Blur frontman Damon Albarn has revealed he “nearly made a record” with late music legend David Bowie and The Kinks star Ray Davies but the project fell through.
Damon Albarn “nearly made a record” with late music legend David Bowie and The Kinks star Ray Davies.
The Blur frontman – who is known for collaborating with other musicians when he’s working with Gorillaz – has now revealed he previously had plans to record with several superstars back in the 1990s but the project fell through.
During an appearance on the UK’s Radio X station, the singer was asked about his favourite collaborators and he said: “There’s some favourites …
“Like, people who I’ve gone on to make records other records with tend to be the sort of people you get to know the most …
“There were people pre [Gorillaz] … I mean, someone like David Bowie who… I nearly made a record with [The Kinks frontman] Ray Davies and David Bowie back in the late 90s. That didn’t happen”.
During the joint interview with his Gorillaz collaborator Jamie Hewlett, the pair also revealed they almost recorded a song with music legend Dionne Warwick for their 2005 album Demon Days but she eventually decided against it because she didn’t like the album’s name.
Hewlett said: “She was in the studio on the piano with Damon saying: ‘I’m not sure about the name of this album. Demon Days. Why have you called it Demon Days?'”
Albarn added: “I think she just found some of the lyrics and sort of some of the ideas a bit problematic. But an amazing, amazing person nonetheless.”
The musician did name some of his favourite collaborators from over the years, saying: “De La Soul, obviously. Probably very, very important to us just as friends and pre-Gorillaz as an inspiration, you know?
“They’re really, really important; important to just the history of music, really. People like Bobby Womack, who I went on to make a record with.
“Just sitting at the piano with Bobby Womack working out new songs, kind of an incredible experience, a voice.”
Gorillaz’s latest album The Mountain was inspired by travels through India and Albarn admitted he’s previously been asked to make a TV travel show.
He said: “I have been asked in the past to do travel programmes and I’ve sort of toyed with the idea. But, you know, if you do that, you’re just spending all your time, kind of…
“I don’t think you get the opportunity to meditate on things enough if you’re doing that. You know what I mean? I think I like to just go somewhere and disappear and come back and try and make a piece of work about it.”
