Welcome to the Monkey House
Entertainment Weekly, November 2005
The music world today is overrun with one-dimensional stereotypes - the Svengalied pop tarts, rawk Xeroxes, and prefab R&B smoothies who continuously glut airwaves and iPods. How refreshing, then, to meet a band that lives fully in 2-D: virtual hip-hop collective Gorillaz. The strictly animated band broke out in 2001 with the sizzurp-thick dub jam ”Clint Eastwood” (off their self-titled debut album) but truly made their name with this year’s platinum-plus Demon Days, a monster hit thanks in large part to the phenomenon of single ”Feel Good Inc.” - and a certain roller-skate-heavy Apple commercial that accompanied it. As a year-end present to LTT readers, we’ve stepped aside and allowed you all to ask everything you ever wanted to know about Murdoc, Russel, Noodle, and 2D. All of their responses are surprisingly 3-D.
How’d you get Dennis Hopper to narrate a song on your latest album? - MICHAEL STROCKO, NEW YORK CITY
MURDOC Well, when you’re a band of our size, you don’t really hang round with just musicians anymore. We mix in all kinds of circles. See, there was this circus troupe passing through Kong Studios at one point and I don’t know if Dennis was a part of their...act, but he was with them, deffo. So, as he was around, we got him to put the vocals down on the track we were working on. Actually, he already knew some Gorillaz tunes, so we were kind of doing him a favor letting him work with us. It’s certainly something he can tell his grandchildren, eh?
NOODLE The track he read on, ”Fire Coming Out of a Monkey’s Head,” was a cautionary tale of a group of people with dark intentions infiltrating the lives of an innocent society, one that had been sheltered from the poisons created by desire and lust for power. Naively unaware of the true nature of these infiltrators, they were left vulnerable and unable to defend themselves. Ultimately the disharmony was to be the downfall of all involved.
MURDOC So...er...yeah, we thought Dennis Hopper would be the perfect person to read this story. Because of all the stuff he did in Easy Rider. With the bikes and stuff.
Why do you guys like Clint Eastwood so much? - JOELLE HATEM, FURN EL CHEBBACK, LEBANON
2D Er...the whole Clint Eastwood thing got out of hand. We called the first single ”Clint Eastwood” because it had a kind of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly feel to the melodic line. Kind of like Ennio Morricone.
MURDOC ”Every Which Way But Loose” may be the first track off our third album.
Who developed the band’s style? - ANGELA RODRIGUEZ, HENDERSON, NEV.
MURDOC Me.
2D Really?
MURDOC I put this band together, and it’s my keen eye for image, style, and music that makes this band what it is. Like the good Lord, I fashioned this band in my own image.
Why do some of your songs feature maniacal laughter? It scares my roommate at night. - LAURIE HAHN, ST. LOUIS
MURDOC Before we recorded ”Feel Good Inc.,” some of the De La Soul boys had been hitting the nitrous oxide pretty hard. They were giggling their crazy asses off. See, great songs have their own...motifs. You can tell as soon as you hear that laugh just which song’s about to come on.
If you could kick any animated character's ass, who would it be? - JOEL HUNT, WINNIPEG
MURDOC Well, Joel, I would probably pick on someone weaker and less able to fight than myself. Someone like...I dunno, one of the Rugrats.
2D Daffy Duck would kick your ass. So would Deputy Dawg, and SpongeBob SquarePants. Even the fish out of Finding Nemo could probably smash your face in.
MURDOC Although, D, I've never had any trouble kicking your ass, have I?
Got just one question: Where do you guys see yourself in a year? Five years? I guess that might count as two questions... - ED VITALE, BRONX, N.Y.
MURDOC Despite your numerical confusion, I think I can answer both of them. In a year? We're gonna be rehearsing and planning for our massive Gorillaz world tour. What we did at the MTV Europe Music Awards this year is gonna pale in comparison to what we're unleashing in 2007.
RUSSEL We're getting commitments out of people at the moment to stage something that should change the definition of what live concerts can be. People always make these kinds of claims, but Gorillaz are the only band on the planet that can back it up.
MURDOC But in five years? I dunno. Russel will probably be working back at McDonalds.
Think you guys might do a show à la The Monkees or maybe a reality-based VH1 show? - KAREN MASKENS, FAIRPORT, N.Y.
2D A reality-based show? Featuring us. Wow! That’s really some idea. How can we do that? I’m well up for it.
MURDOC I’m not living in a house with you, Peter Tork, or Micky Dolenz. The whole idea of it makes me wanna split the band up immediately.
