Featured Artist: Damon Albarn

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.

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.

 

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

Albarn’s debut album, “Everyday Robots” will be released this April 29, 2014. It features the singles, “Everyday Robots”, and “Lonely, Press Play”.

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/