Gorillaz Interview
Juice, June 2001
What is Gorillaz?
Murdoc: Everything you’ve read is true. Ram raid, organ shop, community service, NYC, rapper, spirits, NME, FedEx, guitarist, Brownhouse, Camden, deal, gold discs.
Russel: That’s slightly reductive, Murdoc! We live in an animated alter-world where Augustus Pablo can walk into Electric Lady Studios, pick up a Gibson, and play a fuzz lead over a Cachao bass line while Dr. Dre plays the tin flute to Rag Time beatz on a tin whistle.
Any connection between Damon, Blur, and Gorillaz?
Murdoc: I don't know how many times I have to say this, or how much longer I'm gonna have to put up with this preposterous old arse! Albarn, Hewlett, and even Talking Heads. And the bleeding Automator, Dan the Automaton more like! He’s only the producer of my band's music. Any other git want their careers resurrecting? Bob Hope played Kazoo on Man Research, so why don't I just give all of my royalty cheques to that dead old-fat-fascist-bore? Read the writing credits on MY album notes, then bog right off. Hail Satan.
2D: Why have you got to be miserable all the time? I’ve always wanted to do interviews for cool magazines all around the world, y’know!? I think it’s really cool. I mean, we’re pop stars, it’s wicked!
One of the members (Noodle) is allegedly Japanese. Explain.
Russel: I wish we could explain, but she’s as much of an enigma to us as she is to you!
Tell us about the Noodle Fight Game. What’s everybody’s hi-scores?
2D: I’m rubbish at it, I can’t get past level four!
Murdoc: I took the score all the way around the clock back to zero!
Russel: Yeah, by staying on the first screen, picking up the free life at the beginning, and dying before you reached the end.
Russel has a tattoo. What does it mean?
Russel: The image itself doesn’t have any deep meaning but I guess tattoos, for me anyway, are a physical reminder. Like a note to yourself that you have to live with your actions every day because there is no undoing them.
Russel has ghosts. What does it mean?
Russel: It means that I have the positive mental strength of two men to draw upon. My own and that of the ever-living soul of my dear departed Hip-Hop brother Del.
Did Murdoc get his name from that guy in the A-Team?
Murdoc: My Dad always contested that George Peppard stole the name from him, my older brother is called Hannibal.
Is 2D a reference to being two-dimensional? or something else?
2D: No, Murdoc called me that after I’d been in the car-crash-coma-car-crash episode because it left me with two big dents in my head.
What’s it like to be in a cartoon band?
Russel: The best comparison we can think of for being in a cartoon band is finding yourself sewn into the seat of William Hanna’s and Joe Barbera’s jogging pants on the day they invented The New Shmoo. A pretty wild ride.
Gorillaz played live in London last month behind a curtain. Why the secrecy? Have you taken a page out of The Residents' tour book?
Russel: With our live shows, we’re just approaching how we “Show ourselves” in a new way. We do that with everything from our music, to our videos on our internet site, all of our design work, and in our merchandise. We don’t like to take anything for granted. Our shows work on a lot of levels, obviously, we aim to give a liver-quivering audio adventure but we don’t stop there. We’re developing a visual presentation that isn’t simply the standard four faceless dullards banging through their barely discernible repertoire. It’s a culmination of genres that’s in line with our diverse musical influences. While we’re the live band at the heart of the show, the projections, rap, and DJs have their roots in a more club-orientated tradition, but those are just the parts of the experience, the sum itself is something else. Something much more.
What was on the rider?
Murdoc: Chips, sweets, and two whole chickens. One for Russel to stuff his face with, and another for me to sacrifice.
What is Kong Studios?
2D: It’s where we work, rest, and play!
Russel: Our website, www.gorillaz.com, is a virtual representation of the building.
Who are the band’s favourite all-time monkeys? Wasn’t Clint Eastwood once in a movie with a Gorilla?
Russel: No, that was an Orangutan. You need to brush up on your primates.
I understand a key was given out with the Clint Eastwood single in the UK. What was the key for?
Russel: It wasn’t with Clint, that came with the album. But I think I’d better let Murdoc fill you in on that one.
2D: Oh! I know this one! Can I say? Can I? Well, it was all a bit sad really. Murdoc gave away the key to his Winnebago so that people could have a look around, but then somebody stole it with all the master tapes inside, so we had to record it all again and it took bloody ages because I couldn’t remember all of the words.
How did Kid Koala and Del tha Funkee Homosapian help with the album?
Murdoc: You'd better ask old Grand Master Diggidy Dogg about that one!
