Gorillaz Exclusive
Clash, May 2005
Braving my way up the uneven steps that lead up to Kong Studios, I pause halfway to assess the situation. Clash is here to interview all four members of Gorillaz as they prepare to release their second album, 'Demon Days', but the elements are playing against me. Rain is lashing all around, weighing me down as I scale the hill, but more worrying is the uneasy feeling I'm being watched. Looking around, it's clear I'm alone, but a presence is definitely felt. Soldiering on, it's a relief all round as I reach the top and find Noodle, the band's diminutive guitarist and by all accounts the brains behind the new album, waiting patiently for me. Guiding me into the shelter of Kong's majestic interior, Noodle invites me to relieve myself of the wet layers and wait while she convenes her bandmates. In the ensuing moments I'm stranded, shivering, recounting all the stories I'd heard of journalists who hadn't lived to tell of their experiences with Gorillaz' wild man of rock, Murdoc. The sound of floorboards creaking echoes around the whole building. Raindrops pound the windows. Eventually - thankfully - the four familiar faces join me to begin proceedings, drummer Russel barely squeezing his mammoth frame through the door. Murdoc's vice-like handshake pulls me to him, his yellowed grin baring remnants of unidentifiable meat between his teeth, his breath sponsored by Jack Daniels. "Right," he cackles, while band pin-up 2D tries to sneak a peek at Clash's questions, "Shall we begin?"
Hello to you all. How does it feel to finally be out of the studio and armed with a new album?
Murdoc: Killer! Like just got out of jail for the second time.
Noodle: Yes. There is a certain amount of contentment knowing that the journey that we undertook has finally reached its proper destination. I am satisfied that the album sounds like a valid description of where we are at now.
Russel: It’s been a very long strange journey in order to get us back together again.
2D: It feels like we've never been away.
The last time you were all together was when you were in LA after the film project you signed up to was aborted. What scuppered your plans of silver screen domination?
Murdoc: Pffhh! They can stick that silver screen right up their jacksie, I tell you. The place is full of poseurs and morons. As long as something’s in ‘pre-production’ you can get away with doing sod all for months. Sitting around having meetings, discussing potential budgets for scenes that’ll never be shot. Big... fucking... waste... of.... time. Give me £10,000 and a video camera and I’ll shoot a couple of home movies that will knock the spots off anything those dead-head studio-types could ever dream up.
Murdoc lights another ‘Lucky Lung’ cigarette and takes a long draw. Blows it out.
Murdoc: Probably be an Eighteen certificate though.
When you all arrived at the studios, it was the first time you had all regrouped in some time. How did you greet each other and catch up?
Murdoc: Russel had gained another 200 pounds. He looked like a blow up version of the original Russel. Kinda freaked me out a bit at first. When he shook my hand it felt like being in the grip of a jumbo pack of economy sausages. He walked in, looking pretty crazy. In fact his head was swimming so much I could see the stars flying round it.
Noodle: When I returned to the building, the corridors and halls were filled with the shambling figures of the walking undead. In our absence the building had been left to go to ruin, and this had allowed an....illness to move in. At first I couldn’t figure out what the disease was or where it came from.
2D: Probably the drains...
Noodle: But since analysing the television sets, the radios and the magazines it became apparent that the building was infested by people with...
2D: Mushy brains?
Noodle: Yes. Something like that. Half-dead citizens. Their brains were infected with… a type of garbage. It took me quite some time to clear up the mess their corpses left.
Murdoc: Right-o. I was the next to get back, about November. I was a little er… tipsy from the flight and I had a couple of my Mexican cellmates with me. But yeah I was in a great mood. For about 20 minutes...
2D: That was when I got back. I would’ve got back earlier, but the train up from Eastbourne was delayed. And then about a week later Russel got back looking like a big mountain of madness.
Russel: Hmmm...
Murdoc: But it didn’t take long to settle back into the same routine. Y’know, zombies, death, breakdowns, phantoms, paranoia and a bunch of hit singles. Being in a band, eh? Wicked!
Wait, “Mexican cellmates”? Is there something you want to tell me, Murdoc?
Murdoc: Look, I paid what I thought was good currency for a job well done.
Russel: Murdoc was caught red-handed in a Mexican brothel called ‘The Chicken Choker’, trying to pay the girls off with bad cheques.
Murdoc looks affronted at having to continually explain the situation to his own bandmates.
Murdoc: Hey, it ain’t my fault that the funds weren’t in the bank to back it up.
2D: Yeah, well you did then try to pay her with money that had your face printed on it.
Murdoc smiles.
Murdoc: That’s legal tender where I come from, son. Anyway, so I’m just zipping myself up and next thing I know is like thirty cops burst out everywhere. The place just erupts. (In Mexican accent) “OK amigo, put the weapon down.” I’m like “What the fuck is this? An episode of Z-cars?” They slapped the cuffs on and hauled me off in one of their clapped-out clown cars that they call Police vehicles, and slung me in jail. I thought it was a joke.
Did you contact any of your bandmates for help?
Murdoc: Er... What do you think? 2D’s an idiot who can barely help himself and Russel was whacked out of his mind on anti-psychosis medication. Oh and here’s a good idea: I’m already doing time for allegedly using counterfeit cheques to pay for the services of Mexican hookers, I get banged up and who do I get to help me? A ten-year-old Japanese girl? Yeah, right, the South American authorities are really gonna approve of that aren’t they?
Well then, how do you think your time in jail has shaped or changed you as a person?
Murdoc: I hate those ‘I did time and now I realise the error of my ways’ type confessionals. Balderdash. I tell you, soon as I came out I went straight back to the exact same brothel and did the whole thing all over again. This time when the cops burst out the cupboards all they found was a box of Milk Tray and a card saying ‘Adiòs, mis amigos. Usted nunca me tomarà vivo’, which is Mexican for ‘See you later, ssssuckers!’ I grabbed my crap and then jumped straight onto a plane back to England. Reformed character? Piss off.
2D, you hung around LA for a while. When did the bright lights of the big city lose their appeal and make you decamp back to Eastbourne?
2D: Yeah I stayed at Britt Eckland’s flat in LA for a month or two but I was knackered.
Murdoc’s glaring at 2D. It’s obviously a sore point for Murdoc, as he’s always fancied Britt Eckland and 2D’s basically rubbing Murdoc’s nose in it.
2D: You seen that film ‘The Wickerman’? Well it ended up like that. She was just wandering around with her arse out, naked, banging on the walls all night, and there’s some other idiot playing a wooden flute in the other room. Just weird. So I thought ‘Sod this I’m going home, back to my Dad’s place’. But coming home was, like, a revelation. The good old days all over again, like being a teenager, but like with all the brains and front of being a grown up. I hooked up with Shane Lynch from ex-Boyzone, and me and him just sort of took Eastbourne over. We was both working at my old man’s fairground, and y’know, a couple of free rides on the Waltzers and girls would be all over you. So I had a brilliant time. But y’know Gorillaz ain’t something you can just walk away from, so I came back to do my vocals on the album. I wouldn’t leave Noodle and Russel to deal with Murdoc on their own.
