Latest / Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond / Damon Albarn

Transcript

Damon Albarn · Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

0:15
Speaker 1: Pushkin. Over the course of a thirty five year career,
0:22
Speaker 1: Damon Auburn has reached international fame with two very different groups.
0:28
Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty eight, Damon created the rock band Blur
0:31
Speaker 1: with four friends in his native London. Blur started out
0:35
Speaker 1: as what Damon calls a classic art school band, but
0:38
Speaker 1: they quickly morphed into one of the seminal groups of
0:41
Speaker 1: the nineties britpop explosion, along with their former rivals Oasis.
0:47
Speaker 1: After a series of successful albums with Blur, Damon started
0:50
Speaker 1: Gorillas in nineteen ninety eight with cartoonist Jamie Hewlett. Dubbed
0:55
Speaker 1: is the world's first virtual group, the Gorilla's rotating lineup
0:58
Speaker 1: includes collaborations with De La Soul, Stevie Nicks, Bobby Womack,
1:03
Speaker 1: and Lou Reed. The band's influences are as diverse as
1:06
Speaker 1: electronic music, hip hop, and world music, and over the
1:09
Speaker 1: last twenty five years, Gorillas has been wildly successful, selling
1:13
Speaker 1: over thirty million albums worldwide. Despite having found such success,
1:19
Speaker 1: Damon's never stopped exploring his artistic potential. He's written in
1:22
Speaker 1: an opera, released solo and side projects, and recently he
1:26
Speaker 1: reunited with Blur to release the band's latest album, called
1:29
Speaker 1: The Ballad of Darren. On today's episode, Lea Rose talks
1:33
Speaker 1: to Damon Albarn about what it's like for Blur to
1:36
Speaker 1: headline music festivals in twenty twenty three. Damon also reveals
1:40
Speaker 1: how Gorillas are about to undergo a major paradigm shift,
1:44
Speaker 1: and he explains how, according to family lore, John Lennon
1:46
Speaker 1: and Yoko Ono first met at his dad's art gallery
1:49
Speaker 1: in London. This is broken record liner notes for the
1:55
Speaker 1: digital age.
1:56
Speaker 2: I'm justin Mitchman.
1:58
Speaker 1: Here's Lea Rose with Damon Albarn.
2:01
Speaker 3: Let's talk Blur. Okay, so it looks like you've been
2:04
Speaker 3: on a you all have been doing a little run
2:06
Speaker 3: of shows in Europe. How has it been being back
2:11
Speaker 3: on stage with everybody?
2:12
Speaker 2: Oh, it's great. Yeah. We did three four small gigs
2:16
Speaker 2: in England and then we went over to Spain and
2:19
Speaker 2: did the Primavera gigs. First one was Pastime. I mean,
2:25
Speaker 2: the only problem problematic thing is that if you're headlining
2:28
Speaker 2: you go on at two am, which are our age
2:33
Speaker 2: is almost unthinkable, but we can just about do it. Yeah,
2:38
Speaker 2: And then the next date was in Madrid and it
2:40
Speaker 2: was the first time they were ever doing it and
2:42
Speaker 2: the weather was so bad that they had to cancel
2:46
Speaker 2: our concert at two am, so we managed to find
2:50
Speaker 2: a smallish club called labry Vieira about two thousand people
2:55
Speaker 2: and two thousand of the forty thousand managed to see us.
2:59
Speaker 2: So it was quite quite a magical evening really, considering
3:04
Speaker 2: what a tumultuous afternoon it had been.
3:07
Speaker 3: You know, what was the energy like in the club?
3:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was fantastic. Threw myself around with Wild Abandon.
3:14
Speaker 3: Very nice. How has it been for the other guys
3:16
Speaker 3: in the bank? So, I know, you've been consistently touring
3:19
Speaker 3: for the most part since the last Blur album, has it?
3:23
Speaker 2: I thought you were going to say, you've been consistently
3:25
Speaker 2: tearing it up.
3:28
Speaker 3: Been thrashing, tearing the club up.
3:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, consistently yeah, yeah, Well, I mean everyone's been doing
3:36
Speaker 2: their own thing. Grahamson and lot of concerts, but not
3:39
Speaker 2: maybe of that size. Alex has his own festival, so
3:44
Speaker 2: he even he knows everything about about what a festival is,
3:47
Speaker 2: you know, the complete DNA of a festival. Dave's been
3:51
Speaker 2: doing everything humanly possible and also got his own little
3:57
Speaker 2: band out as well, So everyone's been super busy that's great. Yeah,
4:01
Speaker 2: But it's necessary, isn't it. Otherwise it just feels like,
4:06
Speaker 2: I don't know this. This is supposed to be old
4:08
Speaker 2: for ends sort of finding each other latterly and trying
4:15
Speaker 2: to express that in a sort of, you know, vibrant
4:19
Speaker 2: and honest way.
4:22
Speaker 3: Have you learned anything new about the old friends and
4:25
Speaker 3: the process of recording the new album?
4:29
Speaker 2: Well, they're a lot more grown up, all of them,
4:31
Speaker 2: a lot more maybe resilient than maybe they were twenty
4:37
Speaker 2: years ago emotionally and physically. Yeah, I think there's a
4:42
Speaker 2: huge amount of necessary growing up that's gone on for
4:46
Speaker 2: all of us.
4:47
Speaker 3: Are the band dynamics? Do they feel exactly the same
4:50
Speaker 3: as they used to, you know, way back when, or
4:53
Speaker 3: have things sort of changed just like on a more
4:56
Speaker 3: like interpersonal level, things.
4:59
Speaker 2: Have changed a bit, but essentially so exactly the same dynamic.
5:06
Speaker 3: That's so cool. It's so nice to have that.
5:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, really, it is really nice. It is really nice.
5:12
Speaker 2: But but I suppose the fact that we haven't kind
5:16
Speaker 2: of chased it much in the last twenty years means that,
5:20
Speaker 2: you know, there's there's still that possibility for something to
5:24
Speaker 2: surprise us, you know, And I mean this whole thing
5:28
Speaker 2: initially started off with a conversation about Okay, it's probably
5:32
Speaker 2: time we sang those songs again, with no real destination.
5:37
Speaker 2: And then when I was in the States in the autumn,
5:42
Speaker 2: I mean, I always take a studio on tour anyway,
5:45
Speaker 2: and I just thought, well, I'm just going to write songs.
