Peter Robinson Vs Murdoc, Gorillaz
NME, April 2006
He may be a cartoon but he’s all man - just ask Angelina, or Gwen, or Bonnie...
Hello, Murdoc. Where are you today and what are you doing?
“Nice opening, Parkinson. You've really got me on the ropes there. Er... I'm in a room and I'm wondering whether ‘losing the will to live' is such bad thing after all.”
Was Madonna easy to work with at the Grammys?
“Yeah - once the cocktails kicked in. No, shit jokes aside, she's great. A lively little thing with strong calves, a glossy mane and a glowing future ahead of her.”
Who was using who that night?
“Take a wild guess. She told me to roll over and call her daddy and I obliged. So we both got something out of it. Actually, it was a real honour and a privilege to work with someone who's been so consistently successful within the music industry.”
Speaking of which, Embrace are “back on form” - is this a good or bad thing?
“Hey, you've got to take your hat off to them for trying. And at least musically they're... umm... consistent.”
If Danny McNamara from Embrace formed his own cartoon pop group, what would they be called?
“They would be a bunch of emotional Rastas called D'em Brace.”
What do Gorillaz argue about?
“Whether taking a photo of yourself standing in front of a funny fairground mirror constitutes proof of having a huge 'schlong'. I maintain that image is everything and that how you're perceived ultimately becomes the truth. 2D, however, thinks that it's just a grown man distorting the facts to use to his own advantage. You can see where the argument lies. with the funny mirror and everything.”
So you argue like any other band. Fair enough. But you'll still put all that aside and make a third album, won't you?
“Well, not according to ‘a close personal friend of the band’. There'll be something though. I'm having too much fun at the moment to toddle off and write my memoirs. I might finish my solo album - 90 minutes of the blackest metal known to man. I've just got to attend to a little unfinished business down in Mexico first.”
Is your new video just showing off?
“Damn straight. We make the best videos known to man. I know lesser artists may feel a bit inadequate, but then they should console themselves with the fact that we're showing them the future. Anyway, when you've got talent like ours, what are you going to do? Bottle it up? Or just scrabble around in the primordial mire, daubing yourself with the muck of the past?”
Well you've also got the advantage of being two-dimensional - what's the biggest disadvantage?
“Three-dimensional movies make no sense. They look all blurry. And also, irrespective of what you say, it's written off as the words of a cartoon by most people. Which actually comes in handy for us sometimes.”
What's on the Gorillaz tourbus?
“Various members of the band, various members of other bands... a couple of film stars. A big book on How To Be The Biggest Band In The World For Dummies, a turd-polishing kit for use with ‘on the road’ demos and the 70 Years Of Penguin Books collection, glued together to form one massive tome. A fucking huge stack of proposals from various companies begging for endorsements, and various scripts, contracts and treatments. When I run out of toilet paper I just wipe my muddy harris with them. And yes, I do break that "golden rule’ on the tourbus...”
Have you ever shared a bed with anyone else? By this we mean in a rumpo scenario.
“On 6 June I'm going to be turning 40. So yes, I have, once or twice during my long and giddy existence, ‘shared a bed with someone else’ . In a rumpo scenario. If you want me to print you out a CV, I think you'll be suitably titillated by my previous work with such radiant luminaries as Angelina Jolie, Gwen Stefani, Jane Russell, The Pussycat Dolls, Bonnie Langford and Wee Jimmy Krankie...”
Sounds like the Gorillaz movie, when it's finally made, will be worth seeing. When can we expect it?
“Well, when we've decided that we've finished with all the other stuff we're currently doing and also when we've got something thats worth putting the effort into. No point in sticking out a cinematic floater just for the sake of it.”
What's the plot?
“At the moment it's set in Danzig in the 1920s/30s. It's about a young kid called, er, Oskar Matzerath. He's the son of a local dealer and is a most unusual boy. Equipped with full intellect right from his birth he decides at his third birthday not to grow up as he sees the crazy world around him at the eve of the Second World War. So he refuses the society and his tin drum symbolises his protest against the middle-class mentality of his family and neighbourhood, which stand for all passive people in Nazi Germany at that time. However, almost nobody listens to him, so the cafastrophe goes on. It's a romantic comedy, with lots of slapstick, set on ice. With cartoons.”
I am presuming you view The Care Bears Movie as the benchmark for all this. If you were a Care Bear, what picture would you have on your belly?