What company animates your music videos? Do you get to give them artistic direction for the videos, or do you let them work with the song and see what they come up with? - SEAN M. MURPHY, WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.
RUSSEL The company that animates our videos is called Passion Pictures. It’s [cartoonist-illustrator] Jamie Hewlett who directs them, with Pete Candeland. They film us doing whatever we’re doing, and then Passion Pictures kind of draws in the backgrounds, adding floating windmills, 9,000-foot towers, laughing hip-hop bands, you know...the kind of things people want out of music videos.
MURDOC Roller-skating elephants swallowing fire?
RUSSEL Yeah, that kind of thing.
I'm a cartoonist myself. Can you recommend any other bands who would benefit from being more two-dimensional? Would you send them my way? - WAYNO, PITTSBURGH
NOODLE The animation element actually provides a fourth dimension to us. We’re not two-dimensional in the slightest. The other point to remember is that we've never been anything other than this. If you were to take an already existing band and try and...transform them into cartoons, it wouldn’t work.
MURDOC Although if you took someone like, I dunno, the Pussycat Dolls, I’m sure kids would like a look at those drawings.
Do you think in 2-D or 3-D? - SHERRY MASK, ROCKWALL, TEX.
NOODLE I think in abstracts. Not size but...sensations.
MURDOC What?
NOODLE When I’m imagining things, it’s about colors, textures, shapes, and feelings.
2D Yeah, she’s right. I don’t think about depth at all when I’m thinking.
MURDOC You do surprise me. Next question.
I love the Gorillaz sound, but I hate rap. Ever think of ditching that part of your shtick? Don’t you think rap-rock is a tired late-'90s sound? - MIKE SMITH, NEW MILFORD, N.J.
MURDOC Sorry, did he just say “shtick”? Listen, er...“Mike.” Our “shtick” ain’t “rap-rock,” and even if it was, we'd still make it sound great. This question is so duff. What sounds “late ’90s” about us? Really. I tell you, you should try actually listening to music instead of talking about it. Christ!
RUSSEL What Gorillaz do is a combination of the best elements of all music. The common ground of all great music is passion, joy, and ability to inspire, make you feel alive. Rap music is fantastic when it’s done right. But, yeah, like all music it sounds tired when it’s just a cliché. But you say you love the Gorillaz sound but hate rap? Rap’s a big part of what we are.
MURDOC I met this bloke once who said he hated classical music. He said it was because he couldn't stand the sound of the harpsichord. I told him, “Not all classical music has got harpsichord in it,” and he said, “Well, you never know when it might just suddenly come in.” That fear of the harpsichord put him off classical music for life.
2D This is the same bloke who had never eaten an apple in his life, right?
MURDOC Yup. Same bloke.
Where do you park your camo dune buggy? - ROB PITTS, HOUSTON
MURDOC In the basement of our multistory “death and recording” complex, Kong Studios. All our cars end up there. The Enzos, the Hummers. These vehicles usually only last a week because I drive like a madman on angel dust. I go through motors like rap stars go through trainers.
Who most influenced your music? - JASON TAGGERT, NORTHGLENN, COLO.
RUSSEL The Specials were a big influence. King Tubby. Ennio Morricone. Publie Image Ltd. Talking Heads. The Clash... Experimental artists like Eno or Steve Reich. Some pop stuff like Michael Jackson's Thriller or any of the dub kings like Augustus Pablo. Early hip-hop, like Grandmaster Flash. There's some dancehall rhythms. But then there’s a huge influence from the world-music circuit. There's bits of calypso in the mix. That's the thing with Gorillaz, we kind of cut and paste from each and every sector of music.
MURDOC Apart from Erasure.
Is there any interest in marketing the group for a videogame? - DARREN PERLEBERG, JAMESTOWN, N.D.
RUSSEL We'd do something like that only if the idea was good enough. Not just four characters in buggies trying to crash into each other.
2D I quite like that idea.
MURDOC Nah. If there was a game where I could hunt down, shoot, maim, and destroy zombies and other players with enormous guns and a devastating amount of blood loss, all set to an intense Gorillaz soundtrack - that’s a game I'd put my name to.
NOODLE I like Tamagotchis. I think they endorse an early sense of nurturing and caring for others.
MURDOC Okay. Tamagotchi meets Resident Evil. With a Gorillaz soundtrack.
Do you believe in evolution? Or do you believe in intelligent design? - GREG WALTERS, KAYSVILLE, UTAH
2D Er...I don’t know what this person’s on about.
