{"id":382264,"date":"2025-08-29T11:04:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T11:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/382264\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T11:04:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T11:04:13","slug":"damon-albarn-and-jamie-hewlett-talk-25-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/382264\/","title":{"rendered":"Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett talk 25 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a daunting job approaching a 25-year milestone with two creatives who prefer not to \u201cget into that world of nostalgia for too long,\u201d as Gorillaz<\/a> co-founder and visual artist Jamie Hewlett puts it. But seemingly even those most resistant to the past can\u2019t help but get a little misty-eyed.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot to quote myself, but Modern Life is Rubbish,\u201d says Damon Albarn<\/a>, discussing the lay of the land for new artists today and the challenges which perhaps didn\u2019t exist 40 years ago, from lack of small venues and demands to produce content, to the big industry behemoths who suck up resource without giving back. \u201cI\u2019m getting nostalgic now,\u201d he admits. \u201cIt was truly a wonderful time, the 80s, to be a young musician. So many places you could play, and you could still go to art school. Has better music ever been made than the music made by slight outsiders from art schools?\u201d The future is just the composition of everything that\u2019s been before, \u201cslightly decomposing,\u201d he surmises.<\/p>\n

Read next<\/p>\n

The future is something Albarn and his bandmate Hewlett have always been striving for since the turn of the millennium when they launched Gorillaz. To celebrate 25 years of the band, they have opened a new exhibition called House of Kong<\/a> in London and announced a special run of one-off gigs<\/a>, where they will perform their first three albums front-to-back, before a final \u2018surprise\u2019 show.<\/p>\n

The retrospective nature of the celebrations sits right on the line of how backward-glancing the pair are comfortable with being, given the relentless pursuit of the new that Gorillaz has always represented. Albarn appears on Zoom, knackered from rehearsals for the upcoming gigs, admitting that he always seems to have three projects on the go; Hewlett, an hour ahead in France, squeezes in a quick chat and a cigarette, already in the midst of his next body of work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TheEarly era Gorillaz, promoting 2001 hit single \u2018Clint Eastwood\u2019 (Picture: Gorillaz)<\/p>\n

Born out of those magnificent 80s, the duo would each go on to have successful careers throughout the following decade, Albarn with Blur<\/a> and Hewlett with Tank Girl. The pair arrived at the end of the decade somewhat jaded by the shifting pop landscape. Lad culture and Britpop had become tiring, with little room for experimentation, and MTV was full of manufactured acts at the peak of the boy band boom of the new millennium.<\/p>\n

From their shared first-floor flat in Notting Hill, west London, the pair cooked up a plan to employ the same principle behind these MTV regulars, with their ghost writers, but to do something transgressive and meaningful with it. They would create a band with no physical presence and an entire colourful world for them to inhabit. It would exist almost exclusively within their website, with even their interviews being entirely manufactured. \u201cIt was our way of satirising the pop movement, or the way pop was going, in a way of making it feel authentic\u201d Albarn remembers.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWithin the DNA of Gorillaz, there\u2019s a lot of what popular culture is these days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Damon Albarn\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To do this, they drew together four animated outsiders and introduced the world to a ground-breaking new prospect in the early-internet world of music: Gorillaz. Comprised of Murdoc Niccals, the \u201csnaggle-toothed\u201d bassist and band leader, 2-D, the softly spoken frontman and keyboardist, Noodle, a 10-year old Japanese guitar prodigy, and Russel Hobbs, the hulking drummer with \u201cthe ability to summon up the ghost of dead rappers\u201d, the quartet would release their eponymous debut studio album on March 26, 2001. The record brought acclaimed single \u2018Clint Eastwood\u2019, featuring Del the Funky Homosapien, to the masses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we made the first album, there was this feeling that it was kind of a joke, or it was for kids, or no one was really taking it seriously,\u201d reflects Hewlett. \u201cThe music industry liked the music but weren\u2019t really buying the cartoons, whereas young kids were really enjoying the cartoons, and through the cartoons getting into the music, and then through the music, discovering artists that they would never have discovered otherwise, like your Bobby Womacks, or your Ibrahim Ferrers, or your Becks.\u201d Collaboration has, from the off, been the beating heart of Gorillaz. \u201cIt\u2019s what we are,\u201d Albarn concurs.<\/p>\n

