It\u2019s a Wednesday afternoon in West Hollywood, one day after the city was blanketed in a light coating of rain. The midday sun has only just begun to peek through the overcast sky.<\/p>\n
Its beams are slightly more vivid through the large windows of the Edition, which sit at the edge of a secluded area of the hotel. Jamie Hewlett sits at a wooden table stirring a cappucino with a black straw.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, who drinks out of a straw when you get past the age of 10, right?\u201d he says, jokingly. After 25 years of bouncing around the globe with Gorillaz, he\u2019s still longing for a jet lag cure. Coffee can only do so much.<\/p>\n
Leaning back in his chair, in a suave, all-beige outfit, he starts to grin while recounting his day in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been walking around the streets having a very rare morning off together. We bought some weed, which is always one of the most wonderful things about this state,\u201d he recalls. <\/p>\n
He also finds humor in L.A.\u2019s obsession with driver-less food delivery.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time we saw a post-bot driving down the road, we stopped and doffed our caps. … In the future, when robots take over and destroy us all, they\u2019ll remember me for being nice to the post-bot!\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a long few weeks for Hewlett and bandmate Damon Albarn as they roll out the group\u2019s latest endeavor, \u201cThe Mountain,\u201d <\/u><\/a> out Friday. Just one day prior, \u201cHouse of Kong\u201d<\/u><\/a> opened at Rolling Greens in downtown L.A. The exhibition, initially intended as a Gorillaz 25th anniversary event, has landed on the West Coast.<\/p>\n \u201cI think with this album, we were both quite happy with what we\u2019ve done \u2026 and feeling like it was an honest, genuine adventure that was taken, and what we\u2019ve given is something that we\u2019re proud of,\u201d Hewlett says.<\/p>\n He and Albarn are also artists at heart and in nature. It\u2019s why Gorillaz continues to look and sound the way it does, and why the group is consistently pushing the agenda of how a nonexistent band can still resonate with a group of fans who are very much alive<\/i>. <\/p>\n \u201cThe process, the research, the putting it together, the making of it is really fun, and the delivery of it is kind of like a mini death syndrome,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat you\u2019re required to do is get straight on to the next thing, and you won\u2019t have any time to waste thinking about the fact that the completion of that left you feeling numb, because then you\u2019re excited about the next project.\u201d<\/p>\n He adds that Albarn, similarly, is like a \u201ckid in a sweet shop\u201d when he\u2019s making music: \u201cThe moment it\u2019s finished, there\u2019s no interest in discussing it.\u201d<\/p>\n Even so, the album is undeniably their most intimate in recent history.<\/p>\n Perhaps it\u2019s something to do with the experience of grief that the two lived through, losing their fathers only 10 days apart and just before a trip to India. Or maybe it\u2019s a testament to the process behind \u201cThe Mountain,\u201d which saw Hewlett and Albarn travel the country, spending more time together there than during previous album productions.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s weird, because I\u2019m born 10 days after Damon\u2026 the idea presented itself, and at that point we were going down that road, and there was no avoiding it\u2026 It wasn\u2019t even necessarily going to be a Gorillaz project; \u2018Let\u2019s go together and see what happens.\u2019 \u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI completely fell in love with the place and got into their whole concept of death,\u201d Hewlett says of India.<\/p>\n (Blair Brown)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n Hewlett says the album was also inspired by his late mother-in-law, Amo, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2010 and opted for Eastern medicine instead of chemo. <\/p>\n \u201cShe said, \u2018No, I\u2019m going to India.\u2019 \u2026 She was into Ayurveda medicine and knew this doctor, and she spent three months in India [being treated]. When she came back, her cancer had gone. In France, they call her in for a checkup, and they give her a scan. They say, \u2018Where\u2019s your cancer gone?\u2019 She said, \u2018I\u2019ve been in India,\u2019 and they say, \u2018We don\u2019t believe in that.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n It wouldn\u2019t be until 2022 when Jamie visited India himself, under unfortunate circumstances. He was in Belgrade with Albarn shooting the second video from \u201cCracker Island\u201d when he received a call from his brother-in-law, who said that Amo had just had a stroke.