Gorillaz' new album may be released before Christmas, according to Damon Albarn. Blur's former frontman, who also recently unveiled a project with Tony Allen and Flea, said he recorded the album on his iPad, "in hotel rooms across America".
Albarn said in an interview with the NME that he hoped the Gorillaz record would be the first made on an iPad. "I fell in love with my iPad as soon as I got it, so I've made a completely different kind of record," he said. "It's ironic, being the sort of technophobe and Luddite that I am." Albarn has previously described the Plastic Beach follow-up as a "love letter to America", and again he emphasised its US influence. "It sounds like an English voice that has been put through the vocoder of America," he said. "More American-sounding than Blur ... I'm going to try and put it out before Christmas."
Gorillaz have just finished their first US tour in about a decade, playing gigs that gather up all sorts of the band's friends and collaborators. "Everyone gets on really well, which is ridiculous really, if you think about the logistics," Albarn said. "Lou Reed and Kano and Bashy and Bobby Womack all hanging out together." In the new issue of Australia's Rip It Up magazine, Gorillaz co-founder Jamie Hewlett shared Albarn's wonder. "It's weird on this tour going into catering and there's De La Soul's Maseo having a huge bowl of porridge for his breakfast and Bobby Womack at the back having an egg," he said.
While Albarn is already on the record about a "Tony Allen-centred" album with Flea, it seems the singer is working on yet another secret project. (Clearly, he didn't follow our advice.) "I'm doing something next year about a subject that's really close to my heart," Albarn told the NME. "I'm not telling you what it is." This mysterious "something" could mean the album with Allen, but Albarn has described that record as "three-quarters finished".
More likely, the secret is what's described in the recent interview with Hewlett. "Oxfam want us to go to Congo and see what's happening there and do a project based on that," the artist said. "I don't know what it is yet – it will obviously be music and visuals – but we'll have to experience it first and come back with an idea. We're going with Oxfam, so they'll look after us – hopefully we don't have our heads chopped off."
