Which country does Gorillaz come from?

Gorillaz Overview

Gorillaz is a band consisting of vocalist Chaka Khan, guitarist Noodle, leader/bassist Murdoc, and drummer Russel. The band’s music style is New methods have been added, and the appearance is very unique. Even the story is so unimaginable, unimaginable, and very virtual, but the creator has given it a very flesh-and-blood personality.

Basic information column

Foreign name: Gorillaz

Nationality: United States

Representative works: Greatest Hits Gorillaz

Characteristics: Decadent

This band is under the background of the proliferation of idol groups, and there are many so-called powerful British musicians who can't stand the idol groups "lowering" the standard of the British music industry. Blur is the lead singer. Damon Albarn is the main character and the spokesperson behind the scenes, and is composed of four little ghosts with a strong urban HIP-HOP color created together with Jamie Hewlett, the author of the famous cartoon character Tang Girl and the founder of the comic.

And their production The team also includes producer Dan "TheAutomator" Nakamura, a popular Japanese hip-hop artist in San Francisco (who has collaborated with bands such as PrimalScream, DepecheMode, and DeLaSoul). Miho Hatori, the Japanese female lead singer of the New York independent band CiboMato, DelTheFunkyHomosapien, the Spanish-American rap expert, Ibrahim Ferrer, the Cuban jazz singer, and Tina Frantz, the main member of the post-punk pioneer band Talking Heads.

The main music styles are Hip-Hop, Alternative Pop/Rock, and Alternative Rap. Some of the songs also incorporate Jamaican reggae, Cuban traditional love songs and even British punk rock

Although several members are cartoon characters, they all have their own personality traits:

Band member: Chaka Khan

Lead singer - 2D birthplace - Crawley age - 29 years old ( 1977)

The slender, decadent and charming handsome lead singer 2D - 2D, who is good at playing the keyboard, is always the silent one in the crowd. However, the unfathomable black hole in his eyes caused by his blindness exudes intense energy. The charming and mysterious smell has attracted the attention of many female fans, and even his support club has appeared, and an exclusive fan website "Love 2 Deep 爱too deep" has been established on the Internet.

Characteristics - Blind black eyeballs and hedgehog-like angry hair

Hobby - Collecting pictures of busty beauties.

Music influence - ButorphanolTartrate relieves pain Agent, British electronic pop group Human League (Human League)

Lead singer Phil Oakey, famous horror movie director Lucio Fulci

Band member: Noodle

Guitarist - Xiaomian Birthplace - Osaka, Japan Age - 17 years old (1991)

The cute Asian girl guitarist Noodle - the 16-year-old Asian girl Noodle always wears a popular helmet with a built-in radio , full of mysterious oriental atmosphere, although she can only speak one English word "Noodle", her guitar skills and boxing skills are very good. What's even more amazing is that she also has excellent Chinese boxing and kicking skills.

Characteristics - a pair of phoenix eyes that can never be opened

Hobbies - collecting Powerpuff Girls, Tamagotchis, pocket monsters, and yo-yo toys

Musical influence - Richie Sambora, Japanese Guitarist, Laozi and BonJovi

Band Member: Murdoc

Leader/Bassist - The Devil’s Birthplace - Stoke-on-Trent, the Pottery Center in the UK (Childhood playmate of King of Pop Robbie Williams) Age - 42 years old (1966.6.6.)

Smart and optimistic cool bassist Murdoc - despite his slovenly appearance, he is actually the most thoughtful and sensitive person in Gorillaz. The leader,

has excellent bass playing skills and song writing and production skills through self-study, which makes him the helmsman who dominates the whole group.

As the spokesperson of Gorillaz, fans can also feel his arrogant and domineering attitude.

Characteristics-A mouth full of green fangs like venomous snakes and a pair of red Yin-Yang eyes

Hobby-Beating 2D

Music influences-BlackSabbath, Dub music, Beach Boys Drummer Dennis Wilson and the most worshiped idol - Satan

Band member: Russel

Drummer - Luo Pang Birthplace - New York State, USA Age - 33 years old (1975)

Russell, a black hip-hop drummer who is good at playing drums, also advocates black culture such as Hip-Hop and Rap.

However, he has received good knowledge and behavioral education from aristocratic schools. His politeness in dealing with others and gentleness in speech and demeanor have also made many female friends feel the true security of a flashy life from his steady character.

