Photo by Linda Brownlee

Earlier this week, Gorillaz artist Jamie Hewlett hinted at the imminent arrival of the group’s Plastic Beach follow-up, stating, “That’s next year. I’m working on it at the moment, and it’s going very well. I’m very excited.” In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Albarn confirms the group’s return, stating that he’s “in the very early days” of plotting the new record. 

“So far, it’s really fast, and it’s got quite a lot of energy,” Albarn tells Rolling Stone. “I’ve been stuck on piano, somewhere off Broadway, for years now. I want to go somewhere completely opposite of that.” 

In the same interview, Albarn offers assessments of his mixed feelings regarding performing onstage with the reunited Blur, who are currently touring in support of April’s The Magic Whip: 

I still try to avoid it like the plague, to be honest with you. But something weird happens once I’ve stepped onstage: I just have the best time. And then as soon as we get off, I say, “Never again.” It’s very strange. There has to be some sort of psychological paper that explains that emotion of trying to not do something; and then doing it, and then loving it; and then as soon as you’ve done it, trying not to do it again.

I sort of forget sometimes that I did all that work, all those years ago. But then we have such a fine time onstage — it has a very emotional undercurrent, but it’s also fun and silly and noisy. That’s a fantastic recipe, to have all of those elements colliding into each other.

Rolling Stone also presses Albarn for his opinion on various artists, including Kanye West (“I think he’s pretty unique”), Taylor Swift (“remarkable, but not unique”), Drake (“not as consistent as he could be”), Future (“really interesting, and sometimes exhilarating”) and Rihanna (“Well, she’s on the cover of NME, so she must be cool”). 

Read our interview with Albarn here.