Damon Albarn Reveals Missed Chances To Work With Bowie, Prince
Damon Albarn has spoken of some missed opportunities to work with some of music’s biggest names in a new interview with The Herald. Although the Blur and Gorillaz frontman has collaborated with a who’s who of music in his time, there are some names that eluded him: “Dr Dre, Prince, and Kendrick Lamar… I missed all three of those. All my fault. Which is quite a lot of people to miss.”
Albarn also recounted the point where a collaborative album between him, Ray Davies of The Kinks and David Bowie was mooted: “And David Bowie asked me and Ray Davies to make an album with him. It was actually a serious thing we were going to do. He summonsed me when he was playing in Switzerland into the labyrinth of his backstage and I went to see him and he said, ‘Well, we’re going to do this but if this tour keeps doing as well as it is then I’m going to carry on touring.’ The tour kept going. “And that’s why there’s no album. I regret that one. I just imagine what that might have sounded like.”
He also spoke about the early days of Blur, recalling: “When we were in my parent’s garage in Colchester and we first played Sing and She’s So High and I suddenly felt like I had moved on from being in local Battle of the Bands in Colchester and there was a chance that we might be able to fulfil our dreams, our real crazy Top Of The Pops, …Whistle Test, TV show dreams. We could be a bit like The Who. That’s the best moment. Because ever since then I’ve just been working really.”
Damon Albarn’s new album The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows is released on Transgressive Records on 12 November.