\"TheComing together with the real world for \u2018Demon Days\u2019 (Picture: Gorillaz)<\/p>\n

By the time they came to release their second album, Demon Days, in 2005, they had created a format which has since become dominant in pop music \u2013 that every song should have a guest, for good or bad. \u201cProbably for bad,\u201d Albarn chuckles. Whilst not a completely unique prospect, with him citing Massive Attack and the likes of Aerosmith crossing over with Run DMC as light-touch examples of collaboration, Demon Days explored the concept in a more \u201cchest out, weird pop way.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the success of the record, it became an appealing format for the music business to co-opt, yet where mainstream pop collaboration now seems reserved primarily for social media and newsworthy moments, festival headline sets, and to double listening figures, Gorillaz continue to work empathetically, in a way which promotes cultural exchange, with a \u201creal story behind it\u201d. Through Gorillaz, the world of hip-hop was opened up to Albarn, something he previously knew little about. He\u2019s since worked with a host of high-profile rappers including the late, great MF Doom, De La Soul and Snoop Dogg.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing, really,\u201d he reflects. \u201cI\u2019ve learned so much. You\u2019re delving into everyone\u2019s personal histories when you make music together, because it should be a very intimate experience. You\u2019re being quite vulnerable with each other. To make proper music properly, you have to be very open with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s something they addressed early on in the original manifesto they wrote upon launching the band, a single side of paper which has since sadly been lost to the ether. In it, Russel\u2019s special power was a very loose idea that you could work with anyone. It\u2019s \u201ckind of forward-looking, in a sense, because it predates the whole idea of holograms and all of that,\u201d says Albarn. \u201cI suppose within the DNA of Gorillaz, there\u2019s a lot of what popular culture is these days. I don\u2019t really want to blow my own trumpet,\u201d he adds, typically unselfishly. \u201cIt\u2019s obviously better if other people do it.\u201d And we\u2019re more than happy to oblige\u2026<\/p>\n

\"TheIn the wondrous \u2018Plastic Beach\u2019 era (Picture: Gorillaz)<\/p>\n

Despite being written off as a gimmick by the industry, the animated band would go on to release eight studio albums, two documentaries, host their own music festival, collect numerous awards and accolades, publish two books and even obtain a Guinness World Record for the Biggest-Selling Virtual Band. On top of that, they pioneered a progressive use of digital media, animation and the internet to build out their virtual world, gaining an enduring, committed fanbase. Then there\u2019s the matter of the mind-boggling number of cross-generational collaborators from the worlds of animation, film, and TV, as well as music. They\u2019ve employed a cast of established voice actors, including a cameo from late acting great Dennis Hopper, who narrates \u2018Fire Coming Out of the Monkey\u2019s Head.\u2019 For their sixth studio album The Now Now (2018) the band also welcomed a crossover with The Powerpuff Girls when Murdoc was temporarily replaced, due to imprisonment, by Ace, the leader of the Gangreen Gang.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a community expanded even further sonically with musical legends and future stars, from Grace Jones, Elton John, Mavis Staples, The Clash and Terry Hall, to Little Simz, Kano, JPEGMAFIA and more (a lot of people \u201cI\u2019ve at some point hugged,\u201d Albarn laughs in wonderment). Hewlett\u2019s ability to adapt his artwork to the digital and virtual zeitgeist of the time has allowed him to continually build out an engaging, expansive narrative with his illustrations. And Albarn, with his near-pathological pursuit of creating, learning and collaborating in music, generates unlimited sonic possibilities. Gorillaz, as such, still feel just as relevant and necessary today as they did at the start of the millennium.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cPoliticians are liars. We don\u2019t believe them anymore, so we find strength and inspiration through other things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jamie Hewlett\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