5:47
Speaker 2: It's kind of interesting being here in all these mad
5:52
Speaker 2: cities and everything that you know that you carry on
5:56
Speaker 2: the road with you and the experiences you have, and
6:00
Speaker 2: I thought, maybe that's quite a nice sometimes it's quite
6:02
Speaker 2: a nice place to write about something else, you know,
6:07
Speaker 2: And so I just wrote lost songs. I didn't tell anyone.
6:11
Speaker 2: Then in the new year, I said to all of them,
6:16
Speaker 2: I said, just can I invite you down to the studio,
6:18
Speaker 2: I just like play some stuff suit you think And
6:22
Speaker 2: I said, look, I think I've written an album. There's
6:25
Speaker 2: twenty songs. You choose the ones you want to record,
6:28
Speaker 2: and that's really It was as simple as that. They
6:31
Speaker 2: were like into it, and it felt, I suppose of
6:34
Speaker 2: that moment, I was kind of, you know, I was
6:36
Speaker 2: still kind of a bit nervous about letting all that
6:39
Speaker 2: material go without knowing where it was going to go.
6:44
Speaker 2: But it went pretty much exactly where I hoped it would,
6:47
Speaker 2: and yeah, I didn't take us more than six weeks
6:52
Speaker 2: to do the whole thing.
6:53
Speaker 3: It's amazing.
6:55
Speaker 2: But the most amazing thing about that was that that
6:59
Speaker 2: seemed to sort of inform the momentum of everything and
7:02
Speaker 2: the fact that we already had this sort of totemic
7:07
Speaker 2: Wembley gig. It's sort of everyone was like, oh, well,
7:11
Speaker 2: where we should get the record out in time for
7:12
Speaker 2: that as well, or at least least proximity to it.
7:16
Speaker 2: So something a process that that latterly, to be honest,
7:21
Speaker 2: has just become so sort of slow for me, you know,
7:24
Speaker 2: like having to wait a year sometimes to put a
7:27
Speaker 2: record out. She's just so that's happened a few times.
7:31
Speaker 2: So this was literally we we finished it and then
7:33
Speaker 2: it was like, oh shit, we need to rehearse for
7:35
Speaker 2: these concerts, and now we're here and I haven't and
7:39
Speaker 2: we're putting another single out next week and then an album,
7:42
Speaker 2: and that's it's just nice to know that that nothing
7:45
Speaker 2: existed in January apart from the songs I suppose, so.
7:49
Speaker 3: The gig existed first and then the album came yes,
7:53
Speaker 3: So it's sort of like a Beatles, get back, let
7:56
Speaker 3: it be situation.
7:57
Speaker 2: It's exactly like that, and it's.
7:59
Speaker 3: Just why did you get back right now?
8:02
Speaker 2: I mean, this is inevitable, isn't it. That's sort of
8:04
Speaker 2: for some reason because we come from this island. We're
8:08
Speaker 2: always going. But but I mean, this is the annoying
8:10
Speaker 2: thing about the Beasts is that they kind of sort
8:12
Speaker 2: of they created every kind of sort of trope that
8:17
Speaker 2: you throw up pop music really you know, not invented,
8:20
Speaker 2: but they seem to embody so many and you know,
8:23
Speaker 2: the the idea of mass hysteria, although it happened previously
8:28
Speaker 2: with Elvis, I don't think it ever happened for a band.
8:31
Speaker 2: The idea of the independence that are banned when it's
8:35
Speaker 2: a good one kind of offers its its audience. You know.
8:39
Speaker 2: They know that these these individuals have come up together
8:43
Speaker 2: and that they share very similar kind of sort of beliefs,
8:48
Speaker 2: you know, and passions, and that like you know, there's
8:51
Speaker 2: no need to have since they were kids. So it's
8:53
Speaker 2: just it's so important really that bands exist. And I
8:56
Speaker 2: suppose I feel like, I don't know, I feel like
8:59
Speaker 2: it was a bit more excitement about guitar music again
9:02
Speaker 2: at the moment, and that can't be a bad thing
9:05
Speaker 2: because it got so sterile. I mean, you know, for me,
9:09
Speaker 2: really the last great guitar band would have been the
9:14
Speaker 2: Artic Monkeys. I don't really know if there's anything as
9:18
Speaker 2: good as that since. I mean, but but now there's
9:22
Speaker 2: bands who look got a huge amount of potential, and
9:24
Speaker 2: it's really it's kind of dismantled itself guitar music, and
9:28
Speaker 2: it's kind of putting itself back together again in a
9:30
Speaker 2: different form, you know, you get you've got some fantastic
9:33
Speaker 2: new kind of sort of mutations of the the genus
9:38
Speaker 2: of it.
9:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, what are some that you're thinking of when you
9:41
Speaker 3: say there's new there's some new bands out there that
9:43
Speaker 3: are bringing back aut our music.
9:45
Speaker 2: Well, I really, I really like I really like a
9:48
Speaker 2: band like Wooloo. They seem to be really cool. There's
9:52
Speaker 2: one that I picked up on somewhere in the American countryside,
9:58
Speaker 2: but I like, I can't remember his name. That's narrowing
10:02
Speaker 2: it down, isn't it.
10:04
Speaker 3: American countryside? Okay?
10:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, in the American countryside, the great the great American
10:08
Speaker 2: country side. Yeah, it's a collective of I don't know,
10:13
Speaker 2: it's sort of just felt like exactly what a young
10:15
Speaker 2: band should sound like. Lots of there are lots of them,
10:18
Speaker 2: and you've got bands like Yard Acts who are here.
10:21
Speaker 2: It seemed to be getting better and better, and obviously
10:25
Speaker 2: not that they're new, but I still see them as
10:27
Speaker 2: kind of emerging bands like Sleaford Mods, you know, brilliant.
10:32
Speaker 2: So it's and lots of great language being used again,
10:35
Speaker 2: you know, not the generic rock shit. I hate that. Yeah,
10:39
Speaker 2: I hate that. I like I like poets and guitars,
10:42
Speaker 2: you know, it's like that's what always inspired inspired me.
10:46
Speaker 3: I was curious about your relationship to the Beatles because
10:49
Speaker 3: you came up you were sort of the generation after
10:52
Speaker 3: the Beatles, and we've had a lot of artists on
10:55
Speaker 3: this show who talk about, you know, someone like Ozzy
10:58
Speaker 3: Osbourne when he heard the Beatles, it was like it
11:00
Speaker 3: went from black and white to color, so you.
11:03
Speaker 2: Being and then back and then back to black permanently.
11:09
Speaker 3: He brought it back to book.
11:10
Speaker 2: Yeah. I'm not sure where the color comes in really
11:11
Speaker 2: with Ozzy Osborne, but I mean, yeah, you know.
