Best Damon Albarn Quotes About Work

Dive into the mind of Damon Albarn, the visionary behind Blur and Gorillaz, through his own words. These 20 quotes offer a glimpse into his unique perspective on music, life, and art, revealing the depth and ingenuity of a true musical maverick.

21. "I used to go to work and take heroin in the studio and then stop when I came home."
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23. "Well, as resources inevitably disappear [in Africa], people have to make do with a lot less. You have to be much more ingenious with a lot less, and accept that you can't get your perfect tuna sandwich on a street corner."
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25. "I was going through a breakup. I was depressed... I really did need to do something. Recording an album was a great escape. I don't know what would have happened if I wouldn't have started to work."
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27. "I'm an English songwriter/composer, working in Mandarin and trying to find something about Chinese culture that I really relate to and respect and feel some genuine emotions for - and it's quite hard, the pentatonic scale, and that, in a way, is why I think it works."
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29. "I used to be younger than my producers but now I'm older than my producers and I think that works for me, that works better cause you get a good kick up the ... everyday."
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21. "I'm slightly ambivalent to the whole relationship between the whole advertising world and music. I think sometimes it works and sometimes it's a really bad mismatch."
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23. "I'm not really one of those people who believes that if you're a musician you can just leave that behind and start getting into politics."
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25. "The cartoon is a metaphor really for the fact that it's almost impossible in our celebrity-obsessed culture to move around genres and sort of change your ideas, change your face, you know?"
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27. "When you're doing a deal with someone in the southern Sahara, it's a very different way of doing business than in London. You can't sign them in the usual way because they'd end up getting ripped off, which would defeat the object of setting up a label like this."
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29. "Being in Blur has allowed me to travel and hear the music that’s being made all over the world."
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31. "As soon as it sounds fine, I’m on to the next thing, man."
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33. "It’s not like my old self – I’m not in character anymore, I’m me. I’m not hiding behind that anymore."
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35. "I was approached by Oxfam to go to Mali as their ambassador and get involved in their various initiatives out there."
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37. "Music is something that should speak for itself, straight from the heart."
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39. "I don’t need to be a frontman all the time, and in fact, the older I get, the less of an urge it is inside me to play that role."
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41. "Whenever you’re writing something that’s reflective, you have to put yourself through some sort of ordeal just to understand the way you’re feeling."
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43. "I spent two years figuring out how I could turn it into something that would satisfy me as a musician but also make some kind of cross-cultural link."
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45. "More and more, cultural groups are cross-pollinating, and we’re getting much more interesting art as a result."
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47. "The whole period has taught me that I enjoy being part of an ensemble rather than just a front man."
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49. "I like to go to Africa purely with something to do. I’m not very comfortable getting into an armor-plated Land Rover and going to see things, with my hand gel, you know, it’s not me at all."

Top 20 Damon Albarn Quotes About His Music And Life

Here are 20 quotes by Damon Albarn, reflecting his thoughts on music, life, and creativity:

