Damon Albarn is known being the frontman of Blur. He is also
known for the co-creator of Gorillaz. He is also known as the member of The Good,
the Bad & the Queen. He is known for experimenting into different genres: from Britpop or
so somehow Rock to lo-fi to Hip-Hop or Rap. Currently, he is about to release his
debut album.
I chose Damon Albarn as my featured artist for the month because he showed interest in different music genres which contributed to the
Music World especially in British Music. As a frontman of Blur, he contributed
to the genre of Alternative. As one of the co-creators of Gorillaz, he
contributed to the lo-fi with Hip-Hop genre. (And occassionally it's his birthday)
He was born at March 23, 1968 somewhere in London with
parents Keith and Hazel Albarn. He was seen a full potential in music when he
started learning Piano, guitar and violin at the age of six. He also showed
interest in composing Music and doing Stage plays.
Years after in his drama school, he met the soon-to-be Blur guitarist, Graham Coxon. They became friends eventually and showed their
passion in music with bands The Jam, The Beatles and more.
He enrolled in a part-time music course in London’s
Goldsmiths College in 1988, where he met Alex James and Dave Rowntree. They
first called themselves as “Seymour” from
J.D. Salinger's Seymour: An Introduction. Food Records, the first
record company they were, were attracted their idea but their concern was they
dislike the name of the band. They brainstormed with some alternatives and
they landed with the name “Blur”. They recording company signed the newly-christened band in 1990.
Blur
They
first released their first album, “Leisure”, in 1990 with their first single
“She’s So High” and it made to the top 48 of UK Singles Chart. They released
their second single, “There’s No Other Way” which topped at number 8.
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| Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon as best friends. |
Blur’s
second album, “Modern Life is Rubbish”, was an idea of contrasting English
heritage and coping up with the bands like Nirvana. It peaked at number 15 on
the British Charts. However, it failed to sell in the US which only sold 19,000
copies and failed to be in the Billboard 200.
Their
third album, “Parklife”, was a major success in the UK and their first single,
“Girls & Boys”, made a chart success. The album topped the British Charts
for 90 weeks. The band gained commercial success from this album. But in
return, Albarn became uncomfortable with the fame he’s receiving and he often
suffered from Panic Attacks.
Their
fourth album, “The Great Escape”, was released in 1995. However, the lead
single of this album, “Country House”, became controversial when it had the
same release date with Oasis’ single, “Roll With It”. These two bands made a
feud with each other which was called “The British Heavyweight Championship” by
NME. People during that time coined the term, “The Battle of Britpop”. People
from Britain were asked to vote by the favourite band of their choice. Country House ended up winning the
Battle of the single charts but because of the worldwide success of Oasis’ “(What’s
The Story) Morning Glory?” made Blur winning the battle, but losing the war.
Those times, the band were at the midst of splitting up. But Graham Coxon, the
guitarist of the band, encouraged his band mates to listen to some American
Indie Bands. Albarn felt good after listening, energising him to write new
songs with some kind of new melody. This made a product: their fifth album,
“Blur” which was released in 1997. It gained chart success in the US especially
their singles, “Beetlebum” and “Song 2”. Although the media predicted that the
lo-fi melody of the album would make the teenage girl Blur fan base leave the
fan base itself, they applauded the whole new Blur instead. This album was also
defined as, “Blur’s redefinition”.
Their
sixth album, “13”, was released in 1999. It debuted top on the UK Charts for
two weeks and received favourable critics. The melody of the whole album itself was already drained from the Britpop melody. Albarn’s composed lyrics were also
visible to their break-up of the Elastica Frontwoman, Justine Frischmann.
A year after, they released
their best-of album: “Blur: The Best Of”. It topped three on the UK Charts and has received
a Platinum Certification for selling 300,000 copies.
In November
2001, whilst recording for their next album, Coxon had left the group. He said that
there were no rows for the group and realises that the band needs to spend some
time apart.
In 2003,
their seventh album, “Think Tank”, was released. Because of Coxon absence,
Albarn did the guitar but with simpler riffs. The album focused even more on other
instruments to occupy Coxon’s absence. It became another UK number 1 spot and
peaked the highest number 56 in the US.
Gorillaz
Damon Albarn
and Jamie Hewlett first met in 1990 when Hewlett asked Coxon, a fan of
Hewlett’s work, to interview Blur. Hewlett started going out with Coxon’s
ex-girlfriend Jane Olliver and they had a relationship afterwards. In 1997,
Albarn and Hewlett became flat mates. During those times, Hewlett had broken up
with Jane Olliver during the time of reports when Albarn ended his publicised
relationship with Justine Frischmann.
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| As Damon Albarn interviews Gorillaz for NME (Photo taken from NME) |
The concept
of Gorillaz was when they were watching MTV, they saw some tediousness. For
them, there was no substance. The idea of the “cartoon band” came out to put
some colour. Gorillaz collaborated with various musicians, having Albarn as the
permanent contributor.
In 2001,
they released their self-titled debut album, selling over seven million copies.
The album featured the most well-known song “Clint Eastwood” and “19-2000”. It
had been nominated for the Mercury Prize 2001, but later on withdrawn because
of the band’s request. The Guinness Book of Records reckoned them as the Most
Successful Virtual Band in 2001.
Their second album, “Demon Days”,
made a five-time Platinum in the UK and double Platinum in the US, featuring
the songs, “Feel Good Inc.”, “Dare”, “Dirty Harry” and many more. It had five
Grammy Nominations in 2005, and won one of them in Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals Category.
Their third album, “Plastic
Beach”, was released in 2010. It gained high praises from the critics.
African Express: Maison Des Jeunes
African Express: Maison des Jeunes
is a project where different British artists including Damon Albarn went to
Mali, somewhere in Africa, to mix both cultures of Mali and UK in an album.
The recent situation in Mali was
Music had been banned in Northern Mali because of political wars happening there.
Imagine no music, no radio, no something to hear with, just silence. Even if
they caught you using your mobile phone with music, they would ban you from using it,
take it away from you, delete your ringtones and you would be in prison. Music is
the soul of many Malians there. According to them, you could even feel the
sadness or the depression within them. Musicians were forced to move to some
places out of the said region just to continue their passion for music. A
Malian said, “There was this girl who was called as ‘The Voice of the North’
who has a very incredible voice. But when it had been implemented, their group
tried to fly somewhere else but they were threatened to cut out their tongue.
The music is so meaningful that no one could stop them so they flew to sing
again.”
Albarn’s contribution to this project was he was one of the people who wanted to go to Mali to see the situation there
and he invited different artists such as, Brian Eno and more. He got along easily
with the Malians there and he was even seen playing with Malian performers there.
Upcoming Album: Everyday Robots
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| Damon Albarn's "Everyday Robots" |
Opinion
Damon’s contribution to Music is
massively superb. He shows interest in different types of genres from Rock, to
Alternative, to Hip-Hop, to Rap, even to African Music. As a frontman of Blur, we had seen his rock side of Music. As one of the co-creators of Gorillaz, we had also seen his interest in Hip-Hop and rap. In African Express, he didn’t just introduce African Music to the people of Britain, he put effort into it by investing on
it. And for his upcoming album, this just shows that Damon Albarn isn’t done
yet, and for sure he’ll be collaborating with more artists with different
genres of music.
Sources:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damon_Albarn
- http://www.africaexpress.co.uk/artists/damon-albarn/
