Song Exploder - Gorillaz - Andromeda (feat. D.R.A.M.)

Episode Date: April 11, 2017

Gorillaz is the creation of musician Damon Albarn and comic book artist Jamie Hewlett. They’re a virtual band made up four animated characters. Their songs are written by Damon Albarn and a roster of collaborators. Since the first album was released in 2001, Gorillaz have sold over 16 million records worldwide. In this episode, Damon breaks down the song "Andromeda" from the 2017 Gorillaz album Humanz. It’s a dance song, but also an elegy to people in his life who he’s lost, like legendary soul singer Bobby Womack, a former Gorillaz collaborator. Andromeda features guest vocals by the rapper and singer D.R.A.M., whose own hit single, "Broccoli," went quadruple platinum in 2016. Coming up later, D.R.A.M. tells the story of how he got involved with this track, and Damon shares an exclusive clip of a scrapped version of the song with D.R.A.M. on lead vocals. (This episode contains explicit language.) songexploder.net/gorillaz

You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishi Kesh Hirwe. Gorillas is the creation of musician Damon Albarn and comic book artist Jamie Hewlett. They're a virtual band made up of four animated characters. The songs are written by Damon Albarn and a roster of collaborators. Since their first album was released in 2001, guerrillas have sold over 16 million records worldwide. In this episode, Damon breaks down the song Andromeda from the 2017. Gorillas album, Humans. It's a dance song, but also an elegy to people in his life who he's lost,

like legendary soul singer Bobby Womack, a former guerrillas collaborator. Andromeda features guest vocals by the rapper and singer Dram, whose own hit single, Broccoli, went quadruple platinum in 2016. Coming up later, Drum tells the story of how he got involved with this track. But first, Damon Albarn. It's Gorillas on Song Exploder. I'm Damon Albarn. This originated from a conversation between myself and Twilight Tone, guy who co-produced the record. We were talking about two of the greatest 80s pop songs, and we decided that Billy Jean by Michael Jackson,

and I Can't Go for that by Hall of Notes, were two of our favorite tunes in their tempo and their kind of pop sensibilities. And how could we somehow alchemically channel the greatness of those into our own music? So we had a title for this song before we actually started it, which was I Can't Go for Billy Jean. For copyright purposes, I want to emphasize that the eventual outcome bears no resemblance and any resemblance is purely fictitious.

Twilight tone is responsible for the beats. With tunes like this, the rhythm, that was the primary source of the song was get this vibe going, and get this feeling of this good, solid dance thing going. That in the baseline. In my studio, Studio 13, I have a fantastic piano, which is an upright acoustic piano

that has been adapted to read MIDI information. So it's very easy to use in the studio. That's my main instrument. But I didn't use any of the piano on the record. I just use it to sort of get my harmonic map sort of established. For example, on this record, I used a lot of profit sounds, a lot of chroma sounds, corg sounds, and a lot of iPad sounds. And that's the same on every tune on the record.

No guitars, nothing acoustic at all, synth bass, synth drums, keyboards and vocals. Because I wanted it to be in the future. And the future for me has always been synthetic digital. Record narrative is really important. And on this record in particular, the narrative arc is imagining something in the near future which happened in America that really turned everything up on its head and made people feel very uncertain about their future. And let's make a party record about the night that that happens.

So it's in the future, it's futuristic, it's fantasy, it's imaginary. Or is it? So I've got a very basic chord sequence together. In my usual way, it usually involves a dominant minor chord and a subservient major chord. I try to make all my pop music in the minor key. When the boss in looks to life fall, Take it in your heart now, lover.

This song actually ended up being, it's a very personal song. I mean, I've never said this before. I mean, on the record, it's next to the song, Andromeda, it says, For Ethel. Effel is the deceased mother of my partner. And she was very, very ill when I first sat down at the piano. And I was just thinking about her, you know. You know?

And it all just came out in one splurge. All those lyrics just came out. It was just one take, the whole thing. When the pausing looks to lightfall, take it in your heart now, lover. The first line of the song is, when the passing looks to die for, when she was, you know, in her last few hours,

I went to see her in the hospital, as tragic as it was, her passing final look and words to me were so beautiful and uplifting. They stayed with me and, you know, overwhelmed me at one point while I was writing. Thinking of her, I started thinking about Bobby Womack as well, who'd passed away two years previously. When the cards were closing, it was Bobby Grayson.

I know that. And I just sort of started thinking about all these beautiful people that I've known have passed away. And so, you know, when I said, make it for the best times and the growing pains, the good times, the good times. Made for the best times, grow pills, good times, good times. I remember being in tears, as I sang that, because I was with them at that moment

and that's why it's got that emotional tug on it. I didn't know what I was singing, it was improvised, but it felt so poignant at that moment. Take it in your heart. Take in your heart. It felt like, you know, it was take the worst possible outcome and be brave and remember all the goodness that preceded that, all the beauty that preceded that.