RUSSEL As far as our music goes, we’ve come on in leaps and bounds since the first record, visually, musically -
the way we present what we do. Yeah, we're pro-evolution.
MURDOC Ever since this Gorillaz got his opposable thumbs, it’s helped me immensely in holding my drink. In fact, I think it’s about time I wrapped up this endless interview and go wrap my hand round a Singapore Sling, before I sober up completely. I’m out of here.
How’d you get Dennis Hopper to narrate a song on your latest album? - MICHAEL STROCKO, NEW YORK CITY
MURDOC Well, when you’re a band of our size, you don’t really hang round with just musicians anymore. We mix in all kinds of circles. See, there was this circus troupe passing through Kong Studios at one point and I don’t know if Dennis was a part of their...act, but he was with them, deffo. So, as he was around, we got him to put the vocals down on the track we were working on. Actually, he already knew some Gorillaz tunes, so we were kind of doing him a favor letting him work with us. It’s certainly something he can tell his grandchildren, eh?
NOODLE The track he read on, ”Fire Coming Out of a Monkey’s Head,” was a cautionary tale of a group of people with dark intentions infiltrating the lives of an innocent society, one that had been sheltered from the poisons created by desire and lust for power. Naively unaware of the true nature of these infiltrators, they were left vulnerable and unable to defend themselves. Ultimately the disharmony was to be the downfall of all involved.
MURDOC So...er...yeah, we thought Dennis Hopper would be the perfect person to read this story. Because of all the stuff he did in Easy Rider. With the bikes and stuff.
Why do you guys like Clint Eastwood so much? - JOELLE HATEM, FURN EL CHEBBACK, LEBANON
2D Er...the whole Clint Eastwood thing got out of hand. We called the first single ”Clint Eastwood” because it had a kind of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly feel to the melodic line. Kind of like Ennio Morricone.
MURDOC ”Every Which Way But Loose” may be the first track off our third album.
Who developed the band’s style? - ANGELA RODRIGUEZ, HENDERSON, NEV.
MURDOC Me.
2D Really?
MURDOC I put this band together, and it’s my keen eye for image, style, and music that makes this band what it is. Like the good Lord, I fashioned this band in my own image.
Why do some of your songs feature maniacal laughter? It scares my roommate at night. - LAURIE HAHN, ST. LOUIS
MURDOC Before we recorded ”Feel Good Inc.,” some of the De La Soul boys had been hitting the nitrous oxide pretty hard. They were giggling their crazy asses off. See, great songs have their own...motifs. You can tell as soon as you hear that laugh just which song’s about to come on.
If you could kick any animated character's ass, who would it be? - JOEL HUNT, WINNIPEG
MURDOC Well, Joel, I would probably pick on someone weaker and less able to fight than myself. Someone like...I dunno, one of the Rugrats.
2D Daffy Duck would kick your ass. So would Deputy Dawg, and SpongeBob SquarePants. Even the fish out of Finding Nemo could probably smash your face in.
MURDOC Although, D, I've never had any trouble kicking your ass, have I?
Got just one question: Where do you guys see yourself in a year? Five years? I guess that might count as two questions... - ED VITALE, BRONX, N.Y.
MURDOC Despite your numerical confusion, I think I can answer both of them. In a year? We're gonna be rehearsing and planning for our massive Gorillaz world tour. What we did at the MTV Europe Music Awards this year is gonna pale in comparison to what we're unleashing in 2007.
RUSSEL We're getting commitments out of people at the moment to stage something that should change the definition of what live concerts can be. People always make these kinds of claims, but Gorillaz are the only band on the planet that can back it up.
MURDOC But in five years? I dunno. Russel will probably be working back at McDonalds.
Think you guys might do a show à la The Monkees or maybe a reality-based VH1 show? - KAREN MASKENS, FAIRPORT, N.Y.
2D A reality-based show? Featuring us. Wow! That’s really some idea. How can we do that? I’m well up for it.
MURDOC I’m not living in a house with you, Peter Tork, or Micky Dolenz. The whole idea of it makes me wanna split the band up immediately.
What company animates your music videos? Do you get to give them artistic direction for the videos, or do you let them work with the song and see what they come up with? - SEAN M. MURPHY, WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.
RUSSEL The company that animates our videos is called Passion Pictures. It’s [cartoonist-illustrator] Jamie Hewlett who directs them, with Pete Candeland. They film us doing whatever we’re doing, and then Passion Pictures kind of draws in the backgrounds, adding floating windmills, 9,000-foot towers, laughing hip-hop bands, you know...the kind of things people want out of music videos.