11:14
Speaker 3: So they still put out albums while you were alive young,
11:17
Speaker 3: but you.
11:18
Speaker 2: Were alive well yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
11:20
Speaker 3: Growing up when you were finding your own music. What
11:24
Speaker 3: role did the Beatles play with you and your friends? Like,
11:27
Speaker 3: were you guys into the Beatles?
11:28
Speaker 2: Well, the first thing I knew about the Beatles really
11:30
Speaker 2: was that my parents lived in the same mansion block
11:33
Speaker 2: in Emperor's Gate back in the very early sixties as them.
11:39
Speaker 2: And then what's my next connection and the other thing
11:42
Speaker 2: within my family kind of sort of folklore, is that
11:47
Speaker 2: my dad had a gallery in just off Carnoby Street
11:51
Speaker 2: and he put on the exhibition where Yoko Ono had
11:56
Speaker 2: the ladder and John Lennon climbed up a ladder to
12:00
Speaker 2: read the word yes or whatever. It was, so kind
12:03
Speaker 2: of he kind of got them together. That was their
12:05
Speaker 2: first meeting, really, yeah, I mean office, it's it's not.
12:11
Speaker 3: I've been dying to know how those two met watching
12:13
Speaker 3: Get Back.
12:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, they met in he came to see her art
12:18
Speaker 2: show at my dad's gallery.
12:20
Speaker 3: Was she like a popular artist at the time.
12:22
Speaker 2: I mean underground, yeah, but very cool cool yeah, so
12:27
Speaker 2: so so that was I kind of knew more about that.
12:29
Speaker 2: And I also I used to love lucim the Sky
12:31
Speaker 2: of Diamonds because I got given it, but I didn't
12:35
Speaker 2: know that it was a Beatles song. I thought it
12:37
Speaker 2: was Elson John's song. Oh, but then and then I did,
12:41
Speaker 2: and obviously I did discover the Beatles, and like, you know,
12:44
Speaker 2: then then it becomes an obsession until you've kind of
12:48
Speaker 2: you've listened to everything and kind of assimilated the whole thing.
12:53
Speaker 2: But then you know, like other amazing things came into
12:58
Speaker 2: my life, you know. But I mean, it was one
13:00
Speaker 2: of the very early influences. Obviously very cool.
13:03
Speaker 3: I've seen your your house describe the house you grew
13:07
Speaker 3: up in described as bohemia, and I know what that
13:10
Speaker 3: means in America, but what does that mean in London?
13:14
Speaker 2: I did till I was nine. I lived in London
13:17
Speaker 2: when I moved to the to the Essex countryside. But
13:19
Speaker 2: he mean, I suppose in the sense that my dad's
13:21
Speaker 2: and my dad was like very into latterly into art education.
13:27
Speaker 2: My mum's always been an artist, painter and creates installations
13:32
Speaker 2: and everything really just everything is and yeah, I've got lots,
13:37
Speaker 2: just lots of artists in my family, which is pretty normal.
13:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it wasn't. I mean, I don't know. I
13:43
Speaker 3: guess I picture sort of just like people sitting around
13:46
Speaker 3: on pillows and smoking hookahs and yeah, that.
13:49
Speaker 2: Sort of thing. I mean, it was a bit like
13:50
Speaker 2: that in the late sixties, me and my dad's. Amongst
13:53
Speaker 2: the many things he did, he created happenings and psychedelic
13:58
Speaker 2: buildings in weird places. In fact, once he kind of
14:02
Speaker 2: worked with a soft machine and they did a concert
14:05
Speaker 2: in the south of France and be a really good
14:09
Speaker 2: idea to go out the night before because it was
14:13
Speaker 2: on a beach. He went out into the bay and
14:15
Speaker 2: it doused the whole bay in Petrol, and then when
14:21
Speaker 2: they came on that evening, he lit it. So they
14:24
Speaker 2: had this amazing, very dangerous but no one would ever
14:27
Speaker 2: let you do that now, but that Hey, it was
14:29
Speaker 2: the sixties. I mean, but you know, I just heard
14:32
Speaker 2: all of this through, you know, just the thing that
14:36
Speaker 2: all families have, which are like these stories you know
14:39
Speaker 2: that you want to hear again and again and again.
14:42
Speaker 3: Totally the family law.
14:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's at the family law exactly.
14:46
Speaker 3: I don't know if you went through like an early
14:47
Speaker 3: experimentation drug phase when you're a teenager or whatever, But
14:52
Speaker 3: were they cool with that, like, could you talk to
14:54
Speaker 3: them about Oh.
14:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, my parents were always very good with all my yeah,
14:59
Speaker 2: my dalliances, you know, I didn't necessarily think I was
15:03
Speaker 2: being very responsible sometimes, but I mean they were never
15:06
Speaker 2: judgmental ever.
15:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, I read that your primary school burnt down like
15:12
Speaker 3: seven or eight times.
15:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true.
15:15
Speaker 3: Why what is that about.
15:17
Speaker 2: Well, it turned out that our form teacher was a
15:20
Speaker 2: complete psychopath. But the sad thing is that the school
15:24
Speaker 2: care segue, the school caretaker was blamed initially, and he
15:28
Speaker 2: had a heart stack because he was so distressed that
15:32
Speaker 2: anyone could think he'd do anything like that. But it
15:34
Speaker 2: kept happening and it really disrupted two years of my
15:37
Speaker 2: education like terribly. And then in the end it turned
15:41
Speaker 2: out it was our teacher who'd been burning the school down. Yeah.
15:45
Speaker 3: Was it big fires or was it just like little yeah?
15:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, like classrooms and stuff on them. Once we'd
15:52
Speaker 2: done his whole projects of raising all these hamsters, and
15:55
Speaker 2: then he burnt the hamsters as well, which you know,
15:59
Speaker 2: it was not nice.
16:00
Speaker 3: It's like serial killer stuff.
16:02
Speaker 2: Yes, I mean yeah, I mean sort of. Essex in
16:04
Speaker 2: the nineteen eighties was a fairly errant place, to be fair.
16:10
Speaker 1: We're taking a quick break and then coming back with
16:12
Speaker 1: more from Leo Rose and Damon Albarn. We're back with
16:19
Speaker 1: more from Damon Albarne and Lio Rose.
16:23
Speaker 3: As a kid, like what was how did you find music?
16:25
Speaker 3: What was the first music that you felt was like
16:27
Speaker 3: really spoke to you.