Murdoc turns.
Murdoc: Oh yeah! Big difference it makes having you around to help them.
Murdoc takes a last puff on his cigarette, then flicks the end at 2D. It bounces off his nose. The hot embers scatter.
2D: Ow!
Russel, you experienced quite a different side to LA. What happened to you while you were out there?
Russel looks a little cautious about going into this again. His speech is slow and deliberate.
Russel: Oh...mmm...yeah. Things went from bad to weird to worse for me. I look back and it seems that maybe that whole period was happening to someone else. After the film thing collapsed, I remember thinking I’ll just hang loose in LA for a while. I was staying at the big house we had rented during the movie negotiations up in the Hollywood hills. But then the party turned bad. Things started going missing, and the crowd that dropped by went from being A-list to trust-fund and then finally...just to any old waifs and strays, who seem to come in and out as they wanted. Day and night. The only decent people I met out there the whole time were this gay Australian Polar Bear and some out-of-work crocodile.
Murdoc stares straight ahead.
Russel: So I just walked out of there and left the whole thing behind. I had nowhere really to go. I just... wandered around, staring in shop windows. This was when my mind started going. My dress sense went out the window. I started wearing some tie-dyed kaftan, and trying to get fit by drinking just wheat-grass, but still my weight just ballooned. That’s when it happened.
Russel seems a little shaken remembering this. He takes a swig of water and washes down a couple of Lexotan, a Portuguese anti-anxiety pill.
Russel: That’s when I saw...him.
Murdoc: I...er...think we should drop this. Change the subject.
Russel turns to Murdoc.
Russel: No Man, I’m gonna tell him.
Murdoc: Fine, but you know what happens. It always freaks you out.
Murdoc’s heard this before and knows what to expect. He stares out of the window. Russel pauses... sips some more water.
Russel: I saw the Grim Reaper. 9ft tall. Cloak, the big scythe; the whole get-up. The cloak was just a swirling mass of black trouble. It looked...alive. And then I realised that it was made up of thousands of black crows circling, flying around the Reaper. Then he turned. He looked right at me and I thought ‘That’s it. My time’s up’. I felt this incredible strain, like I was being turned inside out. Every part of my body seemed to be trying to leave me and hold on at the same time. It felt like my soul was just being torn out of my middle. I could hear this... ripping sound. Terrifying. Like a tree coming apart at the roots. This escalated till the sound was deafening, like a thousand screaming infants.
Then suddenly.... it stopped. Silence. I opened my eyes very slowly. I’m almost out of my mind with panic at this stage. And there on the sidewalk in front of me lay this...stuff. Shiny, wet.... in the shape of a figure. This big mass of.... ectoplasm was just lying right in front of me. Then.... it moved, and got up. And I could see it was Del! My life long soul brother. Del, the spirit who lived inside me, who rapped on ‘Clint Eastwood’. DEL! He turned to me, the look on his face I’ll never forget, and then he sort of looked down, and just went “I gotta go. I knew that sooner or later he’d come. Y’know, you can’t hide from him forever.” He gave me one last hug and then that was it. The Reaper wrapped his cloak around Del and then they were both gone. A thin trail of vapour, and a smell of ash, burnt matches.... then nothing.
Murdoc: And that’s when things started going really bad, right?
Russel: After that I must have passed out. When I came to there was a figure leaning over me. He seemed real familiar. He had a huge warm smile on his face and he asked if I was OK. Istantly I felt at ease for the first time in what seemed like ages. He put his hand out and helped me up. Then I recognised him. Ike Turner!
Murdoc: Seriously, you couldn’t make it up, could you?
Russel: He dusted me off, and he took me back to his place. He fed me, stuck some new clothes on my back and let me just rest. The days turned into weeks, and gradually I felt the destre to make some music again. Ike gave me some instruments and an old eight-track machine, and we just started working on some tracks together. I became filled with the vision of making a new record to match ‘Pet Sounds’. To match the truly inspired heights of the classics. Like a hip-hop ‘Sgt. Pepper’s’. but it was a balancing act trying to work and keep my psychosis at bay. I lost count of the amount of time I saw little pink animals marchino across the mixing desk, blowing trumpets and bashing cymbals together. I miked one of them up once. Sounded incredible. I’ve got the tape here somewhere.
Murdoc shakes his head.
Russel: But again the darkness crept into me. And I thought that the songs were taking on a life of their own. They started to sound....evil. I could see ectoplasm leaking out of the speakers. They were laughing at me. I thought that everything that was going wrong in the world was down to this music I was making. So I had to pull the thing down, shelve it, hide it from the world. So that’s went I came back to England, to Kong Studios, to rest again. Just get away from.... everything.
Russel looks rattled. A thousand yard stare cast upon his face. He’s right back there in the thick of it again?
Noodle, you apparently had the most important journey. Can you tell us how you spent the downtime?
Noodle: I had been building up in me for a long while, probably before we went to LA. I think it was during the last tour that I began to be plagued by these silent nightmares and half-forgotten images. Things just flashing up in my head constantly. Images of army bases and....orders, and....(she trails off). The fact that I could remember nothing of my past never seemed of importance before. But now from the depths of my sub-consciousness, the questions were obviously beginning to re-surface. They kept on knocking and the sound was just getting louder. So I returned from LA to my homeland of Japan, to search for the answers and to discover the truth of my past, the one I could never remember. I had nowhere to stay so I used a capsule hotel in central Tokyo as my base. I run up quite a bill. For almost a year I trawled the streets of Tokyo. I could tell the trail was getting warmer. People would give me unusual looks, odd glances. Different to the normal stares I just get for being the guitarist of Gorillaz. I followed rumours and whispers of secret army bases and crack miniature! These snatches of stories seemed to....stir something within me. However every time I felt I was getting nearer the trail would shift. I was almost out of patience when....the answer walked right into me. I was in a steamed fish shop, one of the open restaurants of downtown Hong Kong. I was sitting down by the booth and as one of the waiters came out I accidentally knocked over a tray of freshly cooked ‘Ocean Bacon!’ ‘Ocean....BACON?!’. It all came back to me. Like being suddenly pulled up out of the deep water and into bright clear daylight! This inique and unlikely combination of words had triggered a flashback of colossal consequence. I remembered.....everything!
Murdoc looks round at Noodle, as if his memory has also been re-awoken.
Murdoc: Ocean Bacon? Sounds like the name of a horse I put a bet on.