Russel: I take it you mean me, Murdoc. Dan the Automator introduced us to Kid Koala, I originally met Dan on the Million Man Left Hand march on Washington, we’re both left-handed. Anyway, Koala brought his unmistakable irresistible scratching style into the mix. Del, as I mentioned before, is the funky phantom that possesses my soul, residing inside my body and busting forth with the spirit world’s mightiest rhymes just when we and the world need them most!
How did you get Ibrahim Ferrer of BVSC involved?
Murdoc: We got in touch, he came over, we gave him a bottle of JB, and off he went. It's a shame that somebody as gifted as Ibrahim can spend 20 years shining shoes when bands like Westlife are forever at number one, polluting the charts and kiddies' brains.
Noodle? Can you offer some inspirational words of wisdom for your Japanese fans (in Japanese)?
Noodle: My inspirational words of wisdom are all entwined within the magically growing forms that jump out of our Gorillaz sound. A single note from my guitar vibrates in tune with the universe dancing to the shifting rhythm of creation within that instant perfectly.
How does the band feel about Japanese Manga? Any favourites?
Russel: I’m a classicist at heart. In my mind, you can’t beat Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira series.
What’s the strangest experience the band’s ever had?
2D: We recorded the album in Jamaica. I was on the studio roof recording the vocal for Sound Check (Gravity) and while I was singing and looking up at the stars, a giant vulture that the locals call Johnny Bird swooped down and took me off into the mountains and left me there with a Rastafarian medicine man. I stayed there for a week and he fed me with vegan food and educated me in the ways of Jah, but I can't remember a word that he said.
Any plans for a Japanese tour?
Russel: We are not planning a tour, but we will be playing two dates later this year. One in Tokyo, and the other in Osaka, see y’all there.
Noodle: It is my dream to play for everybody back home in Osaka, this will be a magical performance for sure!
Famous last words... (advice, ideas, comments, attempts at humour, recipes)
Murdoc: Here’s the recipes for my mother's homemade mouthwash, both are invaluable aids when you have tour bus backstage breath! Enjoy!
This first one is sort of a numbing type:
1/3 Maalox
1/3 liquid Benadryl
1/3 lidocain viscous 2% soloution
This second one takes care of fungus:
1/3 liquid Prednisone syrup 5mg/5ml
1/3 liquid Benadryl
1/3 liquid Nystatin
Murdoc: Everything you’ve read is true. Ram raid, organ shop, community service, NYC, rapper, spirits, NME, FedEx, guitarist, Brownhouse, Camden, deal, gold discs.
Russel: That’s slightly reductive, Murdoc! We live in an animated alter-world where Augustus Pablo can walk into Electric Lady Studios, pick up a Gibson, and play a fuzz lead over a Cachao bass line while Dr. Dre plays the tin flute to Rag Time beatz on a tin whistle.
Any connection between Damon, Blur, and Gorillaz?
Murdoc: I don't know how many times I have to say this, or how much longer I'm gonna have to put up with this preposterous old arse! Albarn, Hewlett, and even Talking Heads. And the bleeding Automator, Dan the Automaton more like! He’s only the producer of my band's music. Any other git want their careers resurrecting? Bob Hope played Kazoo on Man Research, so why don't I just give all of my royalty cheques to that dead old-fat-fascist-bore? Read the writing credits on MY album notes, then bog right off. Hail Satan.
2D: Why have you got to be miserable all the time? I’ve always wanted to do interviews for cool magazines all around the world, y’know!? I think it’s really cool. I mean, we’re pop stars, it’s wicked!
One of the members (Noodle) is allegedly Japanese. Explain.
Russel: I wish we could explain, but she’s as much of an enigma to us as she is to you!
Tell us about the Noodle Fight Game. What’s everybody’s hi-scores?
2D: I’m rubbish at it, I can’t get past level four!
Murdoc: I took the score all the way around the clock back to zero!
Russel: Yeah, by staying on the first screen, picking up the free life at the beginning, and dying before you reached the end.
Russel has a tattoo. What does it mean?
Russel: The image itself doesn’t have any deep meaning but I guess tattoos, for me anyway, are a physical reminder. Like a note to yourself that you have to live with your actions every day because there is no undoing them.
Russel has ghosts. What does it mean?
Russel: It means that I have the positive mental strength of two men to draw upon. My own and that of the ever-living soul of my dear departed Hip-Hop brother Del.
Did Murdoc get his name from that guy in the A-Team?
Murdoc: My Dad always contested that George Peppard stole the name from him, my older brother is called Hannibal.
Is 2D a reference to being two-dimensional? or something else?