16:28
Speaker 2: Oh, I was more family law. I had a harmonic
16:33
Speaker 2: hererap that was in my cot which I used to play.
16:38
Speaker 2: I've always always been interested in music. Yeah. I went
16:41
Speaker 2: through quite conventional musical education, classical, and then I just
16:47
Speaker 2: sort of with Graham, discovered other kinds of ways of
16:52
Speaker 2: playing music, you know, and here I am.
16:55
Speaker 3: Now what were you guys into music wise? Were you
16:59
Speaker 3: into punk or were you like what was a new wave?
17:01
Speaker 3: What was there?
17:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean a lot of our early stuff
17:06
Speaker 2: is comes directly from Thursday Night on Top of the Pops. No,
17:10
Speaker 2: it's a national obsession with the youth. Really, it felt
17:14
Speaker 2: like that where I lived. That was my connection with everything,
17:19
Speaker 2: you know, Top of the Pops, clothes, music, hairstyles.
17:23
Speaker 3: How much did you guys think about the way that
17:25
Speaker 3: you looked, like the aesthetic look of Blur when you
17:28
Speaker 3: first started. Was there are a lot of thought put into
17:31
Speaker 3: the haircuts and the clothes.
17:34
Speaker 2: It was a lot of thought put into making it
17:36
Speaker 2: not look like there's a lot of thought put into it. Yeah,
17:40
Speaker 2: it was just a classic art school band really yeah,
17:44
Speaker 2: slightly foppish, slightly foppish, slightly disheveled, but kind of you know, cool. Yeah.
17:52
Speaker 3: But the hair was always good.
17:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, we had good hair. We had good hair.
17:56
Speaker 3: Like it looks dishovel, but yeah, yeah.
17:58
Speaker 2: I mean remarkably, we've still pretty much all got our hair,
18:01
Speaker 2: which is honestly, that's quite the thing. Fifty five is
18:07
Speaker 2: definitely not something to take for granted. For sure, you
18:12
Speaker 2: know it's true.
18:14
Speaker 3: But yeah, I've always wondered that because you always look cool,
18:16
Speaker 3: and it's like, how much thought, I'm just curious, how
18:18
Speaker 3: still you look cool your cool outfits. You obviously make
18:21
Speaker 3: cool choices with what you wear.
18:23
Speaker 2: Oh, I mean, I mean you know, we we were
18:25
Speaker 2: in second hand shops from day one. I mean it's
18:29
Speaker 2: it's one of our great joy especially Graham and I
18:32
Speaker 2: you know, we just love shopping for old clothes.
18:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, but still you have to be good at it,
18:37
Speaker 3: like someone on you two three thousand, like always looks cool.
18:40
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you could walk into the same shop and no, of.
18:42
Speaker 2: Course, but it's like it's like everything practice makes perfect,
18:45
Speaker 2: you know, It's like all those things that you tried
18:48
Speaker 2: on that really didn't work, but you put down and
18:51
Speaker 2: I bought a lot of stuff that I was convinced
18:53
Speaker 2: was a major statement in fashion that when I got home,
18:58
Speaker 2: it's like, and these days I have I mean my
19:02
Speaker 2: daughter because she's at London School of Fashion, very serious,
19:06
Speaker 2: very very serious about everything. To that, I mean, I
19:10
Speaker 2: can't get with anything anymore, you know what I mean.
19:14
Speaker 2: I have to really be my top a game every
19:17
Speaker 2: day otherwise she will call me out.
19:22
Speaker 3: So does she like your style?
19:24
Speaker 2: Well? I think, I mean I'm a dad, do you
19:25
Speaker 2: know what I mean? I can't. Yeah, I mean, I'm
19:27
Speaker 2: never going to be have as much trip as other people,
19:31
Speaker 2: but you know, yeah.
19:34
Speaker 3: Do you remember I was reading about your first Blurs
19:37
Speaker 3: first tour in America and it sounds like it was
19:40
Speaker 3: a bit of a disaster. I don't know if that's accurate,
19:42
Speaker 3: but do you remember first going on the road and
19:45
Speaker 3: playing shows in the States.
19:47
Speaker 2: They weren't all a disaster, but we did play quite
19:50
Speaker 2: a lot of kind of sort of Midwest towns where
19:55
Speaker 2: no one had an idea who we were at all,
19:58
Speaker 2: you know, which is part of I mean, looking back,
20:02
Speaker 2: it's an incredibly important part of our development, and I
20:06
Speaker 2: mean of recently, especially with Grid, as I spent so
20:08
Speaker 2: much time in America. I've done a lot of playing
20:11
Speaker 2: in America, so I feel I feel very comfortable and
20:14
Speaker 2: at home in America these days. Yeah, ironically, I feel
20:18
Speaker 2: very home in America these days. I've even got my
20:21
Speaker 2: Hala hat on.
20:22
Speaker 3: I know it seems like you like that hat.
20:24
Speaker 2: I'm I know it right, I've literally I can't get
20:29
Speaker 2: rid of the fucking hat. I love it?
20:31
Speaker 3: Is it just the same hat every time, the.
20:34
Speaker 2: Same hat I dropped. I've bought so many hats since
20:37
Speaker 2: I got this hat, and nothing, nothing kicks like this hat.
20:41
Speaker 2: But it's totally the wrong hat for Blurd. I shouldn't
20:43
Speaker 2: be wearing a hat like this. I should be wearing
20:45
Speaker 2: I shouldn't be wearing a hat. I mean, I don't
20:47
Speaker 2: wear a hat on stage obviously, but and all the
20:49
Speaker 2: clothes that I kind of sort of you know, the
20:52
Speaker 2: whole look that I've got. Yeah, but I've thought about anything.
20:55
Speaker 2: It's just ruined when I put this hat on. So
20:57
Speaker 2: I can't really wear the hat. I shouldn't really be
21:00
Speaker 2: wearing the hats in this podcast, But I just I
21:03
Speaker 2: can't help it. But you but you're right, I literally,
21:07
Speaker 2: I mean, I haven't washed it either since I've had it,
21:09
Speaker 2: and it was about thirty years old when I bought it. Really,
21:13
Speaker 2: this is a truly loved hat.
21:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a cool hat. It's gotten broken in over
21:18
Speaker 3: the years. I've watched a lot of your videos. Yeah,
21:21
Speaker 3: and in the beginning it was a little bit more stiff. Yeah,
21:24
Speaker 3: I saw you had it at Coachella.
21:25
Speaker 2: What you're trying to say about my hat?
21:28
Speaker 3: It's a good thing. It's like a nice pair of
21:30
Speaker 3: leather shoes.