Characteristics-Excessive fright causes eyes to roll back

Hobbies-Fitness and eating (currently the owner of the "Calori Multifunctional Aerobics Fitness Center" in the suburbs of London)

Music influences - Louis Farrakhan, a black racist pastor who advocated the "Islamic Nation", and R&B soul diva

Since they have such distinct personality traits and hobbies, there is naturally a very strange process of forming a team. :

Everything about Gorillaz started with one person, the bad boy Murdoc. Their formation came from the "fatal" encounter between lead singer 2D and group leader Murdoc.

2D, whose real name is Stuber, has a special hobby for keyboard instruments, so he works part-time at "Uncle Norm's Musical Instruments Chain Store" every weekend.

In order to realize their music dream, Murdoc and his companions planned to use the stolen synthetic instruments to make music with his BB gang. Therefore, he and his gangsters took risks to grab a synthesiser and drove into Uncle Norm's store robbery.

Unexpectedly, he bumped into Stubber who was standing at the door. As a result, Stubber lost his left eye and his memory continued to deteriorate due to concussion.

Murdoc, who was responsible for the accident, was eventually ordered by the court to serve 30,000 hours of labor service, and also had to take care of Stubborn until he recovered.

One day when Murdoc took the confused Stubble back to the hospital for a check-up, he did a 360-degree spin on a whim. At that time, Stubble broke through like a violently thrown javelin. The windshield goes straight into the safety island. This time, Stuber was blinded in his right eye, but he was lucky enough to regain consciousness despite being blind in both eyes. From then on, he regarded Murdoc as his savior and changed his name to 2D (2 Damage).

Murdoc's inferior driving skills caused a 180-degree turn in the lives of these two enemies. Murdoc realized that 2D could play synthesiser, and the music he played had the potential to become popular, so He made a very appropriate decision to recruit 2D to become a member of his band.

As long as we find the drummer and guitarist, everything will be finalized.

Then came the next name on the band list - drummer Russel. This hip hop friend from New York, USA, worked in a Soho record store in London, England. One day, Murdoc met him at the "Gulu Record Shop" in Soho, which specialized in Hip-Hop, and the two had a good chat.

When Murdoc learned that Russell was a B-Boy drummer who was good at funk rhythms, he actively invited him to join the band, and Russell immediately agreed to join in order to realize his dream. Russel said that he had an incredible power in his heart that allowed him to create funky rhythms.

In order to find a guitarist, they placed an advertisement for a guitarist in the British magazine NME, and they couldn't believe it. What I got was a package from Japan, and a 10-year-old Oriental doll Noodle popped out! As soon as Noodle came out, he kept talking non-stop, and his hands were tapping the strings back and forth on the guitar handle at the same time. The three of them were stunned under Noodle's irrational opening remarks, and nodded for this mysterious figure to join.

Gorillaz, composed of Murdoc, 2D, Russell and Noodle, was officially formed. They performed publicly for the first time in Camden at the end of 1998. Their fierce and rough punk rock immediately attracted the attention of EMI Records. Signed a record deal with them. From their first album of the same name, released in April 2001, you can hear New York black hip-hop, Jamaican reggae dub, Cuban traditional love songs or British punk rock. Murdoc's desperate goal to realize their music dream has finally come true, and they will usher in a new era of music with notes that intertwine virtual and real worlds.

Gorillaz's first album of the same name has a dizzying variety of song styles. I immediately went to Buena Vista Social in Cuba to sing Spanish old songs. "Latin Simone", for a while, Miho from Cibo Matto was recruited

Hatori and Tom Tom Club's Tina Weymouth duet "19-2000", as for the first small album "Clint Eastwood", he returned to Blur's best The brilliance of the glory days, and "5/4" fulfilled Damon Albarn's wish to always be Lo-Fi. By "Tomorrow Comes Today" it has become a post-punk like The Cure, and "Punk" has gone all the way. 3-Chord Punk, totally 77 years old. At the end of "M1A1", the introduction actually takes us back to the glory days of the German duo D.A.F. in the 1980s, plus the allegro of "Clint Eastwood" as a Hidden Track

And the lead singer 2D is Damon Albarn with a naughty and lazy Blur

Tomorrow Comes Today in the MV is relatively simple, the real scene video is semi-animated (only some parts of the body are animated)

A two-dimensional cartoon in the form of a semi-animation, but even a semi-animation has inherited the consistent style of European and American animation with detailed movements and matching mouth movements.

And clint eastwood used a certain director The name, but the music has nothing to do with it. The two-dimensional animation and the three-dimensional background are about monsters and gorillas imagined by the drummer coming out to wreak havoc, and little sister NOODLE is still showing off her skills

Personally, I think that in this era where music, painting, and animation are all digitized, it is natural for a virtual band to appear in this form.