Take it. So it just came out in one splurge, and then over the months, I tried to articulate that into something that made more sense, but realized at the end of the day that it was an honest thing. Lyrically and vocally, that's how I sang it. That is it. The improvised vocal take.

And I spent literally a fucking year trying to get it right, only to go back to the thing I did in like two minutes. It's really annoying. I mean, sometimes you have to kind of put yourself through that kind of torturous process just to really know that what you did originally was the right thing. But I tried lots of different versions of that song.

We did a version with Rag and Bow Man that didn't work. We did a version with Christine and the Queens that didn't work. We did a whole version with Dram that didn't work.

Hey, it's a guy Big Baby Drum as featured on the great Gorillis and Drama. I got a random call my manager like, are you down and work

with Damon Alburn and the Gorillas? And I'm like, fuck yeah. The nature of guerrillas is collaboration. I can do it on my own, but I enjoy having people

around enjoy camaraderie of that, all the laughter. I don't know, it's just cooler, because, I mean, I wanted to make a party record, and you can't make a party record on your own, can you? So then he's like, all right, I'm sending the track over. And I swit, boom, boom, boom, jim, boom. I instantly loved it because I'm a fan of four on the floor,

groovy sounds. They literally just sent it saying, you know, do what you feel. I always think that it's better if people write words from their own heart and their own experience. So I encourage people just to do their own thing. I really appreciated that too, so I just, you know, did my thing, sent it over. He's a really lovely guy.

It's like very open and honest, and a song like this, which is very heartfelt, needed that kind of vibe. It's really cool what he did. But, you know, we realized that actually all the chorus needed to be was that really lovely keyboard line that goes, and then tick it in your heart.

Just that simplicity, that space was all that was needed. And the bit that he did in the bridge, we kept because that was really strong. The word nip was cool, because there's no substitute. Who even knows the truth? The truth, the truth. The word Andromeda comes from two places. Andromeda is the name of a nightclub in Colchester in the early 1980s, where I used to go on a Friday night. And it was the only place in the whole of the town.

I was a teenager in that played soul music. So there's a connection between the music I used to hear there and the feeling and the spirit of the music I was trying to evoke. And also, Eiffel, the dear Eiffel, was very into astronomy and I imagine her spirit, her soul, being somewhere in a distant constellation now when I look up at the sky, because I know she looked up at the sky over time. So I think of her when I look at the stars.

I love this woman dearly and I miss it still a lot. So, you know, it's kind of, it's nice that that exists and I can think about her when I sing it. And now here's Andromeda by Gorillas, featuring Dram in its entirety. Visit songexploader.net slash gorillas for a link to buy this song, to watch the music video, and to learn more about gorillas. I have a new album of my own coming out on April 24th.

It's been about 15 years since I last put out a full length, and this is the first one that'll be out under my own name, Rishikesh, Her Way. I started making Song Exploder when I was feeling lost in my own music career. And then for over a decade, I've gotten to have these incredible conversations about the process of making music, talking to other artists. And it made me completely rethink my relationship to music and my way of writing songs. And this album is the product of all of that. It features contributions from some of my favorite artists, including some folks that you may have heard on this podcast, like Iron and Wine, Kevin Morby, Vagabon, Fenlily, and the producer Phil Wine Rope. I'm going to be on tour playing in cities across the U.S. starting in April.

and I'm trying to bring the spirit of the podcast with me. So every show that I'm playing will begin with a conversation about the album with a different amazing guest moderator in each city, like Adam Scott, Samin Nasrat, Jason Manzukas, Josh Molina, Minjin Lee, Ken Jennings, John Roderick, Austin, and more. They're all going to be my conversation partners on stage, and then I'll play with my band. The album is called In The Last Hour of Light, and the first couple songs are out now. You can listen to the music and get tickets for the shows on my website, rishikash.co.

Or just go to songexploder.net slash live. That's songexploder.net slash live. Thanks. Song Exploder is produced by me, along with Christian Coons. Special thanks this episode to Zach McNeese for engineering Damon Allbarn's interview. Song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary cutting-edge podcasts made possible by the Knight Foundation and listeners like you.

Learn more at Radiotopia.fm. Next time on Song Exploder, Amy Mann. You can find Song Exploder on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Song Exploder. And you can find all the past and future episodes of the show at SongExploder.net or where-I-view download podcasts. My name is Rishi Kesh Hereway. Thanks for listening.

Life is good. You look around and think I'm in the right name. Well, I've enjoyed it enormously, but I think it's time to terminate this very, very in-depth analysis of my music-making process before I destroy the whole myth completely.