On
page 62 of Under the Radar, Issue 4, you can read our article
on Blur as they
talk about their acclaimed new album,
Think Tank, and the sad departure of guitarist Graham Coxon.
Blur’s remaining members are obviously quite busy, what
with the release of their first album in four years and all
that goes along with that, so they didn’t have a ton
of time to talk to us. Most of our separate phone interviews
with vocalist Damon Albarn and bassist Alex James thus made
it into our article on the band. There were still a few quotes,
however, that didn’t make it in the article, and those
are printed below. We spoke to Damon Albarn as he was backstage
waiting to perform with the rest of the band on a German radio
show in Berlin. It had been snowing that day, but Damon told
us he arrived in Berlin dressed in a T-shirt, as it had been
a nice warm spring day back in London. We spoke to Alex a week
later as he rode in a taxicab to go pick up his suit for his
impending wedding. This was a couple of weeks before the release
of Think Tank. Also below are some more photos of Damon, that
were taken by UTR co-publisher Wendy Lynch at his Texas hotel
when the band (minus Alex, due to visa problems) paid a visit
to Austin’s South By Southwest festival to preview
songs off the album. |
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Bonus Damon Albarn Quotes
The Biggest Misconception
About Damon Albarn
Damon Albarn (D): Crack on. I've got to be on the radio in
like 20 minutes.
Mark
Redfern (M): Cool, all right. First question then --
What's the biggest misconception about Damon Albarn?
D:
(LAUGHS) Most of my interviews start with kind of something
on that track so I'm obviously, you know, totally misunderstood
or I've been, or I just sort of uh -- I dunno. What's
the biggest misconception? That's really a hard question
to ask.
M: Yeah.
D: And to answer is, you know. My answer is obviously the reason
why I'm misconstrued. I think probably that because there's
been such a sort of sea-change every time we've done something
or I've done something that maybe it's that I have no identity.
M: Right.
D: I dunno what it is.
M: Hmm. OK.
D:
That’s a hard... That's a very hard question.
M:
Yeah, I understand. Alright. How do you compare Think
Tank to the other Blur albums? How would you say it's
an evolution of kind of the Blur sound.
D: Uh...
M: Hello?
D:
Yeah, hello. Hi. Well, I think it ‘s definitely.
Hang on. I can't switch this off. I'm in a radio
station and they're running kind of fucking mad
interview about us as well and I don't want to
listen to it. M:
Right.
D:
How do I switch it off. Aw, God. I can't (laughs)
I have to switch something... Um -- Well, its evolved,
I mean, it had to evolve. I mean naturally, it's
sort of almost by default this time because of
Graham's departure. So from the outset it was going
to be
a different kind of thing. But I mean I suppose
we did start a lot of the stuff off as sort
of primarily with bass and drums and then a kind of, me kinda sort of subbing,
to start off
with, on guitar and then it sorta becoming a permanent fixture. So there's
a lot more space I think and maybe less kind of
sort
of antagonism within the music.
M:
Would you say that the band feels this is this
the best Blur record right now? I mean, is this
the best one you guys have made?
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D:
Well, I think it's impossible not to feel that way. But
I feel it's the best song writing I've ever embarked on.
And I think the playing from Dave and Alex is by far
their best.
M:
Right. Cool. Are you worried about how critics and fans
are going to take this record because of Graham's departure
and 'cause you recorded it with, some of it with Fat
Boy Slim and all the stuff that's been said about it
already?
D:
Not really. No. Because it's obvious-- I mean anyone
who's heard it would kind of, I would hope, deduce that
everything's been written about it so far,
by people who haven't heard it, is rubbish.
M:
Right.
D:
I mean it's nice that there's so much kind of,
sort of a debate prior to anything actually being
released. I suppose that's kind of sort of a compliment
in a sort of perverse way.
M:
Right, right. 'Cause it shows people are interested
in the record and the band still...
D:
Yeah, absolutely. And as far as new fans, old fans
kind of -- I dunno. You know, when I did Gorillaz
everyone said ‘are you worried that Blur
fans won’t like
this?’ And then it sold six million. So I think, uh -- Which is kind of
a heck of a lot of more than any Blur record
has sold. So obviously it was people who didn't really listen to Blur, who bought
it. So I
don't think you can define fans by what record you put out last, especially when
you put out stuff
as diverse as we do. I think every time it's you're starting from scratch really
and then I think
the kind of people who are familiar with the stuff come on board and they kinda
trust it. You know, I think
it’s a case of trust
thing really. You know, if people trust us to do good stuff then they stay interested.
M:
Right. Do you think some of the fans you picked
up with Gorillaz will now go to Blur and pick up
the Blur record that maybe wouldn't have picked
it up before? |
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D:
Maybe. Maybe. But I never presume anything. You know
what I mean? I always just think, well, I'm starting again
from scratch. And that's kind of what
my motivation is.
Simon
Tong (the former Verve second guitarist, who’s
now joined Blur)
M:
Do you think that the record would have been a better record
if Graham had played on the whole thing instead of just
the last song on the record?
D:
That's very hard, I can't answer that. I mean, you know?
