says Hewlett: "I love the idea of eliminating celebrity." But Gorillaz is also a way for the duo to experiment with music and social commentary and remain anonymous.
The two 33-year-olds conceived the group as a parody of and antidote to the plethora of cookie-cutter girl and boy bands churned out by the big record labels. Albarn makes the music, while Hewlett and his team animate the world in which the cartoon band comes to life. In Ladbroke Grove, west London, in a slightly more mundane studio, Blur frontman Damon Albarn and Tank Girl comic artist Jamie Hewlett create Gorillaz, the ultimate manufactured band. All in all, not a bad track record for a bunch of cartoon characters. Billboard chart since its release June 19. The single, Clint Eastwood, has been on the U.S.
Worldwide, 3.5 million fans have bought the group's eponymous debut album.
In the basement car park is a Winnebago where Murdoc, the foul-mouthed, chain-smoking bassist and Satanist, resides. Pretty-boy lead singer 2D is a part-time vandal Russell, the New York hip-hop hard man, is possessed by a phantom rapper and Japanese guitarist Noodle is a 10-year-old martial arts expert. The band is every bit as eccentric as its HQ. Follow the award-winning, platinum-selling band, hangs out in Kong Studios, a multistoried office-cum-castle on a craggy mountain top, battered by a perpetual thunderstorm.