Noodle: Suddenly out of the kitchen the chef, appeared to what had happened....and it was my mentor and trainer, the army officer Mr. Kyuzo! This was when I discovered the reasoning behind my memory loss and more of the truth that had been hidden. Mr. Kyuzo revealed to me that I was one of 23 children trained as a part of an elite crack team for the Japanese government at a secret military compound! It was Mr. Kyuzo’s duty to train the children in every martial art including sonic warfare. He taught us all languages including sign and lip-reading. Computers, mechanics, Gameboys.... Our skills and talents were endless. He also gave every child a special individual skill of their own. I was taught as a musician, my specialised instrument was guitar, but I became completely fluent in all instruments. But the real purpose of our training was a junior fighting militia. The destruction that we could cause when activated was devastating. Godzilla destroyed Tokyo maybe 100 times but this was nothing compared to what we could do when activated, like a miniature atom bomb! It was ingenious! Who could suspect it from such innocent faces? There was a secret password to activate us at the appropriate time, and also passwords to wipe our memory in case we were ever to be caught by the enemy. However Mr. Kyuzo revealed that these tests were to be abandoned and the government proposed to “decommission” all of the kids. It was Mr. Kyuzo who smuggled me to safety in England! He said that I was such a magnificent guitar player that I should seek my income as a musician. He sent me via FedEx Crate to the original Gorillaz audition. So he wiped my memory of everything other than my music skills and then sent me packing! So that is how I came to be in Gorillaz!
What was the impetus to get the band back together?
Noodle: After he told me all this I realised it was now the correct time to return back home. I remembered the real importance of my training and my mission. I returned to Kong Studios to complete my unfinished business. I think with the first album we did a lot of groundwork in establishing the seeds of ideas, ambitions. But without this follow up the young sprouts of inspiration will wither and die. Therefore it was time to re-unite Gorillaz and launch another killer Gorillaz album. The ammunition! This is when I discovered the real state of danger in the airwaves, the level of desensitising that has gone on. The ‘Respect To False Icons’ must cease bifore it is too late! There is a poison in your food chain. By feeding your children this....driver, you are diluting their intellect. Consequently our children’s children will be even worse. This downward spiral will continue until we all return to the beginning as single-celled amoebas. This is Devolution. We have a similar disrespectful attitude towards each other as we do to the placet. It’s all part of the same behaviour.
2D: Er... So what happened to the passwords? You can’t let those fall into the wrong hands. Japanese children exploding like bombs? That would be terrible!
Noodle pats her top pocket.
Noodle: Regarding the ‘secret passwords’, I keep them close to my chest in an envelope at all times. I made a very solemn promise to Mr. Kyuzo that I would never reveal stage three of my mission until the time is right.
Noodle reaches in to her top pocket and examines the envelope. Her face turns ashen! Someone’s written something on the back of the envelope. Someone has seen the envelope!
Noodle: Murdoc! Have you been going through my pockets? What is this writing on this envelope?
Murdoc has fallen asleep.
Noodle: MURDOC!!!
Murdoc opens one eye, ambivalently: “Hey. I needed to write a bet down.”
Noodle: Did you....read what is written inside? DID YOU?!
Murdoc opens both eyes, now awake! He realises that maybe he’s over stepped the mark. Mexican coppers are one thing, but he ain’t gonna mess with a pint-sized atom bomb.
Murdoc: Er...No.
Noodle: YOU MUST NEVER READ THE CONTENTS OF THIS ENVELOPE! I WILL BE FORCED TO KILL YOU IF YOU DO! And it won’t be my fault. It’ll be out of my hands.
Er, okay... You roped in Dangermouse to produce the album. That’s not the same one used to hang out with that loser Penfold is it?
2D (sarcastic): Yeah right. We got a great big white mouse with an eye-patch to produce our album. D’you think we’re crazy?
2D then turns to Murdoc, looking confused momentarily.
2D: It’s not the same bloke, is it? The guy who turned up at our place wasn’t a mouse... was he?
Murdoc looks as though he would rather pull his own ear off than deal with 2D’s rubbish any longer.
Noodle: It was around then that I heard of the creative force DJ Dangermouse. I was impressed with the work he had done on his own ‘Grey Album’, wich I had downloaded from the Internet, during one of my late night cultural recognisance missions. On the ‘Grey Album’ Mr. Mouse had spliced together the work of the Beatles’ ‘White Album’ and Jay Z’s ‘Black Album’, to create something brand new. It was his commando attitude, and artistic bravery and that I thought would fill that gap in our army for the next mission.
Murdoc: She could see immediately Dangermouse had the right sensibilità, a full head of hair and the correct set of balls.
Noodle: So I called EMI and left specific instructions: “I want Dangermouse to produce next Gorillaz album.”
Are other cartoon characters jealous of your successful music career?
Murdoc: Yeah, apparently Foghorn Leghorn phoned up Warner Brothers the other day. Apparently he did some album for them back in the Sixties, but the deal he signed was really bad. He’s now a massively overweight down-and-out alcoholic rooster. He looks like a feathered version of Mickey Rourke, just really sad. He was barking at one of the secretaries, (Foghorn accent) “Now, Boy... I SAID BOY! I want my royalties now, d’you hear me? Just like those there them Gorillerz characters. D’you hear me, Boy? Don’t make me come over there!” he was just a big drunk chicken, just slurring threats down the phone.
2D: You serious?
Murdoc: Yup. Absolutely. What’s not to believe?
What were Dangermouse’s production methods and did you all agree while working together?
Murdoc: With Dangermouse, every morning we would blindfold him, spin him round three or four times, push him towards the desk and then let him feel his way around the controls. It seemed to work.
Noodle: Dangermouse’s production methods are very istintive, much akin to the young Luke Skywalker using “the force”. Dangermouse will find the soul of a song wherever it hides and coax it out. It is probably the most useful and integral skill a producer can have, to find a song’s relevance and highlight that aspect; to remove the unnecessary parts.
Russel: Noodle and Dangermouse formed a very close bond, their mutual creativity and vision locked in a kind of spiralling synchronicity. They both knew what would be needed in order to really pull out the right frequencies. The pair would pull in the other Gorillaz as and when the tracks required their contributions.
Noodle: The late night sessions ran into early mornings as the album’s creation gathered pace. Bigger, stranger instruments were hauled for the recordings. What couldn’t be found or didn’t exist we had to build from scratch.
Russel: Dangermouse drafted in further collaborators to add various extra vocals, sonics and energies to the album. He had the vision of a master builder, and used these extra textures like an architect.
Noodle: Even though the dark energy of the building had left its heavy imprint of the music, the achievement of this musical document is undeniable. I’m very happy with the outcome.
What about the collaborators? Did they know what they were letting themeselves in for when they agreed to work with you?
Russel: The collaborations have been one of the most inspiring and re-assuring aspects of creating the new album. Just the quality of people who were willing to work on it. Every one has been an inspiration. Even the ones who didn’t take it seriously. When De La Soul turned up I think they’d been inhaling Nitrous Oxide on the plane over. You can hear it on the record, they’re just laughing and giggling over the whole song.
Dennis Hooper is known for being a bit of an anarchist. How did he feel working with someone like Murdoc?