21:31
Speaker 2: It is. It is. But I mean, the only other
21:34
Speaker 2: kind of hats that I really feel comfortable and have
21:36
Speaker 2: been like old Fisherman's beanie hats, you know, like those
21:40
Speaker 2: are cool. Yeah, but I can't wear them in the summer.
21:43
Speaker 2: Too hot, too hot. Nothing else I've got. I found
21:46
Speaker 2: some nice old deer stalkers that I might be able
21:49
Speaker 2: to get away with, but it's been so hot. Really,
21:51
Speaker 2: this is the only hat I can wear.
21:53
Speaker 3: It seems like I don't know if this is true,
21:56
Speaker 3: But was Gorilla's the first project where the music really
22:02
Speaker 3: super resonated with Americans?
22:05
Speaker 2: Well, no song Too was, but no one knew who
22:08
Speaker 2: made too. It's just that you be just woo who song. Yeah,
22:13
Speaker 2: they're probably probably people who listened to Bisco. No, they
22:16
Speaker 2: didn't do that, did they. You know what I mean?
22:18
Speaker 2: It's so sort of detached from us. Yeah, but yes,
22:24
Speaker 2: that's our biggest song by far.
22:26
Speaker 3: Obviously, after you make a song, too, do you want
22:29
Speaker 3: to incorporate a little woohoo or something similar in every you.
22:33
Speaker 2: Want to make You definitely want to make a song free.
22:35
Speaker 2: But it's quite it's hard. It's harder than you think.
22:40
Speaker 3: It seems very difficult. But I don't know. I just
22:43
Speaker 3: feel like I would be tempted if you get something
22:45
Speaker 3: that really sticks.
22:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, well I've had a few, but you know, but then,
22:49
Speaker 2: as Frank Sinatra said, I've had too few to mention. Yeah,
22:54
Speaker 2: that's really poor. It's a really really really really poor Joe.
22:57
Speaker 2: It's poor Joe. Apologize. It always goes wrong when I
23:02
Speaker 2: try and be amusing.
23:05
Speaker 3: Have you ever tried to analyze what works in America
23:08
Speaker 3: versus it works in the UK or in Europe? Is
23:12
Speaker 3: that something that you even think of when you're making music?
23:14
Speaker 2: Or you just oh, I don't I don't think about
23:16
Speaker 2: I don't think about it. I just you know, you
23:19
Speaker 2: make and then you just wait.
23:22
Speaker 3: Do you care or are you just making to make?
23:26
Speaker 2: I'm existing to make.
23:29
Speaker 3: It must be so nice to have such a clear passion.
23:32
Speaker 2: Yes, I mean it's I mean, it's a condition, isn't it.
23:36
Speaker 2: You know I've got I have some these days. It
23:39
Speaker 2: would be be on a spectrum somewhere. You know, he's
23:43
Speaker 2: got a name. I'm sure, I just haven't chosen to
23:46
Speaker 2: go down that path to be analyzed.
23:50
Speaker 3: Is it near constant? Is it something you can always
23:53
Speaker 3: rely on or does it ever leave you the ability
23:56
Speaker 3: to make new songs?
23:57
Speaker 2: Well, it's like yoga. I do try and do yoga
24:00
Speaker 2: every day, and I try to write every day. I
24:03
Speaker 2: get up basically in the morning unless you can be
24:07
Speaker 2: disciplined enough to do it in the evening, which I can't.
24:10
Speaker 3: Are you working on any new Gorilla's music.
24:14
Speaker 2: I've done a few tunes. I'm doing an opera at
24:16
Speaker 2: the moment about using Geta's fragment. He wrote of the
24:22
Speaker 2: Magic Flute, Part two, which is fascinating, very cool. You've
24:27
Speaker 2: heard of the Magic Flute, Mozart's Magic Well, Gertzer, who's
24:30
Speaker 2: the contemporary of Mozart, wrote part two of that, like
24:34
Speaker 2: you know the sequel, but it never got put to music. Okay,
24:38
Speaker 2: so it's this this legendary lost thing. Yeah, it's really interesting.
24:45
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know very cool what I'm doing.
24:47
Speaker 2: I've never really known what I'm doing in that world
24:49
Speaker 2: at all. I'm a complete and that's a idiot.
24:52
Speaker 3: But you were trained with in music theory and everything.
24:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can, Yeah, I mean, I you know, I can.
24:58
Speaker 2: I don't know whether it's any good put it that way,
25:01
Speaker 2: you know, whereas with songs I'm kind of more confident about.
25:05
Speaker 3: Yeah. Okay, so New Gorillas. You're working on New Gorillas
25:08
Speaker 3: a bit.
25:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're going to do We're going to do something.
25:11
Speaker 2: It's going to be a not as dramatic as a
25:14
Speaker 2: quantum ship, a paradigm be a paradigm shift would just
25:19
Speaker 2: be very different. No cartoons, yeah, but just an entirely
25:25
Speaker 2: different approach to everything, to the to the band, to everything.
25:30
Speaker 2: We're just a point where we're going to change.
25:33
Speaker 3: Why. Why does it feel like it's.
25:36
Speaker 2: Time because it was always just Jamie and I. So
25:39
Speaker 2: you know, really, although it's a very big thing now,
25:43
Speaker 2: it's still in essences to people. So if we decide
25:48
Speaker 2: between us that we want to do something unrecognizable then
25:52
Speaker 2: we will.
25:54
Speaker 3: That's exciting.
25:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean you need that, don't you two, Yeah,
25:59
Speaker 2: for it to keep to stay alive.
26:01
Speaker 3: Really definitely, that's cool. So when abouts do you think
26:05
Speaker 3: that will start surfacing?
26:07
Speaker 2: Well, I will keep writing, but until I've kind of
26:11
Speaker 2: written the opera, I can't really do anything much else
26:15
Speaker 2: of than that. But you know, you know, I might
26:18
Speaker 2: write it really quickly. It's got to be next autumn anyway,
26:21
Speaker 2: So before that, I'll be working on Guerrillas.
26:26
Speaker 1: We're gonna pause for one last quick break and then
26:28
Speaker 1: come back with Leo Rose and Damon Albarn. We're back
26:35
Speaker 1: with Leo Rose and Damon Albarn.
26:38
Speaker 3: What's the significance of the album title.