25 years on though, at 57 years old, Albarn admits that he had a hard time getting his head around the fact that he\u2019s \u201cnot so much of a pop proposition\u201d anymore. Yet animated characters, with their agelessness and consistency, generally speaking, have long allowed us to navigate the trickery of the world independent from the high standards we hold real life, complex human beings to. It\u2019s a point which Hewlett has long been trying to prove with these characters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt they were important, and I\u2019d grown up on that stuff, and I understood that they were for adults as well,\u201d reflects Hewlett of his love of animation. He cites the works of Miyazaki and movies like Akira, with their adult themes and powerful storylines despite the childlike connotations of animated work. It\u2019s something Gorillaz have long adopted, subtly approaching socio-political themes through their music, with Demon Days drawing on the anxiety of a post-9\/11 era, followed by the environmentally conscious Plastic Beach (2010). 2017 record Humanz also does well to capture the uncertainty of an unstable political climate around the time of Trump\u2019s first inauguration.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe members of the world\u2019s most famous animated band (Picture: Gorillaz)<\/p>\n

\u201c25 years later, we\u2019re at a point where animated characters and avatars are such a huge part of our lives, especially for the younger generation who live through computer games and wear skins and go to cosplay,\u201d the illustrator muses. The draw of these virtual worlds is appealing to young people for whom real life has become so unpleasant that they don\u2019t want to engage and so feel more comfortable in these spaces. \u201cWhether or not that\u2019s a good or healthy thing,\u201d he jokes, \u201cit\u2019s better than taking drugs.\u201d But, through characters, \u201cif you\u2019re engaging young minds, then there\u2019s great things you can teach them through music and animation, and the storylines, and the political statements that we want to make.\u201d Yet, whilst Hewlett has reservations about the impact of social media (and with Albarn not even in possession of a phone), it\u2019s a lens through which he notices a great quality in their younger audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they get into something, they really invest in it, and they research everything. I see conversations on social media when I post something, and they know more than me about what I\u2019ve done. I\u2019m like, \u2018Shit, they know everything.\u2019 They\u2019re really invested deeply into it, and I think that\u2019s really great,\u201d he explains. \u201cI think kids would rather listen to what Cartman from South Park has to say than what fucking Keir Starmer has to say, you know what I mean? So that\u2019s where we are in the world. Politicians are liars. We don\u2019t believe them anymore, so we find strength through other things, and inspiration through other things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheGorillaz enter the real world in Piccadilly Circus (Picture: Gorillaz)<\/p>\n

On August 8, the Copper Box Arena in Stratford, London opened its doors to House of Kong, \u201can exhibition like no other\u201d (as Murdoc Niccals gives testimony). The arena, originally built as a multi-sport venue for the 2012 Summer Olympics, had been partly transformed into an immersive, walk-through Gorillaz experience, celebrating the band\u2019s quarter-century. As I headed down to delve headfirst into the band\u2019s chaotic world, I met a father and son duo who embodied this idea of the enduring appeal of animated characters.<\/p>\n

Where 44-year-old Bartek Szwejkowsky came to the band whilst working in a club in the 00s, his son, 13-year-old Oliver, came to them through his dad. \u201cThe great thing about Gorillaz,\u201d Bartek says, is \u201call the graphics. It\u2019s not about music only. It\u2019s about the whole experience of the music that they are delivering.\u201d To still capture the minds of a younger generation, 25 years on, is \u201camazing,\u201d Bartek concludes. When I recall this interaction separately to both Hewlett and Albarn, they\u2019re visibly touched and (briefly) allow themselves the satisfaction. \u201cThat makes it all worth it when you hear stuff like that. I love that,\u201d Hewlett says. At the time of forming the band, the friends both had very young children and wanted to do something their kids would be into. \u201cI think that\u2019s the greatest thing about Gorillaz, that it appeals to children and their parents. That\u2019s something I\u2019m very proud of,\u201d the singer adds.<\/p>\n

The exhibition was created by Swear (the minds behind Banksy\u2019s Dismaland and Glastonbury\u2019s Block9), and runs for four weeks at the east London venue. To mark its closing, the band will then play four unique live shows where they will perform their first three albums complete with the original stage shows from the era. To end the residency and the anniversary celebrations, they will play one final \u2018mystery\u2019 show, details of which are yet to be released, though fans reckon a new album could be unveiled.<\/p>\n