The band not only adds new methods to the music style , the elements are so diverse, and even the shape is so unique and full of character, and even the story is so unimaginable and unimaginable. It is very virtual, but the creator has given it an extremely flesh-and-blood personality.

Their appearance not only attracted many animation fans and became the object of imitation in their paintings, but also some bands of the younger generation were eager to try this form of endorsement with cartoons, placing posters to represent themselves on some music forums The cartoon shape of the band's image shows that they are a certain milestone in both the music field and the animation field. As for the development after the band's release? In this era where music and animation creation can use data to communicate and cooperate through the Internet, this Whether this form is short-lived or becomes a common phenomenon, we can only wait and see.

The behind-the-scenes story of the virtual band Gorillas ZT

Switching to Chinese musical instruments

That’s it In a year or two, the word "virtual" suddenly became a very fashionable word, including virtual reality, virtual community, virtual life, virtual host, virtual love... Just last year, a "virtual band" named Gorillaz (Street Fighter) also made its debut and quickly became popular, becoming a sight in the European and American music scene.

To be precise, Gorillaz should be regarded as a cartoon band. All four members appear in pure American cartoon images. Not only will they give passionate performances on MTV, but they will also express their opinions on TV from time to time. For example, after being nominated, they openly announced their withdrawal from the competition for the Mercury Prize, the British recording industry's grandest award. Of course, Gorillaz's success is largely due to their music, which combines rock, reggae (a music style originated in Jamaica), hip-hop, Lo-Fi and other musical elements, plus lazy The singing voice is moderately decadent and somewhat innocent and naughty, and the unrestrained and unconstrained style makes Gorillaz's music full of unique charm. "Whenever I hear their music, I feel inexplicably happy, and the joy arises from the bottom of my heart." A friend of the author expressed her love for Gorillaz's music. High-quality music naturally brings great commercial success. With the vigorous promotion of music media such as MTV and Radio 1, not only Gorillaz's album of the same name is selling well in Europe and the United States, but the single "Clint Eastwood" was rated as the best song of the year. One of the most influential singles.

So, how was such a virtual band created? Behind the huge success, an elite production team is naturally indispensable. The names of the two core planners should be familiar to everyone, namely Damon Albarn, the lead singer of the Blur band, and Jamie Hewlett, the comic master and author of "Tank Girl".

I don’t think much introduction is needed about Blur, a band that created a piece of history in the British music scene. The soul character Damon can be said to be one of the greatest musical talents in the UK in the past 10 years; while "Tank Girl" was a comic that was very popular in Europe and the United States at that time, and its popularity is comparable to "Batman" and "Superman". Among them The heroine is the idol in the hearts of many boys. Damon and Jamie lived in the same apartment building. When the two people's ideas sparked, Gorillaz was born.

The production process of Gorillaz is like this. First, Damon creates the music part. After completing some demos, Jamie listens and draws inspiration from them to conceive and design each band character. After the band's character design is completed, write the story behind each person. Music is Gorillaz’s navigation light.

Studio 13's new work pipeline

In 1999, Damon Albarn built a private recording studio in west London for the production of Blur's album "13", and used the album's name 13 to name. Tom Girling and Jason Cox subsequently became Studio 13's resident sound engineers. Over the past few years, they have produced the album "13" and some other singles from blur here, as well as several movie soundtracks directed by Damon. When Gorillaz's plan began to be implemented, Sudio 13 became the production base for Gorillaz's music part.

In the past, when Blur was making albums, the band members would get together to write songs, write lyrics, arrange music, and record. Even if there were temporary performances during the creation process, they would still gather together to complete the music after returning. . Today, the way Gorillaz music is produced is completely different from the way it used to be. An Apple computer with Logic Audio installed has brought about earth-shaking changes to everything. Recording engineer Tom said: "We are no longer working in the linear mode of the previous tape recorder. Logic Audio has brought us many very convenient functions, but it has also led us into another abyss. In this open mode In an audio editing environment, you never know when it's 'done', you just keep editing, revising, and experimenting. But Damon seems to prefer this way of working. "

Another recording artist. Teacher Jason said: "The specific situation is like this. For example, we wrote four melodies with the same rhythm for a song, and then put these melodies together in Logic, taking a line from here, and adjusting a line from there. Collage it together, then listen to it and modify it, and finally it becomes a song. "

Usually a song starts with a demo made by Damon at home on a four-track machine, usually just Damon. vocals, a drum machine loop, and one or two guitar tracks. Then everyone put these as basic materials into Logic Audio, and began to add fuel and vinegar to it, constantly making the music complete and full. Tom and Jason are also record producers, and together with Damon they create Gorillaz's music.

