![]() ![]() I think it gears itself more towards this kind of thing, where you haven't necessarily got a specific goal you're after. "I think the reason why we worked in a different way is because we've got this whole Logic thing going on, so instead of working in a linear world where you're using tape, you've got a hell of a lot more flexibility. "It's not a conscious effort to work in a different way," continues Tom. So we were slowly getting towards this way of working. ![]() "The changing point was working with William Orbit, because he'd work in a different sort of way where he'd get the band to do jamming and then make up tunes like that, and then bring them back the next day and do some more on it. "The comparison would be that Blur would go into the rehearsal studio and rehearse the songs that were written, and then sometimes even go on tour with those songs before they were even recorded, and then go into a studio," says Jason. Unlike the majority of Albarn's previous projects, the Gorillaz album was largely written in the studio. With initial demos done at 13, the 'virtual band' managed to attract record‑company backing, and recording commenced on an album proper. He was doing his sketching and demoing his characters while we were demoing the songs - the same sort of thing but on the drawing front." It was Damon, Tom and myself doing the music, and Jamie used to come down and see what was going on and what style of music we were heading towards. "Once we'd started doing the tunes, Jamie got an idea of what the characters should be like, and once we'd fine‑tuned the characters, people started to think about the whole story around those characters, and it just started evolving like that," explains Jason. The idea was that while Albarn came up with a suitable selection of songs, Hewlett would devise cartoon characters to front the band and stories for them to act out in their videos. The brainchild of Damon Albarn and former flatmate Jamie Hewlett, who was the artist responsible for the cult Tank Girl cartoon strip, Gorillaz have been described as the world's first 'virtual band'. Kid Koala's scratching, on track 5, has been heavily edited. The track labelled 'rough blues' is Damon Albarn's original 'gibberish' vocal 'V Comp' is the final vocal as recorded and edited in Jamaica. The final version of 'Clint Eastwood' in Logic Audio. And on top of all that, there's been Gorillaz, a project which has yielded a top 10 album and a massive hit single in the shape of 'Clint Eastwood'. The studio has been extended to incorporate what was the adjoining unit, with the control room completely rebuilt around a new desk - a task which inevitably fell mainly to Girling and Cox. ![]() There has been two more film soundtracks, Ordinary Decent Criminal and 101 Reykjavik, and a lengthy trip to Mali to record material for an Oxfam‑sponsored project drawing together musicians from every nation on the Greenwich Meridian. Although the only Blur activity in the meantime has been a Greatest Hits album, Albarn had set up the studio (also named 13) mainly to handle his own side projects - and these have proliferated during the band's time off. Since then, however, Blur have only entered the studio to record one more single, so Girling and Cox have been able to put their feet up and take it easy.Įr, no. The studio had also been used to record Albarn's equally experimental collaboration with composer Michael Nyman, the soundtrack to the film Ravenous. Two years ago, when Sound On Sound last visited resident engineers Tom Girling and Jason Cox at Damon Albarn's West London studio, Albarn's band Blur had recently finished working with producer William Orbit on their album 13, a recording which involved bizarre instruments, experimental recording techniques and endless Pro Tools editing. Sam Inglis tracks them down to find out how they recorded their debut hit. Behind the animated characters, however, lurk real engineers and musicians. Gorillaz have made waves as the first 'virtual band' to achieve real chart success. ![]() Tom Girling (left) and Jason Cox in the new control room at 13. ![]()
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