Murdoc: He left tyre tracks all over the studio floor. I love the guy but y’know his social etiquette does leave something to be desired. He drove his bike up the hill that Kong Studios is built on, kicked the doors down and then he rode his big filthy motorbike right into the heart of our studio. He spent about half n’hour doing donuts round the mic stand, whooping and hollering and throwing his hat into the air.
Russel: But after that he settled down, had a camomile tea, and did the take. Nailed it in one, too.
Murdoc: We paid him in petrol. After he was done I filled up his tank and with a tip of the hat he roared off out of the studio, down the hill and away. He said he was off to New Orleans... to a Mardi Gras.
Did you have any intentions for the musical direction of ‘Demon Days’?
Murdoc: Bigger, better... badder. We wanted to make an album that would climb out of the speakers and eat the listener!
Noodle: My direction was to aim for the target and hit it. However nothing was really premeditated. The songs and the sound reveal themselves to you through the process of recording.
Russel: Every time we’ve thought we should record a particolar type of record, it never comes out the way you imagined in your head, so it’s better to try and... guide the song to its right conclusion.
Noodle: It will guide you too. It’s a conversation between you and the music until... you reach an agreement. The only guideline I had was to make the album sound complete and consistent. I felt that with the first album, although good for us at the time, sounded a little schizophrenic. The moods change from song to song quite dramatically.
Were there any pressures you faced in following up the success of your debut? It sold 6 million around the world!
Murdoc: Pressure? I eat it for breakfast. Today’s million seller is tomorrow’s ashtray.
Is Damon Albarn still claiming to be a part of Gorillaz? Aren’t you sick of him yet?
Noodle: Damon has always played a valuable part in the formation of our sound. He has an intuitive understanding of music and we would be foolish to turn his advice and support down. However he knows, like any good musician would understand, that the music that we create must come from within us and not be a facsimile of someone else’s work.
Murdoc: Yeah, as I’ve told him million times. He should keep his sticky beak out of our business.
Noodle: You really are an ungrateful... child sometimes.
Murdoc: Come on Nood, you know what I’m saying. He gave 2D all that vocal coaching and now he sounds like he’s doing an impression of Damon’s voice half the time. If we don’t push the guy out the studio, were gonna end up sounding like... I dunno... one of Damon’s side projects. You know what I mean?
At which point did you know that all your work was complete and it was time to release the album to the people?
Noodle: You know instinctively when an album is ready. However it is the training of that instinct that reveals the artist. Too early and it is an immature action, too late and you may have said too much. As with Shodo, the art of Japanese calligraphy, the calligrapher must strike the paper with the brush in order to express the heart and the soul in its most truthful instinctive form; a decisive, expressive action. The legibility of the characters, or technical ability, is of secondary importance to the spirit and vitality that they express. The action captures the essence of a moment in time. So the time to strike is an instinctive action and as with music, made to capture the moment. Similarly, the knowledge of the moment of completion, or to release it, is a feeling made by instinct.
Murdoc: Er... apart from that we had a deadline over from EMI. I think they would have pulled the plugs if we’d gone on any longer.
What are each of your favourite songs on the album and why?
Murdoc: ‘White Light’ has worked really well in rehearsals. You can get yourself into a right lather on that one.
Russel: The new one ‘Dare’ is fun. And I still love playing ‘Feelgood Inc’.
Murdoc: When De La Soul bother to turn up.
You recently launched your Search For A Star talent contest. Why did you decide to do that, and what have some of the entries been like so far?
Russel: Check ‘em out. They’re fantastic! If you go to Gorillaz.com you can see for yourself.
Noodle: It’s the world’s first Internet Talent Competition. By making this search on the Internet it becomes a truly limitless contest. Anyone from anywhere with any skills or imagination can take part.
Russel: That’s the point of it. All those other shows ain’t ‘Talent Shows’, they’re ‘singing competitions’. This is a search to highlight new talent, whatever form it takes. Entries have been anything from animations, music, photoshopped clips, sketches, film scenes, out-takes... anything. And the tone has kind of gone from humorous to dark to juvenile. Some have been insightful and thought provoking and some of been... well, just weird.
Noodle: This search is again a part of the mission to reverse the trend of complacency and disease. In some way the artists we are looking for now will form part of the third phase, the next part of my mission and the reason behind my training.
Murdoc: Come on, Noodle. Give us a clue. What the hell are you on about?
2D: Hey, could you imagine if we entered and failed to get in? How would that affect your mission Noodle?
Will the winner(s) be recruited to join Noodle’s secret Creative Army?
Noodle: The winner will get to work with the Gorillaz in whatever way will be applicable to their talents. Hoping that this will throw up some truly fresh talent, Gorillaz will not only offer the winner the opportunity to collaborate with them, but a work space at Kong Studios to showcase their talent.
Were you invited to the Royal wedding?
Murdoc starts laughing.
Murdoc: Are you having a laugh? I think they’ve got enough trouble on their plate without being seen to fraternise with a bunch of people like us. I wouldn’t wish me as a wedding guest on my worst enemy.
What would you have given as a present to Charlie and Camilla?
Murdoc: I’d get him a decent pair of glasses. Yeeesh! You’re the future King of England mate! Take it up a level. You should get someone like er... I dunno... Kelly Brook. Now that’s a stamp worth licking. I mean, whatever happened to proper Old School Royalty? He should be on his eight wife by now. Seriously, he should be smiting serfs, eating great big legs of pork with his bare hands and galloping into towns, just basically... pillaging. I don’t think as a King of England he’s genuinely servine the good of the people by marrying someone who looks like Rod Hull. That’s one bird you don’t want to have your hand up the back of!
Russel: There goes your knighthood.
2D nods: For real. Anyway what present do you get for people whose lives have already been drenched in luxury? I dunno... a goldplated speedboat?
Russel: That would sink.
Murdoc: There’s your gift, then.
Murdoc, will your fear of flying jeopardise the band’s plans to tour?
Murdoc: I conquered any fear of flying with the skilful application of alcohol. In fact after six or seven medicinals I usually feel good enough to fly the plane. In fact recently at the screening party for the ‘Feelgood Inc’ video, me and Posdenous from De La Soul were cocking about in the helicopters that we used in the video. I was out of my face. The damn thing took off and I couldn’t control it. We ended up in Tahiti. I woke up on the shore, helicopter all smashed up. Pos has pissed off, and I had a raging hangover. Felt fine after a good breakfast, though. Caught the next flight home... Sorry, what was the question?
What would be the best compliment someone could give you about the new album?
Murdoc: Er... It’s better than the first.
Noodle: I would be more than happy if someone were to stay that they understand what we’re on about. They felt the emotions of the songs. Then I would truly know the choices we made along the way were correct.
What would you do if someone said they didn’t like it?
Murdoc: Shit the bed.
2D: Call a lawyer.
Murdoc: I would shit the bed. Serious. I’d have to. They’d definitely be lying if they didn’t realiste that we’d made one of the best albums this decade. I’d probably kick their lungs off, too.
What will you be spending your royalties on?
