Questions For Gorillaz
Hot Press, June 2001
The Simpsons meet The Specials (although not as funny as one, or as musically gifted as the other.) A fair description, or should I have quit before the brackets?
Murdoc: What is it with you half-wit hacks? Have you all read Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Wolfe, and that ranting, speak first, think never, sod Burchill and assumed that you have carte blanche to position your dull excuse for existence at the centre of every interview with absolutely anybody? Subjectivity without insight or context is just the emperor’s new bollocks, fuck wit.
Your lead axe man, Noodle, is a 10-year-old girl who was sent to you from the Far East in a wooden box. Surely there's several laws against that?
Russel: Noodle’s as much of a mystery to us as she is to you Barry, and we wouldn’t advise any children to go mailing themselves to rock groups.
You’ve stated that your intention when playing live is to send your audiences home zombified. Is that where the similarities between Gorillaz and Paul Weller end?
Russel: We never said anything of the sort, why make that kind of stuff up and say it to our faces? With our live show, 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.
Your imagery seems at times dark and violent, while your music exudes positivism. Is this a deliberate contradiction, or am I just a pretentious twat who thinks he’s Jo Whiley?
Murdoc: Nice self-effacing attempt at winning us over, you pretentious trans-sexual twat.
Russel: Pay no attention to him, Barry. He’s like this to everyone.
By the same token, the first single on your album is called ‘Clint Eastwood’. Is this because Clint Eastwood famously made his name in spaghetti westerns and your lead guitarist glories in the name Noodle, and a noodle looks a bit like spaghetti? Very post-modern.
Murdoc: What is it that makes everyone want to vent their secondhand, post-bloody-modern, student spleen on us? I align myself more with Foucault’s re-acceptance of Kant’s definition of the enlightenment, and I’m not talking about Brian again, ya know, a bit of De Sade and all that! I’m free, you're free, get your pants off! And I’m not quoting Primal Scream, or John Inman for that matter!
Like wild men of rawk Lemmy and Slash, Gorillaz’s outspoken bassist and frontman Murdoc hails from Stoke-On-Trent. So does big wet girl’s blouse Robbie Williams. How can such a dreary place produce such a diverse range of nutters?
Murdoc: Growing up is growing up, my big brother Hannibal would have been a psychotic football hooligan whether we’d lived in Stoke, Brighton, or Bangladesh! When you’re a fourteen-year-old rocker and your brother is the leader of the local skinhead gang and mates with all of the C.B. radio freaks on the side, then you're always going to be respected and stigmatized by your piers, nothing’s changed.
Murdoc, you saved 2D’s life. Any regrets?
Murdoc: Every second of every day, if you get close enough to him you could suffer permanent Pete Townsend-ear from the level of white noise that his downer-fueled brain emits.
Fat Les. Discuss.
Murdoc: Shit Les, end of discussion.
As a serious musical proposition, do you feel your endeavors to keep it real are cheapened by the juvenile antics of artsy imitators with more money than sense such as Damon Albarn or graphic artist Jamie Hewlett?
Murdoc: You got all that off of your chest? Been living with that philosophical poser for long, have we? What are you dribbling on about?
It’s been said that Gorillaz is “too frivolous for fans of bands such as Blur, and too silly for proper Hip-Hop aficionados.” Would you care to comment on this accusation?
Murdoc: Where? Down your local pub, fucko?
Russel: Are you like this to everyone, Barry?
Describe your most Spinal Tap moment on tour.
Murdoc: When I introduced a girl named Cindy to her first moustache.
Frank Sinatra famously needed “a bottle, a pill, a broad or a prayer to get him through the night.” What do Gorillaz need for those long evenings under the covers?
Sleep at night, wool over our eyes think we’re dumb.
Daphne from Scooby-Doo or Jessica Rabbit?
Murdoc: Jordan, if it’s all the same with you.
Why does only one of you appear to have eyeballs?
Murdoc: Why do you only appear to have balls?
The most embarrassing thing each of you has done while drunk?
Russel: I think it was you who mentioned laws and ten-year-olds. Drunkenness is not something I like to make light of in front of Noodle.
