Earlier this year, Damon Albarn said that he would begin recording new material for a Gorillaz album in September (prior to that, co-collaborator Jamie Hewlett had dropped new art of some of the band members on Instagram, as well as a cryptic response to a fan asking if the Gorillaz were returning anytime soon).
Now, we finally have confirmation, thanks to Hewlett himself. In an interview with DIY, Hewlett said that he’s “shutting myself away” to work on Gorillaz’ fifth album.
“I’m working on it at the moment, and it’s going very well. I’m very excited. I don’t want to say too much about it, but I’m at that phase of experimentation. What I try not to do when I’m working in this creative period, the cooking of the mess, is go to other peoples’ exhibitions and look at other peoples’ work. I close my eyes, and don’t want to know what anyone else is doing. Doing that has kind of ruined the creative process for me in the past, and I don’t want to let that happen again.”
Hewlett has also been teasing new artwork of the band members on his Instagram, including one of frontman 2D and two of lead guitarist and backing vocalist Noodle.
A new Gorillaz album has been long overdue. Not counting the iPad-made LP The Fall, the group’s last album was 2010’s Plastic Beach. Each album has gotten more and more experimental, utilizing the core members and guest appearances in interesting ways (from De La Soul to Lou Reed and Snoop Dogg). Hopefully this forthcoming album will do the same.
