IT’S ABOUT THE CLIMB
A CONVERSATION WITH GORILLAZ
Gorillaz are back, with a brilliant new album, The Mountain, and while it has been great catching up with Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett about the new music, the members of the band have remained quiet…until now. It is time to hear from Murdoc Niccals (bass, drum machine), 2D (lead vocals, keyboards, guitar), Noodle (guitar, keyboards, vocals) and Russel Hobbs (drums, percussion, drum machine).
The new album has been recorded around the world, and the members have certainly been busy with traveling and recording, however, it has been a few years since they sat down for a conversation. Almost like they had disappeared. “Look, no one disappeared – don’t be dramatic,” said Murdoc. “Didn’t have time. Hollyweird fried my circuits and set half the city on fire with that cult whole fiasco. My bad. You’re welcome. One minute we’re saving 2D from a world-ending mega-tongued demon, next minute the LAPD are rummaging through my pants drawer because apparently Gorillaz ‘may be involved in a disturbance.’ May be? Please. So, we moved. Not back to Stoke-on-Trent. I’m a masochist but not a complete idiot. We hit New York, shook the dust off, then went somewhere properly big. Somewhere where we could blend in. India felt like the correct overreaction.”
2D agrees, “Yeah, it was like a blink, in slow motion maybe. I was dangling over this massive pit in LA, then woah, I’m in a hotel in New York with a room service boiled egg. It was overcooked. And the minibar… It was humming. Like it knew something. Which was really weird. The telly kept saying that Birds Aren’t Real and that didn’t help. It all felt a bit like coming up for air in a submarine. Crazy.” While Russel chimed in with his observations, “LA is like glitter, gets all over you and you can’t wash it off. We didn’t stop to reflect, no space for it. But when we hit the runway in Mumbai then my spirit started to settle.”
THE MOUNTAIN ALBUM REVIEW
The entire band found themselves in India to begin the album, The Mountain. But what was it about India that let the creative juices flow freely? According to Noodle, “The colours look like music and air smells like myth. The country seems to hold history the way mountains hold shadows. We wanted to go deep into that half-light. See what we became beneath it.” Russell helped to clarify. “Cracker Island (their previous studio album) left us full of static. India cleared that frequency.”
Noodle offered more of an explanation. India became, if I can summarize, a place to reground the band. “India accepted us. After everything, the cult, the danger, the escape, we were loaded with heavy spirits. India can carry heaviness without cracking under your shoes. And it holds musicians who carry centuries of sound without strain.”
Murdoc provided some rationale. For the band, escaping America, especially Los Angeles, “we chose somewhere vast, loud, and ancient enough to have better things to do than interrogate me. If that offends anyone’s romantic notions, I’ll live.”
While Cracker Island dealt with cults, echo chambers and distortion, their new album The Mountain is quite different. However, the band is not exactly agreeing about the theme of the album. For Noodle, the album is about “Death. Rebirth. The spaces between. Being not afraid of the void, and walking through it.” Russel slightly agrees with this though, stating the album is about “cycles. Seeing them, understanding them, blessing them, breaking them. The only way out is through the middle, sometimes. The Mountain is the aftermath, the before-math, and the mid-math. Bits of life that don’t fit neatly into beginning or ending.”
2D is a bit more philosophical about the album. “The Mountain’s about the climb… step aside and squint a bit. Sun in your eyes, stuff everywhere—smoke, ash, sand, water, mud. Beauty. All mixed up. Keep going.” And finally, Murdoc is out on his own with his own assessment, “It’s not about anything. We were somewhere hot, loud, and inconvenient, and we made a record. If people hear meaning in it, I’m not taking responsibility.”
Although a trip to India to record seems ideal and perfect for The Mountain, the trip was not without incident. For Murdoc, his health came into play along with struggling with the local transportation. “Trying to haggle for a scooter. Halfway through I realised I’d been negotiating with a statue of Parvati. Heatstroke is real, lemme tell you. “2D is quick to add “The four arms probably should’ve given it away. Also, Murdoc took all his clothes off and had a bath in what he reckoned was a healing spring. Turned out it was the hotel fountain. With coins in it. People were watching.” Noodle added, “He made a wish in it anyway.” And according to Russel, “It came true, unfortunately.”
But Murdoc is clear, the trip to India as essential, given everything that happened in L.A. and with the last album. “The thing about catastrophe, why does it always end with bloody paperwork? Not exactly my love language. Fight off a cult monster, redeye to The Big Apple, then suddenly you’re filling out hotel check-in forms with a fake name you can’t remember how to spell for people who absolutely do not deserve an explanation. But when the world flips upside down, you don’t sit around going, ‘Ooh, I wonder what my next creative phase is darling’.’ You get out of there. Weirdly, the minute we squelched out into the heat of Mumbai, something clicked. We weren’t just running from something, we were running towards something. A big something. Turned out to be a mountainous something.”
Which brings us back to the new album, The Mountain. The band came together after a few years apart to create something very special, thought provoking and quite emotional. Not to mention some damn fine music. According to Noodle, the band was never really apart. “We were already together, bruised but aligned. The beginning wasn’t a plan. It was the air changing. We sensed it.” 2D added, “Well… I wandered, but not far. I sat on a windowsill making some bracelets out of these really bright threads I got at a market. They were kind of tangled already. The man selling them said they were lucky. I mean, he said everything was lucky, even the cardboard box they were in. And they were. Noodle found me and said, ‘album now’. And I said ‘ok.’ And that was sort of it.”