\"TheHouse of Kong (Picture: @shotbyphox)<\/p>\n

For Hewlett and Albarn, the above marks the limit of what they are comfortable with as a celebration of the band\u2019s quarter-century milestone without \u201cmilking it,\u201d as Hewlett puts it. True to form, even as we discuss the forthcoming celebrations, they make it more about the future than the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoing these four records exclusively in their own era, and almost verbatim in the track listing of the albums, doesn\u2019t feel like it\u2019s nostalgic,\u201d Albarn offers. \u201cIt feels retrospective, which is different. It\u2019s a different thing because you\u2019re not so much using it as a vehicle for entertainment \u2013 you\u2019re presenting it as a piece of work.\u201d It\u2019s how Albarn convinced himself that indulging in this way was ok. He admits that he doesn\u2019t listen to his music once it\u2019s done, in part because having to listen so obsessively to something until the day it\u2019s mastered shatters the illusion. \u201cIt\u2019s impossible, because you know every single piece of the mechanics that went into it,\u201d he says. Yet in listening to these three albums ahead of the one-off shows, he notes how his present self informs the way they\u2019re playing the first album.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s the greatest thing about Gorillaz \u2013 that it appeals to children and their parents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Damon Albarn\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gorillaz was made before starting his travels around the world, where he would spend a significant amount of time playing music in Africa. His encounters with so many \u201camazing, incredible\u201d musicians would transform him. \u201cI was trying things on that first record which I now can do unaided. I can play those rhythms \u2013 I don\u2019t have to manufacture them through the trickery of recording or sampling,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt\u2019s interesting. I mean, it\u2019s not dramatically different, but I think it\u2019s\u2026 I don\u2019t know. It was good, whatever it is. Whatever\u2019s happened is not bad!\u201d<\/p>\n

Some things haven\u2019t changed so much, though, even to his own surprise. \u201cI can\u2019t quite believe I can still hit the falsetto,\u201d he jokes of the debut album. \u201cThat first record has a crazy amount of falsetto.\u201d It was, he says, \u201cdefinitely \u2026 related to the drugs I was taking. I was a much more irresponsible human being. I was hitting some notes I really didn\u2019t think coming back I\u2019d be able to hit again.\u201d With age comes responsibility though, and giving up smoking a year-and-a-half ago has given him a \u201clittle more of a chance\u201d with his voice this time around.<\/p>\n

\"TheHouse of Kong (Picture: @shotbyphox)<\/p>\n

As for Hewlett, he similarly justifies the exhibition and the live shows as being more of a reminder of everything that has happened over the last 25 years than anything else. \u201cI\u2019m not into nostalgia, even though it\u2019s a very powerful drug for some people. I don\u2019t care what you did 25 years ago,\u201d he says. He cites David Hockney as his \u201cguru,\u201d an artist who, at 85, is still changing his style and ideas, and is \u201cahead of the game every time he releases\u201d. Despite this, when walking around his exhibition, the artist couldn\u2019t help but feel a prang of pride, before duly pulling himself back in. \u201cWhen I start working on something, I have the image in my head of what I\u2019m going to draw, and then what I end up putting on paper isn\u2019t quite as good,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The artist is forever chasing the brilliant image in his head, something he describes as never being quite achievable, but each time he gets a little closer. \u201cI think that\u2019s why I like going forward,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause I\u2019m still not content. I\u2019m not satisfied. It must be better, without torturing myself.\u201d He and Albarn are almost symbiotic in their joint pursuit of perfection and the new. \u201cThere\u2019s always so much more to do,\u201d Albarn says on the subject of completing an album, \u201cso I have to finish [it]. I don\u2019t really have a choice. I have to go on to the next thing at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can make it, you\u2019re welcome \u2013 after that, it\u2019s back to the new stuff,\u201d concludes Hewlett of the 25th anniversary celebrations for fans. As for the new stuff? \u201cFor me and Damon, it\u2019s just\u2026 it\u2019s fun. We get to do whatever we want to do. Damon gets to make whatever music he wants to make. He\u2019s not in a band anymore, he\u2019s free to experiment,\u201d Hewlett says, before summing up the revolutionary manifesto of Gorillaz in one line: \u201cIf you have the ideas, then keep moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a daunting job approaching a 25-year milestone with two creatives who prefer not to \u201cget into that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[82608,77,132842,269,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-382264","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-damon-albarn","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-gorillaz","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115111727522062455","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}