Post related pictures:

"Clint Eastwood"

The hit single "Clint Eastwood" is the only song on the album that does not use this cut The collage free way to complete the song. The original material in Logic included Damon's vocals, guitar and drum machine rhythms, and then some other instrument parts were added and the rap part was replaced. Although the song has been slightly cut and collaged, it still maintains the outline of the original version.

There are no real drums in "Clint Eastwood". All the drum rhythms come from drum machines and sample loops. Several producers just added some EQ and other adjustments to it. The bass part comes from the analog synthesizer Moog Rogue and Roland’s JV sound source. The strings come from a string sound source - Solina String Ensemble.

Perhaps due to Logic’s overly powerful and free non-linear editing method, when a large amount of new material was added to "Clint Eastwood", the three people did not know how to determine the final version. So they invited hip-hop producer Dan The Automator to join their team. Jason said: "We have heard this song too many times, so we need new people, new ears, who can say: OK, this is it!"

Dan, Damon, Tom and Jason first worked together in Studio 13 for two weeks, and then collectively moved to G-Jam Studio in Jamaica. G-Jam is a small recording studio located on the coast of Jamaica. You can see the beautiful beach through the glass windows.

"We came here originally looking for the pure feeling of Reggae (reggae) music, but obviously we came to the wrong place. This is not the right place to complete the job." Jason said. "Our work efficiency here is almost the same as on vacation. We go to the beach after breakfast every day, then come back to work for a while, eat, go to the beach again, come back to work, and go to the beach again..."

" The lyrics of "Clint Eastwood" were written in Jamaica, and the title of the song was "appropriated" from the name of Clint Eastwood, the famous Hollywood filmmaker. In fact, the title of the song has nothing to do with the general meaning of the lyrics. Everyone just thinks that the song feels very "American".

Damon’s vocals were recorded using Neumann’s TLM170 microphone and Neve1073 microphone preamp, recorded into Logic audio. The harmony part was also produced using Damon's lead vocal part, but it was passed through a Boss voice Transformer to get the effect of many people singing together. Of course, during the mixing process, Tom and Jason also added more effects to the vocals, including reversed reverb and EQed delay.

External producer Dan also added a lot of color to this single, adding his own musical elements. Jason praised: "Although we also used a lot of loops, it was Dan who really integrated these loops with the songs."

Dan modified the drum part and added a drum track and snare drum, and he also went to the United States to re-record the rap for this song. The scratching sound in the song comes from Dan's friend, Canadian scratching expert Kid Koala. He happened to be in Jamaica at the time, so Dan invited him to record a scratching performance, which was added to the song after being edited by Logic.

MTV Sound Effects

After the music part was completed, the work of sound engineers Tom and Jason was still not over. Gorillaz is a virtual band. Their only way to appear is on the TV screen, and the production of MTV becomes the key. The record company spared no expense in this regard. The music shorts for the two lead singles "Clint Eastwood" and "19/2000" were produced according to the standards of animated films. As a result, the job of adding sound effects to the music shorts fell to Tom and Jason. on the head.

So Jason complained: "You know, the song "19/2000" used more than 460 sound effects. We have never done such work before, so we had to listen to it day by day. Those sound effects library CDs, we choose what we need. The entire sound effects library has about 40 CDs and more than 30,000 sound effects. We work almost 20 hours a day. "

Tom said: "In the music video. Most of the sound effects came from sound effects CDs, but there were also some that we recorded ourselves, such as the car sounds, which actually came from Jamie's car. We stretched a line out to the street and recorded them. "

After several months of work, the virtual band Gorillaz finally made its debut on television and radio, and achieved impressive results on the music charts. On the other hand, the comic master Jamie is even more responsible. The Gorillaz members he wrote have become new idols for adults and children. Many fans have never even regarded Gorillaz as virtual characters. They wrote to Gorillaz, asking for posters and autographs. . However, the future may be the biggest unknown facing Gorillaz. How will this virtual band develop? Damon and Jamie have planned to do a tour for Gorillaz using projection and 3D technology.

Let us wait and see how Gorillaz will meet these challenges!

2002

Greatest Hits

Laika Come Home

G Sides

2004

Gorillaz

2005

Demon Days

Feel Good Inc

Dirty Harry

2006