Blur | Musikexpress – July 2023

“If the A.I.s are the future of music, then we’re gonna need better drugs”

Eight years after their comeback album, Blur are back on the biggest stages and they could make it so easy for themselves to just play their greatest hits, but they don’t, as a matter of honor. Their new, very quiet record doesn’t want to go with the ongoing mega shows. But that suits Damon Albarn at this time – A challenge? Accepted!

by Stephan Rehm Rozanes

When Blur announced a reunion concert at London’s Wembley Stadium last November, no one would have expected new music. Why? Sales were so booming that another evening in the 80,000-seat arena was immediately booked. Damon Albarn also had a new Gorillaz album to finish, which came out at the end of February and propelled the cartoon hip-hoppers back to number 1 in the UK for the first time in 18 years. Guitarist Graham Coxon hasn’t been idle either, releasing a critically acclaimed album called ‘The Waeve’ with ex-Pipette’s Rose Elinor Dougall a few weeks earlier. Even before that came the solo debut of Dave Rowntree, who had returned to music after excursions into politics and the world of podcasting. Where would there have been room for a new album by one of the most important and influential bands of the 90s? Only a non-stop creative like Darmon Albarn could have found the time.

In hotel rooms, airplanes and during the Gorillaz Tour, which allowed him to live almost continuously on the road. THE BALLAD OF DARREN, the ninth studio album by the Britpop giants, will be released on July 21st – eight years after THE MAGIC WHIP. While THE BALLAD OF DARREN is miles away from the experimental frenzy of an album like 13, it still carries little with it to do what you expect from a record by the band. It’s a graceful but very calm album that reflects on the disastrous state of the world today.

In the interview, Damon Albarn is still amazing, well: silly, almost. He is in front of books. He poses in front of the camera with pornographic sunglasses, relaxed. A man who is constantly on the move in all directions and yet seems to have found himself.

What does it mean Blur for you now?

Blur is a good way to get back to my original self.

What came first: The idea of ​​playing reunion shows or the new music?

The question about the chicken and the egg I would say: the chicken. But as for Blur: At first I thought it
would be nice to sing the old songs again and let people sing along to create a kind of catharsis. But in order to do that, I figured I first had to feel like doing Blur songs. So I started working and writing songs while touring with Gorillaz. The songs just came to me and I was really enthusiastic about them. At first I hadn’t told the others anything, only after I had gathered enough material did I tell them that we should make an album. Since we were just practicing the old songs anyway, we were well attuned to each other, which made the recording a real and legitimate band experience.

As a rule, comeback albums are cursed by the fact that they only be played on the tour immediately after the reunion and never again after that. I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t play anything from THE MAGIC WHIP during your spring warm-up tour, even a track like “Ong Ong” could have been confidently placed between closing numbers like “Parklife” and “Song 2”.

I guess we’ll at least play ‘Ghost Ship’ eventually. But the problem is simply that we have so many other good songs and THE MAGIC WHIP is definitely not as good as our new one. I think we just have a really good setlist now.

A week ago the world didn’t even know about the existence of this album, two weeks ago you were still in the studio. Now you’re already being bombarded with questions. What does Blur mean to you right now? Have you ever had time to reflect?

I wanted it to be quick – the next single is coming next week…

Can you tell me which song it is?

Uh… well, it’ll probably be one off the album.

Don’t worry, we’re a monthly magazine. The issue only appears when the single is already out.

Okay, well, it’s going to be St. Charles Square. Anyway, I like our tempo right now, a rapid fire conversation.

Is this the first Blur song you use the word “fuck” in?

Yes, even though it’s in the past tense, “I fucked up”, that makes it less bad.

The Gorillaz album CRACKER ISLAND was only released three months ago, your last solo album is also only a year and a half old. With such a constant output, does one even think about one’s own artistic past?

What has happened has happened. You can’t change the past, but what you should do is
make the past sound modern. In our case, we’re trying to do this with a back-to-basics approach: we
don’t use horns, strings or harmonies on tour – it’s just the four of us on stage. All raw, there is no cotton
candy.

But Phil Daniels (British actor, e.g. in “Quadrophenia”, who was a guest on Blur’s single “Parklife” in 1994) often plays with you at concerts…

Yes he may still join. We’ve also tried Parklife without him a lot, but then it’s just not that good.

I think THE MAGIC WHIP was exactly the album that people had hoped for after such a long time, a colorful bouquet of catchy pop songs, poignant ballads, forward-looking but also aware of its past. Songs like “Lonesome Street” could have been on your second album. THE BALLAD OF DARREN now breaks with expectations, is very thoughtful and melancholic. For the first time there is also no pure punk hit in the tradition of “Globe Alone”, “B.L.U.R.E.M.I”, “We’ve Got A File On You” etc. Is that a liberation?

We just didn’t have a song like that this time, and as you rightly say, we already have enough of them. This time I just wanted to address people, that was my concern. I wanted people to feel addressed. That’s why it’s called THE BALLAD OF DARREN, we all went to school with Darrens, everyone
knows a Darren. It should be connectable.