1. "The things that make me happy most are my family and working."
2. "If you don't see something as a career but as an important part of your life, you don't know how you're going to feel about it." 
3. "There's always been a hip-hop element to my trousers." 
4. "I have to wear a new T-shirt every night. I throw them into the audience. One day I'm going to go around the world and reclaim all my T-shirts." 
5. "What you learn from working with other performers and musicians is invaluable, really, and can only help you grow." 
6. "Each individual has their own opinions about whether war is an answer to any problems. Personally I think it's a waste of time." 
7. "No, every album is something like a snapshot. It only shows one moment in time." 
8. "Yeah. You've seen The Sun today; I've got myself a big house, settled down. Apart from the odd night out with the New Fathers' Club, I'm a family man now." 
9. "The whole Gorillaz concept is one for mavericks; it's a way for people who never have a chance to work together being able to ally behind the cartoons." 
10. "Every time I go to Africa, I see the future. I see what the Western world is going to become. It's a very futuristic place." 
11. "Trying to write music that's sensitive to 400 years ago takes a bit of madness, as it's such a long stretch of time."
12. "I've always been inspired by different cultures and their musical traditions. Diversity is what makes our world so beautiful."
13. "My goal is to constantly evolve as an artist and explore new sounds and ideas." 
14. "Music has the ability to transport you to different places and evoke a wide range of emotions." 
15. "The best songs are the ones that connect with people on a personal level. They become a part of their lives."
16. "Failure is just a part of the creative process. It's through our mistakes that we learn and grow." 
17. "I believe that art should challenge people's perceptions and make them think." 
18. "Being in Blur has allowed me to travel and hear the music that’s being made all over the world." 
19. "It’s not like my old self – I’m not in character anymore, I’m me. I’m not hiding behind that anymore." 
20. "The cartoon is a metaphor really for the fact that it’s almost impossible in our celebrity obsessed culture to move around genres and sort of change your ideas, change your face, you know?" 

 

Best Damon Albarn Quotes Of All Time

Damon Albarn has always had a way with words. He has said so many memorable things over his musical career. Here are some of the highlights from the man himself. 

1. "I must admit that I always found it incredibly easy to get off with girls. When you’re a teenager, picking up girls is a bit like getting run over by a large vehicle. You see a juggernaut approaching and you have to know when to throw yourself under it. I always seemed to know when to throw myself on the floor and get what I wanted." (on getting girls)

2. "I don’t feel anything with a passion. I’m not a very passionate bloke. I can’t bring myself to actually believe in passion." (on his interests)

3. "Life is very different in my home. My status is extremely different. I’m not taken very seriously, in a good way. I walk around in my pants, which my daughter finds highly embarrassing. I’m just a normal, down-to-earth dad." (on fatherhood)

4."I’m actually really passionate about puppets. I had these puppets made of me when I was in Jakarta. I originally wanted to use them in a video for a song on the album, 'Hollow Ponds', which has a strong dateline of me growing up. So now I’ve got these ten puppets of me at home – and one of Barack Obama. I may turn it into a puppet show for kids. I love puppets." (on his passions)

5."That’s just been lost this year. I think that, even though we’re not necessarily aware of it at the time, we all evolve when something like this happens." (on Covid lockdowns)

6."When you’re in an indie band it’s like a marriage, you know? You’re married to everything about it. I was just at the front being a fucking knobhead frontman for quite a long period of time." (on Blur)

7."I was always accused of being a bit of a dilettante back in the day. I never really saw it like that. I was just interested in lots of different things, and I wanted to see how I could somehow articulate my own thing through other things. No one actually comes up with something that reinvents music." (on music)

8."Rock is the easy option. You can write mediocre songs, mumble words, put a lot of attitude into it and be successful. But pop is so much more of an expose. If 'Girls and Boys hadn't had something to say and the sounds that we used hadn't been thought through, it would have been embarrassing." (on writing pop songs)

9. "I don't think anybody understood the irony. I seriously doubt it. Modern Life Is Rubbish [1993] and Parklife [1994] were angry records. The Great Escape [1995, number one in the UK, and Blur's biggest-selling album worldwide to date] was a rather cynical album, everything seemed to be going down hill, and I was cynical, too cynical." (on his albums)

10. "We were together for eight years. Eight years are a long time, a very long time. Especially if the relationship is as public as our relationship was. I went through a phase where I thought I've got to justify my feelings, everything I invested in that relationship. As a musician usually music is your way out." (on his ex-girlfriend Justine Frischmann)

Top 10 Damon Albarn Quotes - New Blur Quotes 2016

Damon Albarn is known for his short, snappy interviews, mysterious ways and sometimes awkward and outlandish suggestions. This is, of course, bearing in mind that he is one of the greatest musicians in England at the moment. Here are some insightful and beautiful quotes from some of his latest interviews in 2015 and 2016.

