Outta 'Sync

Gorillaz, a dark, slightly somber rock and hip-hop influenced pop group, is the brainchild of Blur frontman Damon Albarn and Bay Area über-producer Dan "The Automator" Nakamura; two established music industry heavyweights whose personal forays into music tend to differ slightly from those of their better know personas — the aforementioned Blur for Albarn, and, well, just name it when it comes to Dan The Automator: Medeski Martin and Wood, Kool Keith, Stereolab, Depeche Mode, Beastie Boys, Cornershop, Primal Scream…his production credit list goes on and on.
The Gorillaz band itself is made up of four cartoon characters — 2-D, vocals; Murdoc, bass; Russel, drums; and Noodle, guitar (actually, five, if you count "the funky phantom," featuring the voice of Del the Funky Homosapien, who lives in Russel's head and makes a couple of appearances on the Gorillaz CD) — though the music was originally the brainchild of Albarn, who approached The Automator to produce the project.
"We have a lot of mutual friends," says The Automator from the office of his San Francisco-based record label, 75 Ark Records. "He just called me one day and said, 'Yo, do you want to produce this record?' I said 'Alright, sure.' I mean, what would you say?"
The two collaborated on songs that were mostly Albarn's, though, as The Automator puts it, "Some ideas were far along, some were in their infancy." Once the songs were completed, the two needed a conduit through which to the get the music to the masses, so they assembled Gorillaz, a gritty, rag-tag group whose members' eccentricities — and the fact that they're pen-and-ink creatures — separate them from the typical producer-built band. According to the project's beat-smith, though, when you get right down to it, there isn't much difference between Gorillaz and, say, the typical boy band.
"I think we're trying to make a new NSync, basically," says the Automator, almost completely straight-faced. Such comments would generally draw chuckles, but the Automator is fairly serious about his assertion. "Oh, no, I think it's all very serious. I mean, what's the difference between Gorillaz and NSync, really? They were both put together by audition, they get stylists, [NSync] gets choreographers, singing lessons, and they got some guy in Sweden writing their songs. At least the Gorillaz make their own music, ya' know?"
This is true. The four — sometimes five — piece group are their own musicians, though two dimensional and not really real. Murdoc, Noodle, Russel, 2-D and "the funky phantom" came from the mind and pen of Jamie Hewlett, the artist behind the original Tank Girl comic book (The Automator is careful to point out that, "Subsequently, they made a movie based on that comic which [Hewlett] was not as involved with. He prefers to let that one lie."), who used to be a roommate of Albarn's. Largely because of Albarn's superstar status in Europe (the Gorillaz album sold a half-million copies before it was even released in the US), good airplay of the first single's video ("Clint Eastwood"), and the intricate and intelligent way in which the characters were crafted, people are really feeling the whole concept.
"Especially the kids out in Europe so far, they're really identifying with the characters," reveals The Automator, who says that the band has taken on its own life. "Jamie's a legitimate comic artist, so the characters' personalities are very well thought out and put together. Basically, the whole deal is that Gorillaz are their own thing, and we're just going along, trying to be part of them."
Gorillaz have become so much their own thing, in fact, that they've developed a road show, and this two-dimensional band is hitting the tour circuit. The group has only played a few shows to date, but the live performance is close to perfection, and, according to The Automator, will be appearing more and more in the near future.
"It's really complicated, in that it involves big screens for the video, and the band plays behind these big screens… you know, being two dimensional characters, it's hard for them in the live setting because if they turn sideways, you'll lose the visual," he explains, further blurring the line between the cartoon players and reality. "So the screen helps. It's pretty elaborate, they've got these projectors that are, like, eight-feet by five-feet by three-feet — two of 'em shooting the images onto a screen that covers the whole stage. It's pretty wild. Most huge rock bands have big ol' groups of roadies and crap to make their thing happen, but this show has a whole other group just to make the video happen."
Gorillaz have found substantial success so far, no doubt the result of Albarn and The Automator's guiding hands combined with the brighter-than-real-life characters who've taken over, and in true boy band fashion, the road ahead has plenty of opportunity and exposure in store for the eclectic group.
"We'll work on this album and live show for a while, then hopefully, we're going to do a movie, and then the next record will be a soundtrack score for the movie," details The Automator, who, it seems, has big plans for his and Albarn's Gorillaz. "We haven't closed the [movie] deal yet, there've been a couple offers, so we're just gonna work on this for now and just kinda' see what happens."
An extravagant live show, a proposed movie deal, more albums and four disaffected, malcontented cartoon characters. Albarn and The Automator have indeed created a monster — the Frankenstein of boy bands?
"Well, you know," he chuckles, "we tried."

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