Murdoc: 2D will probably just do what he normally does. Spunk it on five beans and a rope ladder.
Russel: 2D spent the last cheque he got on a triple plasma-screen entertainment system that cost something like £37,500. And it only plays one game, which is that old Atari game Pong. Across three screens.
2D: I already lost all the balls for it as well.
Russel: What would you spend the money on next time round?
2D looks on the verge of having some kind of fit. His hand starts ruffling his own hair.
2D: Er... Dave Lee Travis. Fuck it. I can’t think anymore. Look, you’ve definitely got enough material now. My jaw’s aching. I’ve gotta go.
2D gets up and wanders out of the room. Murdoc pauses and then looks back.
Murdoc: Well what are you still doing here? The interview’s over.
Hello to you all. How does it feel to finally be out of the studio and armed with a new album?
Murdoc: Killer! Like just got out of jail for the second time.
Noodle: Yes. There is a certain amount of contentment knowing that the journey that we undertook has finally reached its proper destination. I am satisfied that the album sounds like a valid description of where we are at now.
Russel: It’s been a very long strange journey in order to get us back together again.
2D: It feels like we've never been away.
The last time you were all together was when you were in LA after the film project you signed up to was aborted. What scuppered your plans of silver screen domination?
Murdoc: Pffhh! They can stick that silver screen right up their jacksie, I tell you. The place is full of poseurs and morons. As long as something’s in ‘pre-production’ you can get away with doing sod all for months. Sitting around having meetings, discussing potential budgets for scenes that’ll never be shot. Big... fucking... waste... of.... time. Give me £10,000 and a video camera and I’ll shoot a couple of home movies that will knock the spots off anything those dead-head studio-types could ever dream up.
Murdoc lights another ‘Lucky Lung’ cigarette and takes a long draw. Blows it out.
Murdoc: Probably be an Eighteen certificate though.
When you all arrived at the studios, it was the first time you had all regrouped in some time. How did you greet each other and catch up?
Murdoc: Russel had gained another 200 pounds. He looked like a blow up version of the original Russel. Kinda freaked me out a bit at first. When he shook my hand it felt like being in the grip of a jumbo pack of economy sausages. He walked in, looking pretty crazy. In fact his head was swimming so much I could see the stars flying round it.
Noodle: When I returned to the building, the corridors and halls were filled with the shambling figures of the walking undead. In our absence the building had been left to go to ruin, and this had allowed an....illness to move in. At first I couldn’t figure out what the disease was or where it came from.
2D: Probably the drains...
Noodle: But since analysing the television sets, the radios and the magazines it became apparent that the building was infested by people with...
2D: Mushy brains?
Noodle: Yes. Something like that. Half-dead citizens. Their brains were infected with… a type of garbage. It took me quite some time to clear up the mess their corpses left.
Murdoc: Right-o. I was the next to get back, about November. I was a little er… tipsy from the flight and I had a couple of my Mexican cellmates with me. But yeah I was in a great mood. For about 20 minutes...
2D: That was when I got back. I would’ve got back earlier, but the train up from Eastbourne was delayed. And then about a week later Russel got back looking like a big mountain of madness.
Russel: Hmmm...
Murdoc: But it didn’t take long to settle back into the same routine. Y’know, zombies, death, breakdowns, phantoms, paranoia and a bunch of hit singles. Being in a band, eh? Wicked!
Wait, “Mexican cellmates”? Is there something you want to tell me, Murdoc?
Murdoc: Look, I paid what I thought was good currency for a job well done.
Russel: Murdoc was caught red-handed in a Mexican brothel called ‘The Chicken Choker’, trying to pay the girls off with bad cheques.
Murdoc looks affronted at having to continually explain the situation to his own bandmates.
Murdoc: Hey, it ain’t my fault that the funds weren’t in the bank to back it up.
2D: Yeah, well you did then try to pay her with money that had your face printed on it.
Murdoc smiles.
Murdoc: That’s legal tender where I come from, son. Anyway, so I’m just zipping myself up and next thing I know is like thirty cops burst out everywhere. The place just erupts. (In Mexican accent) “OK amigo, put the weapon down.” I’m like “What the fuck is this? An episode of Z-cars?” They slapped the cuffs on and hauled me off in one of their clapped-out clown cars that they call Police vehicles, and slung me in jail. I thought it was a joke.
Did you contact any of your bandmates for help?
Murdoc: Er... What do you think? 2D’s an idiot who can barely help himself and Russel was whacked out of his mind on anti-psychosis medication. Oh and here’s a good idea: I’m already doing time for allegedly using counterfeit cheques to pay for the services of Mexican hookers, I get banged up and who do I get to help me? A ten-year-old Japanese girl? Yeah, right, the South American authorities are really gonna approve of that aren’t they?
Well then, how do you think your time in jail has shaped or changed you as a person?
Murdoc: I hate those ‘I did time and now I realise the error of my ways’ type confessionals. Balderdash. I tell you, soon as I came out I went straight back to the exact same brothel and did the whole thing all over again. This time when the cops burst out the cupboards all they found was a box of Milk Tray and a card saying ‘Adiòs, mis amigos. Usted nunca me tomarà vivo’, which is Mexican for ‘See you later, ssssuckers!’ I grabbed my crap and then jumped straight onto a plane back to England. Reformed character? Piss off.
2D, you hung around LA for a while. When did the bright lights of the big city lose their appeal and make you decamp back to Eastbourne?
2D: Yeah I stayed at Britt Eckland’s flat in LA for a month or two but I was knackered.
Murdoc’s glaring at 2D. It’s obviously a sore point for Murdoc, as he’s always fancied Britt Eckland and 2D’s basically rubbing Murdoc’s nose in it.
2D: You seen that film ‘The Wickerman’? Well it ended up like that. She was just wandering around with her arse out, naked, banging on the walls all night, and there’s some other idiot playing a wooden flute in the other room. Just weird. So I thought ‘Sod this I’m going home, back to my Dad’s place’. But coming home was, like, a revelation. The good old days all over again, like being a teenager, but like with all the brains and front of being a grown up. I hooked up with Shane Lynch from ex-Boyzone, and me and him just sort of took Eastbourne over. We was both working at my old man’s fairground, and y’know, a couple of free rides on the Waltzers and girls would be all over you. So I had a brilliant time. But y’know Gorillaz ain’t something you can just walk away from, so I came back to do my vocals on the album. I wouldn’t leave Noodle and Russel to deal with Murdoc on their own.
Murdoc turns.
Murdoc: Oh yeah! Big difference it makes having you around to help them.
Murdoc takes a last puff on his cigarette, then flicks the end at 2D. It bounces off his nose. The hot embers scatter.
2D: Ow!
Russel, you experienced quite a different side to LA. What happened to you while you were out there?
Russel looks a little cautious about going into this again. His speech is slow and deliberate.
