Damon Albarn

Damon Albarn is an English musician, record producer, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter. He sang the leads for the alternative rock band ‘Blurr’ and also the principal songwriter, co-founder, instrumentalist and vocalist to the virtual band ‘Gorillaz’. He attained the reputation for himself as a British pop icon. He went on to genres like opera, hip-hop, electronica and other world music. He was born on the 23rd of March 1968 in Whitechapel, London, England. He was the eldest child of Keith Albarn and Hazel Albarn. He had a sister, Jessica, who went on to become an artist. His grandfather Edward was an architect and later became a peace activist during the Second World War. His parents were involved with theater. He grew up in a liberal household. He studied some instruments such as the violin, guitar, and piano. He befriended Graham Coxon, another student at the School of Stanway Comprehensive, at the age of 12. He studied drama and then he joined a synthpop band “Two’s a crowd”. He won the regional competition ‘The Young Composer of the Year contest’. While he was a student at Goldsmith University he once again came across guitarist Coxon, and this meet led to the formation of the band ‘ Circus Circus is one of the most popular television seria >> Read More... ’. After calling aboard the bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree, the group re-emerged as Seymor before they finally settled on naming it Blurr as the band signed to Food Records.

Their debut single, ‘ She She is a Hindi web – series that premiered on Netf >> Read More... ’s so high’, came as high as the U.K. Top 50’s, while their follow-up song, ‘There’s no other way’ went farther up the ladder, as it places itself at the Top 10’s. The album ‘Leisure’ (1991) led the band to some unkind comparisons to the dying Manchester scene, and so with their follow up album ‘Modern Life is Rubbish’(1993) they took on a more traditional pop sound. In 1994, the band released the album Parklife, which revealed a new sophistication with wry commentaries and clever melodies,  inspired by bands like the Kinks and the Jam. It was also this album that made Blurr the most popular and influential band in England and had started a following abroad as well. The coming Year’s album ‘ The Great Escape The Great Escape was the story of how Dalai Lama e >> Read More... ’ reached the Top Ten’s, however, went into seclusion. During this period, Albarn made most of his time, by releasing his solo debut, ‘Closet Romantic’. The band restored itself a year later with an LP and became an American hit. The same year, Albarn made his film debut with ‘Antonia Bird’s Face’.

In 2000, Albarn debuted Gorillaz, his successful ‘virtual hip-hop group’, which released four albums over the course of 10 years between 2001 to 2011. He also worked with Mail Music, a project of his, which was a diverse collaboration with Malian musicians, one of them being the super-group featuring Paul Simonon along with Simon Tong and Tony Allen.

He also explored cinema and theater, co-creating the opera productions “Monkey: Journey to the West” and “Doctor Dee”. He also made a film adaption of his sister’s book, ‘The Boy in the Oak’. Albarn re-teamed with Russel for his first official solo album, ‘Everyday Robots’ released in 2014. Damon Albarn received nomination for a few awards, such as ‘The Mercury Prize awards’ and also other Brit Awards; ‘British Producer of the Year’ and ‘British Male Solo Artist award.’