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Damon Albarn on Fifty.A.: "Information technology's actually been my least favorite place for the last 30 years. But I realized it was because I'd never actually left W Hollywood."

(Jay 50. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

As the lead singer (and the pretty face up) of Blur, Damon Albarn became a star writing songs nigh England — witty, tuneful, stylistically omnivorous graphic symbol studies like "Parklife" and "Country Firm" that, along with Oasis' blunter-edged anthems, helped define the rowdy Britpop scene of the 1990s.

But Albarn'due south latest solo album addresses a different place: Iceland, where he became a citizen terminal year, decades subsequently his first visit in 1997. Full of slo-mo ballads that fix Albarn'due south tender croon amidst shimmering instrumental textures, "The Nearer the Mount, More than Pure the Stream Flows" began when he convened a group of orchestral musicians at his home in Iceland in 2019 to "melody into the mural" outside his living room window, every bit he put it.

"Somebody with a trombone would concentrate on a cloud going over the mountain," he said. "Someone else would play the waves." The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced an early on end to the sessions. Just Albarn — also known for other projects including numerous stage productions and the virtual band Gorillaz — went on to shape the grouping's recordings into songs.

Now he'south bringing the anthology to Walt Disney Concert Hall on Monday nighttime for a ane-off concert in which he'll play the songs (every bit well as some oldies) on pianoforte accompanied by a string section. Over java final calendar week on the rooftop of his hotel — it was his 2nd time in Los Angeles in two months post-obit a trip in November he'd made as part of a Gorillaz-related projection at Netflix — Albarn, 53, discussed his dual citizenship, the impending 25th anniversary of Blur's self-titled 1997 LP and the legacy of the band's biggest American hitting, "Song 2."

How have yous historically enjoyed L.A.?
It's really been my least favorite place for the concluding 30 years. Merely I realized it was considering I'd never actually left W Hollywood. Then last fourth dimension I was hither I did some work in Malibu and in Silver Lake — I learned to drive during lockdown — and the city just opened upwards. I discovered L.A. had another side to information technology: less cocky-conscious, less feeding-the-beast. Less showbiz.

Your bear witness at Disney is yous on pianoforte. Whose playing inspires you?
Thelonious Monk is my favorite. And I was very lucky to spend a bit of time with Rubén González, merely watching him play. It's a very nice thing to be able to do something that doesn't require any distension. But it'due south actually quite hard, doing a whole concert on piano. It's not hard playing in a band.

Hard because it's so exposed?
You tin can't hide behind anything. You larn whether the songs are any good or whether they were pop at the fourth dimension because of the sound and the mental attitude. It's a day of reckoning — and one, to be honest, that not much modern music could withstand.

You call up a lot of modernistic musicians are relying on sound and attitude?
Name me someone who's not.

She may non be to your taste, just Taylor Swift is an first-class songwriter.
She doesn't write her ain songs.

Of course she does. Co-writes some of them.
That doesn't count. I know what co-writing is. Co-writing is very dissimilar to writing. I'k non hating on everyone, I'k just saying at that place's a big difference between a songwriter and a songwriter who co-writes. Doesn't mean that the event can't exist really bully. And some of the greatest singers — I mean, Ella Fitzgerald never wrote a song in her life. When I sing, I have to close my optics and just exist in there. I suppose I'm a traditionalist in that sense. A really interesting songwriter is Billie Eilish and her brother. I'one thousand more attracted to that than to Taylor Swift. It's just darker — less endlessly upbeat. Way more than minor and odd. I think she'due south exceptional.

"Reissuing stuff that's already had its moment is taking upwards space that something new could abound out of," says Damon Albarn, photographed at The Roof, at the West Hollywood Edition.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Say a bit nigh your life in Iceland. Is it dramatically dissimilar than your life in England?
Not really. The Icelandic culture and the English civilization have parallels. It'south much smaller there — there's a far greater sense of equality and public responsibility. And information technology doesn't have the kind of crazy colonial history, which doesn't ever seem to allay. Nordic culture is in many ways preferable to me.

What draws yous back to England when you return?
England's my home. However infuriating it is and however impaired the policies are, I am English.