Noodle: London iki no huraito wa nanji ni shup-pats shi-mass ka?
The most embarrassing thing each of you has done while high on king hell crack?
Russel: Forget what I said about Murdoc, you’re an asshole brother.
Murdoc: King hell crack? Drug abuse and addiction's a regular line of jollification for you, is it moron? Had many friends die or lose so much of what they held dear to them that they would be better off dead, have you? No, I thought not, so shut up.
Russel is possessed by the spirit of his dead boyhood friend. Is he the only member of Gorillaz ever to have been violated and entered by a young boy?
Murdoc: That’s a good idea, Barry. Pick on the eighteen-stone mother from NY about the brutal, cold-blooded murder of all of his homies and hint that you think he plays for the other team. Hehehehehe!
Russel: Forget about it, Murdoc! Y’know what Barry? I can only draw strength from all of the hardships that Allah has seen fit to throw at me. As for Del, the Hip-Hop spirit of my un-dead pal that resides inside of me, that too gives me positive powers that I can draw upon anytime.
Would you agree that, while vaguely worthy as an amusing experiment, 'Gorillaz' the album is interminably dull?
Murdoc: What is it you’ve done for international culture recently?
How did you manage to rip off the Super Furry Animals’ artwork so accurately, and yet fail utterly to produce sounds even remotely as intoxicating as theirs are?
Murdoc: You must feel pretty clever having a pop at us from behind your mask of joviality. Let's face it, you’re visually illiterate and have an axe to grind about the importance of your own second-hand, meaningless cultural and musical references. But because of the enormity of your pompous, overblown self-image, you fail to acknowledge their irrelevance. Own up, secretly you despise yourself, especially when you make the greatest displays of your own self-respect.
Russel is circumcised. Is he Jewish?
Russel: No, I’m an Islamic-African American, motherfucker.
What does the future hold for Gorillaz: stadium Hip-Hop or bargain-bin hell?
Murdoc: You just can’t tolerate any free expression of life, can you Barry? Running around like a thief in the night trying to steal happiness will always end in tears, you wanker.
Murdoc: What is it with you half-wit hacks? Have you all read Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Wolfe, and that ranting, speak first, think never, sod Burchill and assumed that you have carte blanche to position your dull excuse for existence at the centre of every interview with absolutely anybody? Subjectivity without insight or context is just the emperor’s new bollocks, fuck wit.
Your lead axe man, Noodle, is a 10-year-old girl who was sent to you from the Far East in a wooden box. Surely there's several laws against that?
Russel: Noodle’s as much of a mystery to us as she is to you Barry, and we wouldn’t advise any children to go mailing themselves to rock groups.
You’ve stated that your intention when playing live is to send your audiences home zombified. Is that where the similarities between Gorillaz and Paul Weller end?
Russel: We never said anything of the sort, why make that kind of stuff up and say it to our faces? With our live show, 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.
Your imagery seems at times dark and violent, while your music exudes positivism. Is this a deliberate contradiction, or am I just a pretentious twat who thinks he’s Jo Whiley?
Murdoc: Nice self-effacing attempt at winning us over, you pretentious trans-sexual twat.
Russel: Pay no attention to him, Barry. He’s like this to everyone.
By the same token, the first single on your album is called ‘Clint Eastwood’. Is this because Clint Eastwood famously made his name in spaghetti westerns and your lead guitarist glories in the name Noodle, and a noodle looks a bit like spaghetti? Very post-modern.
Murdoc: What is it that makes everyone want to vent their secondhand, post-bloody-modern, student spleen on us? I align myself more with Foucault’s re-acceptance of Kant’s definition of the enlightenment, and I’m not talking about Brian again, ya know, a bit of De Sade and all that! I’m free, you're free, get your pants off! And I’m not quoting Primal Scream, or John Inman for that matter!
Like wild men of rawk Lemmy and Slash, Gorillaz’s outspoken bassist and frontman Murdoc hails from Stoke-On-Trent. So does big wet girl’s blouse Robbie Williams. How can such a dreary place produce such a diverse range of nutters?
