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I start with an idea in my head. I sketch it out quickly as a line drawing, using pencil. It never comes out quite right - usually a bit better than my mental picture.
Jamie Hewlett Gorillaz -
I'm English, and I started off as a songwriter, so I can't really escape that - it's there.
Damon Albarn Gorillaz
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What you learn from working with other performers and musicians is invaluable, really, and can only help you grow. I mean, if you spend your whole life focusing on yourself, you're not really learning much.
Damon Albarn Gorillaz -
That was always my dream as a kid: to draw comic books.
Jamie Hewlett Gorillaz -
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.
Damon Albarn Gorillaz -
I think pop music is a great place to get new ideas across.
Damon Albarn Gorillaz -
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. So I like to hang out and you know, really get to know people and try and do something that resonates with them.
Damon Albarn Gorillaz -
As a musician usually music is your way out.
Damon Albarn Gorillaz
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I was approached by Oxfam to go to Mali as their ambassador and get involved in their various initiatives out there. But I felt that was missing the point of using me, a musician.
Damon Albarn Gorillaz -
I need to find a way of retaining creative control.
Jamie Hewlett Gorillaz -
China is one of those vast, continental conglomerates that... I mean, if they were to start a tourist trade in China, they'd just bus people in from another province, you know what I mean? They're very self-contained.
Damon Albarn Gorillaz -
You know, there are many alter egos and Gorillaz is a collective of alter egos, really. I think anyone who gets involved in it has to sort of accept that nothing is really as it seems.
Damon Albarn Gorillaz -
My mum was into pottery and embroidery, very artistic, and she knew some people from the college, which I think was how I got into it. My dad, who was a head-hunter, was also an incredible artist, and when he was very young, he was a really good cartoonist.
Jamie Hewlett Gorillaz -
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.
Damon Albarn Gorillaz
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I enjoyed history at school. I'd always had a sense of pagan England.
Damon Albarn Gorillaz -
Being in Blur has allowed me to travel and hear the music that's being made all over the world.
Damon Albarn Gorillaz -
I love zombie films.
Jamie Hewlett Gorillaz -
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. I feel that I kind of at least touched on the possibilities of cross-cultural music, but it is a lifetime's work, and I don't profess to be anything other than a novice at it.
Damon Albarn Gorillaz -
I hope we can keep doing it this way - making music and art that are pure products of our influences while not really having to let the whole celebrity side of it get in the way. Then maybe more virtual bands will come out and do the same thing.
Damon Albarn Gorillaz -
I don't go to enough exhibitions, purely because it intimidates me.
Jamie Hewlett Gorillaz
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I'm all about doing things myself because I find it hard to trust other people. Not trust, but I know exactly what I want to do, and I know exactly how it's supposed to look.
Jamie Hewlett Gorillaz -
And there are no stars and that you're never really sure who's doing what and what voice is what and, you know what I mean? It's supposed to be quite elusive.
Damon Albarn Gorillaz -
I used to love comic books, and I love American comedy, and neither are afraid to tackle big themes.
Jamie Hewlett Gorillaz -
The more you draw, the better you get.
Jamie Hewlett Gorillaz