In any case, the album seems very intimate. You also described the record as “an aftershock, a reflection and commentary on where we are right now”. In fact, after all the disasters since your last album – from Trump to Brexit, from the pandemic to the war in Ukraine – it sounds like a big, ‘What the hell was that?’

That’s how it was meant to be, micro-macro. From small to large and vice versa. If something has happened, something big, then it has to settle first. Only after some time and with some distance you can
try to make sense of it. It’s more of a feeling, not a concrete answer.

“The Everglades (For Leonard)” is dedicated to Leonard Cohen, what does he mean to you?

I’ve always loved him, he’s brilliant. I mean, now I don’t have to listen to his records all day to be
sure how brilliant he is. I’m more concerned with the vibe he gives than the pure music. I was in Montreal in a hotel room facing a huge Leonard Cohen mural. So he was really staring at me and I thought, well, you better write a really good song about him.

In addition to Leonard, we’re again dealing with many names on the album: where it used to be Tracy Jacks, Colin Zeal, Mr. Robinson, Dan Abnormal today we meet Albert, Paul and of course the eponymous Darren. What do we need to know about Darren “Smoggy” Evans?

First of all, it’s important to note that this time I’m singing about real people, these are the people behind the satirical characters from back then. But Darren – Darren has had many jobs over the years, he’s one
of my longest friends and… uh… well… uh… he lives in Wolverhampton.

That’s all?

We’re trying to make 80,000 Darren masks for the Wembley shows and give them out to people for free. Then I would tell him to close his eyes for a moment and get the crowd to put on the masks. If he then opened his eyes again, it will blow his mind.

You actually wanted to put his portrait on the cover as well – now it’s inside.

That’s a picture from 1992 or 93, a long, long time ago anyway. Alex, Dave and Graham – they remember
the moment when the photo was taken back then, on a flight back from Greenland. We still work with a lot of people from back then, sound engineers for example. That’s just to show our continuity.

All the people, so many people.

Exactly.

The intention of using Darren as the cover photo is reminiscent of the Arctic Monkeys’ smoking pal that graces their debut album. What do you actually think of Alex Turner? From the Britpop generation after you, he seems to be the only one who is as keen to experiment as you are.

I think he’s great, I sing a lot like him on the new album.

You’re both crooners.

You know our producer James Ford? He also worked with the Arctic Monkeys, I mentioned
that to him. But what could I have against that? I love Alex’s voice. I just prefer to sing in
a lower register now.

You already worked with James Ford on Gorillaz, and he also produced The Waeve. How did he enrich THE BALLAD OF DARREN?

James is just super musical and smart, he works very intuitively, he also likes a drink. We have the same sense of humor.

After THE MAGIC WHIP, people thought you were back for good. But since then, eight
blur-free years have passed, it was the longest break you’ve ever had. What future
does this band have now?

I basically live by the motto: “Never again!”

Seriously?

I think it is very important not to have to rely on anyone. As far as that goes. That doesn’t mean that it can’t be wonderful to make music together, it’s essential to rely on each other. But I’m cynical by nature, I’m an optimistic cynic. I think everything else is almost naïve.

Your album was made under the impression of various catastrophes.

Yes, but I’m more concerned with cynicism in his original meaning: the cynics had no interest in worldly possessions, they only ate what they got from others, went to the toilet wherever they wanted. They rejected all elements of our civilization.

Are you a follower of this school of thought?

In some aspects I am. I mean, I already know how to use the potty, at least somewhat. But I can also be animal.

YouTube is full of A.I.s covers, for example, there’s a A.I. cover with Kurt Cobain singing Song 2. Is the end of art as we know it?

At least your example it’s good! But when it’s Frank Sinatra or Michael Bublé or Snoop it’s absurd. Anyone who has so much time to sing songs through a Michael Bublé filter and put them on the internet is a fucking idiot. If the A.I.s are the future of music, then we’re gonna need better drugs to get us through it. Or at least I’m gonna need them.

The only Blur album you didn’t record as a quartet was released 20 years ago – Graham Coxon can hardly be heard on it. How do you think back to the THINK TANK era?

20 years… oh god. There is always some incredible anniversary happening, isn’t it? That’s how the music industry works these days. But to get back to your question: that was a great time; I had built Gorillaz as a second pilar, which became a very important part of my life, but more importantly, I became a father (Missy Albarn was born in 1999). That was the beginning of my growing up.

What does it mean to be an adult?

I don’t know. The phase is not yet completed.

In 1995 you hosted a TV special called ‘Britpop Now’, which featured the likes of Elastica, Pulp,
Supergrass and Menswear. Noel Gallagher just released his new album, Pulp is playing big shows this summer, you’ll be playing along with Suede in Helsinki in August.

Yes, but many young people also come to these concerts – otherwise they wouldn’t be so big. Anyway, I enjoy tormenting the old fans.

How is that?

I make them jump, I fight their beer bellies. I find that funny. For me these reunion shows aren’t such
a big deal since the last Blur album I was on four world tours, I’m always on the road anyway.

What are you most proud of when you think of Blur?

That all have become decent people. That we sound like a band when we play together. And that we still sound young. I have no idea how we do that.