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Home , Damon Albarn, Everyday Robots, Gorillaz, Song 2

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on, two days off,” he sings in one of the The Hardest-Working Man in Rock.Why ’s most revealing—and heavily This is dummy dissected—lyrics.) The personal subject sub dummy this is can’t stop collaborating matter of his songs, Albarn says, weaves By Dan Hyman “like a river ... to the present.” This is dummy Albarn, who has a teenage daughter sub head sub head damon albarn is at a rare loss, un- Tennessee and Denmark’s Roskilde, with with his longtime girlfriend Suzi Win- dummy type able to recall the name of a band he was nightly set lists drawn from his brilliantly stanley, the British painter, speaks of his in a few years back. It’s understandable, mystifying voyage of a career. soul-baring turn with great sincerity. As given that the 46-year-old British rocker “Productivity can stop,” Albarn offers an artist, he has always projected a cer- has spent the past 25 years playing in as his principal motivation. “So I’m go- tain emotional acuity, but he also credits an ever changing lineup of groups and ing to use every second that I’ve got of what he refers to as a recent “innate under- collaborations, including icons musical juice. And when it stops, I will standing that my life isn’t much different Blur in the 1990s; the animated, dub- hopefully take it gracefully. Until then, from anyone else’s. I felt [the album] had to influenced in the I’ll try to keep getting up in the morning be 100% about my life. And if I’m going to aughts; and a multimedia opera, Monkey: and going to work.” be a , that’s an honest kind of Journey to the West, inspired by a 16th cen- Albarn is speaking from his West way to go about my trade.” tury Chinese novel, which had its U.S. studio, having logged another This openness is central to Albarn’s debut at Lincoln Center last year. eight-hour shift, a weekday custom continued creative streak, Russell says. “What’s that other band I was in?” Al- when he’s home. He picked up this “Damon has not cut himself off from barn asks on a recent afternoon, letting workmanlike approach from his par- everyday life,” says the producer. “Da- the words linger in midflight. He’s try- ents, who were originally farmers. “I mon is a people’s artist. He’s super ap- ing to recall a one-off trio—you know, like that sort of discipline,” he says. proachable, and he’s around, and I think the one with the ’ “You have to be up and work, and then that one of the reasons his music con- bassist and Nigerian drummer Tony later you finish.” tinues to be good is because he’s not in a Allen? “Ah, yes!” he declares. “Rocket For , Albarn jour- world of bullsh-t, of meaningless celebri- Juice & the Moon!” He lets out a nervous neyed to an isolated seaside home in ty crap. He’s in a world of musicmaking.” laugh. “Hey, I’ve got a lot going on!” . Veteran producer Richard Rus- His fellow musicmakers have always That he does. Albarn remains con- sell, a longtime friend, urged Albarn to responded to his inventiveness. “As far sumed by his kaleidoscopic musical en- use his own life as a mirror ball of inspi- as I’m concerned, he is a genius,” says deavors, which are almost compulsive in ration. As the leader of Blur, Albarn had drummer Allen, who helped pioneer their variety: collaborations in and lampooned contemporary Britain over the Afrobeat genre with sev- Ethiopia with native musicians; produc- buzzy guitar riffs. In his latest work, he eral decades before collaborating with tion work on soul legend ’s shifts his focus inward. Amid lilting Albarn on, among other projects, 2007’s 2012 comeback album; an in-the-works strings, tugging piano and soft electron- The Good, the Bad & the Queen with the bossa nova track for this summer’s World ic flourishes, the singer revisits a child- Clash’s Paul Simonon. “He’s the kind of Cup. And most recently, in April, the re- hood in East London’s (he person I’m always looking to work with. lease of his weighty debut solo album, recently returned there for inspiration), Always moving.” Everyday Robots, for which he hits the road the paranoia and confusion of his mid- After recently reuniting with Blur this summer on a 24-date global tour, in- ’90s peak celebrity and the hazy heroin for a final tour—“A band in a way can cluding stops at festivals such as New fog of the following decade. (“Tinfoil only take you so far,” he says. “Inevitably

York’s Governors Ball, Bonnaroo in and a lighter, the ship across/ Five days musicians will go their different ways”— (3) IMAGES GETTY PRESS/REDUX; TITLOW—CAMERA DAVID ALBARN: Albarn is optimistic about his forthcom- ing outing. He’ll be joined by a cadre of Gorillaz and Monkeys. A quick guide to Albarn’s output the collaborators he’s accumulated on his musical odyssey, a reflection of his desire to keep experimenting. “It’s fantastic,” he says, “because at some point I’ll be able to turn around and say, ‘I want to play this song,’ and really intuitively gauge the mood of an audience, which is something that I love. BLUR GORILLAZ MONKEY: JOURNEY Just that sense of everyone together As singer for the British rockers, A virtual band co-created by TO THE WEST onstage ... allowing the evening to sort of Albarn scored a U.S. hit with illustrator , it Albarn and Hewlett worked with “.” Its “Woo-hoo” chorus became a fave with singles “Clint Chinese director Chen Shi-Zheng evolve without too much planning. became a TV sports anthem. Eastwood” and “Feel Good Inc.” to create this multimedia opera. That’s my dream.” n

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