“Are you in some kind of special remedial mental class or something? What the hell have the Care Bears got to do with Gorillaz?"
Hello, Murdoc. Where are you today and what are you doing?
“Nice opening, Parkinson. You've really got me on the ropes there. Er... I'm in a room and I'm wondering whether ‘losing the will to live' is such bad thing after all.”
Was Madonna easy to work with at the Grammys?
“Yeah - once the cocktails kicked in. No, shit jokes aside, she's great. A lively little thing with strong calves, a glossy mane and a glowing future ahead of her.”
Who was using who that night?
“Take a wild guess. She told me to roll over and call her daddy and I obliged. So we both got something out of it. Actually, it was a real honour and a privilege to work with someone who's been so consistently successful within the music industry.”
Speaking of which, Embrace are “back on form” - is this a good or bad thing?
“Hey, you've got to take your hat off to them for trying. And at least musically they're... umm... consistent.”
If Danny McNamara from Embrace formed his own cartoon pop group, what would they be called?
“They would be a bunch of emotional Rastas called D'em Brace.”
What do Gorillaz argue about?
“Whether taking a photo of yourself standing in front of a funny fairground mirror constitutes proof of having a huge 'schlong'. I maintain that image is everything and that how you're perceived ultimately becomes the truth. 2D, however, thinks that it's just a grown man distorting the facts to use to his own advantage. You can see where the argument lies. with the funny mirror and everything.”
So you argue like any other band. Fair enough. But you'll still put all that aside and make a third album, won't you?
“Well, not according to ‘a close personal friend of the band’. There'll be something though. I'm having too much fun at the moment to toddle off and write my memoirs. I might finish my solo album - 90 minutes of the blackest metal known to man. I've just got to attend to a little unfinished business down in Mexico first.”
Is your new video just showing off?
“Damn straight. We make the best videos known to man. I know lesser artists may feel a bit inadequate, but then they should console themselves with the fact that we're showing them the future. Anyway, when you've got talent like ours, what are you going to do? Bottle it up? Or just scrabble around in the primordial mire, daubing yourself with the muck of the past?”
Well you've also got the advantage of being two-dimensional - what's the biggest disadvantage?
“Three-dimensional movies make no sense. They look all blurry. And also, irrespective of what you say, it's written off as the words of a cartoon by most people. Which actually comes in handy for us sometimes.”
What's on the Gorillaz tourbus?
“Various members of the band, various members of other bands... a couple of film stars. A big book on How To Be The Biggest Band In The World For Dummies, a turd-polishing kit for use with ‘on the road’ demos and the 70 Years Of Penguin Books collection, glued together to form one massive tome. A fucking huge stack of proposals from various companies begging for endorsements, and various scripts, contracts and treatments. When I run out of toilet paper I just wipe my muddy harris with them. And yes, I do break that "golden rule’ on the tourbus...”
Have you ever shared a bed with anyone else? By this we mean in a rumpo scenario.
“On 6 June I'm going to be turning 40. So yes, I have, once or twice during my long and giddy existence, ‘shared a bed with someone else’ . In a rumpo scenario. If you want me to print you out a CV, I think you'll be suitably titillated by my previous work with such radiant luminaries as Angelina Jolie, Gwen Stefani, Jane Russell, The Pussycat Dolls, Bonnie Langford and Wee Jimmy Krankie...”
Sounds like the Gorillaz movie, when it's finally made, will be worth seeing. When can we expect it?
“Well, when we've decided that we've finished with all the other stuff we're currently doing and also when we've got something thats worth putting the effort into. No point in sticking out a cinematic floater just for the sake of it.”
What's the plot?
“At the moment it's set in Danzig in the 1920s/30s. It's about a young kid called, er, Oskar Matzerath. He's the son of a local dealer and is a most unusual boy. Equipped with full intellect right from his birth he decides at his third birthday not to grow up as he sees the crazy world around him at the eve of the Second World War. So he refuses the society and his tin drum symbolises his protest against the middle-class mentality of his family and neighbourhood, which stand for all passive people in Nazi Germany at that time. However, almost nobody listens to him, so the cafastrophe goes on. It's a romantic comedy, with lots of slapstick, set on ice. With cartoons.”
I am presuming you view The Care Bears Movie as the benchmark for all this. If you were a Care Bear, what picture would you have on your belly?
“Are you in some kind of special remedial mental class or something? What the hell have the Care Bears got to do with Gorillaz?"