M:
Yeah. It's hard to say. Right. Cool. Right. Well,
how's Simon Tong been working out?
D:
There's nine people on stage now because we've
got three vocalists who sort of, kind of make the
harmonies
work for the first time really in a way that I
kind of like to hear them 'cause we've always put,
you
know, in the past with Graham and me, and with
just me on this record, we've always put quite a
lot of
time into our harmonies. But 'cause it was only
Graham and I signing on stage, it was really difficult
to get any kind of, sort of
sense of wholeness with them live. So we've got
three really brilliant singers with us, which at
first
is quite a strange thing having these perfect harmonies
coming in. But it does work, I think. M:
Right. How did you even choose Simon Tong? ‘Cause
at the time wasn't he still involved in The Shining
and all that?
D:
Well, he still is.
M:
Oh, he still is? |
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D:
Yeah. Well, it was through a mutual friend and we just
asked him to come along and see if he was into it. And
he was. So he's just been basically
learning old stuff. And playing together and trying
to get some kind of sound together that is our own. 'Cause
it's the most depressing thing, I think in the world, if
you try and recreate the past and fail. So it's best just
to sort of really have an attitude of ‘well this
is how it sounds now so let's really get involved in
how
it
sounds now and feel comfortable with that.
’War
Songs?
M:
One of the songs on the record seems to maybe be some sort
of comment on the war, but I wasn't
sure - "Moroccan People's Revolutionary Bowls
Club?" Is that anything to do with the war?
D:
No. No, that's really just sort of putting trees in place
of rockets and saying you know if you knock down
trees they’re kind of sort of worse
than letting off rockets. And the reason I got that
was because when we were in Morocco there were a lot of
cypress poplars which are very kind of rocket-shaped trees,
they kind of look like rockets and I just kind of made
that kind of lateral association sitting under one.
M:
Right. Cool. I think I read that the US Army once
asked the band to use "Song 2" for an ad
at some point.
D:
Yeah, for a recruitment ad. Yeah.
M:
Yeah. And you turned them down, right? Obviously.
D:
Yeah. Yeah. (Laughs)
M:
Wow. That must have been a weird conversation to
have.
D:
Yeah. I mean, well -- The US military in 1997 was
a very different entity than to what it is today.
Bonus
Alex James Quotes
Me
Me Me (a great one off 3 track single Alex recorded
with Stephen Duffy in 1996)
Mark
Redfern (M): I wanted to ask you about the Me Me
Me single, because I really liked that and was wondering
why it was a one off, why you and Stephen Duffy didn’t
do more stuff together? |
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Alex
James (A): Duffy I haven’t seen for awhile actually.
But it was just, I think Blur had a week off and I had like
three or four songs to record and I knocking around with
him at the time, so we just went in the studio. It’s
what you tend to do when you’re in a band, you write
material and record it. We didn’t have enough time
to make an album. But yeah, it was good fun. I think it’s
a lot easier often to do things in a light hearted way like
that and not really worry about whether they’re successful,
because they don’t have to be. I think that’s
what Damon had with Gorillaz, was the fact that he really
benefited from having no pressure on the tour. I think we
could be a lot more playful. I think initially when you start
to do something you do it for genuine sincere reasons of
liking music and loving the people you do it with and you
take more chances. It’s hard work to carry on and find
reasons to make music with the same people, but when you
do it’s worth it. We’ve been playing together
for so long that we’re a very slick production team,
Blur. (laughs) We know each other’s musical styles
very well, we can basically make records without thinking
about it. But that can be a disadvantage as well as
an advantage.
Is the internet the end of the album?
M:
So where does the band go from here? Do you foresee
Blur keep going and making records, or do you think
you’ve
been around so long that there’s a limited
shelf life left for the band?
A:
I think you’ll know when the spark’s
gone. As I said, I think this is best thing
we’ve ever done and the reviews seem
to agree with that. So we’re still relevant,
but you never know when you’re gonna
lose it. The thing is that when you’re
in a band there’s ten million people
in the world who want your job, it’s
the best job in the world, you’ve just
got to stay one step ahead of everybody else
and you’ve got to really fuckin’ want
it, thanks god we’re the best band in
the world. I really do feel like that. I feel
like the record totally speaks for itself,
it’s just in a different league from
anything else I’m hearing at the moment,
sonically and rhythmically and the songs. I
think it’ll be the last great album ever
made. I think the internet is just going to
completely destroy the way that, people won’t
have to buy albums anymore. There’s no
particular reason why music that you buy should
be in thirteen song chunks. The whole music
industry, contracts are all based on albums.
But fuck, why should we have to buy albums.
It’s a totally arbitrary thing that you
should have to buy music in lumps of thirteen
songs. So that’s the way it is and I
think what we wanted to do was make the last
great album, because as I said I think the
fact that the internet, which makes music so
easy to access, will mean that albums aren’t
around for much longer so probably last chance
to make a good one.
Read
our archived interview with Damon and cohorts
about their Gorillaz project here.
Read our review of Blur’s performance at the 2003 Coachella Festival,
and see live photos of Damon from the festival here.
www.blur.co.uk |
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