Booze, Boredom And The Birth Of Gorillaz
·
·
Rarely does an artist have the opportunity to showcase their creations in both comic book pages and before large stadium audiences, yet Jamie Hewlett has experienced just that.
The journey began in 1988 when he, alongside writer Alan Martin, gave life to the Tank Girl comic strip—a sci-fi series infused with punk rock vibes that resonated with the indie counterculture of the 90s.
A decade after Hewlett’s initial success, he found another triumph collaborating with his former roommate, Damon Albarn, in creating Gorillaz – a virtual band with an animated presence explored in surreal music videos.
Gorillaz went on to perform arena tours through video screens and holograms. Despite winning a Grammy in 2006, there was a challenging three-year period when Hewlett and Albarn didn’t speak.
Discussing the genesis of Gorillaz on a fan forum, Hewlett shared that the concept came about when him and Daron were watching MTV one night, totally drunk and complained about its quality.
They had to come up with a solution.
“If you manufacture a band you should be able to pick the people, pick the composer, pick the producer, you should be able to get it bang on. We were moaning about the fact that when we grew up it was the Clash, the Pistols, the Specials, and why were there no bands like that?
We just said, While we were watching telly, we should do an animated band. I said it jokingly, and Damon said yes it would be a good idea. We were drunk, and excited. We went to bed later that night, the next day, we got up, and I said to him, are you serious? And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah!”
Click Here To Read More:
Top 12 Classic Rock Album To Have In Your Record Collection | TRC Listening Guide
Comments