{"id":112059,"date":"2025-09-01T14:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T14:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/112059\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T14:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T14:56:10","slug":"damon-albarn-says-falsetto-on-debut-gorillaz-album-is-definitely-related-to-the-drugs-i-was-taking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/112059\/","title":{"rendered":"Damon Albarn says falsetto on debut Gorillaz album is “definitely related to the drugs I was taking”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Damon Albarn<\/a> says the falsetto heard on Gorillaz\u2019s<\/a> debut album was \u201cdefinitely related\u201d to the drugs he was taking at the time.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Gorillaz \u2013 \u2018Cracker Island\u2019 review: conventional, but richly satisfying<\/a><\/p>\n

The band \u2013 helmed by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett and made up of bassist Murdoc Niccals, singer 2D, drummer Russel Hobbs and guitarist Noodle \u2013 are currently in the midst of a four-night London residency at the Copper Box Arena to mark their 25th anniversary as a band.<\/p>\n

To kick off the four-night run,\u00a0the band played their debut album in full<\/a> on Friday night (August 29), playing the full set of songs from their 2001 self-titled LP, with tracks like\u00a0 \u2018Double Bass\u2019 and \u2018Ghost Train\u2019 getting their first ever live outing, while \u2018Starshine\u2019, \u2018Slow Country\u2019, \u2018Sound Check (Gravity)\u2019, and \u2018Man Research (Clapper)\u2019 were performed for the first time since 2002.<\/p>\n

Albarn and Hewlett recently sat down with\u00a0Rolling Stone<\/a> to discuss the anniversary, with Blur singer Albarn reflecting on the demands of its vocals and joking that he couldn\u2019t \u201cquite believe\u201d he hit the falsetto heard on the record.<\/p>\n

\"Gorillaz\"Gorillaz. CREDIT: Press<\/p>\n

\u201cThat first record has a crazy amount of falsetto,\u201d he said, explaining it was \u201cdefinitely related to the drugs I was taking. I was a much more irresponsible human being. I was hitting some notes I really didn\u2019t think coming back I\u2019d be able to hit again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having now played their debut and follow-up\u00a0\u2018Demon Days<\/a>\u2019 in full at the Copper Box, the band are set to\u00a0play their 2010 third album \u2018Plastic Beach<\/a>\u2019 in full on Tuesday (September 2).<\/p>\n

The fourth and final show falls the day after (September 3), is pegged\u00a0 by the band as a \u2018Mystery Show\u2019. It isn\u2019t yet clear if there will be any special guests joining Albarn, nor has it been shared which songs fans can expect.<\/p>\n

This year has also seen\u00a0Albarn tease a new Gorillaz album, and suggest it will be arriving later in 2025<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m finishing a new Gorillaz album. One opera and one new Gorillaz album seems like enough for 2025,\u201d he told French magazine\u00a0Les Inrockuptibles<\/a>. \u201cUnless someone accuses me of taking my foot off the gas!\u201d<\/p>\n

Hewlett then added fuel to the fire, writing in an Instagram comment: \u201cYes, the new album is coming out this year.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Then,\u00a0in an interview with Channel 4 earlier this month, Albarn seemed to further tease new music<\/a>. When asked, \u201cSo might there be something new there?\u201d, the musician responded, \u201cThere might. I mean, yes. In that sense, yeah,\u201d while Hewlett mimed his throat being cut.<\/p>\n

Gorillaz\u2019s last album, 2023\u2019s \u2018Cracker Island<\/a>\u2019, was given\u00a0a four-star review<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0NME\u00a0and described as \u201ca consistently enjoyable record that shows why they remain relevant so far into their career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA band that was once considered mucking about on the periphery of pop are now very much defining the present and inspiring the future. You could be doing much worse for album eight, eh?\u201d it read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Damon Albarn says the falsetto heard on Gorillaz\u2019s debut album was \u201cdefinitely related\u201d to the drugs he was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":["post-112059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}