Russel: Oh...mmm...yeah. Things went from bad to weird to worse for me. I look back and it seems that maybe that whole period was happening to someone else. After the film thing collapsed, I remember thinking I’ll just hang loose in LA for a while. I was staying at the big house we had rented during the movie negotiations up in the Hollywood hills. But then the party turned bad. Things started going missing, and the crowd that dropped by went from being A-list to trust-fund and then finally...just to any old waifs and strays, who seem to come in and out as they wanted. Day and night. The only decent people I met out there the whole time were this gay Australian Polar Bear and some out-of-work crocodile.
Murdoc stares straight ahead.
Russel: So I just walked out of there and left the whole thing behind. I had nowhere really to go. I just... wandered around, staring in shop windows. This was when my mind started going. My dress sense went out the window. I started wearing some tie-dyed kaftan, and trying to get fit by drinking just wheat-grass, but still my weight just ballooned. That’s when it happened.
Russel seems a little shaken remembering this. He takes a swig of water and washes down a couple of Lexotan, a Portuguese anti-anxiety pill.
Russel: That’s when I saw...him.
Murdoc: I...er...think we should drop this. Change the subject.
Russel turns to Murdoc.
Russel: No Man, I’m gonna tell him.
Murdoc: Fine, but you know what happens. It always freaks you out.
Murdoc’s heard this before and knows what to expect. He stares out of the window. Russel pauses... sips some more water.
Russel: I saw the Grim Reaper. 9ft tall. Cloak, the big scythe; the whole get-up. The cloak was just a swirling mass of black trouble. It looked...alive. And then I realised that it was made up of thousands of black crows circling, flying around the Reaper. Then he turned. He looked right at me and I thought ‘That’s it. My time’s up’. I felt this incredible strain, like I was being turned inside out. Every part of my body seemed to be trying to leave me and hold on at the same time. It felt like my soul was just being torn out of my middle. I could hear this... ripping sound. Terrifying. Like a tree coming apart at the roots. This escalated till the sound was deafening, like a thousand screaming infants.
Then suddenly.... it stopped. Silence. I opened my eyes very slowly. I’m almost out of my mind with panic at this stage. And there on the sidewalk in front of me lay this...stuff. Shiny, wet.... in the shape of a figure. This big mass of.... ectoplasm was just lying right in front of me. Then.... it moved, and got up. And I could see it was Del! My life long soul brother. Del, the spirit who lived inside me, who rapped on ‘Clint Eastwood’. DEL! He turned to me, the look on his face I’ll never forget, and then he sort of looked down, and just went “I gotta go. I knew that sooner or later he’d come. Y’know, you can’t hide from him forever.” He gave me one last hug and then that was it. The Reaper wrapped his cloak around Del and then they were both gone. A thin trail of vapour, and a smell of ash, burnt matches.... then nothing.
Murdoc: And that’s when things started going really bad, right?
Russel: After that I must have passed out. When I came to there was a figure leaning over me. He seemed real familiar. He had a huge warm smile on his face and he asked if I was OK. Istantly I felt at ease for the first time in what seemed like ages. He put his hand out and helped me up. Then I recognised him. Ike Turner!
Murdoc: Seriously, you couldn’t make it up, could you?
Russel: He dusted me off, and he took me back to his place. He fed me, stuck some new clothes on my back and let me just rest. The days turned into weeks, and gradually I felt the destre to make some music again. Ike gave me some instruments and an old eight-track machine, and we just started working on some tracks together. I became filled with the vision of making a new record to match ‘Pet Sounds’. To match the truly inspired heights of the classics. Like a hip-hop ‘Sgt. Pepper’s’. but it was a balancing act trying to work and keep my psychosis at bay. I lost count of the amount of time I saw little pink animals marchino across the mixing desk, blowing trumpets and bashing cymbals together. I miked one of them up once. Sounded incredible. I’ve got the tape here somewhere.
Murdoc shakes his head.
Russel: But again the darkness crept into me. And I thought that the songs were taking on a life of their own. They started to sound....evil. I could see ectoplasm leaking out of the speakers. They were laughing at me. I thought that everything that was going wrong in the world was down to this music I was making. So I had to pull the thing down, shelve it, hide it from the world. So that’s went I came back to England, to Kong Studios, to rest again. Just get away from.... everything.
Russel looks rattled. A thousand yard stare cast upon his face. He’s right back there in the thick of it again?
Noodle, you apparently had the most important journey. Can you tell us how you spent the downtime?
Noodle: I had been building up in me for a long while, probably before we went to LA. I think it was during the last tour that I began to be plagued by these silent nightmares and half-forgotten images. Things just flashing up in my head constantly. Images of army bases and....orders, and....(she trails off). The fact that I could remember nothing of my past never seemed of importance before. But now from the depths of my sub-consciousness, the questions were obviously beginning to re-surface. They kept on knocking and the sound was just getting louder. So I returned from LA to my homeland of Japan, to search for the answers and to discover the truth of my past, the one I could never remember. I had nowhere to stay so I used a capsule hotel in central Tokyo as my base. I run up quite a bill. For almost a year I trawled the streets of Tokyo. I could tell the trail was getting warmer. People would give me unusual looks, odd glances. Different to the normal stares I just get for being the guitarist of Gorillaz. I followed rumours and whispers of secret army bases and crack miniature! These snatches of stories seemed to....stir something within me. However every time I felt I was getting nearer the trail would shift. I was almost out of patience when....the answer walked right into me. I was in a steamed fish shop, one of the open restaurants of downtown Hong Kong. I was sitting down by the booth and as one of the waiters came out I accidentally knocked over a tray of freshly cooked ‘Ocean Bacon!’ ‘Ocean....BACON?!’. It all came back to me. Like being suddenly pulled up out of the deep water and into bright clear daylight! This inique and unlikely combination of words had triggered a flashback of colossal consequence. I remembered.....everything!
Murdoc looks round at Noodle, as if his memory has also been re-awoken.
Murdoc: Ocean Bacon? Sounds like the name of a horse I put a bet on.
Noodle: Suddenly out of the kitchen the chef, appeared to what had happened....and it was my mentor and trainer, the army officer Mr. Kyuzo! This was when I discovered the reasoning behind my memory loss and more of the truth that had been hidden. Mr. Kyuzo revealed to me that I was one of 23 children trained as a part of an elite crack team for the Japanese government at a secret military compound! It was Mr. Kyuzo’s duty to train the children in every martial art including sonic warfare. He taught us all languages including sign and lip-reading. Computers, mechanics, Gameboys.... Our skills and talents were endless. He also gave every child a special individual skill of their own. I was taught as a musician, my specialised instrument was guitar, but I became completely fluent in all instruments. But the real purpose of our training was a junior fighting militia. The destruction that we could cause when activated was devastating. Godzilla destroyed Tokyo maybe 100 times but this was nothing compared to what we could do when activated, like a miniature atom bomb! It was ingenious! Who could suspect it from such innocent faces? There was a secret password to activate us at the appropriate time, and also passwords to wipe our memory in case we were ever to be caught by the enemy. However Mr. Kyuzo revealed that these tests were to be abandoned and the government proposed to “decommission” all of the kids. It was Mr. Kyuzo who smuggled me to safety in England! He said that I was such a magnificent guitar player that I should seek my income as a musician. He sent me via FedEx Crate to the original Gorillaz audition. So he wiped my memory of everything other than my music skills and then sent me packing! So that is how I came to be in Gorillaz!