What's your have on the hubbub over Boris Johnson'due south lockdown parties?
He's a series liar. I don't know how he continues to go away with things. At the moment it'due south like a double lie — first he lies about the parties, and then he lies about his achievements, i.e. Brexit, which I don't remember whatsoever rational person could find annihilation positive about.

You lot ever call up back to the Tony Blair/Bill Clinton days of pol-as-cool-guy?
Earlier he fifty-fifty got into ability, Tony Blair invited me to Westminster to have some sort of conversation about what the youth wanted. I recollect I was really hung over and went into his role and had this overwhelming feeling that his spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, was standing behind me, pulling faces.

Did you know at the time y'all were existence played?
Oh, absolutely. Considering then I got assigned a sort of political banana — an attaché, essentially. I'd say things and then get notes: "Oh, don't say that." I was like, "Have y'all just gotten completely swallowed up in the bulls—?" When he won, he had a big party. I declined. But I connected to become invitations for Downing Street suppers — handwritten letters from his wife.

"Blur" turns 25 adjacent calendar month.
I suppose it does. I'yard writing and recording a song near an incident when I was in Thailand and met the crown princess. This was November '97. She was only 14 at the time, and she came to see us, and due to the very specific role the majestic family play in Thailand, they put a throne next to the mixing board for her to sit in, surrounded by I don't know how many soldiers. "Vocal 2" started and she stood on her throne and phase-dived into the oversupply. The reason I've written a song most it is because I had a dream about this princess very recently; she'd grown upwards and we spent time in my dream together, her as a woman. And then in that location you go: 1997 was a long time ago, simply at the moment it's not.

Any plans to marking the album's ceremony?
I want nothing to practise with any of it. Reissuing stuff that's already had its moment is taking up space that something new could grow out of.

How does any future Blur reunion fit into that? You've e'er seemed somewhat reluctant to go out and play the hits.
I'm non into how honey yous go of the aroma of your own farts. The greatest exponent of that is the Rolling Stones, who but couldn't let it go. It's disappointing. Not to say that I didn't absolutely love the Rolling Stones in their heyday — they were magnificent. Just do other stuff in your life. Singing "(I Can't Go No) Satisfaction" when you're pushing 80? Come on.

Did you come across Peter Jackson's recent Beatles documentary?
I'm not watching 17 hours of the Beatles rehearsing. Again, obviously, I love the Beatles. I have watched some of information technology, and I get information technology — it's interesting to see the little nuances. But that'due south what I do all the fourth dimension. Flake of a busman'southward vacation.

How do yous business relationship for the connected obsession with the Beatles?
Information technology'southward because they haven't done anything since 1971. Zilch bad happened. Never fabricated a bad tape. Never got onetime.

You've shown a real appreciation for former-timers in Gorillaz. I was at the Demon Dayz festival in Fifty.A. a few years agone when yous brought out George Benson.
He was so bright that solar day. That's the greatest thing about Gorillaz, when y'all can elevate someone, an old-timer, and it feels really fresh in the moment. In a way, Gorillaz is at its nearly potent when nosotros have these circuses that we take on the road from fourth dimension to time — hopefully we'll practise one this twelvemonth — and it'south but: Who the f— is coming onstage side by side?

Gorillaz makes me wonder if you've e'er considered writing songs for a kids' blithe movie.
That'due south kind of what Netflix is well-nigh. I've promised myself at some point I'g gonna surrender trying to exist a pop star and just practise really weird things, like an early-learning show but in my quirky left-handed way. This is my point nigh the Stones: There'due south so much to do to keep the artistic genius alive, simply the ego is so toxic in our society.

And in you?
I struggle with information technology as well. The idea that, Hey, I'thousand actually famous and await at my numbers — it leads nowhere good.

"Vocal ii" is what fabricated you famous in this land.
That song, it's outrageous.

Is it an albatross or a gift that keeps on giving?
Not an albatross because I never play it. That's a perfect example of something that'southward more virtually mental attitude and production than actual bully songwriting.

So nosotros're unlikely to hear it at Disney Hall.
Now that we've said information technology, I'chiliad gonna see if I can effort. The original version of information technology I could hands play because information technology was more jazzy and a lot slower — the "woo-hoo" was more than "woooooo-hoooooo." I'll have a go at it. I've failed so many times, one more doesn't really affair.

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Source: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2022-01-23/damon-albarn-blur-gorillaz

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