Damon Albarn: ‘I’m a very competitive person’

Damon Albarn on Bad Bunny and singing in Spanish

“I could do the, “Oi, oi,” bit. It’s quite hard to sing in another language. I would do it at some point, but on this occasion we only had an afternoon really and it all came together super quick. I actually afterwards tried to do loads of different things of it and change it but actually what we did in that afternoon was the best version of it. But it’s fantastic. He’s such a superstar these days. I don’t really work in those parameters, but I can see why he’s so successful because he truly does things his own way, you know?”

I think it’s fantastic that Spanish language music is now the biggest thing.

[Matt Wilkinson] You get Rosalia on a song, that would be great, wouldn’t it?

Damon Albarn: Oh, she’s fantastic.

Damon Albarn on working with Billie Eilish

Damon Albarn Oh, she’s wonderful. I love her. I only became aware of her really through her music.

[Matt Wilkinson] It will happen though at some point surely

Damon Albarn: Yeah, it will. Yeah. I think we keep trying to do it. It’s just a case of schedules.

[Matt Wilkinson] Yeah. You’re both pretty busy. Do you have any idea what that song-

Damon Albarn: Who knows? Could be kind of babbling brook folk or dark satanic metal.

Damon Albarn on injuring himself at a recent Gorillaz show

I’m a very competitive person, but when we were in Chile, which was our third gig in this year, I got… The reception was so insane that I kind of was elevated and taken back to about 1993 and I started to think it was a Blur gig in just the beginning of Brit pop. I started doing my jumps that I used to do and I completely… my right leg and I blipped my meniscus.

I’ve been in a whole world of pain really since then. It’s got much better now. Now that I’m threatened with having to have an operation on it when I get back from America, it’s miraculously got better.

So, someone who’s very competitive doesn’t really want to do a [Gorillaz] sports day when it could either… Because it was starting to get a bit better, which is only a month ago, it was starting to get a bit better so I didn’t want to kind of… My natural competitive spirit would force me to do things, and it wasn’t a particularly even playground either.

Damon Albarn on playing table Tennis with Drake

I was going to play with Drake. He was going to come to my studio, but he backed out at the end.

[Matt Wilkinson] Not to make a tune, but to play table tennis?

Damon Albarn No, only to play table tennis!

[Matt Wilkinson] So he backed out?

Damon Albarn He backed out.

[Matt Wilkinson] So the onus is on Drake. Drake, if you’re listening to this, I mean-