What was the impetus to get the band back together?
Noodle: After he told me all this I realised it was now the correct time to return back home. I remembered the real importance of my training and my mission. I returned to Kong Studios to complete my unfinished business. I think with the first album we did a lot of groundwork in establishing the seeds of ideas, ambitions. But without this follow up the young sprouts of inspiration will wither and die. Therefore it was time to re-unite Gorillaz and launch another killer Gorillaz album. The ammunition! This is when I discovered the real state of danger in the airwaves, the level of desensitising that has gone on. The ‘Respect To False Icons’ must cease bifore it is too late! There is a poison in your food chain. By feeding your children this....driver, you are diluting their intellect. Consequently our children’s children will be even worse. This downward spiral will continue until we all return to the beginning as single-celled amoebas. This is Devolution. We have a similar disrespectful attitude towards each other as we do to the placet. It’s all part of the same behaviour.
2D: Er... So what happened to the passwords? You can’t let those fall into the wrong hands. Japanese children exploding like bombs? That would be terrible!
Noodle pats her top pocket.
Noodle: Regarding the ‘secret passwords’, I keep them close to my chest in an envelope at all times. I made a very solemn promise to Mr. Kyuzo that I would never reveal stage three of my mission until the time is right.
Noodle reaches in to her top pocket and examines the envelope. Her face turns ashen! Someone’s written something on the back of the envelope. Someone has seen the envelope!
Noodle: Murdoc! Have you been going through my pockets? What is this writing on this envelope?
Murdoc has fallen asleep.
Noodle: MURDOC!!!
Murdoc opens one eye, ambivalently: “Hey. I needed to write a bet down.”
Noodle: Did you....read what is written inside? DID YOU?!
Murdoc opens both eyes, now awake! He realises that maybe he’s over stepped the mark. Mexican coppers are one thing, but he ain’t gonna mess with a pint-sized atom bomb.
Murdoc: Er...No.
Noodle: YOU MUST NEVER READ THE CONTENTS OF THIS ENVELOPE! I WILL BE FORCED TO KILL YOU IF YOU DO! And it won’t be my fault. It’ll be out of my hands.
Er, okay... You roped in Dangermouse to produce the album. That’s not the same one used to hang out with that loser Penfold is it?
2D (sarcastic): Yeah right. We got a great big white mouse with an eye-patch to produce our album. D’you think we’re crazy?
2D then turns to Murdoc, looking confused momentarily.
2D: It’s not the same bloke, is it? The guy who turned up at our place wasn’t a mouse... was he?
Murdoc looks as though he would rather pull his own ear off than deal with 2D’s rubbish any longer.
Noodle: It was around then that I heard of the creative force DJ Dangermouse. I was impressed with the work he had done on his own ‘Grey Album’, wich I had downloaded from the Internet, during one of my late night cultural recognisance missions. On the ‘Grey Album’ Mr. Mouse had spliced together the work of the Beatles’ ‘White Album’ and Jay Z’s ‘Black Album’, to create something brand new. It was his commando attitude, and artistic bravery and that I thought would fill that gap in our army for the next mission.
Murdoc: She could see immediately Dangermouse had the right sensibilità, a full head of hair and the correct set of balls.
Noodle: So I called EMI and left specific instructions: “I want Dangermouse to produce next Gorillaz album.”
Are other cartoon characters jealous of your successful music career?
Murdoc: Yeah, apparently Foghorn Leghorn phoned up Warner Brothers the other day. Apparently he did some album for them back in the Sixties, but the deal he signed was really bad. He’s now a massively overweight down-and-out alcoholic rooster. He looks like a feathered version of Mickey Rourke, just really sad. He was barking at one of the secretaries, (Foghorn accent) “Now, Boy... I SAID BOY! I want my royalties now, d’you hear me? Just like those there them Gorillerz characters. D’you hear me, Boy? Don’t make me come over there!” he was just a big drunk chicken, just slurring threats down the phone.
2D: You serious?
Murdoc: Yup. Absolutely. What’s not to believe?
What were Dangermouse’s production methods and did you all agree while working together?
Murdoc: With Dangermouse, every morning we would blindfold him, spin him round three or four times, push him towards the desk and then let him feel his way around the controls. It seemed to work.
Noodle: Dangermouse’s production methods are very istintive, much akin to the young Luke Skywalker using “the force”. Dangermouse will find the soul of a song wherever it hides and coax it out. It is probably the most useful and integral skill a producer can have, to find a song’s relevance and highlight that aspect; to remove the unnecessary parts.
Russel: Noodle and Dangermouse formed a very close bond, their mutual creativity and vision locked in a kind of spiralling synchronicity. They both knew what would be needed in order to really pull out the right frequencies. The pair would pull in the other Gorillaz as and when the tracks required their contributions.
Noodle: The late night sessions ran into early mornings as the album’s creation gathered pace. Bigger, stranger instruments were hauled for the recordings. What couldn’t be found or didn’t exist we had to build from scratch.
Russel: Dangermouse drafted in further collaborators to add various extra vocals, sonics and energies to the album. He had the vision of a master builder, and used these extra textures like an architect.
Noodle: Even though the dark energy of the building had left its heavy imprint of the music, the achievement of this musical document is undeniable. I’m very happy with the outcome.
What about the collaborators? Did they know what they were letting themeselves in for when they agreed to work with you?
Russel: The collaborations have been one of the most inspiring and re-assuring aspects of creating the new album. Just the quality of people who were willing to work on it. Every one has been an inspiration. Even the ones who didn’t take it seriously. When De La Soul turned up I think they’d been inhaling Nitrous Oxide on the plane over. You can hear it on the record, they’re just laughing and giggling over the whole song.
Dennis Hooper is known for being a bit of an anarchist. How did he feel working with someone like Murdoc?
Murdoc: He left tyre tracks all over the studio floor. I love the guy but y’know his social etiquette does leave something to be desired. He drove his bike up the hill that Kong Studios is built on, kicked the doors down and then he rode his big filthy motorbike right into the heart of our studio. He spent about half n’hour doing donuts round the mic stand, whooping and hollering and throwing his hat into the air.
Russel: But after that he settled down, had a camomile tea, and did the take. Nailed it in one, too.
Murdoc: We paid him in petrol. After he was done I filled up his tank and with a tip of the hat he roared off out of the studio, down the hill and away. He said he was off to New Orleans... to a Mardi Gras.
Did you have any intentions for the musical direction of ‘Demon Days’?
Murdoc: Bigger, better... badder. We wanted to make an album that would climb out of the speakers and eat the listener!
