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…“That sounds Aaaamazing”…!!! 
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Does Zane Lowe make anyone else’s skin crawl?? Or is it me??
He reminds me of a lot of over-keen/disingenuous ‘industry’ people I’ve met over the years… he might be genuine, and a good guy irl.
Damon’s great, and a genuinely nice guy.
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100%
Comes over as an repulsive sycophant
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Me too. I really struggle to watch Zane Lowe interviews without overwhelming levels of cringe. Wind your neck in mate, you don’t have to insert your own ego into every question.
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i watched a fredagain interview recently and he seemed genuinely amazed at someone playing on a maschine… and this guy has apparently been immersed in hiphop music making for decades where its been done forever.
[edit] to balance this - he has championed a lot of people over the years and has earned his £££. being such a big ‘player’ will bring its positives and negatives…
anyway… damon albarn seems to take a lot of risks with a wide range of music, gets a lot of interesting people to work with…hasnt just stuck with the genre that propelled him to ‘celebrity’ …
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Yeah now and again. I always have this feeling that I bet he doesn’t even like music and it’s all an act and that in fact he some mad genius.
That said, I mind donkeys ago he played the odd DJ set at my university when no one knew who the fck he was so fair play to him.
But what about John Cale? For me he is the more interesting and talented half of the Velvet Underground and although at times had his troubles, seems like a rather gentle and kind soul.
I once read that the original Velvet Underground drummer left the band after their very first gig (which was at a high school in NJ actually) because he was offended that they accepted money for their performance or something…
Just looked it up again:
" When the band’s first paying gig in November 1965 arose, MacLise quit, suggesting the group were selling out."
Ha ha.
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Confirmed. Had the misfortune to work with him many times. Totally blown up with his own importance. Never acknowledges crew or anyone he perceives as beneath him (which is most people) Not a pleasant or cool guy.
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I just wanted to reiterate a point I always make here. In the world of guitar music and bands (Albarn’s native territory of course) you literally “buy that sound.” Want a Marshall? Buy it. Big Muff pedal? Buy it. More of a vintage/Vox type person? Cool. Buy it. In other words - the entire process of making songs with guitars is literally walking into shops and buying presets. Almost nobody designs any sounds from scratch. What you want is a songwriting tool.
Just as there is talent and energy that goes into making great guitar sounds, the same is true for presets and synths. Experienced sound designers spent hours making those presets so you can make a song with it. I get that some people get a kick out of designing sounds. If you do - more the power to you. None of us could make stuff without that amazing work. But actively designing your own sounds from scratch is by no means a necessary step to validate yourself as a musician.
TL;DR - please use the presets and loops. 
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Depeche Mode used a lot of presets. I am too lazy to find specific sources but here is a general article on presets which I just stumbled on:
I like my Continuumini for several reasons but one is that matrix is too hard for me to try to learn (or so I’ve read) and has so many great presets it relieves me of a need to fiddle around with “sound design”. I would like to tone down the delay on a few of them eventually.
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autechre - incunabula is full of juno 106 presets.still a great album.
and as the years move on and i listen to old ambient / dance tracks from 90’s many many are full of presets, at the time they were not widely owned devices.
the 606,808,707,909 etc are basically limited/preset sound devices.
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oh, man, and that nose wipe after the …articulation! looool
thank you for that edit
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I’m not the biggest fan of Damon Albarn but I do have a soft spot for him as Blur was the first gig I ever went to. It’s also clear that he is a real artist who just loves music.
Also, when he gets it right, he really gets it right:
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thank god for the clash, they let a whole generation of musicians know they didn’t have to fight the funk
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That’s great story. I actually use to correspond with Moe Tucker when I was younger. It was early days of internet and I came across her store front. Didn’t believe it was her so sent a letter to the address. About a month later she send me a response and Xmas card, which started up a back and forth. She’s really a cool person.
John Cale was certainly a brilliant artist, but some of those earlier demos with the viola were a bit much. Perhaps it was the haphazard recording process. No denying his writing ability, and impact on music. Wasn’t a fan of Nico though.
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Thanks buddy.
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And you’ve been so busy lately
That you haven’t found the time
To open up your mind
And watch the world spinning
Gently out of time
Tell me I’m not dreaming
But are we out of time?
I love him.
He’s one of very few that can nail so much with so little.
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I really enjoyed that - not so much for zane lowe’s questions but for Damon’s ability to turn the topic to whatever interested him. It gave a good insight into him as an artist
Watching also reminded me to check the new Gorillaz album which I think has some great writing and production, and to finally buy tickets to see blur, who were my favourite band when I was younger, but I somehow never managed to see live.
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