26:42
Speaker 2: Ballads of Darren. Well, Darren's a very very old friend
26:47
Speaker 2: of everyone in the band. He's been kind of sort
26:50
Speaker 2: of there in various reincarnations since almost day one. And
26:56
Speaker 2: we have this group of very close friends who work
26:59
Speaker 2: with us, and I've always worked with us, and he's
27:03
Speaker 2: one of them, so therefore he represents all of us.
27:06
Speaker 2: So the ballot of Darren is Darren is this moment
27:10
Speaker 2: the every man? You know?
27:13
Speaker 3: Did he go through something significant recently?
27:16
Speaker 2: Well, I mean we've all been through significant things, you know.
27:20
Speaker 2: I mean obviously, as I write with songs, it's probably
27:24
Speaker 2: I've probably been through some significant things as well. But
27:27
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, I am a I am a
27:30
Speaker 2: certified sad fifty five year old.
27:33
Speaker 3: I hear you. I feel sad too.
27:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's fine, it happens. I mean, I'm not I'm
27:38
Speaker 2: not afraid of sadness, you know.
27:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you're productive. You're a productive fifty five year old.
27:45
Speaker 2: I'm a very productive saddow.
27:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's right. So this album, when I first
27:52
Speaker 3: started listening to it, it feels like it needs like,
27:54
Speaker 3: you know, like a pair of shoes. Sometimes you need
27:57
Speaker 3: a break in period. Yeah, this album just there's no
28:00
Speaker 3: break in period. It immediately sounds good.
28:03
Speaker 2: Oh good.
28:04
Speaker 3: I got in there really easy. I woke up yesterday
28:08
Speaker 3: singing the Narcissist. It was just it was there. It's
28:10
Speaker 3: in my consciousness. Do you have any sort of tricks
28:16
Speaker 3: or little formulas that you've developed at this point for
28:18
Speaker 3: making something just go down easy?
28:22
Speaker 2: Well? What was the song in My Fair Lady, A
28:25
Speaker 2: little bit of Sugar helps the Medicine go down?
28:28
Speaker 3: Would the sugar come in the melody?
28:30
Speaker 2: I don't know I mean, it's certainly not in the lyrics.
28:34
Speaker 2: The lyrics are rarely uplifting. But I suppose it's that
28:38
Speaker 2: juxtaposition with the music that creates you know, it's the
28:42
Speaker 2: classic ram It's the end of the world kind of thing,
28:46
Speaker 2: isn't it? You know what I mean? Where you are singing,
28:50
Speaker 2: it's like Spike Milligan. You're probably not familiar with him.
28:54
Speaker 2: He's a brilliant comedian writer. And on his gravestone he
28:59
Speaker 2: had inscribed he had inscribed, I told you I wasn't
29:02
Speaker 2: feeling well.
29:05
Speaker 3: That's good.
29:08
Speaker 2: You know. What I mean is that that is in
29:10
Speaker 2: the joy and sadness of life. It's kind of, you know,
29:14
Speaker 2: that final victory that makes people laugh. And yet I
29:18
Speaker 2: suppose in a way that's kind of sort of the
29:20
Speaker 2: essence of melancholy, you know, it's that sort of realization
29:24
Speaker 2: that you are both living and living your best and
29:27
Speaker 2: dying your best life.
29:30
Speaker 3: Is there like an overall emotional framework to the album
29:34
Speaker 3: or how would you describe the vibe?
29:36
Speaker 2: I think once they catch you, certain songs will play
29:40
Speaker 2: with your emotions quite heavily, you know, songs like the
29:43
Speaker 2: Everglades I think will smap people around the face at
29:47
Speaker 2: one point.
29:48
Speaker 3: M h.
29:49
Speaker 2: I mean, so it's got that it's in there, but
29:51
Speaker 2: it doesn't it's not going to scare anyone away, you
29:54
Speaker 2: know what I mean. I don't think, but I mean,
29:56
Speaker 2: I can't talk about me at work. I just all
29:58
Speaker 2: I can do is make it and then sing it.
30:01
Speaker 3: Do you ever have any trepidation about putting about writing
30:04
Speaker 3: vulnerable lyrics or exposing a part of your experience?
30:09
Speaker 2: I suppose, I mean, I suppose in many ways this
30:11
Speaker 2: is my vulnerable. But I think vulnerability is by singing
30:17
Speaker 2: about it, You're you're somehow kind of easing it. You know,
30:22
Speaker 2: You're the vulnerability is diminished by your ability to express.
30:28
Speaker 3: It through writing songs. Does it help you understand your
30:34
Speaker 3: emotions or is it just a way to talk about
30:38
Speaker 3: it and share emotions?
30:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I don't make it all about myself strictly.
30:44
Speaker 2: It's kind of use. I use where where I'm at
30:47
Speaker 2: in my life and how I feel as a kind
30:49
Speaker 2: of tool to talk about other things. Sometimes. You know,
30:53
Speaker 2: it's that, you know, there's quite a lot of politics
30:55
Speaker 2: on the record as well. I mean politics, not affiliated,
31:00
Speaker 2: not not not pastes and politics. But you know what
31:03
Speaker 2: I mean, So I can Russian strings, say that there's
31:08
Speaker 2: the strings attached to all of us. You know that
31:11
Speaker 2: we're all complicit, and therefore, you know, what are we doing?
31:17
Speaker 3: How did the narcissists come about? How did that song
31:21
Speaker 3: come to be?
31:22
Speaker 2: Well? I think I think it's kind of sort of
31:25
Speaker 2: maybe is kind of came about from my belief that
31:32
Speaker 2: we're living in the most narcissistic age of epoch of
31:36
Speaker 2: man's man. Basically, I don't know if you can get
31:40
Speaker 2: any more narcissistic than the years now, m M, they
31:45
Speaker 2: are now or whatever we are, you know, collectively, we're
31:50
Speaker 2: living through this.
31:51
Speaker 3: Do you talk about that with your daughter, since she's,
31:54
Speaker 3: you know, at a young age where this just feels normal.
31:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's she thinks, you know, like understandably that. I mean,
32:02
Speaker 2: she's called me a boomer on a couple of occasions,
32:04
Speaker 2: which I'm sure is not a good thing.
32:06
Speaker 3: Are you a boomer?
32:07
Speaker 2: I don't think so, aren't you just I really have
32:10
Speaker 2: no idea what I am, but boomer is surely before me.
32:14
Speaker 2: I can't be a boomer.
32:15
Speaker 3: No, I don't think you're a boomer. I think you're
32:17
Speaker 3: gen X.