Noodle: My direction was to aim for the target and hit it. However nothing was really premeditated. The songs and the sound reveal themselves to you through the process of recording.
Russel: Every time we’ve thought we should record a particolar type of record, it never comes out the way you imagined in your head, so it’s better to try and... guide the song to its right conclusion.
Noodle: It will guide you too. It’s a conversation between you and the music until... you reach an agreement. The only guideline I had was to make the album sound complete and consistent. I felt that with the first album, although good for us at the time, sounded a little schizophrenic. The moods change from song to song quite dramatically.
Were there any pressures you faced in following up the success of your debut? It sold 6 million around the world!
Murdoc: Pressure? I eat it for breakfast. Today’s million seller is tomorrow’s ashtray.
Is Damon Albarn still claiming to be a part of Gorillaz? Aren’t you sick of him yet?
Noodle: Damon has always played a valuable part in the formation of our sound. He has an intuitive understanding of music and we would be foolish to turn his advice and support down. However he knows, like any good musician would understand, that the music that we create must come from within us and not be a facsimile of someone else’s work.
Murdoc: Yeah, as I’ve told him million times. He should keep his sticky beak out of our business.
Noodle: You really are an ungrateful... child sometimes.
Murdoc: Come on Nood, you know what I’m saying. He gave 2D all that vocal coaching and now he sounds like he’s doing an impression of Damon’s voice half the time. If we don’t push the guy out the studio, were gonna end up sounding like... I dunno... one of Damon’s side projects. You know what I mean?
At which point did you know that all your work was complete and it was time to release the album to the people?
Noodle: You know instinctively when an album is ready. However it is the training of that instinct that reveals the artist. Too early and it is an immature action, too late and you may have said too much. As with Shodo, the art of Japanese calligraphy, the calligrapher must strike the paper with the brush in order to express the heart and the soul in its most truthful instinctive form; a decisive, expressive action. The legibility of the characters, or technical ability, is of secondary importance to the spirit and vitality that they express. The action captures the essence of a moment in time. So the time to strike is an instinctive action and as with music, made to capture the moment. Similarly, the knowledge of the moment of completion, or to release it, is a feeling made by instinct.
Murdoc: Er... apart from that we had a deadline over from EMI. I think they would have pulled the plugs if we’d gone on any longer.
What are each of your favourite songs on the album and why?
Murdoc: ‘White Light’ has worked really well in rehearsals. You can get yourself into a right lather on that one.
Russel: The new one ‘Dare’ is fun. And I still love playing ‘Feelgood Inc’.
Murdoc: When De La Soul bother to turn up.
You recently launched your Search For A Star talent contest. Why did you decide to do that, and what have some of the entries been like so far?
Russel: Check ‘em out. They’re fantastic! If you go to Gorillaz.com you can see for yourself.
Noodle: It’s the world’s first Internet Talent Competition. By making this search on the Internet it becomes a truly limitless contest. Anyone from anywhere with any skills or imagination can take part.
Russel: That’s the point of it. All those other shows ain’t ‘Talent Shows’, they’re ‘singing competitions’. This is a search to highlight new talent, whatever form it takes. Entries have been anything from animations, music, photoshopped clips, sketches, film scenes, out-takes... anything. And the tone has kind of gone from humorous to dark to juvenile. Some have been insightful and thought provoking and some of been... well, just weird.
Noodle: This search is again a part of the mission to reverse the trend of complacency and disease. In some way the artists we are looking for now will form part of the third phase, the next part of my mission and the reason behind my training.
Murdoc: Come on, Noodle. Give us a clue. What the hell are you on about?
2D: Hey, could you imagine if we entered and failed to get in? How would that affect your mission Noodle?
Will the winner(s) be recruited to join Noodle’s secret Creative Army?
Noodle: The winner will get to work with the Gorillaz in whatever way will be applicable to their talents. Hoping that this will throw up some truly fresh talent, Gorillaz will not only offer the winner the opportunity to collaborate with them, but a work space at Kong Studios to showcase their talent.
Were you invited to the Royal wedding?
Murdoc starts laughing.
Murdoc: Are you having a laugh? I think they’ve got enough trouble on their plate without being seen to fraternise with a bunch of people like us. I wouldn’t wish me as a wedding guest on my worst enemy.
What would you have given as a present to Charlie and Camilla?
Murdoc: I’d get him a decent pair of glasses. Yeeesh! You’re the future King of England mate! Take it up a level. You should get someone like er... I dunno... Kelly Brook. Now that’s a stamp worth licking. I mean, whatever happened to proper Old School Royalty? He should be on his eight wife by now. Seriously, he should be smiting serfs, eating great big legs of pork with his bare hands and galloping into towns, just basically... pillaging. I don’t think as a King of England he’s genuinely servine the good of the people by marrying someone who looks like Rod Hull. That’s one bird you don’t want to have your hand up the back of!
Russel: There goes your knighthood.
2D nods: For real. Anyway what present do you get for people whose lives have already been drenched in luxury? I dunno... a goldplated speedboat?
Russel: That would sink.
Murdoc: There’s your gift, then.
Murdoc, will your fear of flying jeopardise the band’s plans to tour?
Murdoc: I conquered any fear of flying with the skilful application of alcohol. In fact after six or seven medicinals I usually feel good enough to fly the plane. In fact recently at the screening party for the ‘Feelgood Inc’ video, me and Posdenous from De La Soul were cocking about in the helicopters that we used in the video. I was out of my face. The damn thing took off and I couldn’t control it. We ended up in Tahiti. I woke up on the shore, helicopter all smashed up. Pos has pissed off, and I had a raging hangover. Felt fine after a good breakfast, though. Caught the next flight home... Sorry, what was the question?
What would be the best compliment someone could give you about the new album?
Murdoc: Er... It’s better than the first.
Noodle: I would be more than happy if someone were to stay that they understand what we’re on about. They felt the emotions of the songs. Then I would truly know the choices we made along the way were correct.
What would you do if someone said they didn’t like it?
Murdoc: Shit the bed.
2D: Call a lawyer.
Murdoc: I would shit the bed. Serious. I’d have to. They’d definitely be lying if they didn’t realiste that we’d made one of the best albums this decade. I’d probably kick their lungs off, too.
What will you be spending your royalties on?
Murdoc: 2D will probably just do what he normally does. Spunk it on five beans and a rope ladder.
Russel: 2D spent the last cheque he got on a triple plasma-screen entertainment system that cost something like £37,500. And it only plays one game, which is that old Atari game Pong. Across three screens.
2D: I already lost all the balls for it as well.
Russel: What would you spend the money on next time round?
2D looks on the verge of having some kind of fit. His hand starts ruffling his own hair.
2D: Er... Dave Lee Travis. Fuck it. I can’t think anymore. Look, you’ve definitely got enough material now. My jaw’s aching. I’ve gotta go.
2D gets up and wanders out of the room. Murdoc pauses and then looks back.
Murdoc: Well what are you still doing here? The interview’s over.