Damon Albarn was on Zane Lowe's Radio 1 show last Wednesday.

So with all the Olympic hoopla, I've managed to miss a bit of Damon news. I've just got finished listening to Damon's interview on the Zane Lowe BBC Radio 1 show. Here's my recap, as I don't know how long the link will be up!:



He was very peppy and upbeat, as he spoke about Monkey "Journey To The West", his new album, and Africa Express.

They played "Monkey Bee" from the album.
Damon said he tried to make the album different to the show, making it more electronic, and exploring sounds he couldn't perform live during the opera.
He admitted that he didn't really know how to write an opera, but hopes that this is at least 1/2 an opera.
He really considers this album sort of the next Gorillaz album, however he isn't into nostalgia. He thinks that Blur's sound is in this album too.

Some stories of his time in China: ANECDOTES!
•Thinking that the world had ended outside his hotel room in Beijing due to a giant white smog cloud outside his window.
•Seeing buildings go up in literally hours.
•Getting stuck up on a mountain, and having to walk 42KM by himself!

Politically, Damon said that he thinks China definitely has a terrible human rights record, but that western countries shouldn't get on a moral high ground. He also commented that it is an entirely different system, and that there's a lot to learn from China.

On to their Africa Express chat, Damon played this brilliant track by a group of Ghanaian cab drivers called "La Drivers union Por Por Group". They play truck horns and tire pumps with drums. It sounds a bit like Damon's klaxophone, very cool!
Here's a link to a youtube vid by them: La Drivers Union Por Por Group

At this point, Damon jokes that he should send Zane a track every week in a segment called "Damon Albarn's Cultural Mailbox" (this was a term coined by Zane, not Damon!)
Great Idea...they should do it!!

Damon reckons that Africa Express is a break from the traditional Western views of Africa's connection to Western music (Big western band like "RadioLight, or Coldhead" <---this was a Damon burn! playing in front of a screen with sick and dying children).
So I guess he's not a Radiohead or Coldplay fan!

The next Africa Express show will be in Nigeria in October. It will be performed at the Shrine, where Fela Kuti played.

Zane played a new Kings of Leon track that sounded way too much like Journey!
Then Damon Played Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks...hmmm

Zane Lowe Radio One

A great interview! And very nice antidote to Noel Gallagher's gormless contributions to Radio 2's Russell Brand Show!
Ooh Radio Wars!