Amnesiac
April 8th, 2012, 08:47 PM
Damon Albarn has been busy with Bobby Womack, Dr. Dee, and Rocket Juice & the Moon, but unfortunately, it looks like he's putting his two most famous bands to bed. In an in-depth interview with The Guardian, Albarn revealed that the future of Blur and Gorillaz may not extend past this year. Blur's final concert will be this August in London's Hyde Park for the Olympic Games' closing ceremony.
Talking about Blur's future, Albarn said he didn't think there would be any more records or shows. Specifically, he said he could no longer collaborate with bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree in the studio: "I find it very easy to record with Graham [Coxon]. He's a daily musician. With the other two, it's harder for them to reconnect. You know what I mean? It's fine when we play live – it's really magical still – but actually recording new stuff, and swapping musical influences… it's quite difficult." Earlier this year, Albarn and Coxon performed a new Blur song called "Under the Westway".
As for Gorillaz, it looks like the reported falling out between Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett in 2011 may have been true, despite representatives squashing those rumors at the time. Albarn called the band's future "unlikely" and said that it was Hewlett's decision to end the band. He also hinted that Hewlett's anger likely came from the lack of visuals on the Plastic Beach tour: "The music and the videos weren't working as well together, but I felt we'd made a really good record, and I was into it. So we went and played it." Gorillaz' "DoYaThing", the Converse song featuring James Murphy and Andre 3000, just came out in February.
Well, that's interesting.
Talking about Blur's future, Albarn said he didn't think there would be any more records or shows. Specifically, he said he could no longer collaborate with bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree in the studio: "I find it very easy to record with Graham [Coxon]. He's a daily musician. With the other two, it's harder for them to reconnect. You know what I mean? It's fine when we play live – it's really magical still – but actually recording new stuff, and swapping musical influences… it's quite difficult." Earlier this year, Albarn and Coxon performed a new Blur song called "Under the Westway".
As for Gorillaz, it looks like the reported falling out between Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett in 2011 may have been true, despite representatives squashing those rumors at the time. Albarn called the band's future "unlikely" and said that it was Hewlett's decision to end the band. He also hinted that Hewlett's anger likely came from the lack of visuals on the Plastic Beach tour: "The music and the videos weren't working as well together, but I felt we'd made a really good record, and I was into it. So we went and played it." Gorillaz' "DoYaThing", the Converse song featuring James Murphy and Andre 3000, just came out in February.
Well, that's interesting.