32:18
Speaker 2: But I think she's been doubly rude by calling me
32:20
Speaker 2: a boomer. I think it's intentionally. I mean I deserve it,
32:24
Speaker 2: so it's fine. No, No, I just think by the
32:30
Speaker 2: very nature of the way we go about our business
32:32
Speaker 2: and where we communicate with each other, and our ability
32:35
Speaker 2: to send pictures of ourselves, and our ability to distort
32:38
Speaker 2: those pictures, to filter those pictures, to create narrative through
32:44
Speaker 2: those pictures of ourselves and our expressions, we are in
32:48
Speaker 2: love with the image of ourselves, which is in the
32:51
Speaker 2: essence of the original story of Narcissus. And we do
32:55
Speaker 2: live in an echo chamber, which is another key component
32:58
Speaker 2: of the original, not the echo chamber, but echo being
33:03
Speaker 2: the counterpoint to Narcissus that he couldn't hear, he couldn't see,
33:07
Speaker 2: he couldn't kind of externalize any empathy for anyone who's
33:13
Speaker 2: just about himself and his image.
33:16
Speaker 3: Do you feel that when you're playing in you know,
33:20
Speaker 3: in different countries all over the world, like if you're
33:22
Speaker 3: going over to Molly or you're playing somewhere in Africa,
33:24
Speaker 3: do you feel that same force there? Or is that
33:27
Speaker 3: a total eskill?
33:31
Speaker 2: I mean, not as much as it used to be,
33:33
Speaker 2: because the world's changed and everyone is everyone everywhere anyone's
33:37
Speaker 2: got phone is in on it, aren't they in one
33:41
Speaker 2: form or another. So that reason I don't have a phone.
33:46
Speaker 3: You have an iPad, right.
33:47
Speaker 2: I do have an iPad, but you know it's just
33:49
Speaker 2: not the same thing. You can't whip out the iPad,
33:52
Speaker 2: you know, it's quite it's a sort of it's an
33:54
Speaker 2: event getting an iPad to take a photograph. It's not
33:57
Speaker 2: very boome exactly. You can't do it one hand. It's impossible.
34:01
Speaker 2: You have to have two hands. And the whole point
34:04
Speaker 2: is this mediacy A boom they go. That was where
34:08
Speaker 2: I started. But really the song is about a story
34:10
Speaker 2: of my own kind of you know, from being a
34:14
Speaker 2: kid in my bedroom looking in the mirror and using
34:19
Speaker 2: an old Strobe light that my dad had given me,
34:24
Speaker 2: which he'd used in the Ufo Club with Pink Floyd
34:29
Speaker 2: back in the early sixties.
34:31
Speaker 3: What's the Ufo Club.
34:33
Speaker 2: It was a very famous club where Pink Floyd started.
34:38
Speaker 2: It's like a cool place in the early sixties where
34:40
Speaker 2: people played. And he had the strobe light and he
34:44
Speaker 2: gave me this strobe light. So I had my sympthesizer
34:47
Speaker 2: a mirror strobe light, and I'd switched off my bedroom light,
34:51
Speaker 2: so I'd be in the dark just with the stroke flickering.
34:54
Speaker 2: I put on whatever record I wanted to transport myself to,
35:00
Speaker 2: and you know, so that was my kind of weird narcissism,
35:06
Speaker 2: and then I'd just sort of trace the the journey
35:10
Speaker 2: really of the band during that song.
35:13
Speaker 3: That's so cool. So would you kind of just like
35:15
Speaker 3: watch yourself in the mirror and practice, yeah, dance moves
35:18
Speaker 3: and things like that.
35:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, but in strobe all the time. I don't know
35:22
Speaker 2: if anyone would ever be allowed to have something quite
35:24
Speaker 2: so mind my I mean, you know, I really didn't
35:27
Speaker 2: need any any other drugs when having a strobe like that.
35:31
Speaker 2: I had. It had a dial, so you could go
35:34
Speaker 2: from very slow to very fast.
35:37
Speaker 3: Very cool. Do you feel when you write songs that
35:40
Speaker 3: a lot of it is inspired from when you were
35:42
Speaker 3: a kid and when you were a teenager, Like, does
35:44
Speaker 3: everything feel like it comes from that? Well?
35:47
Speaker 2: No, not really, I mean it just comes it comes
35:49
Speaker 2: from the portable well I carry around with myself.
35:55
Speaker 3: So there's still things today that are inspiring. Oh yeah,
35:57
Speaker 3: I mean new music.
35:58
Speaker 2: It's not oh, one hundred percent. This whole record is
36:01
Speaker 2: completely kind of informed by how I feel about what's
36:05
Speaker 2: happening now in my life, in everyone's lives.
36:08
Speaker 3: Have you ever thought about it if you didn't do this,
36:10
Speaker 3: what you would be interested in doing? What you feel
36:12
Speaker 3: like you'd be really good at.
36:14
Speaker 2: I honestly don't think I'll be good at anything else.
36:17
Speaker 2: I mean I do sometimes think it's like, how would
36:19
Speaker 2: I have been? How would I have fared in like
36:22
Speaker 2: an early Viking community? Yeah, because I went once to
36:29
Speaker 2: a beach where they have five stones outside of Rekavik
36:34
Speaker 2: in Iceland, and these stones have been this for a
36:37
Speaker 2: thousand years and basically depending on which stone you could
36:42
Speaker 2: lift and take to the shoreline, you were allocated a
36:46
Speaker 2: job within the community.
36:48
Speaker 3: Wow.
36:49
Speaker 2: And I couldn't lift the heaviest stone, which was the
36:52
Speaker 2: one reserved for people who traveled, so I wasn't going
36:56
Speaker 2: to be doing any traveling. People who rode basically you know,
37:00
Speaker 2: they had this, But I was able to pick up
37:02
Speaker 2: the one before that, So I suppose i'd have been
37:06
Speaker 2: I would have worked and worked the land maybe and
37:08
Speaker 2: hopefully you know, being able to write and play music
37:13
Speaker 2: and sing.
37:14
Speaker 3: When you sit down to play with somebody new, do
37:17
Speaker 3: you ever feel that you have to impress that person?
37:20
Speaker 3: Are you nervous, Like, what's the feeling in you?
37:22
Speaker 2: Ah? I mean you want them to feel comfortable and
37:25
Speaker 2: have a sense that you know, you're not completely incompetent. Yeah,
37:28
Speaker 2: but I mean really it's about it's about a shared
37:32
Speaker 2: sort of experience, isn't it. And you know, I think
37:35
Speaker 2: all writers and singers in my world, the good ones
37:40
Speaker 2: understand the sort of the aspect of connecting with the spirit,
37:47
Speaker 2: and so that's that's the main objective. Really, if you
37:49
Speaker 2: can call on the spirit, then whatever you make will
37:53
Speaker 2: have some kind of value to it.