<\/p>\n \u201cThey said they saved her, but she went into a coma. I was on a plane to India as quickly as I could get a visa, which wasn\u2019t easy at the Indian Embassy in London,\u201d he said. \u201cI spent eight weeks with my wife, Emma, in Jaipur, dealing with that, in a public hospital during a pneumonia epidemic\u2026 having that experience that was traumatic; it should have been a reason for me to never go back to India ever again.\u201d<\/p>\n But during his time there, it became clear that being in the country had the opposite effect on him.<\/p>\n \u201cI completely fell in love with the place and got into their whole concept of death. \u2026 We met a lot of families who became friends of ours because we were at the hospital every day,\u201d he continued. <\/p>\n \u201cA loved one who was dying, who was in tears because they knew they were going to die, but also there was a celebration about the fact that they were coming back,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir understanding of the cycle of life is a lot more appealing to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Shortly after, Hewlett returned to Europe and went straight to Albarn with an idea: \u201cI said, \u2018We have to go to India, it\u2019s so amazing,\u2019 and of all the places he\u2019d been around the world, that was the place he still hadn\u2019t been. So we decided to go.\u201d<\/p>\n Albarn first visited India in May 2024 alongside Hewlett.<\/p>\n (Blair Brown)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n \u201cThe Mountain\u201d is, as expected, heavily doused with notions on the concept of death. Inevitably, the question arose: \u201cHow can we make an album about death that would leave the listener feeling optimistic?\u201d<\/p>\n But Gorillaz has always been a group entwined with different, equally heavy topics. On \u201cPlastic Beach,\u201d they tackle the climate crisis and human extinction. The enchanting and rhythmic \u201cDirty Harry\u201d also examines war and soldiers, with its single cover even giving a nod <\/u><\/a>to Stanley Kubrick\u2019s \u201cFull Metal Jacket.\u201d<\/p>\n The tone Gorillaz achieved on \u201cThe Mountain\u201d is an extension of that.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Happy Dictator,\u201d released as the lead single in September, parodies megalomaniac Saparmurat Niyazov\u2019s approach to governing in Turkmenistan. As Sparks produce stunning vocals, singing \u201cI am the one to give you life again,\u201d Gorillaz fictional frontman 2-D (voiced by Albarn) breaks in to pronounce, \u201cNo more bad news!\u201d<\/p>\n Equally as enjoyable is \u201cThe God of Lying,\u201d the third single released, featuring Idles. Joe Talbot hauntingly asks, \u201cDo you love your blessed father? \/ Anoint by fear of death \/ Do you feel the lies creep on by? \/ As soft as baby\u2019s breath.\u201d It\u2019s a bouncy song that could have been pulled straight out of the band\u2019s self-titled debut, all the way back from 2001.<\/p>\n Even so, it feels criminal to compare it with the band\u2019s earlier catalog, given that Hewlett and Albarn are artists in \u201cperpetual motion.\u201d This has resulted in some of their most sonically and visually impressive work \u2014 with styles and genres consistently shifting \u2014 but also asks the listener to be willing to evolve with them.<\/p>\n \u201cI think art has<\/i> to be an evolution,\u201d Hewlett explains. \u201cI know what David Hockney does at 88 years old, still smoking and drinking his red wine. He wakes up every day \u2026 and he does something new, and then the next day he does something new, and that promotes longevity. He\u2019s never bored.\u201d<\/p>\n Gorillaz\u2019s exhibition in \u201cHouse of Kong\u201d seems to be contradictory in its existence, more or less serving as a retrospective from a band that not only doesn\u2019t like to look in the rearview, but likely has it taped over altogether.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s also an organic experience, teeming with originality, despite its familiar marketing as an \u201cimmersive experience.\u201d It\u2019s more comparable to something out of a Disney or Universal theme park than another gallery that merely projects video onto a wall.<\/p>\n![\"Damon](\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/477551c\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/8192x5464+0+0\/resize\/320x213!\/format\/webp\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F48%2F12%2Fe3ae78974e1f8bdd096b5472877b%2Fdamon-albarn-jamie-hewlett-jaipur-india-october-2024-india-d-j-9859-photo-credit-bliar-brown.jpg)
<\/picture>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/EpYekgwNFjc\/hqdefault.jpg\")
<\/picture>