2D: No, Murdoc called me that after I’d been in the car-crash-coma-car-crash episode because it left me with two big dents in my head.
What’s it like to be in a cartoon band?
Russel: The best comparison we can think of for being in a cartoon band is finding yourself sewn into the seat of William Hanna’s and Joe Barbera’s jogging pants on the day they invented The New Shmoo. A pretty wild ride.
Gorillaz played live in London last month behind a curtain. Why the secrecy? Have you taken a page out of The Residents' tour book?
Russel: With our live shows, we’re just approaching how we “Show ourselves” in a new way. We do that with everything from our music, to our videos on our internet site, all of our design work, and in our merchandise. We don’t like to take anything for granted. Our shows work on a lot of levels, obviously, we aim to give a liver-quivering audio adventure but we don’t stop there. We’re developing a visual presentation that isn’t simply the standard four faceless dullards banging through their barely discernible repertoire. It’s a culmination of genres that’s in line with our diverse musical influences. While we’re the live band at the heart of the show, the projections, rap, and DJs have their roots in a more club-orientated tradition, but those are just the parts of the experience, the sum itself is something else. Something much more.
What was on the rider?
Murdoc: Chips, sweets, and two whole chickens. One for Russel to stuff his face with, and another for me to sacrifice.
What is Kong Studios?
2D: It’s where we work, rest, and play!
Russel: Our website, www.gorillaz.com, is a virtual representation of the building.
Who are the band’s favourite all-time monkeys? Wasn’t Clint Eastwood once in a movie with a Gorilla?
Russel: No, that was an Orangutan. You need to brush up on your primates.
I understand a key was given out with the Clint Eastwood single in the UK. What was the key for?
Russel: It wasn’t with Clint, that came with the album. But I think I’d better let Murdoc fill you in on that one.
2D: Oh! I know this one! Can I say? Can I? Well, it was all a bit sad really. Murdoc gave away the key to his Winnebago so that people could have a look around, but then somebody stole it with all the master tapes inside, so we had to record it all again and it took bloody ages because I couldn’t remember all of the words.
How did Kid Koala and Del tha Funkee Homosapian help with the album?
Murdoc: You'd better ask old Grand Master Diggidy Dogg about that one!
Russel: I take it you mean me, Murdoc. Dan the Automator introduced us to Kid Koala, I originally met Dan on the Million Man Left Hand march on Washington, we’re both left-handed. Anyway, Koala brought his unmistakable irresistible scratching style into the mix. Del, as I mentioned before, is the funky phantom that possesses my soul, residing inside my body and busting forth with the spirit world’s mightiest rhymes just when we and the world need them most!
How did you get Ibrahim Ferrer of BVSC involved?
Murdoc: We got in touch, he came over, we gave him a bottle of JB, and off he went. It's a shame that somebody as gifted as Ibrahim can spend 20 years shining shoes when bands like Westlife are forever at number one, polluting the charts and kiddies' brains.
Noodle? Can you offer some inspirational words of wisdom for your Japanese fans (in Japanese)?
Noodle: My inspirational words of wisdom are all entwined within the magically growing forms that jump out of our Gorillaz sound. A single note from my guitar vibrates in tune with the universe dancing to the shifting rhythm of creation within that instant perfectly.
How does the band feel about Japanese Manga? Any favourites?
Russel: I’m a classicist at heart. In my mind, you can’t beat Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira series.
What’s the strangest experience the band’s ever had?
2D: We recorded the album in Jamaica. I was on the studio roof recording the vocal for Sound Check (Gravity) and while I was singing and looking up at the stars, a giant vulture that the locals call Johnny Bird swooped down and took me off into the mountains and left me there with a Rastafarian medicine man. I stayed there for a week and he fed me with vegan food and educated me in the ways of Jah, but I can't remember a word that he said.
Any plans for a Japanese tour?
Russel: We are not planning a tour, but we will be playing two dates later this year. One in Tokyo, and the other in Osaka, see y’all there.
Noodle: It is my dream to play for everybody back home in Osaka, this will be a magical performance for sure!
Famous last words... (advice, ideas, comments, attempts at humour, recipes)
Murdoc: Here’s the recipes for my mother's homemade mouthwash, both are invaluable aids when you have tour bus backstage breath! Enjoy!
This first one is sort of a numbing type:
1/3 Maalox
1/3 liquid Benadryl
1/3 lidocain viscous 2% soloution
This second one takes care of fungus:
1/3 liquid Prednisone syrup 5mg/5ml
1/3 liquid Benadryl
1/3 liquid Nystatin