Gorillaz Interview
The Guardian, March 2001
In a sentence, tell me what the Gorillaz are all about.
Murdoc: I’ll leave the commentary on contemporary popular culture to you mate, and I’ll stick to making it.
Russel: Media friendly, wouldn’t you say? We call our sound Dark Pop or Zombie Hip-Hop, and we’re here to save the nation from soulless, record company puppet, pop stars. How’s that for a sound bite?
Are you keeping it real?
Murdoc: What on earth do you mean by that? That’s just the type of second-hand, meaningless arse offering I’d expect to hear from some middle-class, west London tit in a pair of engineered Levi’s, buying the latest Snoop Diggidy Dog album on import while shouting down his Nokia 7110 to his retarded east end, media, coke, flip-flop, whore of a girlfriend.
Russel: There you go, the Niccals does it again.
Murdoc: Hail Satan!
Your music contains an interesting mix of styles - including Hip-Hop and Garage. How did this evolve?
Russel: What else would you expect of a group of musicians from our varying musical and cultural backgrounds? To paraphrase post-structural theory, I think it’s fair to say that we are all products of our environment.
2D: No, what happened was Murdoc got carried away, high on Rum Punch at Carnival, and forced his way onto the Middle Row Records sound system with an acetate of Clint Eastwood. He then dribbled his way through an impromptu two-step version of Clint before stumbling off to get some goat curry, leaving the vinyl with Ed Case who knocked out a remix.
Murdoc: Stick to showing yourself up face- ache, don’t ever try to question my methods or musical genius in public again.
How is Del tha Funkee Homosapien finding being a ghost?
Murdoc: You want to tread carefully when you ask a nineteen stone, NYC brother, how the phantom of his brutally slaughtered best friend might be feeling.
What do you think of the current state of pop music?
Murdoc: I notice that our pal Damon has been chipping in on this one recently. We’re current pop music so it can’t be all bad, can it?
Who would win in a fight: Tank Girl or Lara Croft?
Murdoc: Shut up, you sad toss pot. I tell you what though, I wish someone would pick a fight with those two mindless cows on the Big Breakfast. What’s her face and Donna Air deserve to be tied up and thrown into a small pit covered in goose fat, with a couple of randy Great Danes.
Russel: Of what relevance are either of those two late twentieth-century, consumer society anti-heroes? Thinking of publishing a fifteen years too-late, post-modern, deconstruction of simulacra?
2D: Donna Air isn’t in her late twenties, is she?
What’s your preference: Oasis or Blur?
Murdoc: What is this, 1995?
2D: Super Furry Animals.
Noodle: Graham Coxon-san.
2D
Who is the Captain Howdy on your T-shirt, and where can I get one?
2D: Captain Howdy is the name that Reagan gives to the spirit she contacts on the Ouija board in William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist.
Murdoc: You got his name off of the cover of the DVD, admit it, you’ve never read any books.
Noodle
What was it like being in that FedEx box for so long?
Russel: You’ll be lucky, that girl keeps her shit to herself. Anyway, I think she’s had her MP3 hat turned on all the way through the interview. It’s all a bit boring for a ten-year-old who doesn’t speak any English.
Russel
What's it like having a ghost in your head?
Russel: Despite what Murdoc may have said earlier, I’m just happy that my years of possession as a child made it possible for Del to stick around when we were caught up in the drive-by. Don’t push it too far though.
Murdoch
Why so angry?
Murdoc: Because you spelt my name wrong.
Murdoc: I’ll leave the commentary on contemporary popular culture to you mate, and I’ll stick to making it.
Russel: Media friendly, wouldn’t you say? We call our sound Dark Pop or Zombie Hip-Hop, and we’re here to save the nation from soulless, record company puppet, pop stars. How’s that for a sound bite?
Are you keeping it real?
Murdoc: What on earth do you mean by that? That’s just the type of second-hand, meaningless arse offering I’d expect to hear from some middle-class, west London tit in a pair of engineered Levi’s, buying the latest Snoop Diggidy Dog album on import while shouting down his Nokia 7110 to his retarded east end, media, coke, flip-flop, whore of a girlfriend.
Russel: There you go, the Niccals does it again.
Murdoc: Hail Satan!
Your music contains an interesting mix of styles - including Hip-Hop and Garage. How did this evolve?
Russel: What else would you expect of a group of musicians from our varying musical and cultural backgrounds? To paraphrase post-structural theory, I think it’s fair to say that we are all products of our environment.
2D: No, what happened was Murdoc got carried away, high on Rum Punch at Carnival, and forced his way onto the Middle Row Records sound system with an acetate of Clint Eastwood. He then dribbled his way through an impromptu two-step version of Clint before stumbling off to get some goat curry, leaving the vinyl with Ed Case who knocked out a remix.
Murdoc: Stick to showing yourself up face- ache, don’t ever try to question my methods or musical genius in public again.
How is Del tha Funkee Homosapien finding being a ghost?
Murdoc: You want to tread carefully when you ask a nineteen stone, NYC brother, how the phantom of his brutally slaughtered best friend might be feeling.
What do you think of the current state of pop music?
Murdoc: I notice that our pal Damon has been chipping in on this one recently. We’re current pop music so it can’t be all bad, can it?
Who would win in a fight: Tank Girl or Lara Croft?
Murdoc: Shut up, you sad toss pot. I tell you what though, I wish someone would pick a fight with those two mindless cows on the Big Breakfast. What’s her face and Donna Air deserve to be tied up and thrown into a small pit covered in goose fat, with a couple of randy Great Danes.
Russel: Of what relevance are either of those two late twentieth-century, consumer society anti-heroes? Thinking of publishing a fifteen years too-late, post-modern, deconstruction of simulacra?
2D: Donna Air isn’t in her late twenties, is she?
What’s your preference: Oasis or Blur?
Murdoc: What is this, 1995?
2D: Super Furry Animals.
Noodle: Graham Coxon-san.
2D
Who is the Captain Howdy on your T-shirt, and where can I get one?
2D: Captain Howdy is the name that Reagan gives to the spirit she contacts on the Ouija board in William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist.
Murdoc: You got his name off of the cover of the DVD, admit it, you’ve never read any books.
Noodle
What was it like being in that FedEx box for so long?
Russel: You’ll be lucky, that girl keeps her shit to herself. Anyway, I think she’s had her MP3 hat turned on all the way through the interview. It’s all a bit boring for a ten-year-old who doesn’t speak any English.
Russel
What's it like having a ghost in your head?
Russel: Despite what Murdoc may have said earlier, I’m just happy that my years of possession as a child made it possible for Del to stick around when we were caught up in the drive-by. Don’t push it too far though.
Murdoch
Why so angry?
Murdoc: Because you spelt my name wrong.