Murdoc: Growing up is growing up, my big brother Hannibal would have been a psychotic football hooligan whether we’d lived in Stoke, Brighton, or Bangladesh! When you’re a fourteen-year-old rocker and your brother is the leader of the local skinhead gang and mates with all of the C.B. radio freaks on the side, then you're always going to be respected and stigmatized by your piers, nothing’s changed.
Murdoc, you saved 2D’s life. Any regrets?
Murdoc: Every second of every day, if you get close enough to him you could suffer permanent Pete Townsend-ear from the level of white noise that his downer-fueled brain emits.
Fat Les. Discuss.
Murdoc: Shit Les, end of discussion.
As a serious musical proposition, do you feel your endeavors to keep it real are cheapened by the juvenile antics of artsy imitators with more money than sense such as Damon Albarn or graphic artist Jamie Hewlett?
Murdoc: You got all that off of your chest? Been living with that philosophical poser for long, have we? What are you dribbling on about?
It’s been said that Gorillaz is “too frivolous for fans of bands such as Blur, and too silly for proper Hip-Hop aficionados.” Would you care to comment on this accusation?
Murdoc: Where? Down your local pub, fucko?
Russel: Are you like this to everyone, Barry?
Describe your most Spinal Tap moment on tour.
Murdoc: When I introduced a girl named Cindy to her first moustache.
Frank Sinatra famously needed “a bottle, a pill, a broad or a prayer to get him through the night.” What do Gorillaz need for those long evenings under the covers?
Sleep at night, wool over our eyes think we’re dumb.
Daphne from Scooby-Doo or Jessica Rabbit?
Murdoc: Jordan, if it’s all the same with you.
Why does only one of you appear to have eyeballs?
Murdoc: Why do you only appear to have balls?
The most embarrassing thing each of you has done while drunk?
Russel: I think it was you who mentioned laws and ten-year-olds. Drunkenness is not something I like to make light of in front of Noodle.
Noodle: London iki no huraito wa nanji ni shup-pats shi-mass ka?
The most embarrassing thing each of you has done while high on king hell crack?
Russel: Forget what I said about Murdoc, you’re an asshole brother.
Murdoc: King hell crack? Drug abuse and addiction's a regular line of jollification for you, is it moron? Had many friends die or lose so much of what they held dear to them that they would be better off dead, have you? No, I thought not, so shut up.
Russel is possessed by the spirit of his dead boyhood friend. Is he the only member of Gorillaz ever to have been violated and entered by a young boy?
Murdoc: That’s a good idea, Barry. Pick on the eighteen-stone mother from NY about the brutal, cold-blooded murder of all of his homies and hint that you think he plays for the other team. Hehehehehe!
Russel: Forget about it, Murdoc! Y’know what Barry? I can only draw strength from all of the hardships that Allah has seen fit to throw at me. As for Del, the Hip-Hop spirit of my un-dead pal that resides inside of me, that too gives me positive powers that I can draw upon anytime.
Would you agree that, while vaguely worthy as an amusing experiment, 'Gorillaz' the album is interminably dull?
Murdoc: What is it you’ve done for international culture recently?
How did you manage to rip off the Super Furry Animals’ artwork so accurately, and yet fail utterly to produce sounds even remotely as intoxicating as theirs are?
Murdoc: You must feel pretty clever having a pop at us from behind your mask of joviality. Let's face it, you’re visually illiterate and have an axe to grind about the importance of your own second-hand, meaningless cultural and musical references. But because of the enormity of your pompous, overblown self-image, you fail to acknowledge their irrelevance. Own up, secretly you despise yourself, especially when you make the greatest displays of your own self-respect.
Russel is circumcised. Is he Jewish?
Russel: No, I’m an Islamic-African American, motherfucker.
What does the future hold for Gorillaz: stadium Hip-Hop or bargain-bin hell?
Murdoc: You just can’t tolerate any free expression of life, can you Barry? Running around like a thief in the night trying to steal happiness will always end in tears, you wanker.