37:57
Speaker 3: Is there any way to encourage the spirit?
38:01
Speaker 2: Yeah? Many ways, many ways really. I mean sometimes people
38:05
Speaker 2: like to have a drink. Sometimes like people like smoke weed.
38:09
Speaker 2: Sometimes people just like a cup of tea. But I
38:12
Speaker 2: think it's just about that being sensed and sensitive enough
38:16
Speaker 2: to each other that you can kind of pick up
38:18
Speaker 2: on them whatever vibration is being made.
38:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, Speaking of people you've worked with, is there anybody
38:25
Speaker 3: who's just collaboration wise you've started to play with where
38:29
Speaker 3: it's just an instant click.
38:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean luckily, Well, I mean, okay, someone like
38:37
Speaker 2: Bobby Woman. As soon as you sit down with a
38:38
Speaker 2: piano with Bobby Womak. He just has to sing one note,
38:42
Speaker 2: and yeah, it's incredible.
38:45
Speaker 3: I saw that some of your fans on Instagram or commenting,
38:51
Speaker 3: and they're saying they wanted you to slow down and
38:53
Speaker 3: take care of yourself and get some rest.
38:56
Speaker 2: Well, I've just had four days off, So there you go.
39:01
Speaker 3: Are you? Are you in constant perpetual motion?
39:04
Speaker 2: Yes, you know I say about rolling stones, but I'm
39:08
Speaker 2: happy at some I understand by the sheer law law
39:11
Speaker 2: of physics and gravity. I will I will eventually stop,
39:16
Speaker 2: and you know, and I'll be more than happy to
39:19
Speaker 2: be completely disappear in the moss.
39:25
Speaker 3: Is that what you want to do? Disappear in the mass.
39:27
Speaker 2: Life sounds like quite a nice environment to sleep.
39:31
Speaker 3: Eternally, it seems like the album is a bit of
39:35
Speaker 3: a maybe a comment on morality.
39:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, I suppose that's there. It's kind of as a
39:42
Speaker 2: lot of questions post within the record. Yeah, I don't
39:45
Speaker 2: think it's judgmental. I really am really not in a
39:48
Speaker 2: position to judge anyone. As I say, instant Charles Square,
39:51
Speaker 2: it's how fucked up. But I'm not the first to
39:54
Speaker 2: do it. So that's my kind of my one of
39:57
Speaker 2: my opening gambits really, do you.
40:00
Speaker 3: Pay attention to reviews about what critics are writing about
40:03
Speaker 3: the work?
40:05
Speaker 2: Well, if I was disingenuous, i'd say no, of course,
40:09
Speaker 2: of course I do. I mean I'm always interested. But
40:12
Speaker 2: I mean there's a kind of sort of there's like
40:15
Speaker 2: a slightly mad moment when the record is out there
40:21
Speaker 2: and you sort of get some start to get some
40:23
Speaker 2: feedback where you know, I mean I pick up on
40:26
Speaker 2: it a bit, I'm not obsessed by it. And then
40:29
Speaker 2: it's and then and then that's it. It's finished as
40:31
Speaker 2: I don't care anymore. You know, it usually lasts a
40:34
Speaker 2: few days, but it's definitely a madness.
40:38
Speaker 3: Does it bring you down or.
40:40
Speaker 2: What when people don't like it? I suppose if everyone
40:44
Speaker 2: didn't like something that I put a lot of work into,
40:46
Speaker 2: it might be a bit sort of I might, I
40:49
Speaker 2: might kind of feel a bit low. But I mean
40:53
Speaker 2: it's never like that, really, But.
40:54
Speaker 3: It's so nice that you have the experience of going
40:56
Speaker 3: out and playing for people because you get to see
40:59
Speaker 3: the effect on people.
41:00
Speaker 2: Well we see that, and that's the wonderful thing about
41:03
Speaker 2: finishing something and playing it almost simultaneously. You really, you know,
41:08
Speaker 2: while you're still and the sort of under its spell.
41:11
Speaker 2: You can cast that on other people.
41:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, it must just be so great. It feels so good. Exhilarius,
41:17
Speaker 3: it's great.
41:17
Speaker 2: So it's a good feeling for sure.
41:20
Speaker 3: Has your crowds changed a lot.
41:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there's sort of there's people from our
41:27
Speaker 2: generation and people from this generation there.
41:30
Speaker 3: But the Gorilla's audience is really young.
41:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, really young. I mean sometime, I mean it's just crazy.
41:35
Speaker 2: Sometimes I kind of go into the audience and I
41:37
Speaker 2: go quite deep into the audience and sort of in
41:40
Speaker 2: the middle of the moshpit almost it's like a five
41:42
Speaker 2: year old with headphones on. It's amazing. It's wonderful. I mean,
41:48
Speaker 2: just just the most wonderful audiences. Yeah. I've had some
41:51
Speaker 2: most beautiful experiences playing live in America with Griers.
41:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're The Coachella set was so good. I streamed
41:57
Speaker 3: it this year.
41:59
Speaker 2: Yeah. It's a wonderful band.
42:01
Speaker 3: So you know, it felt very joyous.
42:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. It generally is.
42:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you so much for doing this.
42:09
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Tiers. Thanks for taking the sign
42:12
Speaker 2: to talk to me.
42:15
Speaker 1: Thanks Damon Auburn for talking to Leah Rose about Blur's
42:19
Speaker 1: new album, The Ballad of Daring You can hear that record,
42:23
Speaker 1: along with all of your favorite songs from Blur, Gorillas,
42:26
Speaker 1: and Damon Auburn's various solo works on the playlist at
42:29
Speaker 1: broken record podcast dot com. You can subscribe to our
42:32
Speaker 1: YouTube channel at YouTube dot com slash broken Record Podcast,
42:36
Speaker 1: where you can find all of our new episodes. Broken
42:40
Speaker 1: Record is produced with help from Lea Rose, Jason Gambrel,
42:43
Speaker 1: Vent Taliday, Nisha Venkat, Jordan McMillan, and Eric Sandler. Our
42:49
Speaker 1: editor is Sophie Crane. Broken Record is a production of
42:53
Speaker 1: Pushkin Industries. If you love this show and others from Pushkin,
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Speaker 1: like the show, remember to share, rate, and review us
43:15
Speaker 1: on your podcast staff. Our theme is Expecting the Beats.
43:19
Speaker 2: I'm justin Richmond.