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Back to: Archive · 2000 Jo Whiley interviews Damon Albarn. From Radio One, 2nd November 2000 (edited highlights). Jo Whiley: One thing that strikes me at the moment is that you just all seem really happy. Damon Albarn: We don't have the pressure that we had in the past. We've sort of managed to get a bit more real about everything and not have our heads so up our arses. JW: Is that just from being older, or is that fatherhood? DA: Yeah, it's everything, you know. I sort of find myself using fatherhood as a cure-all, you know, which it isn't... Obviously it's a total change of life, but I just think our reasons for making music are a lot more... I'm comfortable with them now, you know. JW: If you look at the comparative fortunes between yourself and Oasis, right way back there... DA: Right, I thought it might be that- JW: Well of course it is, because you are just poles apart. You look at them now, look at how unhappy they are, what they've achieved. And you've achieved so much and you seem pretty happy, so it's a natural comparison. DA: Yeah... you can say it's self-inflicted, but they did sort of put themselves in the position which was sort of almost impossible to get out of. JW: It must be scary as hell for them, it must be awful. DA: Yeah, Noel's written some very good songs in the past, so I don't think you could say that he's incapable of doing that again, it's just whether he's got the drive or the inclination. JW: You were saying about you're really looking forward to making new music together, recording a whole new album? DA: Yeah, we're gonna start... I'm going to Nepal for the last two weeks of January with my girlfriend, so as soon as I get back from that we'll start the Blur record. Who knows what it's gonna sound like! [laughs] JW: You mentioned about fatherhood. What has Missy meant to you? DA: For me, I lived ten years of being a musician and travelling, and basically being extremely selfish and self-centred and I think what it's done for me is it's given me a second chance in life, to get my life back on track. JW: You seem to be quite hands-on, because whenever I see photographs of you, you're always out taking her out. DA: I know, that's just weird, there's this guy that one Wednesday in every month, he decides to follow me around. He just seems to be there when I'm out with Missy, so it gives the impression that I sort of spend my whole time, which I spend a lot of time- JW: It's good! No, it's good. Which bands do you really like at the moment? DA: I like some of Badly Drawn Boy's stuff. You know, there's a thing in the NME insinuating that I don't like Travis and bands like Coldplay. All I was trying to say was that I feel the way they approach music is quite conservative. That doesn't mean that what they do hasn't got its merits, and a lot of their melodic, you know, content is pretty good, it's pretty good, but I just don't like the conservative attitude. JW: But these bands are in such an early stage of their career- DA: Exactly, that's another thing. We're far too quick to categorise people before they've even had a chance to categorise themselves. I'm being very vague because basically I don't know what I'm talking about. [laughter] JW: Alright, where do you stand with Eminem? DA: Well, I really like Dr. Dre, he's got bags of talent. So Eminem is a part of Dr Dre, and Dr Dre is brilliant. JW: Damon, thank you very much indeed. DA: Thank you.
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