1. "Everyone was using the flashes on their cameras, so there was this moment, like a mania, when everyone started flashing-flashing-flashing and you could see it down the coast. In itself, it was kind of a magnificent event" - on the last solar eclipse of the century in 1999.

Albarn always has his way with words. Nostalgic Albarn is even more sentimental.

2. “When I’m lonely, I press play." 

Self-explanatory really, though don't get misled from the sexual innuendo. No, we don't think Albarn means something in another context. Really. Albarn admits it in one of the album's singles, the jet-lagged video for which he shot on his iPad.

3. "Actually, a lot of Gorillaz songs were very personal. I mean, that’s why it was interesting, because it wasn’t music being made for a cartoon. It was something different. It was a much more emotional affair. I wasn't necessarily thinking in the third-person then."

4. "Let’s say I believe in the presence of other things. But have I seen a fairy? I’m not going to tell you ...” - when asked whether he believed in fairies in Hong Kong.

5. “No, nothing about Alex annoys me. He’s one of my dearest friends, but I don’t know what Alex’s political views are. We do music, not politics. We’re not a four-piece political act. So whether we agree or disagree is neither here nor there. Besides, I don’t surround myself with people who agree with me. Where’s the fun in that?” - on Alex James's quirks.

6. "Religiously, 10:30AM-5:00PM. I get anxious if it gets to quarter to six” - on his schedule. We see the perfectionist creeping back out of him.

7. "We’re in a moment of extraordinary transition as a species, and what is the outcome of that? Are we going to become closer to ourselves or are we going to become more distant?” - on Everyday Robots and its inspiration. We think Damon is going on a bit of a rant here.

8. "Do you spend all your day talking to everybody as opposed to actually doing something? Is that something that just teenagers do, or will people grow out of it? It only really just occurred to me and it’s probably just a load of old bollocks, but I have been thinking that the reason we had so many big cults back when I was younger is because there was no social media, and that was a way of feeling you were in a community. But now to become part of a community is so much easier." - on questioning the existence of social media.

9. "I have great respect for anyone who makes a fantastic musicial... but I never said that I hate modern musicals." - on BBC Breakfast, defending his hatred for modern musicals.

10. Not a quote- but a little clip:




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30 things you wish you've heard Damon Albarn say - Quotes

"Mr-Quotable" Damon Albarn said many things in his 20+ year musical career, given outrageous interviews, given thoughtful speeches and uttered many very, very memorable phrases. Here's our top 30 Damon Albarn quotes of all time.

 1. "I've got people camping outside my place in Kensington. In sleeping bags. It's not that irritating, except we haven't got any curtains in the front room, so we can't walk round in the nude." - height of Blur fame. 

 2. "Yes, I am a middle-class twat“. “I’ve got a PhD in tits" “It’s good to read a book and get a hard-on at the same time (December 1995 interview) 

 3. "It’s a very romantic idea, to go on a cobbled-together trip on a train with an African diner and rehearsal rooms and sliding doors that allow for playing on to platforms, and people meeting and planning concerts for the evening and watching the English countryside pass by. It’s a beautiful thing." - Africa Express 2012 

4. Have I ever punched anyone in the band? Oh yeah, all of them! I used to punch Alex a lot. He used to say really annoying things deliberately. I almost think he liked being punched. (2000) 

 5. "We'll always be friends now. I like the idea of seeing each other being really old and doddery." (On Graham, Select, 1994) 

 6. I'm a mixed up person. I've got this real essex man vibe...I cant help it... i cant stand the idea of being a sad lonely bed-sit poet... I'd rather be perceived as loud and arrogant. 

 7. "There's always been a hip-hop element to my trousers." 

 8. In the sixties people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird, people take Prozac to make it normal. 

 9. "My guaranteed way of sending myself into deep depression is to read music trade papers and watch MTV." 

 10. "What do we stand for?So we don't lie down all the time!" 

