New Damon NME interview - tour record hopefully before Christmas

This week's edition of NME (out today) has a new interview with Damon with many interesting points, including

- he says he wants to try and put out the 'tour album', recorded during the North American tour, before Christmas
- he found out about Daley because Nelson De Freitas (voice of 2D) played him and his partner a clip of Daley doing a session, when he was round their house once, and his partner then got very interested in Daley's music.
- EMI pressured Gorillaz to release Plastic Beach by the end of the financial year 2009/2010, before they felt it was ready.
- Neneh Cherry is going to guest with Gorillaz on some Euro tourdates






NME: You're bringing Gorillaz back to the UK - did the US shows work out ok?
Damon: It was so much fun. it's very weird, I haven't played out of England in that way for

a long time - 10,12 years - and America was always a struggle with Blur, even though we had

a wonderfully loyal cult following. Writing in the language that I do, working in America is

- I have to say - a very nice novelty."

NME: A perfect day, if you're Lou Reed. Must be exciting having such a legend join your

band.
Damon: Oh yeah, Lou's become a very, er, sort of benevolent force for us now. At Madison

Square Garden the whole crowd was going 'Lou, Lou!' which sounds like 'boo, boo'

unfortunately.

NME: We don't imagine he's the kind of guy who would find that funny.
Damon: He's up for it. Everyone gets on really well, which is ridiculous realy, if you think

about the logistics. Lou Reed and Kano and Bashy and Bobby Womack all hanging out together.

And Mark E Smith and Neneh Cherry are going to do some European dates.

NME: Where did you find Daley, who sings on new single 'Doncamatic (All Played Out)'?
Damon: My missus go onto him 'cos our mate Nelson was round our house one evening and played

us a YouTube clip of Daley doing a session, and he was just so cool. I think he's a bit of a

star in the making. Not to sound too Simon Cowell.

NME: That song's out this month, but 'Stylo' is still the signature tune for Gorillaz 2010,

isn't it?
Damon: That is a legitimate radio song but EMI made us release it before we were ready,

because they wanted it to be in the last financial quarter or something. It didn't sound

like anything else on the radio so it didn't get played.

NME: Are Gorillaz sitting on a big stash of new material?
Damon: I've been recording a new record on the road, which I'm going to try and put out

before Christmas. It's a studio album made in hotel rooms across Ameirca.

NME: How is it possible to capture the distinctive Gorillaz sound in a hotel room?
Damon: I've made it on an ipad - I hope I'll be making the first record on an iPad. Which is

ironic, being the sort of technophobe and Luddite that I am. But I fell in love with my iPad

as soon as I got it, so I've made a completely different kind of record.

NME: So is it more Gorillaz-y or more Blur-y? What does it sound like?
DAmon: It's probably more American-sounding than Blur. It sounds like an English voice that

has been put through the vocoder of America.

NME: But when you're writing these new songs, do some of them feel like Blur songs?
Damon: I've got a lot of songs that will always only be comfortable in the context of Blur

because they belong to that part of my heart and my life. But as for a new album, I have

very strong loyalties to my past and I don't believe you should do something just because

there's a demand for it.

NME: What can we expect from you in 2011 - another opera?
Damon: I'm doing something next year about a subject that's really close to my heart.

NME: Which is..?
Damon: No, I'm not telling you what it is.