Gorillaz meets Horrors

The Horrors collaborate with Damon Albarn on new Gorillaz album

01 September 2009 - Damon Albarn and Mercury Prize nominees The Horrors have collaborated on new material for the third Gorillaz album, which is due out in 2010.

Albarn got in touch after hearing their second album Primary Colours. "He got a copy of it really early, contacted us out completely out of the blue and told us how much he liked it," said The Horrors bassist Rhys Webb.

The Blur frontman has also lent a hand to the mixing of the psych-rockers forthcoming single Whole New Way.

Speaking to BBC 6 Music News, Webb said the London band were pretty surprised at the offer of working with the pioneering virtual outfit Gorillaz, of which Damon Albarn is a permanent fixture with animator Jamie Hewlett.

"It was kind of a strange email saying, 'Would you guys be able to come down to my studio at some point?'

"We had no idea really what it was about but thought that would be great to go down there, have a chat, it would be nice to meet him [Damon Albarn]," explained Webb.

"We went down to the studio and he said, 'We're working on the new album and we've not collaborated with a guitar band before and you're album is one of the most exciting things I've heard in a long time. Would you be up for working on a track?'" he added.

"They [Gorillaz] have always been diverse and experimental and I think as a band moving forwards, that's very much they way we approach music."
The Horrors bassist

The Horrors had already mixed their latest song, Whole New Way, but were not happy with it, so they asked Albarn if he wanted to mix it again.

During Blur's massive Hyde Park comeback dates in July, Albarn said he wanted to be involved, worked on the track and sent it back to them to do some more with it.

Webb admitted Blur and Albarn in particular have been a big inspiration on The Horrors' music-making.

"That was the first band I went to see," he said. "For a lot of us, they've been a really important group.  They've always been diverse and experimental and I think as a band moving forwards, that's very much they way we approach music."

And while in the studio, Webb said both sides found a lot of common ground.

"He played us a lot of tracks he'd been working and musically and they were just in a really similar place to where we were at the moment - rhythmically and the instruments that were going through the sound - so it made perfect sense for us.

"We had such a good time working with him," he said.

Georgie Rogers