MURDOC Roller-skating elephants swallowing fire?
RUSSEL Yeah, that kind of thing.
I'm a cartoonist myself. Can you recommend any other bands who would benefit from being more two-dimensional? Would you send them my way? - WAYNO, PITTSBURGH
NOODLE The animation element actually provides a fourth dimension to us. We’re not two-dimensional in the slightest. The other point to remember is that we've never been anything other than this. If you were to take an already existing band and try and...transform them into cartoons, it wouldn’t work.
MURDOC Although if you took someone like, I dunno, the Pussycat Dolls, I’m sure kids would like a look at those drawings.
Do you think in 2-D or 3-D? - SHERRY MASK, ROCKWALL, TEX.
NOODLE I think in abstracts. Not size but...sensations.
MURDOC What?
NOODLE When I’m imagining things, it’s about colors, textures, shapes, and feelings.
2D Yeah, she’s right. I don’t think about depth at all when I’m thinking.
MURDOC You do surprise me. Next question.
I love the Gorillaz sound, but I hate rap. Ever think of ditching that part of your shtick? Don’t you think rap-rock is a tired late-'90s sound? - MIKE SMITH, NEW MILFORD, N.J.
MURDOC Sorry, did he just say “shtick”? Listen, er...“Mike.” Our “shtick” ain’t “rap-rock,” and even if it was, we'd still make it sound great. This question is so duff. What sounds “late ’90s” about us? Really. I tell you, you should try actually listening to music instead of talking about it. Christ!
RUSSEL What Gorillaz do is a combination of the best elements of all music. The common ground of all great music is passion, joy, and ability to inspire, make you feel alive. Rap music is fantastic when it’s done right. But, yeah, like all music it sounds tired when it’s just a cliché. But you say you love the Gorillaz sound but hate rap? Rap’s a big part of what we are.
MURDOC I met this bloke once who said he hated classical music. He said it was because he couldn't stand the sound of the harpsichord. I told him, “Not all classical music has got harpsichord in it,” and he said, “Well, you never know when it might just suddenly come in.” That fear of the harpsichord put him off classical music for life.
2D This is the same bloke who had never eaten an apple in his life, right?
MURDOC Yup. Same bloke.
Where do you park your camo dune buggy? - ROB PITTS, HOUSTON
MURDOC In the basement of our multistory “death and recording” complex, Kong Studios. All our cars end up there. The Enzos, the Hummers. These vehicles usually only last a week because I drive like a madman on angel dust. I go through motors like rap stars go through trainers.
Who most influenced your music? - JASON TAGGERT, NORTHGLENN, COLO.
RUSSEL The Specials were a big influence. King Tubby. Ennio Morricone. Publie Image Ltd. Talking Heads. The Clash... Experimental artists like Eno or Steve Reich. Some pop stuff like Michael Jackson's Thriller or any of the dub kings like Augustus Pablo. Early hip-hop, like Grandmaster Flash. There's some dancehall rhythms. But then there’s a huge influence from the world-music circuit. There's bits of calypso in the mix. That's the thing with Gorillaz, we kind of cut and paste from each and every sector of music.
MURDOC Apart from Erasure.
Is there any interest in marketing the group for a videogame? - DARREN PERLEBERG, JAMESTOWN, N.D.
RUSSEL We'd do something like that only if the idea was good enough. Not just four characters in buggies trying to crash into each other.
2D I quite like that idea.
MURDOC Nah. If there was a game where I could hunt down, shoot, maim, and destroy zombies and other players with enormous guns and a devastating amount of blood loss, all set to an intense Gorillaz soundtrack - that’s a game I'd put my name to.
NOODLE I like Tamagotchis. I think they endorse an early sense of nurturing and caring for others.
MURDOC Okay. Tamagotchi meets Resident Evil. With a Gorillaz soundtrack.
Do you believe in evolution? Or do you believe in intelligent design? - GREG WALTERS, KAYSVILLE, UTAH
2D Er...I don’t know what this person’s on about.
RUSSEL As far as our music goes, we’ve come on in leaps and bounds since the first record, visually, musically -
the way we present what we do. Yeah, we're pro-evolution.
MURDOC Ever since this Gorillaz got his opposable thumbs, it’s helped me immensely in holding my drink. In fact, I think it’s about time I wrapped up this endless interview and go wrap my hand round a Singapore Sling, before I sober up completely. I’m out of here.