 11. "I find computers to be sort of uncharted seas. And as soon as you set out on them, you're lost." - on Technology and why he doesn't use computers 

 12. "I had a Black girlfriend when I was five" - on women 

 13. "It's weird because with guys it's not a long thing ,it's more of a "let's be mates,let's get on stage and ,woargh,nice one!"sort a thing .It's funny , I really love that.If that's as far as I ever get in communicating with people,that's great .I just like the idea of everyone cuddling each other" 

14. "My fantasy Glastonbury would be to be 18 again and to go with a girl that I've just met and that I was really, really into. Either that or go with my mates and meet a girl there. I certainly wouldn't want to go with any famous people. I'd just go and take loads of drugs and watch all my favourite bands. I'd drink, smoke spliff, drop an E and watch The Silver Apples. Er, this is the 18-year-old Damon, not me now talking, of course." (Damon in 1997)

15. "My mum thinks I'm ultra-conservative in the way I dress. Hippy parents just don't understand why you want to wear a shirt and smart shoes." - on Fashion 

16. I really try to avoid all photographs now,I don't know why, I was so into it when I was younger. But let's face it, if you're a good-looking young male with talent you're not going to get taken seriously. I do feel that looks are something you have to get over... It was a great day when I realised I didn't need to see myself any more. I knew who I was... (On aging and looks)

17. "I'm very sexy in the morning." - early Blur interview 

18. "Aww man... Aw, I'm so sweaty I can't play properly any more... And I have difficulties playing anyway, so this just makes it virtually impossible for me. I wanna do this song justice as well." - Just before 'Young and Lovely', B-sides gig 

19. (What will you be if you were not a singer?) A farmer My grandad and uncle were farmers.I used to spend my summers in Lincolnshire on the farm.I'd to get up at 5.30am,and sit on my grandad's tractor. I loved it. 

20. "Cheeky, confident, insecure, sharp, direct." - Albarn on 5 words to describe himself 

21. "There were reports in the papers of people breaking up their relationships, because one liked oasis and the other one liked blur...One woman left her husband because he put our CD in the microwave." - on Blur and Oasis's chart battle 

22. "I have to wear a new T-shirt every night. I throw them into the audience. One day I'm going to go around the world and reclaim all my T-shirts" - on his live shows 

23. "Yeah, Write Songs" (When asked for any tips on songwriting by a budding young songwriter) 

24. "I love the whole atmosphere here.The other day I was walking past the cementery and I could hear singing coming from inside.After a while I realised it was a West Indian family singing a spiritual song.The rhythm sounded so incongruous,yet amazing at the same time.That's what is so special about round here.It's such a rich of cultures and images." - On the Cemetery 

25. "WE ONLY HAD THREE THINGS TO SAY IN OUR FIRST INTERVIEWS: WE'RE GREAT WE'RE NOT AN INDIE BAND AND DON'T JUDGE US NOW - JUDGE US IN FIVE YEARS' TIME. AT LEAST NOW WE'VE DONE SOMETHING THAT LIVES UP TO MY BIG MOUTH." - on Blur interviews 

26. "I've been self-destructive over the years. Anyone who's interested in me will have a rough idea that i've kept a lot of things quiet. I choose not to define my low points." - Q Magazine 2006

27. “Brothers is a much better word. There are moments when we absolutely and utterly connect without even having to say anything and there are other times when we might as well be on other continents. Like now, for example.” - On Graham Coxon, 1997

28. "I'm turning into a croaky old singer" - Hyde Park 2009

29. "I've swapped my youthful promiscuity for something a bit more middle aged" - on getting older ".

30. "My mum’s been having a go at me since I was a teenager about pulling my trousers up. And I have tried, I really did, to keep my trousers up and they always just… drop. Does anyone else have that problem? Am I not alone?" - Margate Winter Gardens  gig 2012 

More Blur quotes coming on this page!