Relocating to India must have been difficult, and yet from everything that had happened to the quartet, an album was created. For Gorillaz, the creative process is not clear cut, and differences exist among members of the band. “I meditate every morning,” said Noodle. Murdoc quickly added, “and while we’re on meditation… don’t pretend you didn’t see that macaque steal my bracelet. 2D keeps saying I “lost it spiritually.” I didn’t. A monkey stole it. An actual monkey. This isn’t a riddle.”
PHOTO CREDIT: GORILLAZ & REUBEN BASTIENNE-LEWIS
While Russel and 2D had more concrete ways to get the creativity flowing. According to 2D,
“Most days I was at the Sikh temple kitchen, just helping out. Chopping veggies. Washing these absolutely massive pots. Carrying things back around. No one made a big deal of it. You just sort of… join in. Sometimes I’d hum, and someone else would hum too. Or not. Either way was fine. Not too loud. The wind joined in sometimes. Murdoc didn’t like that bit.” According to Russel, his routine was somewhat different. “In Jaipur I’d get up early and go to the market. Chillies lined up like firecrackers. The onion seller kept bootleg Prince cassettes under the counter, we spoke the same language without saying much. Then we’d borrow a kitchen and make these pots of food. There’s no hiding in the kitchen. Truth rises with the steam.”
However, 2D is clear, India was the place to be for the creation of The Mountain. “It was the whole gravity thing. We kept hearing music before we even got there. After a bit I realised the air felt busy. Lots of lives had already been there and not left yet. People carrying bags and stories and stuff. Some of them felt really old. We’d be going through the crowds in a tuk-tuk and brushing up against other people’s memories. India felt like reality again, which was cool. For the first couple of months, I sometimes cried for no reason, or maybe for lots of reasons. It’s complicated.
“I mean, it was already going on when we got there. In a big way,” 2D continued. “The music, I mean. It was there a long time before us and would be there after, for sure. Like you wake up and someone’s practising somewhere, or humming, or tapping stuff while they’re waiting for tea. No one’s doing it for anyone but it’s just happening. And you know it’s really old music. Like, really really old. Thousands of years. Living there for a bit made songs feel less like things you make. More like places. You don’t build them, you just sort of… arrive, stay a bit, maybe mess something up, then leave again. Doesn’t happen often.”
Russel pointed out, “Indian music carries time differently. You’re engaging with systems refined over millennia but applied in the present by beautiful humans with extraordinary skill. That combination, mixed with the spirit of India… It teaches patience, discipline and keeps you wide-eyed. We got grounded, I guess, in a beautiful way Not by forcing ideas, but by slowing us down enough to hear what was already there.” While Murdoc had to add, “Turns out you don’t need to play over everything to be heard. Annoying.”
Finally, recording in India allowed Gorillaz the opportunity to work with musicians that they might not otherwise have worked with. Musicians who contributed to the music/album but also provided some influence.
2D admitted, “well I s’pose it changed how fast we did things? Or didn’t do them. Like Ajay Prasanna played his Mansuri for a load of the tracks. When he did it, everything just stretched out. It doesn’t begin or have an ending, it just is.” Russel pointed out, “What hit me was the continuity. You’re hearing techniques refined over centuries, but in the present. When Asha Bhosle or Asha Puthli come into the room, you let them do their amazing stuff, make some room for it. That kind of depth makes you check yourself.”
Noodle added, “I believe Indian music remembers itself through its structure. Raga is not looking back. It is alive. Playing with Anoushka Shankar made that clear. Time stopped being something to decorate. That changed everything.” And Murdoc summed it up perfectly, “I mean, even yours truly wouldn’t argue with a musical culture that’s been refining itself for thousands of years.”
Finally, the band spent a great deal of time with the record, recording, mixing and arranging. But how did they know when they were finished? 2D very practically stated, “this bloody great lovely monsoon rolled in. The sky basically said time’s up.” While Murdoc is a bit more pragmatic, “When I realised touching it again would only make it worse. Takes some restraint. I’m deeply proud.” Noodle and Russel looked for signs. For Noodle, “The cat left. That was the sign.” Russel has the final word. “We left with less than we arrived with. That’s how you know the work’s done.”
North American Tour 2026
Thu Sep 17 – Orlando, FL – Kia Center*^
Fri Sep 18 – Miami, FL – Kaseya Center*^
Sun Sep 20 — Atlanta, GA — Shaky Knees Festival
Wed Sep 23 – Charlotte, NC – Spectrum Center*^
Sat Sep 26 – Washington, DC – Capital One Arena*^
Sun Sep 27 – Camden, NJ – Freedom Mortgage Pavilion*^
Tue Sep 29 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden*^
Thu Oct 01 – Boston, MA – TD Garden*^
Sat Oct 03 – Montreal, QC – Bell Centre*^
Sun Oct 04 – Toronto, ON – Scotiabank Arena*^
Tue Oct 06 – Cleveland, OH – Rocket Arena*^
Wed Oct 07 – Detroit, MI – Little Caesars Arena*^
Thu Oct 08 – Chicago, IL – United Center*^
Thu Oct 15 – Austin, TX – Moody Center*^
Fri Oct 16 – Fort Worth, TX – Dickies Arena*^
Sun Oct 18 – Denver, CO – Ball Arena*^
Tue Oct 20 – Salt Lake City, UT – Delta Center*^
Fri Oct 22 – Glendale, AZ – Mortgage Matchup Center*^
Sat Oct 24 – Los Angeles, CA – Kia Forum^
Sun Oct 25 – San Diego, CA – Pechanga Arena^
Wed Oct 28 – Oakland, CA – Oakland Arena*^
Fri Oct 30 – Portland, OR – Moda Center*^
Sat Oct 31 – Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena*^
*with Little Simz
^with Deltron 3030
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